The Genie's Out
It's too late now to edit out
the towering inferno from the celluloid strips
the last stand in Pennsylvania
the hijack scene the Pentagon -
it's life imitating art again
it's life, and the genie's out
too late to edit out the twin towers of global power
falling bodies - heros - on the ground below
dealing with the debris of a government
playing world bully
the celluloid has it in snaps and strips
it's all been seen in the Hollywood movies
it's life imitating art again
it's life and the genie's out
too late to edit out the terrorists
freedom fighters, martyrs dying for a cause -
immolating Buddhist monks
Vietnam bombed back to stone-age
the celluloid has it in snaps and strips
it's all been seen in the Hollywood movies
it's life imitating art again
it's life, and the genie's out
too late to edit out your shopping list of terror
Nicaragua, Guatemala, Nagasaki, Hiroshima
Che dead on a CIA slab
Victor Jarra's hands removed
Ellende` - murder of a president
the silent lines of crying mothers
holding photos of the disappeared
vanished sons who never returned
the celluloid has it in snaps and strips
it's all been seen in the Hollywood movies
it's life, imitating art again, it's life
and the genie's out
too late to edit out the armament deals
Iran, Iraq, bombs on old Baghad
sanctions - one million children dead
Palestinians still in their camps - fifty years
and what part did you play Mr Hollywood director ?
did you inspire those mongers of war - show them how ?
churning out your pulp-fiction pandemonium
into the minds of a vulnerable generation
grown used to your violent ways
your government leading the charge
to wage a crusade - cowboys
who would say yes -
plunge us all
into a third world war
Pamela Sidney 2001
Coming Home
(for all returned soldiers from
he brought a monster
home from the war
didn’t know himself anymore
once a child who swam in summer
who climbed tall trees & played with possums
who built himself a sold friendly cubby-house
didn’t know himself anymore
he’s seen too much
pushed too much
killed too much
he'd descended now to desecration
posed with corpses smiled at the camera
then he went a little further
began to ridicule pieces of people
holding severed hands & arms
laughed at the camera
urinated on heads & heart & other bits
what had he come to
but he'd learned a valuable lesson
how to switch off
how go into battle on remote control
but he could never remember
the massacres when he got back
to where he was before
eventually they sent him home
to
but still
didn’t know himself anymore
he went to the doctor
still switched off
fighting battles in his sleep
wife frightened
violent outbursts
threats to kill her
and the kids
for the little boy he used to be
he’d seen too much
the doctor said you’ve got
‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’
& sent him home back to his wife
still
didn’t know himself anymore
this man
once strong, supremely fit
confident, brave, a real soldier
who used to be a little boy
who can’t get help now
from his government
who sent him to war
called him a hero
but when he came home
they silenced him
wouldn’t let the media interview him
he might blurt out some unpalatable truth
just one tragedy of many
hundreds of thousands returned home
to a government not prepared to care
for it’s own battle-worn soldiers
will the media tell us this ?
will the media tell their stories now ?
not in 30 years time
when a new generation will stare
with young, unknowing, unfeeling eyes
and another young boy
become a young man
goes to war
brings a monster home
to not know himself anymore
Pamela Sidney 2.3.08
On the Brink
On the brink
US warships off
in the Straits of Homuz
on the brink
plans to nuke
on the brink
in
on the brink
unseeing / ignorant Western eyes
watch their high definition
on oversize Plasma screens
on the brink
and they wonder why
suicide bombers do it
on the brink
soldiers sent as heroes
return from
on the brink
capitalism ruining
more lives than it benefits
on the brink of depression
Friedman’s free-market global economy
on the brink
imploding stock exchange
hedge-fund chaos
millions lose their homes
speculators, billionaires
stash it away regardless
on the brink
for yet another apocalyptic invasion
on the brink
Palestinians [slowly] starve in
trapped like rats in their open-air
concrete-walled concentration camp
the world looks the other way
on the brink
Palestinian holocaust
genocide, ethnic cleasing, dispersion
what am I talking about ?
lives on the brink
babies, children, teenagers
mothers, fathers grandmothers, grandfathers
aunts, uncles
lives on the brink
but who cares what skin colour
what faith
what political party
who cares what country
what origin
they are on the brink
that second
before
life is no more
Pamela Sidney 14.3.08
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