Arabesque shape of light
between those trees
contains everything that is coming
& everything that has been
including the falling bodies
which are still falling
& will always be falling
& you –
carte blanche terror-franchise
delivery man
who grinningly caught the jock
pants down -
with your appropriated beard of
Islamic fire & brimstone
burning with reasons
& devoted volunteers.
our wake-up coffee?
two lumps of payback?
you’re like a weird, old time schoolmaster
airing his fetid, curriculum daydreams
in public,
splashing around happily in the Ground Zero
tar pit –
the perfect cave man for the
new millennium.
& we made you ourselves –
our geo-political bogie man
who “loves death!”
can we touch you?
will you bite or spit?
shall we meet at an embassy, marketplace
or night club?
we listened to your spooky static
saw your fuzzy face on the terror
news feed –
the media’s special boy.
but what have you really taught our children?
that sarin gas smells like juicy fruit gum?
they’d rather smash piñata effigies of you
& kill you again & again
in games & games,
bid for your hair & skin
on ebay.
is it a good feeling – the ignition
of fresh blood in the earth?
it was an eerie tune – a single cutting note of
piano wire around the fat necks
of the dumb.
there were wonderful, demolition artefacts
scary extrapolations
teeming paranoia -
just a world-famous example of what governments
have always hidden?
well done,
gun-to-the-head man!
MTV’s video
of the decade award is yours.
but, were virgins really waiting
in the afterlife?
you certainly put a chill up the spine
of Bud & Coke drinkers everywhere -
getting spoiled, greedy little families
to move continents
& sleep in global fear.
everyone hates a smug politician –
but you broke the golden rule:
don’t kill the nice folk.
you parted those decadent, oily waters
like a prophet for the times
& watched the enemy rush straight in -
but you couldn’t really control those waters.
they rushed back
icy & cold, over all our heads
& the drownproof men are coming.
Jeremy Roberts
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2615297/Osama-Bin-Laden-gave-hug-wished-British-supergrass-tells-Abu-Hamza-trial-relationship-Al-Qaeda-leader.html
Jeremy Roberts is a father and primary school teacher, currently working in Jakarta, Indonesia. MC at Auckland’s “PoetryLive” 2011-2012 and regularly appeared at spoken word events. He has also read his work in Texas (USA) & Jakarta (Indonesia). His work has been published in New Zealand, Indonesia, and USA.
