[megpie1987]

I am writing an essay on the poem "The Report" by **** Allen for my english class, but I'm not sure how to take the poem does anybody know exactly what this poems meaning is?

[Wondergirl]

What have you gotten from it so far?

Here's the poem :

THE REPORT
By D*ick Allen

The wind is blowing on the prison walls
Above the secret towns. In the secret towns
Men are walking through the streets with guns.

Men with guns are walking through the streets
Below the prison walls. The prison walls
Are on the cliffs above the secret towns.

Behind the shattered windows and the shattered doors,
The women kneel and pray. The women pray
While men are walking through the streets with guns.

Men with guns are walking through the streets,
Breaking down the doors. Breaking down the doors
Is what the men do in the secret towns.

The women pray they'll stop. Please stop, they pray,
And let the prison fall. Let the prison fall,
They pray behind the windows and the shattered doors.

But the men are laughing in the secret towns,
And carrying the guns. The men with guns
Walk and laugh below the prison walls.

Below the prison walls lie secret towns
With broken doors. Beyond the broken doors
Men are walking through the streets with guns.

[Wondergirl]

Hints:

Allen is Runner-up for the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. He is one of America's foremost poets of the transition generation illuminates the final half of the 20th century. This poem is about the Cold War.