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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree [Today's News Poem, March 16, 2010]

Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree [Today's News Poem, March 16, 2010]
“Active Denial System, a weapon... using a beam of electromagnetic radiation to heat the skin of its targets to 130 degrees and force anyone in its path to flee in pain...”
“...the rise of television introduced a new political dynamic to the exercise of state violence...”
--Ando Arike, Harper's, p38-39, March 2010

“Antigovernment protesters pooled their blood — drawn by medical workers in air-conditioned tents — to unleash a red tide at the gates of Government House, the office of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, and later at his party’s headquarters.
“We will curse them with our blood and our soul!” yelled a protest leader, Nattawut Saikua”
--THOMAS FULLER, The New York Times, March 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/world/asia/17thai.html?hp

Shed no blood. Instead just drain the vital
Humors—juice a human, save the beaten
Husk for later. Revolution dies when
Martyrs live so break their champs—make might crawl.
Gin can't pair with victory—it sweetens
Loss too well and addles minds—the best pen
For the best of rebels, who had hoped to
Shed their blood. Instead, lost dignity spews.

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