N a p
a l
m H e
a l t
h S p
a : R
e p o
r t 2
0 0 8
ANNE WALDMAN
from Martyrology
“Is it really big enough?” Niels Bohr asked J. Robert
Oppenheimer
in December
1943, the day he arrived at
were secretly
inventing the new bomb. Oppenheimer understood
him immediately:
would it be big enough to make war impossible?
¨
wonder her recombinant
power
the
hunt
virgins waiting in heaven
martyrdom as performance
Purify your heart & clear it from all earthly
matters. The time of fun and waste is
gone. The time of judgement has arrived. O God you who open all doors, open
all doors
to me.
martur = to witness, to attest
wonder influence ripples in the night, intentionality,
neurotransmitter release
or sucks off nipples, mutters revenge
I can’t tell my brain tissue from yours it’s so ideologically framed
wonder what is the current below
you all get below
would she be big enough to make war impossible?
critical current ferrets you out
as you get with that flow
Andromeda a galaxy far a way
so far a relief I don’t have to worry about it
what is
the influence of
quarters, my brave accomplices
what strikes is odd juxtaposition to ask this question now
what is the wrench to not roast me here
in front of all my people
shard glaze shard red dirt tile roof all translate as a safe-house
(the prophet was always optimistic
as in the movie a young Anne plays the wife of
the terrorist
& he had to hide (in the safe-house and not-so-safe-house
someone sniffed the air (was cool it was autumn just so you know
could this be doubted in a ghost word
& Anne said:
- We walked along the beach it was the beach at Deal. My husband, who in real
- life was my friend Tom
- He was going to assassinate the president
I can’t remember, did it work out?
& one heard voices then saying “on” or “turn left now” your face to him endures
he has a toy gun in this act of choice & purpose
under the shadow of the mega bomb
stone floor,…when my struggle
autumnal sweep…. when my struggle when my struggle
¨
someone is watching us &
took the flash of synergy
colors were black and white, edge of industrial cites, black and white
flash of synergy
flannel, black and white and you go and stand up for someone
even if it means you are shunned in the whole mercenary house
covet my
speech then
Al-Hallaj
the one enraptured says
tie me up, gag me
we were closer to surveillance
& under a strobe a flash
adjacent to a woodshed weapon pile of leaves
someone is watching us who abandoned her post by the lake
and took the
road through the desert remember?
women-many-aliases said, it was ours, our “time”
¨
well you can’t have her dying a noble death that would make a martyr of her
shot by bullets exploded in a suicide blast too risky die martyr for her cause
cause of avenging a father cause of democracy
can’t make a martyr of her now it’s already happened it happens martyrs will happen
make up story make it unseemly not the death of a martyr hit by the lever of a sunroof how secular it sounds “lever” “sunroof” how unseemly not the cause for death of a martyr “lever”, “sunroof” could have happened anyway not in the middle of
chaos as this suicide bomb and shrapnel and gunshot wounds
how much more martyr is “gunshot wounds” is “suicide bombing” is “democracy”
narrative call it master so “secular” so “patriarchal” no women at all around her
they say now skull fracture when she was thrown by the force
of the suicide bomb and
hit her head on the “lever” of the “sunroof” of the car in which she was riding
not enough protection, blame the martyr
can’t unmake a “martyr” now too late to unmake “martyr”
but for this she will be “martyr” certainly no mater “lever” no matter “sunroof”
but matter “democracy”
“democracy” “loaded” “as” “well” “as” “being” “lauded”
with a Negraponte with a loaded history
________________________________________
“I had no idea I had nourished a viper at my breast”
¨
Jan–March 08 (Venezia)
artyrology