The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    jollyroger's picture

    Bearing the price of dead children (Other people's kids of course...)

    By jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 4:13pm |

    The companion piece to Subcommandante Shaleen-both written simultaneously over one week in 2005.  David Seaton's  unlikely encomium to Pat Buchanan reminded me of Madeleine Albright's riposte when confronted with the figure half a million children dead from our sanctions...

     

    G-dub's Anthem: 21st Century Star Spangled Banner

     

    Oh, say, Francis Scott Key
    Do you like what you see?
    See the bodies piled so high?
    See the kids without eyes?

    By the dawn's early light
    Once we knew what was right
    Now the world hides in fright
    Now the noose grows so tight

    What so proudly we hailed
    What was clean now has failed
    We have gone off the rails
    Strike the wind from our sails

    By the twilight's last gleaming
    From our eyes tears are streaming
    Once our faces were beaming
    Now remorse fills our dreaming

    And the rockets' red glare
    Lays all our crimes bare
    Yet we have not a care
    "It's a price we can bear"

    The bombs bursting in air
    Childrens' heads without hair
    Those shell casings--Beware!
    There's uranium there

    Gave proof through the night
    Oh, hideous sight
    Bush thinks might makes him right
    Darkness blots out the light.

    Can our flag still be there?
    Oh Lord, hear our prayer
    Send this beast to his lair
    Return us to what's fair

    Oh please let that star spangled banner yet wave
    Make us once again free
    Make us once again brave
    For his high crimes and grave
    Send to hell the foul knave

    Comments

    I was shooting for creative corner...oh well.


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 4:15pm

    If you add it there, I'll delete it here.


    by Donal on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 4:33pm

    I changed it in the database already


    by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 4:37pm

    thanks


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 4:42pm

    Well done.  If I may say so, it reminds me of something I wrote a few years ago:

    http://www.poetry.com/poems/from-republican-to-a/13933635/

    From Republican to a Pub

    I'd hail to the chief
    but I don't know who the chief is
    We were taken in the night
    and I don't know who the thief is
    My innocence stolen, my ignorance bliss
    On JFK's grave I will leave a small kiss
    My eyes become glazed when Old Glory is raised
    I see red white and blue, but there's pain in there too

    I want another beer! Yo, Chief! Bring another beer!
    And one for my friend here, whose name isn't clear...
    It'll come to me.

    (The copyright says 2009 but I seem to recall writing this in 2006 or so...)

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 7:59pm

    Thanks.

    Since you mention JFK, I have a memory of shaking his hand.  (I say I have a memory, because I could not possibly have actually  shaken his hand, cause I'm nineteen, and he's been dead since before I would have been born.  I was pretty confused about that, til I saw that documentary, what was it, Men in Black Suits, Black men in Suits, whatever.  Cause they have that neuralizer thingee, and after they zap you, well, memories are fungible, sort of.)

     So, anyway, I have this memory (doubtless implanted by one of those machines) that when JFK was still running for the nomination, I was recruited to be part of a little "pep rally" singing group (like four guys, maybe) and we went down to some rally in New Jersey and sang a song which they didn't bother to implant a memory of , and I shook his hand and wished him luck, which I guess he had, or maybe not, the way it turned out...

     

     


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 8:09pm

    It'll come to me

    They might'a got you with that machine too...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 8:16pm

    I want another beer! Yo, Chief! Bring another beer!

    This seems to be a recurrent theme in your work (like the poem, btw)  Myself, (as you might guess), I'm a stoner, not a juicer...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 8:18pm

    Well when I can't be a stoner, I'm a beer drinker, ha.  And, wow, for a 19-year-old, you sure have a lot of chest hair.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 8:27pm

    I suffer from a severe case of testosterone poisoning...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 8:35pm

    a beer drinker, ha

    Anent which, and in the patriotic spirit which thus far has infused our dialog, Sam Adams is a damn good beer for something you can find in the supermarket.  Jus sayin'..


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 8:37pm

    I love, so far, just two Sam flavors.  Raspberry Witbeir and Cherry Wheat.  In fact, one of the locals in my neighborhood who is at the deli every night greets me by saying, "Cherry Wheat, how are you, you lovely?"

    He's Irish.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 9:00pm

    Also, this might not be my regular body..cause there's one or two things that strike me as odd for 19, too.

    I figure what happened was when the aliens got me, they mixed my body up with some other guy-he's like forty or so...and I am gonna get my real one back and take another one of that bastard's eye stalks too...but, so , anyway, that's the only way I can explain being 19, stuck in a 40 year old body, but with memories stretching way the fuck back.  And, really, when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense...And if there was any anal probing done, I don't want to know about it.

    Of course, I don't actually remember r the abduction, which if people tell you they do, they're crazy, cause everyone who they abduct gets zapped with the neuralizer thing...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 8:47pm

    I've been trying for the past 15 minutes to come up with a good reposte to this post, but....I'm at a loss.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 9:09pm

    Time for a song, then....

     


    by wabby on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 9:13pm

    Perfect, Flower!  As always...


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 9:42pm

     

    My theme, as it were...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:26pm

    Doesn't the teenager in you just *hate* it when youtube gives us this stupid "embedding disabled" message? 

    For the record, though, when I hear "Crazy", I hear Seal. 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fc67yQsPqQ

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:35pm

    "and I see you, my friend, and touch your face again..."

    Did we meet on some starship once before, a few years ago?

    Hmm..

     

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:36pm

    I wouldn't rule it out...We need Verified A's input here, but with the multiple universe thingee, and, who knows, leakage from one to the other, there's really no telling what inklings are fact based, but just not in this particular iteration.

    I swear I've met chicks in bars where I never see them again, but in an alternate universe we have three kids...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:41pm

    As long as you're not paying child support in some alternate universe, I think you might be safe. But then, WTF do I know?

