Trial by Fog
Enclosed inside the intimacy of mist
Our visibility’s but fifty feet.
Beyond this bubble we do not exist.
The road is perilous. It turns and twists
As if its narrowing shoulders have to meet
Enclosed inside the intimacy of mist.
I want to scream, I want to raise my fist
And curse the small circumference of our light.
Beyond this bubble we do not exist.
This driving makes me itch. I should desist.
We have to trust the way like idiot sheep
Enclosed inside the intimacy of mist.
Back home we make a fire, share a kiss.
The fog’s outside, a monster with no teeth.
Beyond this bubble we do not exist.
Head on your lap, relieved, I feel blessed.
The breathing of your belly makes me complete
Enclosed inside the intimacy of mist.
Beyond this bubble we do not exist.
I have refrained from the political arena thus far in my blog, although being an American I feel myself as qualified as anyone else to comment.
The parallels to Vietnam are not funny. That war was "winnable." Then we could "contain" Communism through a corrupt state. Then it was "peace with honor," which meant massive withdrawal and a tacit admission that we had our butts kicked.
The throes of policy makers at present are legion and unnecessary. Anyone with a wit of sense can see nothing will improve the situation and that our leaving may be more helpful than our staying, since one infidel enemy will be removed from the conflict. But to stay to train Iraqi troops, many of whom no doubt belong to death squads, is a lame excuse in supporting a government that cannot stand on its own, just like Vietnam.
Who cares about destabilizing the region? It's already destabilized. And whatever our support does, it only prolongs the inevitable.
To have Bush running around with a divine light in his eyes, telling us this is the war on terror we're going to win, makes him certifiable, truly. He's a man who believes in his own neocon vision more than reality. It's downright embarrassing. Europe is right to snicker. What a tar baby we have embraced, what a quagmire of mismanagement and fatal underestimation. I thought we were going into Iraq to search for WMDs; turns out we invaded to occupy, a notoriously bad idea in a post-colonial world.
The Iraq Study Group didn't go far enough, but no matter. Looks like Bush isn't going to listen to them anyway. He must listen to the secret voice of God, like Pat Robertson. How else could he be so sure of himself?
All for today,
CE
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Unexpected Light
Selected Poems and Love Poems 1998-2008 ON SALE NOW!
Looking outside yourself to politics is a sign of health, don't you think? I am glad to be learning about villanelles and other forms that I never knew existed.
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ReplyDeleteWell said.
Hey! Really like this poem, esp "curse the small circumference of our light". Nice work, CE. Too bad about the subject matter :-/ {sigh}
ReplyDeleteThanks, all. Yes, a sign of coming out of depression is a greater engagement with the world at large, blessedly forgettng oneself.
ReplyDeleteValerie, I didn't think the fog so bad--hope you were referring to the political stuff. Then deep fog when you're driving at night is extremely scary. Glad you liked the poem.
Sam, good of you to drop by.
Craig has it exactly right when he states the parallels to Vietnam in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteThe vast, white "moral majority" that dwells in perpetual fear, didn't disappear after Nixon and Vietnam, it just lay in wait like an ignorant, slumbering beast, waiting to be aroused and exploited by Karl Rove and the dangerous neocons, who came slithering out of "think tanks" to force on the world their imperious ideals.
Iran is next unless Pelosi can stop them.
It's spooky and eerie. It's twilight zone and we're living it. Pelosi will come up with a wimpy compromise, if you kas me. She won't want to risk her standing as the new speaker.
ReplyDelete"I thought we were going into Iraq to search for WMDs"
ReplyDeleteRead your Leo Strauss, CE, intellectual forefather of the neo-Cons. WMD's were the exoteric story, the big picture painted for the masses. The esoteric 'truth' was furtherance of the Zionist project in the Middle East.
Then read Project for a New American Century's (PNAC) 1997 report "Rebuilding America's Defenses". In it, they wistfully hope for a galvanizing event.They got such an event in 911:
"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor."
Dear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly why I usually refrain from political posts, because I haven't taken the time to study the relevant documents. The neocon conspiracy theory may hold some water, but policy papers are just that. To think anyone in government could be so focused before a calamity is beyond my experience of government, the most glacially responsive of institutions, though the Catholic Church gives us a run for our money. I think some of the neocon influence looks greater than it was in retrospect. And I won't touch "Zionist;" that's a lose-lose subject.
chicken
ReplyDelete