CONFESSION ZERO

Car bomb blast kills 41 in northwest Baghdad The skin of the beast drips with sweat as it hovers over the sand, perplexed at the people’s will to survive, even as blood pours around them. Rain, despite a ships call for help, will continue to fill an angry sea. Guantanamo inmate transfer blocked Our green hope, our red fury, fear is still our emperor, sovereign of land and liberty… Iran Announces Missile Test Hi ho and a rat a tat tat! Listen for the war drums in that! Hi ho! And a thrum and clank, metal’s whir of a rolling tank! A rat a tat tat and hi and a ho, time for us to lock and load. Thrum thrum thrum thrum… Feinstein: Bring Detainees to U.S. O something cries down to us. Something boldly calls out, awaiting fear to abandon our ears. U.S.: Airstrike deaths 'likely' accidental Shhhh… Maybe no one will notice, when a missile falls in the desert and no one's around to hear it… © 2008 mrp/thepoetryman

Democrats in Senate Block Money to Close Guantánamo There is no spring, there's everything within- the brown skins covering the human frames remain damp with winter. Many die in Indonesian air crash Another and another tossed down! Roaring breath standing tall like some wayward missile screeching past. Democrats Defending Pelosi Arise to arise and arise there among the pack, solemn predators allegiant to their stripe and howl with no hesitation or consideration, but one. If one shall perish, they all perish. Illinois Man Arrested in Murders of Wife, 2 Kids There is too much of this, the orchestration of blood, like a dance that grabs us before we know we’re moving. Murder is a dance, a slow movement of unwilling partners. © 2008 mrp/thepoetryman

Probe: Taliban used civilians as ‘human shields’ Since the mighty have blistered with fire, since so many homes have been crushed, since all that’s left to grieve is death, since so many lie hushed in their graves, since unknown journeys have yet to come, children, mothers and fathers rise up with full and shaking tongue and lash this god-awful hatred and war from the earth! Speak, shout, stand among the dead and be their song… Pope warns of misuse of religion “Misuse of religion”… redundant utterance, synonymous dripping out of man whose lips know both their uses only too well. U.S. says civilians killed in west Afghan strikes Savages made of metal flesh of which affluent men and women, a killer wage, with war as their principal business, CEOs of death’s commanding brigade. Pelosi Aide Told of Harsh Tactics A two headed monster beckoning the impatient to come and listen to her melody of woe, how love had forsaken her, left her lonely and without companionship, smiled as the...

Obama awaits Cuba’s next steps The land draws nearer and nearer now, it is upon us. We can see moving forms, limbs along its edges waving to us as the seagulls spiral the welcome sky. U.S. to boycott racism conference over Israel Right after the stars were replaced with sequins and the moon had fallen from its perch, readily replaced with a wad of Swiss cheese, we were confident that we knew all there was to know. U.S. says watching China's naval expansion closely This will not be the same war, said the Iraqi youth. It will not fall so easily, death and destruction, said the old man. Yes. It will be none of those things, yet all of those things, sighed the cleric. F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases As I wandered through the afternoon vineyard and its musty odor hovered just beneath my nose, I looked down to see that my shirt was stained. Grapes. It’s never washed out; a permanent and traceable stain. Police: Man Kills Family...

Clinton Says US bears blame for Mexico's Drug War They scurry from cathedral to slum, scuttle from high-rise to house, under fences and over walls our culpable voice calls us out. Pope 'distorting condom science' Because our mind and hearts are human someone desires to drive a wooden stake through them, to keep us from breathing even a fragment of truth that cuddles up now and again next to our naked flesh. Pakistani and Afghan Taliban Unify in Face of U.S. Influx Influx certainly means upon our arrival or invasion. It seems we’ve failed to learn from our recent lessons. Maybe we’re blind beneath our war-painted faces? Shoddy wiring 'everywhere' on bases in Iraq It is not only the occupied that are trapped there, the darkness folds down over the faces of the invader as the resurrection of bombs rattle their limbs and screaming gunfire hammers their sleep. © 2008 mrp/thepoetryman

Something Wicked (or good, depending on your perspective) This Way Comes O! It moves with such cruelty, such a violent gait, it seems to breathe of a bastardized conception, less human, more beast, without love or teeth. 15 AIG execs agree to return bonus Whether millions is even comprehensible to us normal Joes isn’t the astounding thing... We’ll never see such weight, yet our hands, hands of our living, sagging low of struggle, exhausted like a sea of promises at sundown tell a different story. Suicide attack on Iraqi funeral Even the wavering spirits, the dull-hearted and brooding children are due a walk in the valley. The devotion of arid prayer brings even rainfall to grief. Accused "sleeper agent" pleads not guilty in U.S. In the slowness of our watch, our startled and clatter filled lives echo a self-imposed blunder used to smash our prattling teeth. Sunni Fighters Say Iraq Didn’t Keep Promises on ...

Tancredo tells University Students "It IS About Race!" There is an immense and colorless grief in the world and so I urge no malice against this frenzied persuasion, call for no punishment, seek no apology or pain, instead, let us search for our own truths… without weeping. Back from Iraq, soldiers look ahead Returning to the disquieted world like a nomadic ghost covered in sand, the uniforms carefully starched and pressed hold the warriors up, their eyes, stories of woe. Mexico slaps tariffs on U.S. goods in truck feud The crows, above our fears, fly, shadows trace along the wall and money slips by. White House Rebuffs Cheney It will not be his last rejection, but, fret not, gates will open for him again, hunched in the heaving nighttime bloodstained hands, talons. NASA: Space Station Safe From Latest Debris O! Again! Glorious is this achievement, machines lifting mere mortals to heaven... If only man could be as magnificent. Warning shot ...