Gold to Ash [Bonus News Poem March 11, 2010]

Gold to Ash [Bonus News Poem March 11, 2010]

“India, which has tripled its defense spending in a race against China’s military buildup, is having trouble converting the funding into weapons and equipment its military says are urgently needed.”
-James Rupert, Bloomberg, March 11, 2010, 2:46 PM EST
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-11/india-s-stalled-arms-buying-leaves-its-army-outgunned-by-china.html

“However, the report said the overall human rights picture in Somalia has deteriorated because of continued conflict, the availability of small arms, and the absence of the rule of law.”
--VOA News, 11 March 2010
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/US-Report-Paints-Grim-Picture-of-Human-Rights-in-Africa-87386672.html


The AK Forty Seven's sure
As iron blades from long ago.
And likewise RPGs secure
The job of catapults—to mow

The armor, spiting tongues of smoke.
It's easier to make these arms
Than medicines. A gun will choke
All other trades. A raider farms

The peasants, much like ancient times.
It's not a way of life, instead
Consider it a chain of crimes
With unclear origins. We tread

Upon the brink of middle-age,
With swords enough, but lacking sage
Advice to stay the spreading time afoot:
A darker age. This golden age? Kaput.


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Fraternizing With the Help [Today's News Poem, March 1, 2010]

Fraternizing With the Help [Today's News Poem, March 1, 2010]

“One man says that the real crisis is about to begin, with people out of work and hungry.”
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/americas/Chile-Battles-Lawlessness-Desperation-After-Massive-Earthquake-85842342.html

“It was still unclear how many people died in Dichato, where distraught residents wandered the picturesque tourist town trying to salvage possessions and gazing at their ruined homes in scenes reminiscent of the Asian tsunami in 2004 that smashed into coastlines from Thailand to India.”
--Mario Naranjo, Mon Mar 1, 2010 2:25pm EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6204CB20100301

“Economists' confidence in Chile's ability to bounce back from the earthquake has been strengthened by the fact its copper mines suffered minimum damage, and soon resumed operations. ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8543816.stm

A fool takes torch to that which nature yet abhors.
Why burn or blast a place that wilts by self's accord?
When quakes, tornadoes, floods ensure whatever shore
Or neighborhood the wealthy—who are simply bored—
Desire, they get, then who needs legal theft? The shock
Of quakes can do what we would have to pay, for free.
It's true the poor are drowned again—with ink—but stocks
Appreciate post-bounce. This rising tide—it frees
A market force. Renewed. The people are renewed
With fops who found their homes on graves and rubble-bones.
The highest use for anything is wealth. Denude
The land of serfs with surf, replaced with finer tones
Of speech and class—they've carried me on broken spines
Around the world: a working man will tend not whine.
Now carry me to bed anon—I'm drunk on wine.



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