deepundergroundpoetry.com
Sheeesshh!
The official names given to missiles and bombs
makes you wonder at the mind behind them
“Hellfire” missiles, “Brimstone” missiles, “Paveway” bombs
if you really want to pave the way
with hellfire and brimstone
why not go and listen to an old-time preacher
and consider at your leisure
the language of ‘collateral damage’
as a background feature?
for those of you wondering about
austerity measures and cut-backs …
conservatively estimating
“Brimstone” missiles cost about £100,000 each
“Hellfire” missiles circa £70,000 and
“Paveway IV” bombs £30,000 apiece
if you’re managing to feel a little angry
join the Campaign Against the Arms Trade
otherwise take a deep breath and say
“Sheeesshh!”
makes you wonder at the mind behind them
“Hellfire” missiles, “Brimstone” missiles, “Paveway” bombs
if you really want to pave the way
with hellfire and brimstone
why not go and listen to an old-time preacher
and consider at your leisure
the language of ‘collateral damage’
as a background feature?
for those of you wondering about
austerity measures and cut-backs …
conservatively estimating
“Brimstone” missiles cost about £100,000 each
“Hellfire” missiles circa £70,000 and
“Paveway IV” bombs £30,000 apiece
if you’re managing to feel a little angry
join the Campaign Against the Arms Trade
otherwise take a deep breath and say
“Sheeesshh!”
Published 13th Dec 2023
| Edited 27th Mar 2024
Author's Note
I wrote this poem in October, 2018. (The best humanitarian aid that America & European countries could do for Gaza is to stop supplying Israel with weaponry, IMHO)
(photo credit: jonathan-kho-709591-unsplash)
(photo credit: jonathan-kho-709591-unsplash)
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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The author encourages honest critique.
13th Dec 2023 7:51pm
13th Dec 2023 9:26pm
13th Dec 2023 9:21pm
13th Dec 2023 9:31pm
Now that's a viable theory and a valid question as to what might be the root cause of mad behaviour. At least it can complement the notion that people with inferiority complexes are attracted to power.
Anonymous
- Edited 17th Feb 2024 6:45am
3rd Feb 2024 9:54pm
<< post removed >>
14th Dec 2023 00:03am
never understood why people seek power, since when they get it they look like a bloke who caught a fish and fully expects us all to be impressed, and yet we tend to take the side of the fish.
14th Dec 2023 00:16am
Very nicely put.
Reminded me of a quote from Francis Bacon I read recently in Aldous Huxley.
The quote, I found, fits the 5-7-5 format of a senryu:
“He doth like the ape
that, the higher he clymbes, the
more he shows his ars.”
Quote from Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) — as quoted on p.88 in Aldous Huxley’s “Means and Ends {An Enquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into the Methods Employed for their Realization}”, Chatto & Windus, 1941.
Reminded me of a quote from Francis Bacon I read recently in Aldous Huxley.
The quote, I found, fits the 5-7-5 format of a senryu:
“He doth like the ape
that, the higher he clymbes, the
more he shows his ars.”
Quote from Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) — as quoted on p.88 in Aldous Huxley’s “Means and Ends {An Enquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into the Methods Employed for their Realization}”, Chatto & Windus, 1941.
14th Dec 2023 9:00pm
A change has been over due for a while I think, a real change the likes of which this world hasn’t seen for an age. Let’s hope it changes for the better this time
Cool ink Josh 👌👌
Cool ink Josh 👌👌
15th Dec 2023 00:06am
Thanks MM. Looks like the lurch towards authoritarianism might mean the change is for the worse, before it gets better. Weapons manufacturing is a two-trillion dollar-per-year industry, with its own momentum and need for more wars to keep sales up. It will require a very big change of heart to shift all that engineering talent to manufacture only socially useful products. One can but hope.
16th Dec 2023 1:28am
Very good! Somehow the figures set against the 'austerity measures' drive the message home at missile speed.
16th Dec 2023 11:17pm
Thank you. and for the metaphoric assessment. The poem is five years old, (when austerity measure were more in the news,) but I feel the current in-the-news cost-of-living crisis makes the contrast still relevant.
