Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Poem by Fritz Pointer: Heightened Awareness

Heightened Awareness
By Fritz Pointer

Where do bomber pilots worship?
Do they genuflect before boarding their bomber planes?
Do they sing “Onward Christian Soldiers Marching On To War?”
            In a Choir like I did?
Do they attend mass
            In a Cardinal Francis Spellman-like cathedral
            To hear a priest say:
            “This is a war for civilization…This is Christ’s war against…”
                        Name your enemy.
This Catholic Cardinal, this “Man of the cloth”  - as they say
            Blessed the bombs, the missiles, the guns
            That sent 2 million Vietnamese and 4 million Cambodian souls
             “To a better place”
            Sprinkled them with Holy “Shit”
            In the name of the Father, the Son and the Ghost
And, bomber pilots are not Terrorists
            Because they go to church not mosque
            Because bombing from planes is more Christ-like?
                        And such priests  represent the “Prince of Peace”
                        “With the cross of Jesus”…blah, blah, blah.
Obama sends drones to kill Muslim clerics who speak ill of America.
            Where does he go to pray before this?
            What hymn does he sing?
II
Je Suis Paris
I am France
Je Suis Damascus
I am Syria
Je Suis Kabul
I am Afghanistan
Je Suis Moscow
I am Russia
Je Suis Manhattan
I am New York
Je Suis Khartoum
I am Sudan
Je Suis Narobi
I am Kenya
Je Suis Beirut
I am Lebanon
Je Suis Columbine and Aurora
I am Colorado
Je Suis Tripoli
I am Libya
Je Suis Nablus
I am Palestine
Je Suis Kiev
I am Ukraine
Je Suis Charleston
I am North Carolina
Je Suis Sana’a
I am Yemen
Je Suis Newtown
I am Connecticut
Je Suis Yola and Kano
I am Nigeria
Je Suis Ciudad Juarez
I am Mexico
Je Suis Baghdad
I am Iraq
Je Suis Bamako
I am Mali
Je Suis Boston
I am Massachusetts
Je Suis N’djamena
I am Chad
Je Suis Kerawa
I am Cameroon
III
Je Suis Charlie Hebdo
Je Suis Amadou Diallo and Orlando Barlo, Sean Bell and Sandra Bland Oscar Grant and Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Dante Price,  Trevon Martin and Ranisha McBride, Walter Scott and Darus Simmons  Mike Brown and Freddie Gray, Andy Lopez and Ramarley Graham,  Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell …

I am Prince Jones and Samuel Dubose, Aaron Campbell and  Jonathan Ferrell, Justin Sipp and Alan Blueford  …

Hanging from an oil-stained Cross, Crescent and Star

Je Suis !  Je Suis!!  Je Suis Humanity!!!
I am!  I am!! I am Humanity!!!

11/21/15


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