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Friday, April 09, 2010

The Opinuary Column



The Opinion "This is the way the world ends--Not with a bang but a whimper" has died in a hail of bullets fired from a helicopter gunship.

(now, children, hold your hands and dance
we listen to the music and when it stops
we step into our graves)

bang, bang
bang, bang

after we are shot we are shot some more
the explosive sounds drown out laughter on the ship
glory of god, the killer in the sky

when we die in the street we hold dust in our hearts
waiting to be run over, waiting to be deleted
like a blinking dot on a screen

delete, delete
delete, delete

we are the stuffed men
we are the bags of humanity
eating bad news from a bucket
picking out the splintered bones
and sopping up the grease with towels

(little tin soldiers fall in love
everything fits in the small of your hands
but bit by bit fate derides the magic
none can see them, but none can hide)

we are killing the children
like a genius, we kill most of them
when they grow older
so as to not be caught
some we kill when young
some devoured, some discarded

(is this tolerable, asked the fairy queen
do you like being a phantom?
we'll fly together in the meadow
sprinkling light from shimmering stars)

we are the stuffed men
the human machines of commerce
too few to catch, too many to fight
every dollar crushes every scream
every day a new winner

our products are made to kill!
our bullets blessed
our missiles true
come on down and see for yourself!
come down to the street and die!

(have you left the nursery?
have you severed a life for profit?
come children, come and play
come to live another day)

hard are the days of thunder and blood
deep are the nights of cold despair
blinding is the light of god
you are dead beyond repair

(here we go gathering nuts in may
nuts in may, nuts in may
here we go gathering nuts in may
and then are seen no more)

the people have forgotten horror
and sneer at the reminders
lives made hard by god and men
lives made into bones and dust

children do not attend lectures
except when forced
they only go to funerals when somebody takes them
put them in the back of the van
and bullets will find them
hooray for our side

(do we live in a bad story?
do we live in a bad dream?
are you a good witch or a bad witch?)

in the end the children did nothing
they walked the road with heads down
daring not to look to either side
whole cities vanished in the weeds
whole hearts turned into fractions
above them the spinning blades
above them the righteous guns

bang, bang
bang, bang

a whimper and a bang


++++

7 comments:

  1. You know what's particularly eeeeeevil about this helicopter massacre that fakePresident Obama ordered? Not that a buncha Iraqiwalkofascists got blasted before they knew what hit them, or that Obama's personal pilot who usually flies him on that green Marine chopper was sniggering about the children who he riddled with a .30 calibre machine gun. Frankly, I'm surprised that Mr. Kenyobama had the guts to personally order that innocent people be killed in front of his eyes as he watched the live video feed in the Oval Office. I thought that only realPresident Chaingun had that much courage.

    No, the eeeeevil thing is that Obama did this death-from-above attack as a practice run for what he plans to do to Teabaggopatriot demonstrations! First he does it on alleged journalists and anti-American forces who were provocatively sauntering down a street without guns. Obama did it in Iraq just to see how it would work, and to get all freedom-loving conservatives cheering for such tactics.

    Then, next thing you know, he'll be ordering these attacks on REAL journalists from Fox News and peaceful pro-revolution Americans who are exercising their right to protest while carrying semi-automatic rifles. What you're seeing is how Obama plans to kill patriots like US!

    Is it any coincidence that Obama is going to do it with BLACK helicopters? I think not. Be afraid, brave conservatives, be very afraid. Ask not for whom the machine gun chatters -- it chatters for you...

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  2. Oh, mjs, you make a grown man cry.

    From Eliot's Rhapsody on a Windy Night:

    The memory throws up high and dry
    A crowd of twisted things;
    A twisted branch upon the beach
    Eaten smooth, and polished
    As if the world gave up
    The secret of its skeleton,
    Stiff and white.
    A broken spring in a factory yard,
    Rust that clings to the form that the strength has left
    Hard and curled and ready to snap.

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  3. Mon Ami, Mr. mjs:

    This is Charles (pronounced Shaaarlzzzzzzzzzzz) Mr. democommie's inner frenchman. He is dealing with last evening's indiscreet dining on a platter of gefilte fish tacos (on rye tortillas) and he is going to be confined to le w.c. for most of the morning. In the meantime I would like only to say that having viewed that warporn has upset me quite a bit. I am going to send that link to some folks who have a lot more horsepower. Has the fetching Mmse. Madow been made aware of this?

    Thank you for posting this, mon ami. I must go now, I just heard what sounded a bit like 30mm cannon fire emenating from le w.c., si, si!

    ReplyDelete
  4. ... what to write about a savagely efficient slaughter of perceived 'insurgents' from the cowardly perch of a helicopter ...

    That'll learn'm.

    Have a nice day.

    The American military simply don't have the wisdom to serve in a policing role.

    ... and near the end, where the infantry arrive to mop up, what do you think those young Americans are going to witness? Will they see no AK-47s, no RPGs, only perhaps a camera among dismembered bodies? Will they be witnessing the true horror of the yahoos in the gunship? Will that horror stay with them when they get back home, eventually taking their own lives in order quiet their troubled souls?

    Why is it so difficult to get Americans to reflect on who and what they are? Is it really so fantastic to imagine that something very fundamental to your national psyche needs to change?

    I don't care if you don't believe me, but if you want to minimize this kind of horror, you'll need to do some SERIOUS soul-searching. And if that demands revisiting your nation's childhood, you'd better get moving.

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  5. What? And give up our status as Destiny's special friends?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_Destiny

    Manifest Destiny was the 19th century belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean....

    Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only wide but that it was readily apparent ("manifest") and inexorable ("destiny").


    And when the United States reached from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean it was only natural to keep right on going.


    The belief in an American "mission" to promote and defend democracy throughout the world, as expounded by Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan continues to have an influence on American political ideology


    Manifest Destiny was always a general notion rather than a specific policy.


    So you see, Joe, our good life is NOT built upon the misery of others. Our industrial might wasn't built with the natural resources of weaker countries. No, no, it's our destiny to be prosperous. It's our natural reward from God for helping those other countries. You know, like when some little banana republic would accidentally elect the wrong people and we would have to help them reinstate somebody friendlier to us.

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  6. Thank you, Mr Rentlord III.

    In your vein of reviewing American assumptions about America, it may be that you'll have reason to question these earlier beliefs. I've been arguing that there are many that need revisiting, however it seems that either such assumptions are completely sacrosanct and beyond consideration, or present-day Americans have no confidence in their own wisdom and experience.

    I personally don't accept the first reason, and I'm prepared to remind some (rather patient) Americans that they need to overcome their skittishness. They can be easily a match for the job; they simply need to turn off their distractions, put down the toys, stop worrying about what the neighbour's doing, and first, take yourself seriously, then do the same for your fellow American.

    It does work, and doing so is more effective than carrying a gun and going to war and dying for your country.

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  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

We'll try dumping haloscan and see how it works.