    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:44pm

     Well, unless  alternate Rogie is way different from this universe Rogie, what with his five wives (serially, not simultaneously), I fear there is a good chance that I am...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:48pm

    Oh, well, thank goodness.  A serial hubby versus a Mormon is far much safer.  But...a Scorpio!  Oh my.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:51pm

    I bet I know what has you paralyzed...It's "really, when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense"...

    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:06pm

    Well, yes, to be honest, that's what it is.  Because....dare I say this in public?  I'm 13. 

    Somehow, my body and mind were switched around sometime in the night, once.  I can't really recall exactly when it happened.  I'd like to say it was last year, just before my 12th birthday.  But...the memory is now so hazy, and I suppose I'd sound crazy....so I keep this feeling to myself most of the time. 

    I'm so glad you understand.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:14pm

    Of course...I was pretty sure that I wasn't the only one...

     

     I suppose I'd sound crazy

    . you can't let that intimidate you--didn't Jimi Hendrix enjoin us to let our freak flag fly?


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:18pm

    I thought that was David Crosby. 


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:19pm

    Him too...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:23pm

    Not that you and I even know who Jimi and Crosby ARE.....for the record.  Right?

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:32pm

    Well, if you remember, in that documentary, they were pretty thorough when they planted memories, there were back stories, details, the whole thing.

    There was that Jones guy, the white fella, and he spent years as a postman or somthin' right?

    In fact, I believe he used to deliver my mail in Berkeley, but it could have been a lookalike...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:51pm

    You should see me do it  in person, I'm really good.  I scared the living piss out of this guy one time (for which I had to apologize profusely, in the event) when I grabbed his shoulders, perhaps a .little too tightly, and asked with a touch of hysteria "You're not working with them are you??  Are you? ARE YOU WORKING WITH THE ALIENS???

    I take Resistance and his ilk as my inspiration--if they can wrestle everything around to add up to a 6000 year old earth and a veridical Old Testament, there's no damn reason I can't be "confused abductee #3, 19 year old male, "Roger"

    The last thing he remembers is going to bed and he was 19--then the nightmare began...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:36pm

    I'm beginning to think you've just blown your cover, Mr. King.  Surprised


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:40pm

    Mr. King.

     

    Reference?   Or are you talking about my claim to the Visigoth throne, which I had not spoken of explicitely...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:46pm

    Whilst I adore the Dead's St. Stephen, I have never dated a Scorpio.  I've been advised to avoid them, in fact.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:48pm

    Shit, girl, I ain't no stinkin' Scorpio--I don't post my true signage, birthday, or any of that stuff...

    Except for I really am the (key term) pretender to the Visigoth Throne....albeit there may be some other males of my family who want to step up to the plate and we can fight it out, but as far as I know, at the moment, I'm the only one claiming.


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:54pm

    Without, hopefully, giving up too much, I can say that in Astrology School, they teach my case in Planetary Imbalances 101-B :Pathologies arising from the excessive influence of Venus


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:56pm

    You lost me at Crosby.  Wink

    Lucky for you, there's a contact thing a ma jiggy. 

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:58pm

     to avoid them

     Parenthetically, that is good advice...Not only do they teach my case in Astrology School, I used to teach in Astrology School, and I am prepared to say with some assurance that negative sun sign men are problematic.


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:28pm

    I'm sorry, was there a point to all these comments?  Tongue out


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:01pm

    Yeah--didn't you say something about wanting to get laid?


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:03pm

    Oh, right!  Yes I did!  And, I'm sorry, but didn't you set yourself up as being able to be contacted directly through Dag?  Hahahahaha.  Not that someone in NY, 13 years of age, should connect with someone out in CA, of undetermined age but obviously owning a chest full of hair, but the two of them should just contact each other, as I'm sure the folks at Dag would love it if we'd both shut up and just find a freaking room, already.  :)

     

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:07pm

    shut up and just find a freaking room

      Don't be silly...nobody's watching...just let me unbutton this and...

     


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:08pm

    Oh, wait...that was supposed to be on the contact thingee-my bad...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:05pm

    Lucky for you, Roger, everyone already knows you're bad. 


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:08pm

    Don't blame me, I was drawn that way....(anyway, an *unaccustomed urge towards privacy overcame me and I went to the contact thingee)

     

    *When you are a stripper, some generally accepted inhibitions sort of fade away--what can I say? Some people can fuck in public, some can't.  It's kind of a function of concentration, I think...


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:20pm

    I'd think traffic might have a part in that too, no?  Once you see one car go by, and then another...


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:29pm

    Well, then, I meant...who cares anymore that it's in public?  But I did answer privately, for the record.

     


    by LisB on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:31pm

    And now I suppose wedding predictions about us are in the cards.


    by LisB on Sat, 02/05/2011 - 2:59am

    I'm sure you two will be very happy even with the zapped memory thingee, and the fact jolly's not anywhere close to 19.  I think the elevated testosterone level will ultimately be a plus so long as he gets his steak tartar every day by noon or thereabouts.


    by miguelitoh2o on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 2:51am

    If he's up by noon, which is doubtful.


    by LisB on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 4:36am

    Personally, I've always thought Jolly was a girl.


    by Ramona on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 6:59am

    Hmm, I can vouch for the fact that he's not.  That's all I will say on the matter.

     


    by LisB on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 10:23am

    Always hated that song. I mean the music besides the stupid words.

    Looks like you are making amends. hahah


    by Richard Day on Sun, 02/06/2011 - 8:43am

    I bet Cristina A. wishes we had made that shift to This Land is Your Land before last Sunday...


    by jollyroger on Tue, 02/08/2011 - 6:48pm