I am gripped by sadness,
clouds
of sea smoke
clinging to me,
waiting for the sun
to return,
bring
life again.
It's a sadness
I've long known.
First becoming
recognizable
at a young age
when I read about
Washington's army
slaughtering the Lakota
at Wounded Knee.
Today the sadness
descends on me
as I see Washington's
darkness
illuminate the sky
via HIMARS rockets,
battle tanks being queued up
to be delivered to the front,
like the Hotchkiss guns
sent to South Dakota
in 1890.
The U.S. targets have changed over time.
Ukrainian 'allies' just hit
a civilian hospital
in Novoaydar,
(using Pentagon supplied targeting coordinates)
HIMARS was long-range weapon of choice
killing 14 people and injuring 24.
Nonstop Nazi attacks in the Donbass
since 2014.
All on behalf of the 'defensive' NATO alliance.
No anguished cries
are heard from western media,
nor from those who denounce Putin
for defending
the long-suffering victims
of US client state
Nazi terror along Russia's border.
What comes next
to the war zone?
F-16's and nukes?
Out of my deep sadness
seeps energy for
solidarity
which I learned to sing about
in my farm worker union days.
In current times
I am moved to rail against
Raytheon, Lockheed Martin,
General Dynamics, Boeing
and the rest of the warmongers
(and their puppets in Congress)
making massive profits
by killing the so-called enemies
of the uni-polar pirates.
I've lost friends over this solidarity,
as one said to me,
'some people who you thought
were your friends
never actually were'.
Hard to swallow that one.
On I trudge
through the deep layers
of sorrow.
My heart beating
so I know I am still alive.
As long as I breathe
I'll embrace the sadness
and keep showing
solidarity,
it's all I've ever known.
Bruce
7 comments:
Dear Bruce,
How you have movingly captured this sad moment. Alas, we have really lost our way.
Solidarity and not so solitaire. Alice Slater
This is a powerful putting together of words that capture something very deep.
You've spoken for me and for all the many who haven't yet reached out to where we can find them. Maybe they will find you through this poem?
Bruce, are you going to the anti-war, anti NATO protest in DC, Lincoln Memorial on February 19, 2023?
Dear Unknown - I doubt I will make that long trip. Instead I'll go out on the street here in Brunswick with my 'No war with Russia' sign.
We do need more protests that call attention to US-NATO war mongering.
I too am moved by this heart-felt poem Bruce. I hope it is picked up and circulated. I'll do my par and send it out on your behalf to my contacts. I have long felt that the corporate media needs to be the object of protest. We grumble about the stenographrafication of corporate media, but we protesters have essentially given them a pass on confrontation. They lie,and then lie about having lied. Seems that passes for the New Normal these days. Children's Health Defense will start tonight with a series produced by Vera Sharav, 85 year old Holocaust survivor about then and NOW!
Dear Bruce
That's a wonderfully transparent poem you've written SADNESS & SOLIDARITY.. Do you mind if i send it to a few people? Thanks also for sticking to the great but sad work, against weapons and nuke power in space. I too feel the sadness and sometimes feel i should take a day off to just cry out loud for hours on end! - so many years of western wars is terrible.
Sorry i had to leave to catch a ferry boat before the Global Network Zoom meeting was ended on 18 Jan. Did i talk too much? Agneta said she didn't understand what i was saying. i wish i could stand alongside you with your banner saying "NO WAR AGAINST RUSSIA." - that would make me happy!
I returned to Wgtn from holiday last week to find that our Wgtn newspaper was publishing so many phony Russophobic letters and articles, that i had to leap into action. Sent off letters, none published by the paper,. but one in an unusual venue, and I continue write up, pointing out anomalies, .and plan to extend letters into to an article and try to get this published in Wgtn on some site..
Want also to stand outside US EMbassy in Wgtn with sign, maybe saying - NO MORE WARS AGAINST RUSSIA, CHINA, IRAN, AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ, LIBYA, SYRIA, YEMEN etc .. I sent this by email to you earlier. X – Kay Weir in Wellington NZ
Sometimes ya just have to show the people, how dirty dirt is.
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