“They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.”
―Philip Freneau
.
And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again?
Archilochus
One bright morning, nineteeen years ago, No one dreamt, while going off to work, Lunatics had planned to go berserk Yielding fury like a lava flow.
Just nineteen years –– an amplitude of woe –– Denial since that demons near us lurk Enraptured by sheer rage –– sharp like a dirk –– Craftily whetted in hellfire’s glow.
A grim corrosion followed the attack. Demented perverts scheme to have us think Euro-centric values are at fault ––
American prosperity is black –– Greed and gall have brought us to the brink Of seeing all we have come to a halt.
A radiant cloudless mornin ___ air fresh and clear ______sky the brightest blue _________ mood mellow A lovely young day bright with promise ––
And then a gleaming silver shell appeared ___ mirroring beautifully the morning sunshine ______ A Thing of Beauty –– but horribly out of place _________ like a spacecraft from an alien planet
Dipping crazily far too low upon the skyline ___ before anyone could feel the menace –– ______ it smashed directly into a gigantic upright construct –– _________ one of a pair ––
Twin monuments to Greed and Vain Ambition some were quick to say
But sudden violent death eradicated an entire investment firm ___ in one horrific instant –– ______ dozens of bright young lives incinerated –– gone!
Before dazed onlookers could begin to understand what was happening ___ another silver shell acting as a missile ______ crashed into the second of the giant pair.
Ugly buildings! A hideous blot ___ on the once-graceful Manhattan skyline.
“Ada Louise Huxtable might secretly rejoice at this,” ___ part of me thought wickedly, for I had always resented ______ the overbearing, outsized twins –– _________ Bounders! Interlopers ! Invaders!
But before that ruined day was halfway through ___ three-thousand innocents had been ______ burned alive, brains and eyeballs boiled _________ skulls pulverized, skeletons crushed _________ between twisting, white hot girders _________ pelted with falling rubble midst the flames _________ caught, crippled, crumpled, smashed to bits –– ___Smothered in collapsing stairwells and buried alive ______ in a torrent of red hot cinders and debris
In so many ways the scene must have mimicked the final hours ___ of the residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum
And then there were those hideous echoes ___ of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire –– Where so many jumped to their deaths ___ to escape being burned alive –– In an instant smashed skulls, broken bones and bloody pulp ___ were all that remained of their vibrant young lives.
And not so long ago in Benghazi –– to mark the anniversary ______ of this Great Triumph of Barbarity over Civilization _________ our young, handsome, well-meaning, _________ hopelessly naive, ambassador to Libya ____________was surrounded in his quarters, ____________ dragged out into the streets ____________ beaten, sodomized and brutally murdered.
But what does any of this matter? What difference does it make? ___ Let’s just forget about it, and MOVE ON. ______ Might as well.
Later that night I went out to get some fags from an off-license, run by a Muslim. He looked frightened. We agreed that this was very, very bad news for the world. We weren't wrong...
I think that it wasn't until the Arab Spring in Tunisia that I really "got it", at least at the Arab street level, what the whole terror thing was really all about....corporate globalism smothering Main Street's all around the world.
That's an interesting idea, which is strikingly at odds with the approved version (it's all about religious fanaticism, which I never found very convincing.) Can you explain more about how both the Arab Spring and 9/11 can be seen as a reaction against globalism?
7 comments:
_________ 19 Years Ago Today ________
One bright morning, nineteeen years ago,
No one dreamt, while going off to work,
Lunatics had planned to go berserk
Yielding fury like a lava flow.
Just nineteen years –– an amplitude of woe ––
Denial since that demons near us lurk
Enraptured by sheer rage –– sharp like a dirk ––
Craftily whetted in hellfire’s glow.
A grim corrosion followed the attack.
Demented perverts scheme to have us think
Euro-centric values are at fault ––
American prosperity is black ––
Greed and gall have brought us to the brink
Of seeing all we have come to a halt.
