CONFESSION ZERO

Picture by Darko Bandic, AP This Week In Memoriam | Crooks and Liars The Pentagon released the names of eight service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. US Marines LCpl  Philip P Clark , 19, Gainesville, FL US Army PFC  Jason D Fingar , 24, Columbia, MO US Army SPC  Stanley J Sokolowski III , 26, Ocean Township, NJ US Army SSG  Amilcar H Gonzalez , 26, Miami, FL US Army PFC  Christopher R Barton , 22, Concord, NC US Army MAJ  Ronald W Culver Jr , 44, Shreveport, LA US Army SGT  Edwin Rivera , 28, Waterford, CT US Marines Cpl  Jacob C Leicht , 24, College Station, TX According to iCasualties, the total number of  allied soldiers killed in Iraq is 4,718; in Afghanistan, 1,789 . During this same period, Iraq Body Count lists  77 Iraqi civilians killed . In Afghanistan,    "human error" has been blamed for a February rocket/missile attack .   Spencer Ackerman has a post on drone attacks and civilian casua...

Howling like some uncompromising beast I staggered impetuously, headlong over this, our arid living space and began to stomp, shattering all things deemed indispensable in today’s humid race. First I crushed love, she wept plaintively as I pressed down upon her lovely neck, “Without me you’ll stir odious death!” I pressed harder for affection having spoke. Soon she was nothing more than shavings, tiny gasps of a lost innocence. I now turned my attention to the spirits, the gods of machination, mankind’s allegorical deities slogging around in our waterless heads, “I am God! Allah! Yahweh! We’re the righteous!” Eradicated! Blasted before their sour breath could wolf down all remaining light. I then turned my concentration to patriotism and, without a moments hesitation, shred them, yanked them all down from their flying poles, doused them in their own fatty blood And lit them on fire. “You must cherish us!” You’re of no use! Good riddance futile rags! The warmongers saw ...

The Pentagon released the names of eleven service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. US Army SSG  Esau S A Gonzales , 30, White Deer, TX US Marines LCpl  Joshua M Davis , 19, Perry, IA US Marines LCpl  Christopher Rangel , 22, San Antonio, TX US Army CPT  Kyle A Comfort , 27, Jacksonville, AL US Marines Cpl  Kurt S Shea , 21, Frederick, MD US Army SPC  Jeremy L Brown , 20, McMinnville, TN US Marines Cpl  Jeffery W Johnson , 21, Tomball, TX US Marines Sgt  Kenneth B May , Jr, 26, Kilgore, TX US Marines Sgt  Donald J Lamar II , 23, Fredericksburg, VA US Marines Sgt  Joshua D Desforges , 23, Ludlow, MA US Army SPC  Denis D Kisseloff , 45, Saint Charles, MO According to iCasualties, the total number of allied service members  killed in Iraq is 4,715; in Afghanistan, 1,764 . During this period, Iraq Body Count lists  40 Iraqi civilian deaths . Al Jazeera reports between 9 and 15 Afghan civilians were killed in ...

Palestinians deported to Gaza Two Palestinians have been deported to the Gaza Strip from Israel, raising fears that more expulsions could follow under a controversial new Israeli military order. After nine years in Israeli jail, Ahmad Sabah, a 40-year-old Palestinian, was sent to Gaza, instead of being released to the West Bank where his family was waiting for him. Israelis sent him to Gaza because he had a Palestinian ID issued there. His family said that Sabah, who was arrested in 2001 for "security offences" against Israel, has no connection to Gaza and he has refused to leave the border crossing in protest at his treatment. "It is my right to return to my wife and family," he said. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. __Thomas Paine Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person ...

( Ben Heine Art ) Go now. Take yourselves from here. Your skin is of no use. Never return to this, your wedding of agony. They were unaided in their howling cradle as beasts of misery called out to them while most solemn things crept by the gate, past the dreary eyed sentinels. And these foul things spoke to them, “You’ve suffered enough” they droned. “It is best that you die” they cried. “Your use is stale and you smell of vengeance”. They were wise to the game, the sport of shackled wretchedness. They would never come back, this they knew in their hearts. Go now. Take yourselves from here. Your skin is of no use. Never return to this, your wedding with agony. She approached them smiling, “Come with me now. Leave everything and move your feet.” “But we are chained to the floor” they begged. “You’ve no use for chains now. Come. Walk with me.” They followed her out, through the walls, past the guards who smiled knowingly, they floated beyond their smiles, beyond the gapin...

( Ben Heine Art ) After it all falls, falls away, after it all falls, falls away, I will greet you. The green ground is wet again in the St. Francis Forest, it is weeping for what’s taken place, and the deer look sad, like old bullfrogs sunk in the swamps puffing their throats. I will meet you by the cabin, by the moss-green cellar door with the rusty handle and we will hold one another and the bullfrogs will bellow their melancholy. The world’s gone mad, my dear, and no one seems to care. We’re happiest breathing air the color of smoke and swilling fury like a rabid dog tethered down. But something’s changed, the gait of man, teeth show more than before, as if we’re grinning beneath our howls, happiest when our foul fists crack against innocent flesh. Something’s changed my dear, something awful. In our quest for compassion, our search for ourselves, we’ve come to greet the moon like beasts and we’ve come to crave this ill-used madness like addicts of f...

( Ben Heine - Art ) If we lie next to one another, do you think we’ll forget the world? If our fingers hunt like tongues, do you think we’ll stumble upon silence? The dream begins the same, I’m older. My mind and body, slower. The dream ends the same, you lying next to me, fingers wagging. If we rest next to one another, do you think we’ll fail to notice war? If our tongues search like fingers, do you think we’ll assemble peace? Naked, both shining with grief, we sense the other’s bones like a sniper, spin new selves with each innocent, (child, dream, mother, hope, father) slain. Tonight we’ll unwind nightmares, our imaginings, dreams, will begin the same, mind and body slower, wagging, tongues speaking the drama from slumber. Copyright © 2006 mrp / thepoetryman