Dimly, the sky glows where the red moon bleeds,
as its round head is slowly devoured by the abyssal black;
and, over the river yellow spindles of light
flicker across the inky darkness,
while thousands of shades gather
before climbing the woodland slopes
where they break into their midnight revelries
frightening the huddling nocturnal nests;
and, the sylvan eyes of the palsied trees
stare riveted at the passing apparitions,
and now the somnolent land wakes and leaps up
flying away on monstrous wings into the nether air.
See the terrified bird straining at the cloud girded sky
driven by this dusky nightmare:
and my heart loves the solace of its solitude:
where my soul rests from its struggle
against the evil oppression
that seeks to ensnare and enslave it!
CACOPHONOUS COMPLAINTS
Cacophonous complaints cascade down
on my stooped shoulders.
A quagmire, the Earth
shivers scrubbed by passing showers,
and, more than clouds,
pollution, escaping from tailpipes
and smokestacks, obscures the view
of distant blue mountains.
When the dark wing of anxiety
falls upon me, to be hurt
and vulnerable: the dull roar
like a standing wave in a stream
before a rock....
I lift up my eyes,
the catcalls above continue:
and radiant white-silver streaks,
a flock of gulls
sweeps past into the grey nothing.
WHAT A FATE
What a fate
to be orphaned and exiled
in my own land-
that is why
my heart never heals
In my youth
my soul soared
among the heavens,
as I sought
to grow skyward;
never thinking
some perfidious fate
would afflict me,
crashing down with an iron fist
and I became a shadow of my self.
Life is more than the freedom to breathe!
What kind of existence is it,
to pine away a shadow
with each passing hour
having the life sucked out of it;
life a lie,
passing by in vain,
no more than a dress rehearsal;
until, I join with those
who are the departed dead?
A STILL LIFE
A still life, in vanity:
the middle aged man, who had been
to a leadership seminary, pontificated
to his mendacious fellow members,
of the local chapter for charter schools.
Outside, the fog that had come along,
with the night's rising tide of darkness,
swirled about, in white formless banks,
above black streets that
melted away into a blank nameless obscurity.
If any of the crowd present
was anything but fuzzy around the edges
(and in the middle too)
about what they were discussing;
or, asked a relevant question,
then our speaker would have been
exposed for not knowing what he was talking about.
There is a moral to this tale:
never pretend to know more than you do;
because, if you happen to be confronted,
the vanity which motivated your pretensions
will end up making you a fool;
besides, the only ones you will impress
that way are not worth impressing,
and those who are worth impressing
are never impressed that way.
DON'T DOUBT
Don't doubt
that God loves all its children
spread across the face
of this ever young, ancient Earth.
Those who think
that their bigoted hate and bloody deeds
are done for God's sake,
merely attribute their own cruelty to God.
For careful reasoning reveals
blessings and peace
are never delivered
from that quarter.
Life is fleeting,
and happier moments grace
those who live milder lives
unburdened by transgressions.
FLEEING FROM THE RIGHT
Having wearied of living
in all manner of places,
under the achingly empty blue desert skies,
under fir boughs the Nisqually swept past;
finally, I have determined
to live out my life
in the heart of the beautiful Willamette Valley,
where all the shadows know my name.
For it doesn't really matter!
Today, one can't flee from evil;
one must face up to evil like a man
and not degrade and dishonor oneself.
HOW GOOD
Listening to the thin, nervous chirp
of the timer in the kitchen
I'm filled with wonder
at how lovely life is:
the warm comfort of an easy chair;
the expansive sense of well being after a delicious meal;
the smell of a new car.
But, things needn't be so extravagant
for simpler pleasures are equally wonderful, too:
the Summer sunshine on one's face;
the sweet smell of hyacinths between Spring showers;
the delicious coolness of a deep breath of Autumn air.
All these things and countless more
serve to remind me how good life is.
SWIRLING
Swirling down the street,
in a rising tide are the children.
They fill it with the music
of their voices and the jostling
color of their clothes.
How empty the street seems
after they have past.
ESSAY: WACO RESURRECTED
Rumor suggests that the
incident at Waco in 1993 was a deliberate set up by the
radical right. The Davideans were set up in an endeavor to superimpose
the
radical right's moral agenda on the entire country. At the same time, the Clinton
administration
was set up, for political purposes during its first year, by the radical
right,
too. They had displaced the public bureaucacies involved, during
the preceding
12 years under the Republican administrations of Reagon and Bush.
The result
was the horrible atrocity that left all those men, women and children
brutally
murdered in Waco- so Rumor says.
Rumor contends that in 1980
at the beginning of the Reagon and Bush
administration the radical right stated their intention to massively
infiltrate
the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms), the FBI, the CIA and the
(in)justice
department among other gov't. agencies, as a pay off for helping win
the
election. They then, a few years latter in the mid 1980s, again
went public
stating that this had been accomplished. It must be pointed out
that the
administration like the media was dependent on these agencies for its
information. These agencies were depicting the Davedians as a
extremist cult
who were armed with illegal assault weapons and were extremely dangerous.
Further, they characterized the leader as an unstable, aggressive child
rapist.
Rumor thinks that the New
Yorker is politically supportive of the Republican
Party, and controlling interests of the New Yorker may be owned by
guess who?
