(or An ode to Bush justice)
[This piece just kind of "landed" on the page in front of me one morning while I was in the middle of reading a Psalm and praying. I guess it marks the rekindling of a creative writing gift, largely neglected since childhood. I wrote it a couple of weeks after "Sept 11". One or two details of fact may now be corrected, but the work stands....]
Refrain:
Just keep your finger on the trigger, George,
don’t let them get away.
Keep your finger on that button,
make sure those nasties pay.
Don’t worry whether you know for sure
bin Laden is your man.
Near enough is good enough
where terrorists stalk the land.
Six-thousand innocents paid the price!
How will justice tell?
Why, take out thousands more of theirs,
and some of yours as well.
Refrain
“Collateral damage” said McVeigh;
you reeled in disgust.
But of course it’s somehow different
when you know your cause is just.
So when Afghani orphans wail
and widows wring their hands,
Just tell them it’s for Justice! Freedom! Peace!
they’re sure to understand.
Refrain
And when the terror strikes again,
a little worse perhaps?
Just pump the trigger once again
and blast them off the map.
When at the last Peace wins the war,
be sure we won’t forget.
The free world will salute you
– if there’s any of us left.
#1 by Myarticles&reviews on 19 July 2004 - 2:12 am
Great poem Lance!
Welcome to the world of blogs!
Rowland Croucher
#2 by Pickledeel on 14 May 2009 - 7:38 pm
Yup, that is very good.
did it get any airplay beyond the blog?
#3 by eN0ch on 14 May 2009 - 9:27 pm
Yes it did actually. Nothing for a few weeks. Then phone call out of the blue from an editor at The Age, asking whether it’d been published anywhere else, and declaring that it captured the sentiments of readers on the subject superbly. They then published it at the top of the page in The Sunday Age.
That led to a request from – of all things – the Unitarian Church, asking permission to publish in their journal. I declined on grounds of association!
So yeah .. one brush with fame anyway