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Days of Infamy
Now there are two,
two days that our nation came to its knees,
not from a natural disaster,
some hurricane, or tornado,
or eruption in the ring of fire,
some horrendous flood--no,
these were the days that thousands
of American lives were sacrificed
to the gods of war,
brought down hard and red and bloody,
and the saber-rattling, tears, funerals,
anger, and profiteering captured
our months of September 2001
and December 1941,
and they return annually
to remind us of our sacrifices,
of man’s folly and dark appetites,
and we must not forget these days;
for at that vulnerable moment
the ferrets will strike with their sharp teeth
and our innards will splash the calendar
yet again, on some new day
drenched in infamy
Glenn Buttkus
December 7, 2010
Posted as #55 over on dVerse Poets--Open Link Night 21
Now there are two,
two days that our nation came to its knees,
not from a natural disaster,
some hurricane, or tornado,
or eruption in the ring of fire,
some horrendous flood--no,
these were the days that thousands
of American lives were sacrificed
to the gods of war,
brought down hard and red and bloody,
and the saber-rattling, tears, funerals,
anger, and profiteering captured
our months of September 2001
and December 1941,
and they return annually
to remind us of our sacrifices,
of man’s folly and dark appetites,
and we must not forget these days;
for at that vulnerable moment
the ferrets will strike with their sharp teeth
and our innards will splash the calendar
yet again, on some new day
drenched in infamy
Glenn Buttkus
December 7, 2010
Posted as #55 over on dVerse Poets--Open Link Night 21
Would you like the Author to read this poem to you?
Then there's the Maine and the gulf of Tonkin.
ReplyDeleteAnd Fort Sumpter.
Alamo
ReplyDeleteI wrote about the tragedy of war today. Your writing cuts like war, what a wonderful way you have with words.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. Lest we forget.
ReplyDeleteTess
Glenn, "Our" sacrifices? Our sacrificial cannibalistic offerings of the younglings. You forgot the bit about the leaders chewing on the skulls of
ReplyDeleteone another and licking the slimy remains.
So true, we must not forget, yet often times those high above seem too.
ReplyDeleteto me they always remind me that no one is safe...we lived in that illusion prior...and should no longer...nice man....
ReplyDeleteI'm with Gilmour.
ReplyDeleteyes..we must not forget these days to remind us of our vulnerability and how fragile a thing peace is..good to be reminded..
ReplyDeleteI too thought about the two days that an enemy attacked us in our own space, on this anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Thanks for the reminder. It is easy enough to become complacent, with the words of war spewing out of all media outlets all day long about offshore conflicts that don't interfer with our daily existence.
ReplyDeleteLest we forget...the wars of yesterday slip by with the passing of those who fought and remembered dangerous times.
ReplyDelete