The Found Love Poems of David Petraeus

In this week's Poetry Wire at The Rumpus, David Biespiel offers up some found poetry by David Petraeus, taken from Petraeus’ opening statement to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the occasion of his confirmation hearing on June 23, 2011.

Here's one:

First Time

May our goal in uniform
Be the same out of uniform,
My gentle far away one.

May we always convey forthrightness
To each other, and that our positive
Assessments always be kept bedded

Inside the draft box
Of our shared secret
Gmail account.

And let that not change significantly
Following the cutoff date
Of our love —

Though typically when I issue
A cutoff date
It takes some 6-8 weeks

Prior to the date
Of assessment for it to be
Reviewed by the President.

But we will skip that
This lovesome,
Centcom-some night,

And here are the rest.