Ape Charmer [Today's News Poem, December 3, 2010]

Ape Charmer [Today's News Poem, December 3, 2010]

If you're sincere, guard your wallet and your blood
Especially: guard your humors, your essences.
Obvious fidgeter: when someone appraises you,
You stare at the wall, or an ear—they can see it.
Your doors are unlocked, you demand them respected,
But who can resist what's unguarded?
You laugh at the jokes and you listen to stories;
You give your permission when you nod and you blink your awareness,
And stammer to speak as they're looting your coffers
And leave you with nothing but stories—just stories.

"The portrait of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan that emerges from a cache of confidential American diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to a number of news organizations reflects his trajectory from the eager leader anointed by the West to an embattled politician who often baffles, disappoints or infuriates his official allies."
—HELENE COOPER and CARLOTTA GALL, Published: December 2, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/world/asia/03wikileaks-karzai.html

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Asleep Behind the Wheel [Today's News Poem (Sonnet), April 6, 2010]

Asleep Behind the Wheel [Today's News Poem (Sonnet), April 6, 2010]

“A former U.N envoy to Afghanistan on Tuesday questioned the "mental stability" of Hamid Karzai and suggested the Afghan president may be using drugs... "He’s prone to tirades. He can be very emotional, act impulsively. In fact, some of the palace insiders say that he has a certain fondness for some of Afghanistan’s most profitable exports," said Galbraith, in an apparent reference to opium or heroin.”
--MSNBC, 12:28 p.m. PT, Tues., April 6, 2010
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36196464/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/
“The United States suggested on Tuesday it might cancel a meeting between President Barack Obama and President Hamid Karzai in the White House next month if the Afghan leader persisted with anti-Western comments.”
-Sue Pleming, Reuters WASHINGTON Tue Apr 6, 2010 5:57pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6355CG20100406
“... the peak oil theory has nudged its way further into the mainstream and was widely publicized around the 2008 price spike, but it is hotly contested by many in the oil industry, including OPEC, which argues the world will rely on fossil fuels for decades to come.”
--Barbara Lewis, Reuters, Tue Apr 6, 2010 1:16pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63539420100406

Though Hades sends his gifts to surface lands
Do not consume the produce from his realm.
The food of death—it's said—will ever brand
The eater dead in life—it overwhelms.
The poppy—face of graves—it tastes of sleep;
And blurs the act of life with one of ash.
The grave itself—a fuel that drives the creep
Of shuddering machines that dart and crash.
We cultivate the cultivars of flame
To take the edge off life's absurd attacks—
To fertilize the sorrows that we claim,
And dream a life that's lived—and yet relax
Upon a cushion on a frame of steel.
We drive, asleep in life, behind a wheel.



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