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Tuesday 13 March 2012

‘This is not who we are!’*

(The ballad of Hillary Clinton)


Never killed,
never bombed
never maimed
never sprayed napalm
never looked the other way
when ally never killed,
never bombed, maimed or sprayed chemical weapons,
never assassinated
never propped dictator, monarch, junta or totalitarian,
never made war
made only love,
Nagasaki and Hiroshima are fictions,
Abu Ghraib too
Guantanamo Bay is a holiday resort, didn’t you know?
waterboarding is like surfing
torture a mere tickle
a good-humoured incarcerator-give
to a good-humoured prisoner-receive,
all’s well in the world
we are white
and our track-record is white too
unblemished and bloodless
we’ve taken the vow of celibacy
we walked all over the world
we just made love,
made love to Iraq
made love to Afghanistan
made love in Libya
made love
made love
making love
wherever we go.
Isn’t it time the world said ‘Thank you, USA’?   

*Hillary Clinton, responding to the gruesome massacre of 16 civilians by a US soldier.

9 comments :

  1. I wouldn't go so far as to say "awesome", but it is what it is; true. No one individual or country is perfect, but we all must practice what we preach or stop preaching. Thanks as always Malinda!

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  2. Well two wrongs don't make a right. SL needs to do the right thing about the civilian casualties instead of pretending non happened.

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    Replies
    1. Nothing will be done anywhere while people hide behind anonymity.

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    2. Why defensive Ms.Freeman? why shoot the messenger?

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  3. This is really an excellent poem. This is a real picture of a country that does not know (never knew) the real meaning of the word ‘torture’
    Have you missed any other incidents? No not the minor ones the other historical incidents …..I believe that they never have encouraged the war makers ….. I wonder ….. How did they become one of the wealthiest countries in the world? I understand you really will have to write thousands of other poems to explain the other things I believe ….. We are happy with this at this moment ….

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  4. Its the poem of So called change in Obama's manifesto

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  5. This is absolutely fantastic. I love the rhythm of it - and the absolute truth of it.

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  6. Flak has been a mix of flowers and puke for US and that's 'ata lo dahama' too.

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