Speaking to Jingo-Man by Larisa Alexandrovna

Having been accused of being gung-ho over my posts on the Paras and Donald Rumsfeld's special operations teams, I've decided to post a poem which says a lot on the themes I have been running about the "shadowy place" America has become recently and is the very antithesis of gung-ho. It is written by Larisa Alexandrovna who broke the story on Iran that I flagged up in a previous post but is actually a real poet. Larisa was born in the former Soviet Union, in Odessa, Ukraine. When she was seven, she and her family left the Ukraine, arriving in the USA via Austria, Czechoslovakia and Italy. She studied English and Writing at Cleveland State University and won a scholarship to the prestigious Imagination workshop. She is now Managing Editor of Raw Story. I'm sure Larisa will welcome any comments at all, and actually since I too am taking a small diversion from the hard news here, I will welcome feedback on whether that's worth doing. We had a small joke at the French in an earlier post just to break away from the hard news commentary for a moment and I'll be looking for other ways of breaking things up occasionally. Happy to take suggestions. But here's the poem.

Speaking to Jingo-Man

You cannot press me silent
Bruiser, because I don't have
Enough flags attached to my house,
Or because I don't like your lists and eyes
On lists, or threaten fists against
Me if I won't sit still.

You cannot shove me quiet
Brother, because I don't have crosses
On my wall or because I don't read your
Book or Books of Books, or
Threaten to get your hooks on
Me if I won't agree.

You cannot strike me still
Buster, because I don't rage
Along with you to make the world
Genteel or because I don't want your goods
Or wares, or forced words on worlds,
That don't speak for me.

You cannot hit me "free"
Bully, because my eyes can see
The past and all the other eyes that came
Before mine enough to know that you
Can't have your lies for long before the
Rot stinks up the place.

-Larisa Alexandrovna © 2006

Comments

[Linda Jack]

Great poem. Yes, you should break it up from time to time...........tears without laughter is a crying shame! So we will send u some funny stuff...........does it have to have a military theme?????

[thepoetryman]

At Last... latest poem at Poetic Justice

[thepoetryman]

I put the JingoMan up on my iste as well... Very nice... A Request From Liberty