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PETER MARTI


They Got Osama

Thought it a joke just now a
headline for May Day:
Osama Bin Ladin Killed by SEALS in helicopters
his brother dead too and the women they used as shields
during the firefight (though version changed in later
days—actually not armed when shot)

I thought: “good” for one guilty second, forgetting

my vows of peace towards all beings

even the man America once funded to fight for US

who killed Russians, then us ‘cause we wouldn’t leave his
Holy Land alone, couldn’t stop needing the Oil there

or stop wishing Democracy on everyone

tho democracy now owned by multi-national corporations
—the World has surrendered to its own greed

Kill Infidels or the opposite:
        Kill the killers

Either way we’re dead:     in barren wilds

Afghanistan warlords fighting over opium

2001 Twin Towers destroyed

George Bush squandering global good-will
to leave those warlords squabbling, to leave women
unprotected by law, to build no schools, hospitals, water
and sanitation infrastructure—all to fulfill 1995
neo-conservative cabal wish:        To re-invade cradle of
civilization Iraq to finish what First Bush started—
Al Queda and Taliban then returned to Afghan void
using Pakistan for refuge and supply
and the world stinks of more war instead of less…

Bin Laden dead, dumped in Arabian Sea like toxic waste
his body not to be enshrined as martyr for future suicides
strapped w/ dynamite dreams of milk and honey virgins
    “buried at sea” (off an aircraft carrier!)
20 years after rising to number one on the FBI’s Most
Wanted list, tho the Post Office no longer hangs it for
all to see in the local branch (as boy I thrilled at the bank
robber mugs)

“Rot in Hell” screams the Daily News as hundreds gather
Ground Zero to cheer.   Disappointed his body gone
a relative of 9/11 victim: “we should have the satisfaction
    of his head on a spike”
“Vengeance at last—we got the bastard!" another banner

No “cheek turning,” no cheek remains
No logic
    no logic left.