Beautiful layout of a meaningful poem. Gerard Bellaart has such impeccable taste in every situation.
If only it were just a depressing year. Trump is a manifestation of a long history of social erosion in the USA. But you are right, during the last year much of this erosion has coalesced into a vortex of outrage. And yet few seem to realize that this is a natural and inevitable manifestation of what the USA has long been.
From this larger historical perspective, your poem makes me think of the Mayan genocide, which is known as “The Silent Holocaust” because it was so completely ignored by the US media and other international outlets. The funding and training for the mass murder came form the USA and was brought to a frenzied peak by Reagan. I had already become an exile, but it didn’t help. I found no refuge, just more ostracism. “Locking away the scars” didn’t work. And even deafness didn’t bring silence.
Anyway, thank you for a poem that captures the feelings so many are now having.
Gary Lee-Novasays
“america is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the indians. the evil is there waiting. and always cops: smooth college-trained state cops, practiced, apologetic patter, electronic eyes weigh your car and luggage, clothes and face; snarling big city dicks, soft-spoken country sheriffs with something black and menacing in old eyes color of a faded grey flannel shirt….”
This recent video of a cop in Mesa, AZ shooting an unarmed man pleading for his life illustrates what Burroughs was talking about. The video is a combination bondage/snuff film from real life. Warning, it is deeply distrubing:
Beautiful layout of a meaningful poem. Gerard Bellaart has such impeccable taste in every situation.
If only it were just a depressing year. Trump is a manifestation of a long history of social erosion in the USA. But you are right, during the last year much of this erosion has coalesced into a vortex of outrage. And yet few seem to realize that this is a natural and inevitable manifestation of what the USA has long been.
From this larger historical perspective, your poem makes me think of the Mayan genocide, which is known as “The Silent Holocaust” because it was so completely ignored by the US media and other international outlets. The funding and training for the mass murder came form the USA and was brought to a frenzied peak by Reagan. I had already become an exile, but it didn’t help. I found no refuge, just more ostracism. “Locking away the scars” didn’t work. And even deafness didn’t bring silence.
Anyway, thank you for a poem that captures the feelings so many are now having.
“america is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the indians. the evil is there waiting. and always cops: smooth college-trained state cops, practiced, apologetic patter, electronic eyes weigh your car and luggage, clothes and face; snarling big city dicks, soft-spoken country sheriffs with something black and menacing in old eyes color of a faded grey flannel shirt….”
~ William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch
This recent video of a cop in Mesa, AZ shooting an unarmed man pleading for his life illustrates what Burroughs was talking about. The video is a combination bondage/snuff film from real life. Warning, it is deeply distrubing: