Monday, September 17, 2012

Deus Vult



image borrowed from bing


Deus Vult

Today, this minute, we are faced with a Middle East 
once again ablaze with religious fervor, 
and democracy is but a pale rider
among the desert warriors.

The blood threads of holy rivalry spread virally 
like a catastrophic pandemic throughout history
like horribly hemorrhaging capillaries, 
with each side feeling threatened
by their opposite zealot,

God making a dizzying attempt to ride
the war horses on both battle lines,
jihad 
in one holy hand and
Deus vult
in the other;

as the atrocities mount up like Dachau data,
Islam,
the fearsome lions of the Sahara
versus
Christianity,
the self-righteous winged Crusaders,
angry fists clenched,
pure panic reigning
as histrionic scholars cite Pope Gregory VII
who piously sanctified the use of force
in the service of Christ Almighty,
and Muslim multitudes stoke the ecclesiastical rivalry
with violent protests against some stupid film
that somehow offends their holy prophet
Muhammad. 

Much of this began in 1099 when a rag-tag
starving army of Crusaders besieged
Jerusalem, the holiest of cities,
in response to Christians being cut off by caliphs
from visiting the holy sites, as Jews and Muslims
fought together to defend their city from the
crazed yet dedicated berserkers at the gates,
who miraculously overwhelmed them
and began massacring everyone,
burning torahs and the koran everywhere,
before hideously pillaging the great city,
wringing treasure from their coffers,
resorting to murder, rape, even cannibalism
before it was over, reduced to historic inevitability
and centuries of papal interpretation.

This is a conflict that has festered for a thousand years,
and it probably cannot be logically resolved,
seamlessly assimilated, or democracised
into some form of queasy hybrid
or unstable cranial hermaphrodite,

no, this remains a timeless titanic tussle
of powerful prophets, of crazed combatants 
whose diverse world views clash bloody,

and praise Allah sweet Jesus,
we can barely believe the current chaos
that runs rabidly through our headlines,
across our big screens, as we close in
on a particular presidential choice
that will seal our immediate fate.

Glenn Buttkus

September 2012

Posted over on flipside records
Posted over on dVerse Poets OLN62

Would you like to hear the author read this poem to you?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Succinct political commentary


Claudia said...

you touch a difficult topic here glenn..and yes, i think it cannot be solved easily...wonder if we ever manage...democracy is but a pale rider
among the desert warriors....a good image..

mrs mediocrity said...

sigh... it all makes me dizzy. and yet, i hold out hope...

Brian Miller said...

ugh tight political piece man...and every election i feel us slipping ever faster to something much worse than what we are....the fall of rome makes for a fine mirror...i wonder if there will be violence on the home front after this next one...honestly...

Mary said...

Glenn, this is a thought-provoking write. Sad thing is that these conflicts have gone on for centuries and probably will go on for centuries more (if the world lasts that long with all the weapons at her disposal). I don't know who knows what the answer is. You are right when you say it 'probably cannot be logically resolved.' I don't know if either Presidential choice has the answer......or doesn't.

Ann Grenier said...

An utterly masterful assessment of an insane world condition. No answers. We can only watch as we continue to hurl ourselves over the edge of the cliff.

Laurie Kolp said...

It really is a horrible situation, but this is a great piece.

Anonymous said...

This has gone on for far too long - but nobody seems to have the will or the stomach to stop it. Too many vested interests have too much staked in the continuance of conflict.