“Abysms: On Yet another 911 Anniversary….”
POETRY FORMAT, 19 Sep 2016
Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media Service
Powers on chessboards, on a roll of dice,
Mass and unmask in great Darwin’s name.
War-whoops go up and towers collapse,
Reaping the whirlwind, riding our shame.
Wave the flag prettily, “united we stand”—
Against what? For whose good? Against evil?
In whose heart?—while the military band
Plays anthems to march to, to die and to kill.
Roman and Vandal, Roman and Hun, the great
Empires rise and fall like waves—crash, and are gone.
Out of the rubble: a Ming vase, the pleat
Of a Frans Hals’ complacent nobleman.
Small, ordinary ceremonies go,
Replaced by pageants, the collective embrace,
The folding into…. The obliterating guns go
Through the greenhouse of reason—God’s last grace.
Surely, we’re chosen; God’s on our side; God’s
Laying bets on us; sending his squadrons!
Our leaders will save us (against all the odds,
Since they got us into these titanic cauldrons).
We’re marching and singing with gas in our lungs.
Just like a movie—so we know it’s not real.
But a severed hand lies there with two rings
From a lover—and the surreal smell is real….
Down the long corridors of progress, the gnaw
Of rats deluges; crocodile tears fill the eyes
Of the entrusted. The Law changes; Law,
After all, is supple, full of mysteries.
And perfidies! So Liberty’s eagle
Eyes are closed, the iron heel comes down, breaks
Stripling necks, and we cry, “Collateral
Damage” on both sides, blink, and raise the stakes.
The sky-gods come, ripping babes from gouged wounds,
Fruit from gored fields; the four horsemen come,
Swinging lariats of skulls over ravaged tombs
Where prophets lie. Who’s home now? Whose home?
Smoke…. The dream of one world family…. Ash….
Steel girders twisted into a hand pointing
At a sky too vast to share…. At last: ash…
Smoke… dreams crushed in eyes… crying… burying….
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Gary Corseri has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including, TMS (Transcend Media Service), The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and Counterpunch. He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum, and he has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons. Contact: Gary_Corseri@comcast.net.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 19 Sep 2016.
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