They put together a video on the tragedy. Unfortunately, it is
a piece of
propaganda, so Rumor says, intended to depict the Republicans as good
guys and
the Democrats as villains. And, Rumor says, its release was timed for the upcoming
Presidential elections.
In the beginning the ATF
obtained a search warrant even though the Davidean
leader had them contacted and invited the ATF to come out and inspect
his weapons-
he was a weapons dealer who traded at gun shows as a means of making
money for
the church. This activity he justified based on scriptural passages,
attributed
to Christ, found in the New Testament. The ATF never responded
to this offer.
At the date of the first incident the ATF never served the warrant,
instead they
attacked. They were resisted. The ATF only stopped firing
when they had
finally run out of ammo, at which time the Davideans stopped shooting,
too. The
ATF were able to withdraw taking their dead and wounded with them,
with out
further incident.
It was at this point that
the FBI was called in. Their explicit orders were
clear: to get the Davideans to surrender without further violence-
in other
words no shooting, unless they were in mortal danger. Rumor asks
the following
questions:
1. Why did the FBI lie and
state that the talks were at an impasse when the
Davideans were in the process of writing their interpretation of apocalyptic
scripture, and had expressed an intent to come out peacefully when they had finished?
2. Why were the FBI deliberately
provoking the Davideans with obscene gestures
and exposing themselves to the women and children: WHAT SORT OF MORALS
DOES THIS
REPRESENT? REMEMBER THEIR ORIGINAL INTENT, TO SUPERIMPOSE
ON THE REST OF THE
COUNTRY THEIR MORALS?
3. Why if they thought the
leader was instable where they subjecting him to
sleep deprivation?
4. Was it necessary to repeatedly
desecrate the graves of the dead by
repeatedly driving tanks over them?
5. Were two of the survivors
paid informants (Judases) of the radical right?
6. Were fibre optics used
by the radical right and was this information then
passed on to the FBI, to ascertain where the cult leader was during
the second
assault; and, then was that information used for a tank to attack that
position
(the only time and place a tank was used in that fashion) with support
by
automatic weapons from close range sniper positions; and, was
this really done
in deliberate retaliation to taped comments made by the Davidean leader:
a tape
purposefully with held from the public because it would have presented the
Davideans in
a more favorable light, as rational human beings trapped in a horrible situation
not of
their making?
7. Why was the attack made
when the Senior administration official (who was
over seeing the FBI's handling of the situation) was out of town?
8. Why, if the tanks were
supposedly trying to gas people into submission, did
they deliberately tear gaping holes in the building, if not to fire
bomb the
incapacitated men, women and children?
9. If a cover up transpired
and evidence was destroyed, why did the FBI
deliberately leave conspicuous evidence that the fire was intentionally
set by
the FBI: if not to deliberately set up and embarrass the Democratic administration?
10. It was day time so why
was a plane flying over with only heat imaging
equipment (and whose was it) that would prove that the atrocities transpired,
and
yet not be able to identify the specific individuals involved?
11.Why was the tape, which
was immediately available to the media and
investigative officials, not confiscated and lost by the FBI like other
video
tapes were? Wouldn't it be convenient, if your objective is to
create negative
political fallout, to be able to prove the atrocity without providing
explicit
proof of the culpable parties?
12. Was subliminal technologies
used to help prevent the Davidean leader from
leaving the facility after his statement to the press; because, then
he would
have been pardoned in court,
as the other church members later were- and wasn't it true that
the FBI did not
want this to happen?
Rumor suggests that at this
time period the FBI crime lab was incredibly
corrupt and was later found guilty of mishandling evidence on several
other
gov't cases. The FBI lab insisted that all evidence be turned
over to it from
local officials. Further, after seven years individual convictions will
be difficult to
obtain; but, public outrage can still be generated with its ensuing negative
political effects for the Democrats. Rumor suggests that it's
the oldest ploy
of tyranny to cause an atrocity from behind the scenes, and then publicly
to
scream bloody murder about how terrible it is.
What transpired in Waco
was a shame. Today, nothing we say or do will bring
back those slaughtered men, women and children. But, hopefully
the radical
right will be thwarted in the second half of their travesty of justice:
setting
up the Democrats in the up coming elections. So suggests Rumor.
It is my
personal hope that we will learn from this incident that intolerance,
bigotry
and fanaticism are wrong and that we will reaffirm our traditional
beliefs in
tolerance, freedom and the civil rights of all God's children.
ESSAY: S.E. ASIA
More For The Children
Rumor says after murdering
100,000 people in Algeria, the radical right, in
their unending efforts at World domination, is responsible for the
pseudo-
religious violence in Thailand. It killed some children and young
adults, who
it had destabilized and induced into hijacking a bus, which was used
to cross
the border into Thailand where the young hapless rebels proceeded to
occupy a
regional hospital. The radical right's objective, in this mission,
was to
create dissatisfaction with the existing leadership of the Karen ethnic
group,
the indigenous group that lives along the Myanmar- Thai border, and
then replace
them with their own puppets. This they did accomplish.
Rumor wonders how power
can be so good that it would be worth what it means they have become!
When will
they ever learn. So Rumor says.