we can not live without our land

"you speak the absolute truth,"

said Mr. Hamas,

leading his group of tourists to a refugee camp.

"there is a bias, he said, "and we blame the other side

for having one."

"As you can see", he said, "there is no tunnel here

and no command center;

we have simple tents and donated foodstuffs

along with enough water to last several weeks.

I tell you, that's what your eyes should see!

our hospitals are understaffed, with few medicines."

"I want to emphasis", he said,

"we are a peaceful people who have had our

ancestral homeland taken from us by the United Nations.

they made an historical mistake on November 29, 1947,

with Resolution 181,

for which the consequences

will forever be grave.

and there will be graves, thousands of graves!

we will go on killing our oppressors for centuries to come.

and they will kill us, too."

"Yasser Arafat once said it well, when he said

we can not live without our dignity.

we also can not live without our land.

And this has nothing to do with our religions!"

in a while, they all sat down for a short lunch break,

hearing the afternoon call to prayer

recited in Arabic.

there was distance gun fire, too.

hands like ice

just like Mao

when somehow

he chased Peanut across the strait

to the island

and thus began a purge

(a Long March of conquest)

which today has consolidated all power

every Chinese hour

into the hands

of a small band

of controllers,

the bombs again fall and the tanks rumble

over fallen buildings, the crumble

of bones,

near the river and to the sea.

a distant land

in Mediterranean history

with the same result:

loss of innocent life and tumult!

what is the point?

to own the joint?

kissing the land 

with cold lips and hands like ice;

black eyes without sparkle

pay the price,

using other people's dreams

as currency.

Where was Einstein?

When Daniel Ellsberg
went looking for his bus,
he saw the war,
felt the sun turn cold 

and ugly 

with political lies
falling from a deceitful sky
like incendiary bombs over North Vietnam,
spilling onto the streets in front of the White House.

near central Saigon on Tu Do street,
a flow of blood dripped constantly from the sharp teeth
of slippery men wearing their helicopter smiles,
trafficking dope 

from a railroad town in Laos
down the trail 

under a heart of darkness:
their American machine guns shooting up
the hard thin arms of Oriental hunger.

On a plutonium pathway the buffalo grass turned shit brown
with the CIA and Agent Orange
locked in a fatal embrace 

from the Plain of Jars
to the Central Highlands,

to the DMZ,
picking pure white daisy petals
while counting down from twelve 

to four and finally closer to zero:
under a cloudy mushroom afternoon,
Nixon was inaugurated to deliver
PEACE 

while fighting for his golden Crown
in the slaughter hallways of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Where was Einstein?
when Daniel Ellsberg
said there were no winnable options
for a WAR 

in jungle thick with sudden death
and monsoon confusion?

A thousand western schemes floated beguilingly,
mingled with autumn flower petals 

on the Perfume River,
past the starving bones of an angry Imperial ghost,
to their lonely grave 

in the South China Sea.

overlooking the park

there's a simple fact

you'll need to know

i once played guitar

with my little left toe

i thought i was perfect

i thought i could strum

i thought i was singing

but barely could hum

like a fashion designer

perfecting my art

there's nothing authentic

if not from the heart

i shifted my body

adjusted my mind

looking for answers

i couldn't quite find

a new age kept coming

and tastes rearranged

i sat on my sofa

and nothing was changed

the curtains were hung

the music was played

the times were a'changing

but i simply stayed

in my flat with a window

overlooking the park

looking for flowers

while everything's dark.

but there's no answer

Spain

inflicted some pain

and Portugal, too,

but what could they do?

somebody told them

England and France

were both at the dance

to colonize.

it would be an amazing prize!

new lands from sea to shore;

everything to gain and so much more.

and there was abundant silver and gold;

everybody was told

it was for free.

natives could be forced into captivity.

Belgium wanted in on the game

and the Dutch, too, sought fame.

it was how they thought:

everything could be bought

for the least amount of grief.

sail in like a thief

and take and steal and rob and burn

the natives will learn

or they'll die

or remain uncivilized and die

their Gods or Great Spirits might ask why

but there's no answer.