2004-12-28T15:43:00.012+11:00

Are You Listening George ?

(written 26.2.03)

Morning news casts a pall
each waking day gives no relief
darker and darker the hope for peace
relentless this raw war propaganda

and yet so clear are the sighted ones
like truth flowing from the purest spring
Pliger, Ben, Chomsky, Fisk, Araundati Roy
I'd trust my life to them if they were leaders
these 'no-war' avengers - we'd have a world of peace

I attemp to reconcile this black comedy of errors
into some rational perspective
but feel only Machiavellian, Macbethian
impending human tragedy

so if or when those Arab-hating missiles
rain down on the innocent ones
will the bodies be counted as scrupulously
as those tallied on September eleven ?
will they be buried, commemorated with monuments
remembered yearly in memorial services ?
will we ever even know their names ?

as to Bush, the man with all the power
self-proclaimed leader of the new world order
who had to be warned by his speech-writer
"Mr President,
don't use that word 'crusade' again ever"
the man who used every trick in the law book
and all those not - to steal his stately presidency

what does this say of American democracy ?
of an oil millionaire, of a cretinous cheat
who would put at risk world peace
who would have soldiers dying
not for humanitarian values
but for his global expansion - control of oil
this man who will have blood on his hands
who many will call a mass murderer

have him up for trial - war criminal !

Pamela Sidney 2003

2004-12-28T15:26:00.011+11:00

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 Iraq)

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

could he ever get back

to where he was before

eventually they sent him home

to Kentucky or Louisiana

Bendigo or Daylesford

Coventry or Hartford

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 Lebanon

in the Straits of Homuz

on the brink

plans to nuke Iran

on the brink

in Iraq devastation, death, injury continue...

on the brink

unseeing / ignorant Western eyes
watch their high definition
Hollywood crap movies
on oversize Plasma screens

on the brink

and they wonder why
suicide bombers do it

on the brink

soldiers sent as heroes
return from Iraq to no-care - neglected PTSD

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

Middle East US / Israel poised
for yet another apocalyptic invasion

on the brink

Palestinians [slowly] starve in Gaza
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

ANTI-WAR POEMSBY PAMELA 3.