Blood for the Pasture [Today's News Poem, May 12, 2010]

Blood for the Pasture [Today's News Poem, May 12, 2010]

Unnoticed in smog, the specter emerges
Its smile can be seen in traces of cinder
From bellows. The visage revels in freedom
To wander the office; sputtering faxes
And ringing the phonelines. Finally tiring
It slides to the dumpsters: dancing on sewage,
It swims in the gutter. Breaking its record
Of hauntings, it hops on gusts that fly over
The ocean and schoolyards, bringing the fashion
To circuit. The ancient pastors would slaughter
Their offerings, praising spirits that shuttle
Through worlds we can't see, yet summoned for causes
So drastic an era banished the phantoms
To cages. They waited. Faith is returning
For cobwebs and superstitions and notions
Of ghosts in the fog of madness, revealing
The nature of insight: blood for the pasture.

“A West Bladen High School student was injured Wednesday in an after-school shooting on campus, according to the Bladen County Sheriff's Office.”
– Fay Observer, 05:43 PM, Wed May 12, 2010
http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2010/05/12/998415?sac=Home

“An 18-year-old suspect accused in the deadly shooting of a Yates High School student is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday after surrendering to authorities on Tuesday.”
– ALEXANDER SUPGUL, MyFox Houston, 12 May 2010, 1:09 PM CDT
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/100512-brian-chidozie-ezike-surrender

“Unlike perpetrators of several of the previous four attacks, 48-year-old Wu Huanming exhibited no signs of mental illness, according to residents of Lincheng village in southwest Shaanxi province. He was well-off by local standards, and a respected member of the village government.”
– Shai Oster, The Wall Street Journal, MAY 13, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575239280832031728.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird

“A TSA worker at Miami International Airport in Florida was arrested for allegedly assaulting a co-worker who had repeatedly teased him about the size of his genitals.”
– Marnie Hunter, CNN, May 7, 2010 3:29 p.m. EDT
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/05/06/tsa.scanner.assault/?hpt=T3

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Fighting Monsters. Becoming Monsters. [Today's News Poem, May 7, 2010]

Fighting Monsters. Becoming Monsters. [Today's News Poem, May 7, 2010]

He's cursed with the urge to avenge what's been stolen.
His generous ways were perverted by horror.
A phantom on edges of murders. He's swollen
With mucus. Denial's the game for explorers

On frontiers of progress. He carries syringes
For ambushes; stalking his quarry with kindness.
He whispers confession as life on the fringes
Is chucked in the dumpster, succumbing to blindness.

His code is of sorrow. He lives as a martyr;
Excising the pedophiles, tricking the tricksters—
The suitcase is filled with explosives to slaughter
The criminals: gangsters and business suit slicksters.

His code—if he has one—destroy the destroyers
Of innocence. Monsters adopt the survivors,
And care for the fry—for they share an employer:
The miserable cycle is history's driver.

“Huff, 42, was killed Monday while responding to a call about gunshots in a vacant home on the 20200 block of Schoenherr in Detroit. Four other officers were injured... Petersen said. "Even people who have no ties to the police, still, it's like they lost part of their fatherhood and protection..." Huff is survived by his wife, Melissa, and a 10-year-old son, Blair. ”
– ZLATI MEYER, Detroit Free Press, May 7, 2010
http://www.freep.com/article/20100507/NEWS01/5070315/1322/Slain-Detroit-cops-sacrifice-honored

“When Faisal Shahzad took his oath of citizenship a year ago, swearing to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies,” he seemed the model of a legal immigrant success story. Moving from one coveted visa to the next over a decade, he had acquired an M.B.A., a decent job, a wife and two children and a fine suburban home.”
– Nina Bernstein, The New York Times, May 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/nyregion/08immig.html?hpw

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