enduring freedom
i
everything is different now
apparently
reporters are treated for trauma
because of the footage
they don't show us
but I remember the silence
when the pics came through the wire
of gassed Kurdish families
and those others from Bhopal
they never got in the paper
either
(that was before photoshop
washed the foam off the mouth
of that pretty little girl
airlifted out for surgery in England
our hearts bled for the kindness of us
it was all part
of the wallpaper)
ii
history finished and then it started again
with a "new need for colonisation"
and by gosh we get to try out
our helicopter gunships with those
whizzbang double shooters
by gum by jingo by jesus
it's a real war we've got here
and you kids you're all Good remember
Good always triumphs over Evil
and it's real Good of you
to send your pocketmoney
to Those Less Fortunate
so long as you play the right music
the screens mist over with tears
and we dream our Heroes
striding over the wastelands
with their swords erect
and their pockets full of antibiotics
in Guatamala you throw Evil into the sea
from an airplane
and in San Salvador you rot its face with acid
and dump it in the streets
so the citizens will be properly afraid
of Evil
as it is liquidated by History
Africa's another story
unlike the Middle East which unfortunately
oils our Western Way Of Life
just make sure you bring the white cash
in on cessnas
to fund the war on drugs
which keeps Evil gibbering in prisons
and so on
Evil we're all agreed
is Evil
and must be fought
by every possible means
now it has a new face
laboured out of the bowels
of the Pentagon
so lovingly conceived and now lurching
towards its bloody apotheosis
how accurately its baby mouth
teethed on CIA lingo
how aptly it apes
the great American nightmare
that unsaid fear
sprouting out of every colonist's arsehole
why it's as simple as abc
you might notice
the dark side of the skull
is green like money is
but of course everything is different now
October 18 2001
Alison Croggon
Home page
http://users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
Masthead
http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
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