CURRENT MOON

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Driving Through Minnesota During The Hanoi Bombings


~by Robert Bly

We drive between lakes just turning green;
Late June. The white turkeys have been moved
A second time to new grass.
How long the seconds are in great pain!
Terror just before death,
Shoulders torn, shot
From helicopters. “I saw the boy
being tortured with a telephone generator,”
The sergeant said.
“I felt sorry for him
And blew his head off with a shotgun.”
These instants become crystals,
Particles
The grass cannot dissolve. Our own gaiety
Will end up
In Asia, and you will look down in your cup
And see
Black Starfighters.
Our own cities were the ones we wanted to bomb!
Therefore we will have to
Go far away
To atone
For the suffering of the stringy-chested
And the short rice-fed ones, quivering
In the helicopter like wild animals,
Shot in the chest, taken back to be questioned.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, Hecate, but the image shift is just too abrupt to see the universality between turkeys moved to new pastures and the victims of bombing and torture. The link between the places we want to destroy (urban Detroit? South Central LA?) and the places we actually have the 'courage' to bomb was profound. I'm not a big Bly fan, but this is disturbing enough to remember.

rosy123 said...

I thank you very much for all your proposals on this site. Your shares are very interesting and very rewarding. Congratulations.

voyance mail gratuit