…and here be tygers [Today's News Poem by HikiMadwoman, March 23, 2012]

…and here be tygers [Today's News Poem by HikiMadwoman, March 23, 2012]

By HikiMadwoman, http://preservativewoman.posterous.com

in the mountained mouth of northeast asia, an empty gray tooth marks north korea
one red pin marks a model city, painted clean without pity, the lovely pyongyang
stuffed with concrete girls and empty tilt-a-whirls smelling of blood and dark urea
fringed 'round with wooden spooned schools, where watered women in hanboks sang

i have watched the young man mountains surrounding pyongyang's potent potted smile
holding silted rivers sleeping flanks with their banks free of boats neatly curled
in roofless shopping cart valleys stamping out the arduous march for another mile
pocked 'round with unknown holes, dead wells perforating their white paper world

in another map i found a name for the wooden saint plastic paint model railroad town
and named collective farms, plaster dams and coalmine arms, all drawed out in blue
prison camp lines sketched famine fine and where they lay the tin missiles down
i drank of jet fuel and submarines, and climbed the steppes of golden mount baekdu

there these sleepy-limbed sons of korgyo kings spoke in fury and threatened hell
from a republic of none and nuclear sun, red revolution in a boot on our neck

yet in rare photos i saw, a child playing in straw, an infant grasping a pale shell
two girls giggling pink at a sink, and a grand old man with a donkey in check

i knew them in one bright flash, and furious, i ask, how could it be the case
we could have forgotten there are people living and laughing in this place?

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120323-700094.html

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New Europe [Today's News Poem, December 28, 2010]

New Europe [Today's News Poem, December 28, 2010]

As he's pouring the tea, you consider his past;
Not enough to refuse, but enough to consider
The tea might be spiked with a pesticide poison.
You are filled up with honey, with violin dreams,
Though the others are cautious, unmoved by the music
His daughter must rock from the instrument's cradle.
Then the drinks get much stronger—there's laughter and gin
As he takes out mahogany cases with pistols
All nestled inside—they're asleep but will waken.
Then the others all draw out their weapons, from knives
To a phone that's connected to orbiting angels;
A press of a button delivers a missile.
If their fashion's impressive, if leathery shoes
Look enticing; they cut it off soles of a human
Who died in a war that preceded this evening.
They're old chums, they're competitors playing the cards
For advantage and willing to cheat the whole table
To win for an evening; to die in the morning.

"A noisy band of dissenters, many of them economists from outside the Continent, issued a warning: the euro was doomed to struggle, they proclaimed, maybe not immediately but certainly before long. Different countries would pursue such different economic policies, they argued, that it would ultimately place an unbearable strain on the currency and some of its members. "
—LANDON THOMAS Jr., Published: December 28, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/business/global/29euro.html

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You can get it as an E-Book at Amazon as well http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004AYDHXY
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The Main Course [Today's News Poem, June 4. 2010]

The Main Course [Today's News Poem, June 4. 2010]

The scales of the fish are of welds and of rivets.
Its gills are atomic, its fangs are its missiles.
And skipping the swells and the waves in migration,
It hunts for its prey—since the rule of the ocean
Is 'eat what is smaller.' Composite-hulled eagles
Observe from the sky, with their eyes made of lenses—
Their talons of gatling. A shark in the water
Was launched by a whale, and this shark drinks the bubbles
That form in the tide. With a turbine, it's speeding;
All teeth and no brain—and it's perfectly suited
To dine on the metal, to play with explosions.
The liquid is churning. The predators gather
Their forces together: the feast is beginning.

“It was not clear what action South Korea was seeking from the Security Council for the sinking of its warship, the Cheonan, which the South says was torpedoed by the North in March. But any Security Council action would have to be approved by China, an ally of the North, which holds a veto in the council.”
– Aubrey Belford, The New York Times, June 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/world/asia/05korea.html

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Uranium Fruit [Today's News Poem, May 24, 2010]

Uranium Fruit [Today's News Poem, May 24, 2010]

I am aching. The fullness of what
I've become is unstable and soon
I'll expand and fulfill the design
That the makers—who mined and then cut
Me for centrifuge—spun as a boon
From my essence. To them I define
The philosophy stones can command.
You may call me forbidden—the fruit
From a tree, but I'm nothingness. Dense,
I'm a paragon, truly, of grand
Aspirations. To horde, not to shoot.
As a treasure, I'm vaulted and tense
For the trigger—the launch—I am fissile:
The epiphany waits in a missile.

