A Poem Dedicated to the Current National Leadership

The following poem was created during that horrific time that Donald Rumsfeld half-wittedly referred to as, "Shock and Awe." The extent of the carnage visited on ordinary Iraqi citizens during those hours is impossible to comprehend. Such is the level of arrogance of the current leadership who have such a profound affect upon our destiny as a people.

SWIMMING AMONG THE SHARKS

I find myself swimming among the sharks,
i’ve always been swimming among them
but now as bombs light up the night sky
over Baghdad, an ancient city
with their phosphorescent majesty
visiting destruction from great distances
from safe distances where pilots flying
multi-million dollar death machines,
jiggle the appropriate levers or
an officer on board a billion dollar ship out at sea
launches the precision guided highly expensive deadly missiles
as all these events transpire before my aching, brooding vision,
as the intense level of absurd violence echoes across this
planet so weary of it’s human infestation,
i sense the close proximity of these sharks.

Sharks that thrive on blood and crave it,
sharks that build kingdoms using the
decapitated hands and hearts of armies of workers
whose labors are devised for their own preservation,
sharks that suck vitality out of the
marrow of the dying,
sharks that proclaim the earth is flat and
reality is to be made the captive of ambition,
sharks that see evil when it suits them but
have banished the mirrors from sight,
sharks who speak of glory and righteousness but
connive in secret to rob the eyes from beggars and
use them to bribe the blind politicians,
sharks that are so lonely and wretched in their own imaginations
sharks that are so divorced from love and simple affection,
sharks that are so inured to the privilege that haunts them
that they see death everywhere and
use sorcery to extract profit from stone.