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Showing posts with label court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label court. Show all posts

Friday, June 18, 2010

Courtroom Surprise [Today's News Poem, June 18, 2010]

Courtroom Surprise [Today's News Poem, June 18, 2010]

The accused takes the stand and the jury's engrossed
With the evidence offered. I notice the disks
In the dust on the panels of wood as they roast
The defendant. The judge and his gavel are brisk.
Then I notice his beak and the jury is filled
With the tendrils of something too human, that reach
For my warmth and I shout as the ink they have spilled
Wets my waist. They are swimming in ink and each
Of the tentacles grasps at my body and pulls
Me apart in a frenzy—they feast 'til they're full.

“Embattled BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward, who endured a ferocious daylong grilling this week on Capitol Hill, was replaced Friday as the point man for the day-to-day response to the gulf oil disaster, a move that drew praise from BP critics and suggested the company was growing increasingly concerned with damage to its image. ”
– Walter Hamilton and Scott Kraft, Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2010, 4:56pm
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-20100619,0,1365994.story

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Friday, May 28, 2010

Charismatic Marine Mega-Fauna Counterattack [Today's News Poem, May 28, 2010]

Charismatic Marine Mega-Fauna Counterattack [Today's News Poem, May 28, 2010]

A whale was bombed from the beach with the fury
Of dynamite charges. Pursuing the motion,
A judge threw harpoons at another; the jury
Was foamed with the blood of the beast from the ocean.

We tread in the liquid. A courtroom reporter
Is bouncing off walls from the blast of the spouting.
The penguins and pinnipeds caught on recorder,
Are leaping from cages to tackle the shouting

Defending attorney. Their legal adviser
Extends just a briefcase to fend off attackers,
Who tear at his face with their beaks and incisors.
The splintering furniture, coated with lacquer

All roils in the courthouse. A tide can't be swelling:
Can't vanquish the dockets—can't spill in the street—
To cover the city, its people, their dwellings
With drowning—like beaches, a scene of defeat.



“Japan rebuffed a threat by Australia to take Tokyo to court over its whaling in the Antarctic, saying on Friday that the annual hunts were permitted under international law and accusing the Australian government of exploiting the issue for political gain.”
– Hiroko Tabuchi and Mark McDonald, The New York Times, May 28, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/world/asia/29whales.html?src=mv

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