'Are You Listening George' 'The Genie's Out' 'Coming Home' On The Brink'
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
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
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
