H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

PETER MARTI

They Got Osama

Thought it a joke just now a

headline for May Day:

Osama Bin Laden Killed by SEALS in helicopters

his brother dead too and the women they used as shields

during the firefight (though version changed in later

days—actually not armed when shot)

I thought: “good” for one guilty second, forgetting

my vows of peace towards all beings

even the man America once funded to fight for US

who killed Russians, then us ‘cause we wouldn’t leave his

Holy Land alone, couldn’t stop needing the Oil there

or stop wishing Democracy on everyone

tho democracy now owned by multi-national corporations

—the World has surrendered to its own greed

Kill Infidels or the opposite:

        Kill the killers

Either way we’re dead:     in barren wilds

Afghanistan warlords fighting over opium

2001 Twin Towers destroyed

George Bush squandering global good-will

to leave those warlords squabbling, to leave women

unprotected by law, to build no schools, hospitals, water

and sanitation infrastructure—all to fulfill 1995

neo-conservative cabal wish:        To re-invade cradle of

civilization Iraq to finish what First Bush started—

Al Qaeda and Taliban then returned to Afghan void

using Pakistan for refuge and supply

and the world stinks of more war instead of less…

Bin Laden dead, dumped in Arabian Sea like toxic waste

his body not to be enshrined as martyr for future suicides

strapped w/ dynamite dreams of milk and honey virgins

    “buried at sea” (off an aircraft carrier!)

20 years after rising to number one on the FBI’s Most

Wanted list, tho the Post Office no longer hangs it for

all to see in the local branch (as boy I thrilled at the bank

robber mugs)

“Rot in Hell” screams the Daily News as hundreds gather

Ground Zero to cheer.   Disappointed his body gone

a relative of 9/11 victim: “we should have the satisfaction

of his head on a spike”

“Vengeance at last—we got the bastard!" another banner

No “cheek turning,” no cheek remains

No logic

no logic left.

[Originally published in NHS 2011, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs11/.]