MAY 2007

Gone-zales?'
- by Ian Reed -
(Sonnet on U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales'
appearance before Senate Judiciary Committee)

Seems strange the Senate should be clamoring now
For murderous Gonzales to resign
And charging him with breaking faith and vow
In a bipartisan committee line.
Having confirmed the bastard in 2005,
Though knowing of torture warrants Alberto signed
Flaying the moslem innocents alive,
Why did they wait 'till now to get aligned?
Seems strange a lesser crime should get such flak
As our brave senators complaint enforce
That eight U.S. attorneys got the sack,
Echoing one another. Well of course
It's bad when ministers of Justice lie
But surely worse when guiltless prisoners die!

Apr. 19, 2007'Gone-zales' - by Ian Reed

'Son of Cain'
- by Ian Reed -
(on John McCain's invocation of a Beach Boys' hit)

"Bomb bomb bomb, bomb-bomb Iran; bomb bomb bomb, bomb-bomb Iran"
sings Senator McCain, replying to a man
who wants to "send an airmail message to Tehran."

To old for Peggy Sue, too tired for Betty Lou,
A joke to cover bombing's consequence from view,
The senator makes War, not Love, his dead-end cue.

Alas the day I wrote of "noble" John McCain[1]
Who earned his bloody stripes strafing Vietnam's terrain
While Bush was harboring in Texas plain and plane.

But since, to indict brutal Brutus, Antony
Used the word "honorable" in rousing oratory,[2]
Pardon my error in the name of Irony.

Witness the stain, the rot, and the congressional taint
Corrupting through façades of righteous whitewash paint.
A noble man, I learn, McCain most certainly ain't!
 
April 2007'Son of Cain' - by Ian Reed


'Whimper'

- by Ian Reed -

(on House and Senate passage of latest War-spending bill)
Vainly the House of Representatives,
The Senate too, call back that greedy beast,
The dog of War who, gorged on workers' labor
And manflesh, will not yield now to the leash.
They claim that a non-binding date to bring
The troops home takes from Bush carte blanche for War,
Yet fool nobody but themselves in pledging
For years to spend hundreds of billions more.
Congress, empowered with the purse and power
To aggress, shows how mandates are betrayed,
How love of money rots into the bones
To write a blank cheque lightly tinged with grey.
They tell the monster "Home!…but take your time!"
Having set forth his meals beyond '09!
 

Mar. 30, 2007
********************
'Malodor '


- by Ian Reed -

(on efforts of Mayan priests to rid "bad spirits" following Bush's visit
to Iximche sacred archaeological site in Guatemala)

They burn the incense and light the tapers,
They chant and utter prayers,
They ring the bells and purge the smells
That linger on the stairs.
They exorcise where once they exercised,
They gag and hold their breath,
For a walking cadaver has drenched the air
With the putrid pall of Death.
According to Chavez, "political corpse"
And "Mr. Danger" too
Are fit descriptions of W. Bush
And all that is untrue
When America's would-be, son-of-a
Born-again conquistador
Rehearses the Spanish legacy
Of 1524.

So, passing the pails, they scrub the rails,
Inspect and fumigate,
They purify the holy places
Lest demons desecrate.

To ensure the grounds are not defiled,
The detritus is upscooped
By priestly hands with long-handed shovels
Where the imperial eagle pooped.

How far and wide that fowl has defecated,
Foul bird of fiendish bite,
Laid waste, left desolate, and decimated,
Befouling each sacred site.

So soak and steep and sterilize,
With herbs rinse off the stones,
'Till ancestors cease to turn in their graves
At the outrage to their bones.


Mar. 11, 2007 'Polemics,' a collection of political verse since 2000, is at http://www.reedandwrite.com/ 'Malador' - by Ian Reed