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THE IRAQIAD: Book One
Sing, O
Goddess of the wrath of W, son of George HW, that brought upon the
Iraqis
Countless ills, thrusting many a brave soul down to Hades, and fed the
vultures
From the bodies of many heroes, and the dogs as well, for so were the
counsels
Of Jove, fulfilled onward from that accursed day when W and the great UN
began to quarrel bitterly. And which of the Gods set them on to quarrel?
It was
the son of Jove and Leto, for he was angry with W, and sent airplanes
full of death
To attack W’s fort and the two towers belonging to his allies, and great
was W’s wrath,
For he thought he was inviolable. Yet greater still was his greed, and
so the weasely W
Sacrificed many randy goats, and even more stubborn oxen, to assuage the
Gods
Who sent him this curse. But secretly, keeping his own counsel, W of the
empty head
Gave praise to all the Gods who dwell in Olympus for the wondrous
opportunity
Which this disaster sent to him, and empty-headed W jumped for joy in
the manner
Of a wild deer who, starved of grass by the endless snows of winter,
jumps towards
A branch of pine to garner its prickly nutrients: thus did W jump alone
in his oval tent,
When all his warriors and all his counselors were busy obeying the
orders that he sent.
And a great cloud of Downsizing and Hunger was let forth upon the people
of America,
for so is the hard custom of the Gods, who, in their infinite and
unassailable wisdom,
punish the many and innocent citizens of a Land whose king has offended
virtue,
So that, like a wave upon the boiling sea that topples beach houses and
dikes as it strikes
The craggy land, they rise up and with one voice, topple the traitor
King.
Such is the will of the Gods.
Millie Niss's recent poetry publications include
www.sidereality.com,
www.unlikelystories.org,
The Buffalo News, M.A.G. (Muse Apprentice Guild), Artvoice, Beehive,
www.wordcircuits.com, and The
Museum of the Essential and Beyond That (www.arteonline.arq.br/museu).
She is particularly interested in exploring the limits and challenges of
print and e-poetry at their points of intersection. July 2004, she
presented a Digital Poetry workshop at the Incubation3 conference,
Nottingham, UK, sponsored by trAce. Her website is
http://sporkworld.org. |