Friday, December 08, 2006

IRAQ DREAMS

i.
slime. my world is mud and slime.
crawling thru barbed wire on my belly
frightened as a rat.

ii.
slung out of an alleyway: a dustbin!
bomb! the crowds scream and en
masse rush out of the way.
my mind races: to that parked car?
what's in the car???!!
if i follow them, the car will blow.
i press my back into a doorway.
"i'm scared," i tell my dark friend.
fear defines me like a name.

6 comments:

Bobby said...

Hi Bruce. I'm glad I landed here for this one.

Bobby said...

I like that last line for sure. Wow - there's nothing but doom coming out of that place.

Bruce Hodder said...

We need to keep up the pressure on our respective governments too, by voicing our outrage every time we get the chance. Because the mid-term elections in the US and the Irag Report were only the beginning of the end of the war.

As with Vietnam it is the people at home, in the US and in Britain, who are winning the Iraq war for humanity. Bush and Blair were not prepared for the level of dissent and criticism we turned on them. And the Democrats are seizing an opportunity here, in my opinion (and I've been observing American politics for a long time, so I know a bit about this, though maybe not as much as an American would.) They are riding the peace train because it looks set to get them back into government. So if we take our collective foot off the protest peddle it will send the wrong message to them as well.

Turn up the heat on all politicians, I say. People are dying even as I write this self-congratulatory horseshit.

"Oh, Franklin Roosevelt
Told the people how he felt.
We damn near believed what he said.
He said 'I hate war
And so does Eleanor
But we won't be safe till everybody's dead!'"

Sharon Auberle said...

Again, Bruce, you are so right on with above words. We MUST NOT let up on our caring about this bloodbath happening--not only to British, U.S., U.N., and Iraqi soldiers, but the uncounted numbers (some reports say almost half a MILLION Iraqi men, women and children) dying every day. Helpless to have prevented it almost four years ago, we wonder what, if anything we can do now, but I think just writing words like yours is a start. And caring, not the apathy that is evident among so many here, because of the helplessness we feel. Thanks for your words and compassion.
Imagine peace...

Bobby said...

I think Iraq is going to go the way of Yugoslavia.

I forgot where I read this, but somebody wrote that the middle east - the countries there - were all devised/designated/marked off/carved up and named/originated/whatever - by Europeans and Americans who had no clue about the nature of the place - post WW1 - a lot of the countries that are countries should not be countries - in the middle east.

Bruce Hodder said...

You may be right, B. In the context of the disaster Bush and Blair have created in Iraq, some kind of partitioning might represent the only way the troops can ever come home--though as with Yugoslavia, it would doubtless cause unthinkable tragedy further on down the road.