~ FreeThinke
Meditation on a Tragic Anniversary
A radiant cloudless mornin
___ air fresh and clear
______sky the brightest blue
_________ mood mellow
A lovely young day bright with promise ––
And then a gleaming silver shell appeared
___ mirroring beautifully the morning sunshine
______ A Thing of Beauty –– but horribly out of place
_________ like a spacecraft from an alien planet
Dipping crazily far too low upon the skyline
___ before anyone could feel the menace ––
______ it smashed directly into a gigantic upright construct ––
_________ one of a pair ––
Twin monuments to Greed and Vain Ambition some were quick to say
But sudden violent death eradicated an entire investment firm
___ in one horrific instant ––
______ dozens of bright young lives incinerated –– gone!
Before dazed onlookers could begin to understand what was happening
___ another silver shell acting as a missile
______ crashed into the second of the giant pair.
Ugly buildings! A hideous blot
___ on the once-graceful Manhattan skyline.
“Ada Louise Huxtable might secretly rejoice at this,”
___ part of me thought wickedly, for I had always resented
______ the overbearing, outsized twins ––
_________ Bounders! Interlopers ! Invaders!
But before that ruined day was halfway through
___ three-thousand innocents had been
______ burned alive, brains and eyeballs boiled
_________ skulls pulverized, skeletons crushed
_________ between twisting, white hot girders
_________ pelted with falling rubble midst the flames
_________ caught, crippled, crumpled, smashed to bits ––
___Smothered in collapsing stairwells and buried alive
______ in a torrent of red hot cinders and debris
In so many ways the scene must have mimicked the final hours
___ of the residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum
And then there were those hideous echoes
___ of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire ––
Where so many jumped to their deaths
___ to escape being burned alive ––
In an instant smashed skulls, broken bones and bloody pulp
___ were all that remained of their vibrant young lives.
And not so long ago in Benghazi –– to mark the anniversary
______ of this Great Triumph of Barbarity over Civilization
_________ our young, handsome, well-meaning,
_________ hopelessly naive, ambassador to Libya
____________was surrounded in his quarters,
____________ dragged out into the streets
____________ beaten, sodomized and brutally murdered.
But what does any of this matter? What difference does it make?
___ Let’s just forget about it, and MOVE ON.
______ Might as well.
We are privileged to live in interesting times.
____________ Kyrie eleison!
____________ Kyrie eleison!
____________ Christe eleison!
~ FreeThinke
______ A Wry Memorial _____
The Swarthy Ones took over;
And made weapons of four planes.
The riders had no cover;
They suffered dreadful pains
That ended once their deathtraps
Burst into roaring fires
Turning instantly to mere scraps––
Cinders––made of former flyers.
The burning towers crumpled,
And fell into the street.
New York was more than rumpled;
Briefly, it knew defeat.
The nation drew together;
We felt collective grief.
Anger broke its tether;
To express it gave relief.
But juat nineteen years hence
We're at each other's throats;
We've built ourselves a fence
Over which the Devil gloats.
We've failed to give the orders
To build a proper wall
Sealing off our borders
To the fiends who’d have us fall.
Instead, we've made division––
Went to war against ourselves––
And are mired in derision
Sparked by partisan elves,
Who forget this blessed land
In pursuit of powers lost
In close elections manned
By fraud. So, tempest-tossed
The country is in turmoil.
The enemy's our own.
He says it's all for Big Oil,
And he'll soon usurp the Throne.
The heap of twisted rubble
Raising toxic fumes for weeks
No longer gives us trouble
Because of media leaks
Designed to throw us off the scent
Of whom we need to blame
And encourage ruinous dissent
That hopes to break the frame
That holds us all together
And preserves our liberty,
So many now doubt whether
We really should be free.
And each rabble rousing louse
Should 'neath these words be pinned:
"He who troubleth his own house
Shall inherit–––the wind"
~ FreeThinke
Really great stuff, Franco. Always superb!
Later that night I went out to get some fags from an off-license, run by a Muslim. He looked frightened. We agreed that this was very, very bad news for the world. We weren't wrong...
I think that it wasn't until the Arab Spring in Tunisia that I really "got it", at least at the Arab street level, what the whole terror thing was really all about....corporate globalism smothering Main Street's all around the world.
That's an interesting idea, which is strikingly at odds with the approved version (it's all about religious fanaticism, which I never found very convincing.) Can you explain more about how both the Arab Spring and 9/11 can be seen as a reaction against globalism?
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