{"id":1447,"date":"2006-05-29T14:18:26","date_gmt":"2006-05-29T21:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2006\/05\/what_would_brave_olaf_say\/"},"modified":"2006-05-29T14:18:26","modified_gmt":"2006-05-29T21:18:26","slug":"what_would_brave_olaf_say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2006\/05\/what_would_brave_olaf_say.html","title":{"rendered":"WHAT WOULD BRAVE OLAF SAY?"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the Bullshitter-in-Chief<\/strong><\/font><\/a>, who pressed the case for war<\/strong><\/font><\/a> today at Arlington National Cemetery, just a short time after signing into law a bill that restricts protests at military funerals<\/i>, he would have said two things.
\nThe first, according to e.e. cummings<\/strong><\/font><\/a>: “I will not kiss your fucking flag.” The second, after he’s been beaten, then reamed by hot bayonets: “there is some shit I will not eat.” Here’s the whole glorious poem:
\n\"e.e.<\/a>i sing of Olaf glad and big<\/strong><\/font><\/a>
\nwhose warmest heart recoiled at war:
\na conscientious object-or
\nhis wellbelovéd colonel (trig
\nwestpointer most succinctly bred)
\ntook erring Olaf soon in hand;
\nbut–though an host of overjoyed
\nnoncoms (first knocking on the head
\nhim) do through icy waters roll
\nthat helplessness which others stroke
\nwith brushes recently employed
\nanent this muddy toiletbowl,
\nwhile kindred intellects evoke
\nallegiance per blunt instruments–
\nOlaf (being to all intents
\na corpse and wanting any rag
\nupon what God unto him gave)
\nresponds, without getting annoyed
\n“I will not kiss your fucking flag”
\nstraightaway the silver bird looked grave
\n(departing hurriedly to shave)
\nbut-though all kinds of officers
\n(a yearning nation’s blueeyed pride)
\ntheir passive prey did kick and curse
\nuntil for wear their clarion
\nvoices and boots were much the worse,
\nand egged the firstclassprivates on
\nhis rectum wickedly to tease
\nby means of skillfully applied
\nbayonets roasted hot with heat–
\nOlaf (upon what were once knees)
\ndoes almost ceaselessly repeat
\n“there is some shit I will not eat”
\nour president,being of which
\nassertions duly notified
\nthrew the yellowsonofabitch
\ninto a dungeon,where he died
\nChrist (of His mercy infinite)
\ni pray to see;and Olaf,too
\npreponderatingly because
\nunless statistics lie he was
\nmore brave than me:more blond than you
\n© by e. e. cummings
\nin Complete Poems: 1913-1962<\/strong><\/font><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To the pressed the case for war today at Arlington National Cemetery, just a short time after signing into law a bill that restricts protests at military funerals, he would have said two things. The first, according to Complete Poems: 1913-1962<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-nl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}