“A Defense Department spokesman in Washington, Bryan Whitman, said the naval exercises would be conducted “in the near future” and would be aimed at improving the ability of South Korea and the United States to detect enemy submarines and halt banned shipments of nuclear materials. The announcement was the Pentagon’s first concrete response in the escalating tensions between North and South Korea over what South Koreans have called the deliberate sinking by the North of one of their warships two months ago.”
– Choe Sang-Hun and Thom Shanker, The New York Times, May 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/asia/25korea.html

“The United States will review Iran's proposal to ship enriched uranium to Turkey and plans to consult with France and Russia on the next steps, the U.S. State Department said Monday. ”
– Natasha Mozgovaya and DPA, Haaretz, Latest update 22:22 24.05.10
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/u-s-to-review-iran-uranium-swap-proposal-1.292026

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Guidance System by @LordBeelzebub [Twitter Found Poem, May 23, 2010]

Guidance System by @LordBeelzebub [Twitter Found Poem, May 23, 2010]
Tweets+Edits=#twitterfoundpoem

ridin a skateboard on the freeway
On my way back from the forest.
an old volvo driving 95 flies past me.
Car next to me swerving.
I see she is texting
her @LordBeelzebub .

On the highway headin to cleveland
We are all lost.
some seek guidance
from a missile.
Others look for Jesus.
I'm looking for the money tree.

Car next to me gives me
AN ugly look. is the look I have on my face
the look of AN angry face?
I thought I had a common-sense-laden, ugly face.

@LordBeelzebub texts her back.
she gives me AN *evil smile*
she *pulls out pistol & shoots*
at my ugly face.
She swerves into me.
i'm bleeding to death.
she takes so long to kill me
before she takes my map...
my skateboard...
my face...
she is going to get her soul
recharged by the money tree.
I won't Die in the hospital.
I Die On the highway.

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A One Way Trip on Virgin Galactic [Bonus News Poem, March 7, 2010]

A One Way Trip on Virgin Galactic (or Tricks in Post-Apocalyptic Space) [Bonus News Poem, March 7, 2010]

“Iran's Defense Ministry introduced a new domestically-manufactured cruise missile that will significantly improve the deterrence capabilities of the Iranian military forces, the local satellite Press TV reported on Sunday.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-03/07/c_13200992.htm

“SpaceShipTwo will be unveiled after darkness has fallen over the Mojave Desert to the sound of a space-themed anthem from Britain’s biggest DJs, Above & Beyond. Fittingly titled “Buzz” the track will sample Buzz Aldrin’s original moon landing dialogue. Following the naming by Governors Richardson and Schwarzenegger, the DJs will also perform an exclusive set at the celebration cocktail party which will follow and feature the first ever IceBar in the desert hosted by Absolut and the world famous Swedish IceHotel. All the guests will be protected from the desert cold by designer space jackets supplied by PUMA. Finally, to close off the celebrations, all the guests will have the opportunity to view the stunning night skies using specialist telescopes supplied by Ron Dantowitz of the Clay Observatory whose unique tracking cameras followed SS1 into space during the epic flights of 2004.”
http://www.zimbio.com/Sir+Richard+Branson/articles/6Oa9PZL7ymz/Virgin+Galactic+SpaceShipTwo+1st+Commercial

“Cyrus is also working on an album of her own, which she said will be out later this summer.”
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1633359/story.jhtml

The royalties won't pay for air
Much less a berth, a bite to eat—
I've waited long to touch your hair,
To paint the nails on pretty feet

Since puberty. I've thought of you...
I'm sorry does that make you shy?
I'm lonely. Since the earth's been through,
I've cursed this metal in the sky.

Celebrities like you survived
To love your fans (for price, by bit);
Though true on earth, with wealth you thrived,
In space you live by famous slit.

Your wealth on earth is molten slag
In space, your skills? They have no use.
On earth they might have let you drag
Them down, but here you'd best be loose.

Your refuge is our prison now
And servant's master, switching bows;
Now act as if it's Oscar-night
And come to me for Tantric-rites.



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