As I read this poem I find myself wishing there were some connection to
a Passover theme. The only one I can think of is that the Iraqis were
'passing over' to freedom as you watched, but that doesn't fit the
theme: they weren't initiating, nor were they migrating. I suppose if
they held up a white flag they were 'passed over'??

I wish I didn't have to play parse-the-poem. I appreciate the use of
capitals to differentiate sentences, but in general I have to go over
things a few times to make sure I've got it straight. Why can't I just
be presented with imagery and ideas?

I think you have omitted the article "the TV" (S3.2) simply to avoid the
poem gaining a mundane aspect, but somehow "TV" just doesn't have the
gravitasse to warrant being thrust forward in that way. I find that the
mish-mash of images in S3 is probably a portrayal of mixed stories on
the TV. I wish there were something concrete there that would relate to
hot meeting sweet.

I am not able to glean a sense of the last strophe. From whose point of
view is the poem written? Jewish or Christian Iraqis? Muslim Iraqis?
Caring observers of some kind? The point of view is somehow not
believable, or unclear. I don't know whose empathy I'm empathizing with.
Perhaps your point is that it doesn't matter, but that's like
non-message as message. I wish writers wouldn't try to encode meaning
into the encoding systems of poetry, and instead just write. Vagueness
symbolizes a jumbled experience, lack of punctuation symbolizes
confusion, non-parsing phrases symbolize an invitation to make up your
own understanding.

Why is the day "bright as divinity" while the "clouds portend another
fate"? You mean it's sunny where you watch and cloudy at the site of the
war? If so, how does that mean?

Carl
=====================

The Haggadah (The Story)

Today bright as divinity
eastern clouds portend another fate
We purchase horseradish
to remind us that tears run bitter

We build a Hillel sandwich
a bit of choroset
the apples nuts wine
like mortar across the matza
a horseradish dab added
Laughing we cry
as hot meets sweet

The looting shooting flash
across TV screen
hours of a statue carnage
videologued for posterity
an American Marine buried
with full military honors
his casket cloaked by
a Mexican flag

The story retold
God with an outstretched
arm makes us free