AT LAST THE FISH

READ THE POEM +/-

(A Poetic Justice Collage)

US Muslim congressman sworn in
Keith Ellison has become the first Muslim member of the US Congress, taking a ceremonial oath with a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Ellison's swearing in came as Democrats formally took control on Thursday of the US Senate and House of Representatives following their defeat of the Republican party in the last year's midterm elections.
Elllison, a Democrat congressman for Minnesota, shrugged off controversy over his use of the Quran instead of the Bible.
"It was good, we did it, it's over, and now it's time to get down to business," he said.

First woman speaker sworn in
Nancy Pelosi, who helped engineer the Democrat's midterms victory, was also sworn in on Thursday as the first woman to lead the House of Representatives.
The leader of the minority Democrats the past four years, she now is the highest ranking woman in the US government, second behind only the vice president in the line of succession to George Bush, the Republican president.
"This is an historic moment for the Congress, and for the women of this country," Pelosi declared after taking the gavel. (Full article.)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Twin car bombs killed 13 people Thursday in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood after a lull in violence during an Islamic holiday, and Iraq prepared to execute two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants despite an inquiry into an unruly scene in the former dictator's execution chamber.



At last the fish has flogged itself out the water
As if set to shatter our bleak bondage to war.
It has landed, breathing the crisp air of hope.
(The arid gasp of stagnation plummets now.)

America has gathered, you can sense her plea.
The creature, breathtaking in its stunning silver,
Must now heave us out of our mournful collapse.
(Come, breathe life into these blue shores again.)

We must remember, this fish is our hope.
Our expectations to be nourished by truth,
A cherished, breathing thing, like humanity;
(Red and yearning to live in peace.)

Let its surge come roaring.

Copyright © 2007 mrp / thepoetryman


What the Democrats will do next

Previous Post - DRIFTING UNDER THE SUN

THREE

Three drops of Muslim blood
Oozed from out the sun
With fallow abandon.

We are the unbending witness;
The joy and sorrow dancing together.
Any mockery of this leaves us cold
And forsaken of sacrament.

It is the easy path to expiation
But it is not atonement, it is fear;
Dread; The rue of participation,
The dangling blade of our souls
Cowering from significance.

What power has the sun
If it but only gives?
What power have we
If we but only take?

We build this great wall inside ourselves
So the sun will matter not,
So the blood that flows
Will not touch our skin.
We have the wall to protect us from the sun,
The distance too great to face..

The drops will not splatter their truth
Tarnishing our slapdash limbs.
The three liquids will have to find
Another pocket to wash,
Another hand to sully,
Another soul to haunt,
For the wall will shelter us.
The wall will keep it from us,
From our witness,
From our shared humanity.

Three drops of Muslim blood
Oozed from out the sun
With fallow abandon
And we felt nothing…


Copyright © 2006 mrp / thepoetryman

AN ANGRY MAN'S WAVERING HAND

So it’s come to this…
A rabid dog in a fetid room.
One. One. One. One. One.
A lone juror broke the back of our mighty equus.
One juror sang the aria of forgiveness
While the rest blared U-S-A.

O! Seal the shining ramparts!
Shore up the reserves!
Summon the free and the brave!
Glean the twilight's last sparkle!
Send in the death squads!
Man has wavered, once again.

It’s the lick of blood we want, Goddamnit!
Not prison! Not shackles! Not cable TV!
It’s revenge we want.
Not a godawful shanking in the yard.

Not justice.
It is an eye for an eye we need, Goddamnit!
Not rationale.

Kill the Arab man!
Devour his children!
We needn’t have costly trials.
Kill them all! Nuke `em!
Arab, Muslim, godless!
Blast them all to hell, Goddamnit!
This destruction needn’t waiver.
We will march and we will kill.
And kill and kill and kill, Goddamnit!

Our tragic day calls for the world
To suffer in abject misery!
America will see to it, Goddamnit!
We’ll see them all burn and choke
On the pungent stench of hubris!
We’ll watch as they bend and split
In reprisal’s honored annihilation!
Blow for blow, Goddamnit!
Limb for limb, Goddamnit!
And hell for Goddamned hell!

Copyright © 2006 mrp

THE UNHOLY GRAIL

“That’s right! Yeah!
Spank the little boys!
Kick the shit out of `em!
Ya! Ya! Damn! Ya! Ya!”

Oh! Corporal, this is your idea of fun;
ruthlessly beating young Iraqi men
kicking them, head-butting them
one lying lifeless in the Muslim sun?

Hell! You asked for it Blair, here it is!
Abuse of the living, abuse of the dead
A real shining moment caught on tape
all that’s left now is sodomy and rape!

Why stop at beating them? Kill them!
Isn’t that what war is meant to be?
Maiming, killing, looting, death,
all on video for the profiteers to see?

Round up all the brown skinned devil-dogs,
beat on them and slice, do their blood spill!
Forget the failed policy of everyday torture,
Kick, slap, punch, torch, and then shoot to kill!

Hell! Let’s just save some time and money!
Declare victory (again), pack up, fly home
to hero’s welcome and tickertape parade!
Then fly back over and drop the atom bomb!

That’ll teach `em to bring it on…