Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Last Act



Last Act of Hamlet

Somewhere I read about a bar
where they provide rolled-up socks
for people to throw at the television
when the President speaks.

Neruda said the socks which Maru Mori
knitted for him were made of golden threads,
threads made of twilight —

She was a poor woman, so maybe
twilight, probably not gold.

I doubt if socks
will do the trick tonight, or even Neruda’s
wonderful poem.


The American president is a war
criminal — Dems in Congress aren’t
going to stop him.

Endless carnage is good for weapons dealers,
WWIII looms, the Nuclear Clock is set
to five minutes before annihilation.

Another line comes to mind —
"something rotten in the Sate of Denmark" —

Hillary Clinton leads the pack to refuse public
money so she can fund her political campaign
from the coffers of the war mongers.

The only speech I want to hear tonight
is one introducing Articles of Impeachment
against George W. Bush, Dick Chaney,
Alberto Gonzales, Condolizza Rice —

I want to hear a speech by Dems saying they
will stop authorizing funds to support an
illegal and incompetent war effort.

No, socks won’t do it tonight.

I’ve got the final act of Hamlet in mind —

We can't take five more minutes
of this villainy.

And while I doubt if we need
poisoned chalices, daggers or swords,
we do need resolve, decision, courage
and well placed Articles of Impeachment.

©Susan Bright, 2007

Susan Bright is the author of nineteen books of poetry. She is the editor of Plain View Press which since 1975 has published one-hundred-and-fifty books. Her work as a poet, publisher, activist and educator has taken her all over the United States and abroad. Her most recent book, The Layers of Our Seeing, is a collection of poetry, photographs and essays about peace done in collaboration with photographer Alan Pogue and Middle Eastern journalist, Muna Hamzeh.


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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, I'd prefer rotten tomatoes (or worse) to socks but it sounds like a cool bar (not to make light, I don't mean it that way). I just think it's cool when ANYBODY is courageous. Anyway thank YOU for being courageous always. Along with a lot of people, I doubt I can stand to watch the speech but I usually like to watch the Democratic rebuttal -- hope they give it to Obama, or "anyone but Hillary"!!

MM

2:14 PM  
Blogger SB said...

Webb is going to give the speech. I made calls for him using the MoveON call board -- and was really happy to find he'd won by a small amount.

I doubt the dems want to give any one candidate prominance --

the response speeches are usually uninspring. ergo the problem.

Maybe I will gather some socks, or at lease read Neruda's fine poem again, it always cheers me up.

2:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is one of my favorites of yours, ever!

CS

2:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fabulous poem!


Richard Peabody
www.gargoylemagazine.com

"World opinion is against the US escalation in Iraq. The American people are against it. Congressis against it. The Iraqi people are against it. The Iraqi government is against it. Can a single man force
a nation to fight a war it does not want to fight, expand a war it does not want to expand? If he can, is that nation any longer a democracy
in any meaningful sense? If not, how can democratic rule and the republican form of government be restored?"
--The Nation,

9:32 AM  

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