Draft Requiem for an Empire

They came for Saddam Hussein

and got Iraq

(and the oil),

They came for Hosni Mubarak

and got (back) Egypt

they came for Muammar Gaddafi

and got Libya

(and the oil)

they came for the Chagosssians,

tossed them out

and got the Chagos Archipelago

(yes, you don’t know, neither did I

but we’ve heard of Diego Garcia),

they came for Daniel Ortega

they got Nicaragua

they got Central America

and South America

they turned Great Britain

into client state

treat Canada as another state

went for Osama bin Laden and the Taliban

and got Afghanistan

(and oil)

they want to go after Ahmadinejad

they want to get Iranian oil

they keep a Saudi Royalty

they can’t have Africa

(they would love to, though)

they have India (in a way)

and Pakistan (in a way)

are moving in on Nepal

Oz and NZ can be counted on

and EU too (we know)

but the world is not made of countries

but people,

classes,

cultures and histories

heritage and pride

a step back now and two strides forward

later,

today is a fact

tomorrow is not a given

time is longer than life

and empires frequently collapse

In a heap

Ottomans, the Umayyad Caliphate and Persia

Byzantine, the Hans, the British

the Holy Romans and Normal Romans,

the Russians and Mongols.

there’s a lamp with a flaring flame

someone’s time has come.

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Draft for an Amnesty International Anthem

I want accountability,

but I will not account:

I won’t tell who gave me bucks,

I won’t tell who told me tales,

if you are critical, we say ‘you are vilifying’

but we will vilify and say ‘it’s criticism’,

I will be a tokenist when it comes to Afghanistan

I will not say ‘policy-product’

when my master butchers or tortures;

I am Amnesty International,

mandated to mouth Washington’s script

I am a by-any-means-necessary servant,

I have a JD and work for my pay. 

I am kept.

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‘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.

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Expressionism

Evolutionary appendage and remnant
made for crop and twist,
tint and trim
plait and shave,
the ultimate home-grown
no-censorship-allowed
weapon of mass communication,
the ageless ‘I am!’
resisting gravity
and given to selective union,
fluid subverter
of ‘be this and nothing else’
refusing to stand to attention,
bending
but not at bidding,
made for statement,
objection and affirming.

[inspired by the photography of Natalie Soysa and first published in The Nation, March 11, 2012]

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133rd Battle of the Blues

With 'Gamage Sir' at the 2016 Roy-Tho

(for Mr. Ranjith Gamage) 

There is a difference

between temperature and heat
but that was long ago
a long ago of ‘other things’
and ignorance
sloth and arrogance;
was held by hand
and walked through theories
and theories
that meant nothing
year after year after year
until other fears kicked teeth in
and digestive juices churned
and something slipped into blood
into cell and sinew,
but today teacher sat with student
told his story
the humble beginning
and the humble now:
‘don’t use bombastic language;
I like it mind you,
and I will never forget your mother.’
Teacher became friend a few hours ago
he had given without asking
and now says ‘what can I do for you?’
There are moments to bend low
and touch feet.
And that is the Big Match Report
this year.

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