We Meet Today
In Freedom's Name
one cannot blame
the American soldiers
who in Fallujah
in the last two days
killed a lot of civilians
including young kids
when one is shot at
adrenalin pumps
blood races
jump jump jumpy
hairtrigger
a quarter of an inch of motion
a twitch
you set off enormous devastating FIREPOWER
FIREPOWER
FIREPOWER
hundreds of
bullets in seconds
BRRRAHBRRRAH
one soldier one fingertwitch sets off all the
firepower
all the killpower
of a
whole World War Two platoon
BRRRAH BRRRAH
soldiers
just kids
tired
strange environment
jumpy
pumped up
even George Washington
in the wilds of western Pennsylvania
FRIENDLY FIRE FRIENDLY FIRE
George's 1st Virginia regiment
firing at the 2nd Virginia regiment
2nd Virgina firing back
who shot first
who shot first
no one know
no one knows
forty dead and wounded
officers and men.
it's easy
try it
twitch your finger
imagine
BRRRAH BRRRAH
people falling
dying
kids.
but I blame the
command
the school the so called school
that the guys from
the 82nd were in
was a typical Muslim religious compound a teki
holy
precinct walled
with
mosque and minaret
as one could see
not on American TV
but on the net
reuters.com
rebroadcasting al jazeera
what have a near billion Muslims seen
these last few days
infidels occupying holy place
child size coffins carried by weeping families
broadcast rebroadcast
broadcast rebroadcast
infidels occupying a holy place
child size coffins
weeping families
weeping families
remember the name Fallujah
remember Fallujah
a place famous for massacres
a place famous for martyrs
a market place bombed
a crowded marketplace
bombed
as in Sarajevo as in Jerusalem as in Dubrovnik
(The goddess of the market place is Aphrodite)
marketplace in Fallujah
day light people going about their business
buying food for their families
selling food for families
the official story
bombs went astray
150 killed at least
the peace movement story
the independent observer story
terror bombing in clear daylight
by low flying planes
American and British
Human Rights Watch
believes the 2nd story
hundreds killed hundreds injured
blocks of civilian
homes a hotel flattened
a row of modern 56 story apartment houses flattened
all around the market
the market now reopened
the market now renamed
THE MARKET OF THE MARTYRS
this is the town in which the latest
accidental unintended killings of civilians took place
this is the town which requires the most sensitive
handling
this is a town in which everyone lost a friend
or lost a family member
or lost family members
or lost
a limb or an eye
In the 91 bombing
God blesses no country not America not Iraq
God recognizes no nation not Israel not Palestine
God blesses people
American Iraqis
God blesses
God blesses the innocent
God blesses the meek
God blesses those who suffer
does God bless even the killers
American
Renaissance Criminals
should
it not be remembered that America's literary pantheon
is full of
nuts and felons
crazy Emily won't come down
drug fiend Poe queer Whitman
even triple barreled Harvard men
Ralph
Waldo
Emerson
Henry
David
Thoreau
felonious fellows
both in that riotous mob
impeded federal marshals
doing their lawful duty
trying to take into custody
Frank Sanborn Concord schoolmaster
of the notorious Secret Six
who financed John Brown's
attack on the federal arsenal
Secret Sixer got away
one of John Brown's Liberators escaped
Frank Merriam
wanted on the run he came
to Samuel Gridley Howe Secret Sixer
Sam lost his nerve
turned him from his door
Sam Howe good man
comrade of Byron
fought to free Greece
that day
his nerve broke
George Luther Stearns Secret Sixer
good man staunch abolitionist
Merriam came to him
he copped out too
freaked out
no help
but when Frank finally made it to Concord
where that shot heard around the world
echoes yet in some ears
schoolmaster
Sanborn
hid him
super-sage Emerson
loaned horse
and hay
eccentric Henry
drove Frank to
the station
quickly efficiently
criminally
no hesitating
no doubt
literary gods
help one of the
most wanted men in the USA
to get safe away
to Canada
very serious
very serious
crime
very serious
criminals
Henry and Ralph
Waldo
very effective
criminals
could they had
be outlaw instincts
could be they
had outlaw reactions
could be they
outlaws
could be all
true poets outlaws?
all true Americans?
as thru this
world I ramble
I see lots
of funny men
some rob you
with a six gun
some with
a fountain pen
as
thru this world I roam
I ain't never
seen an outlaw
drive a family
from its home
so
sayeth
the
bard
hail
muse accomplice
co-conspirator
hail
amen.