dad's page

       AGAIN
On the broad black desert of the universe,
woven in the fabric of time
a pearl descends into its velvet bed,
the moon softly sings dirges,
as it slowly dissolves into a vaporous haze of hate.

White light pulls open its golden curtain
displaying a congenial sapphire sky brightly beaming
on the triumphant empty space above the silent street,
where a dull and indifferent house squats
with its dirty windows blindly staring dead ahead.

The woman who finds them turns into stone,
frozen with fear ? she doesn?t notice the red boots
and electric green garment on the fly,
who is laboriously crawling up the dingy window,
as it haltingly struggles to the top of the transparent pane;

before precipitously dropping back to the bottom,
where the scattered corpses of its brothers? and sisters?
lay still on the sepulchral sill,
so many furry black spots speckled on a field of white,
that the fly studiously ignores before beginning again its tedious upward struggle;

or, the dirty dishes, which patiently wait, sitting by the sink.
Dust motes sparkle in disturbed columns of light
and settle on the face and hands that lie inert in the shallow crimson sea
that quickly congeals about them;
while, white Hope huddles unseen in a corner,

buried beneath a blanket of dark shadows;
and, while high above mute Cosmic currents swirl,
where galaxies swim by spawning unnamed constellations,
whose inexorable fate is to be embraced
by bittersweet oblivion.

           BIBLIOTHEQUE
Perched on the hilltop overlooking the valley the monastery library
had withstood centuries and restorations with equal indifference,
while the shadowy mystery ran up to me from the distant darkness.

In an open book beneath the star studded sky,
the letters? blurred images soon melt
into a black petrified nothingness.

And, now precipitating out of the immensities of the sky
a dusky silence comes crushing down
brought about by those who unwittingly guillotine

the many marching minutes. And, then the Bible
discloses the bibliotheque, before it was written,
being born fully formed from the soul?s sad anguish

who stands in the gloom before me pointing its bony index finger,
across the vast void of bloody dim witted centuries,
toward the blue flaming dawn.

       DANCING CHILDREN
Children were randomly dancing all over the mountain meadow
life was exuberantly exploding from barren Winter?s oppressive austerities.
Beneath the thick branches of the sacred grove
The family rejoiced, in the pure rarified air of existence.

In the early afternoon, while sitting and resting the weary wanderer
felt the Gestalt with the ancient roots as an intense happiness.
Later ages would call this the Golden Age covered with flowers,
When mankind was lost in obscure mists, and God?s presence was felt everywhere.

   EMPTY HANDS
Darkness has descended,
Mt. Hood sleeps in somber silence.

In coffin cornered rooms,
the hour is pregnant with death.

My limbs are listless
and my heart is heavy with sadness.

These empty hands reach out for my love,
as they remember you.

And, life becomes one immense wound,
oh, hate poisoned predator.

   HOW LONG LORD?
Fine as the vintage that loves us,
and the cheese and crackers which gives us sustenance,
and you, woman who lives and loves
as she grows more precious each year.

But bleeding clouds,
rise in a corpse blue sky,
still as a grave the World grows cold
writing its ethereal verse in runes.

Its all illegible, indelible, and inedible, too.
Night inexorably follows day on this rotating carousel,
where we worry and wring our collective hands
in genuine cowhide leather anguish;

and while we never ever deliberately decide
that would require a positive act,
like cleaning up the thistles from around the open grave that is this year.
Instead, we stand endlessly waiting our turn, ticket in hand,
outside the cold drafty cloak room;

or, we sit, like the youth who forgets his homework
watching naked lovers on television,
understanding nothing but gnawed
by strange alien desires.

A cocoon creature
stirring in the dark its transformed wings
wet and sticky and uselessly attached to its back -
hundreds of helpless pupae howl hidden in the bushes.

Wave after wave year after year,
we evolve devouring and screaming and filled with fear;
building repeatedly from smoldering ruins: how long Oh Lord,
before science, art and nature merge life into a beautiful harmonious whole?

   A GRAY SHADE
No neophyte
in the elaborate labyrinth,
where hate waits
with its spawn of perverse predation,
in environs of cubed concrete canyons
and self-conscious cars;
the grizoned man, bogus bogeyman,
and long time resident;
the shade in gray carefully walks
through the public minefields,
with his secret budding blossoms;
a floating wisp, recondite cloud
between sprouting rose bushes,
which are preoccupied
with their new red feathery foliage;
and, which devour millions of tiny atoms,
with each breath of air .

With a penetrating glance,
He perceives in ample time
the naked thorns? barbed plans;
And, stoically stalemates their boring brambles..
Now lying in ambush
are radiant gems,
brilliant splinters of shattered glass,
as he limps painfully forward
extricating one foot after another
from the sticky cobwebs that enmesh them,
through the cold, mist shrouded weather,
of another dark and dolorous day.

       THIRTEEN
Lucky thirteen reiterates, once more she wins, again;
And, she?s still every woman in the World to me,
and this instant is all there is to existence;
you weren?t my first love, but you?ll be my last!
You?re surely Eve, and all I need of creation.

Love the one who loved you, from the first moment he saw you?
And will love you to the grave and beyond. My only love, loves me dearly:
She is life and she is death
?and where she is there is Eden?, delight and despair!
And, the flower she holds is the lily.
Patron Saint of Portland, your eyes radiate twin laser beams,
blossoming in your heart a red rose:
I have found you?re cross-planted in the desert of today?

The snowdrops droop their head in sin and sorrow!
Fade phantoms, from over your burning river Styx:

   PRISTINE WORLD
Cascading down the nape of her neck and onto her nightgown!
Brown tresses! Fragrance of kindness and affection!
What happiness to populate this house
with memories, in this chessboard of shadow and light
and shattered reflections that I mix with as at a silent party.

Cool continent, where towering forests sway ?
a pristine world, dark and mysterious ?
where groves of scented and scintillating myrtles softly play.
Others ride modern chariots to symphonies and museums,
while I float away on vague fragrant scents.

I?ll travel where the air of sylvan vistas intoxicates those who breathe
and some actually faint, in warm regions bathed in light.
You are my beacon, beautiful brown locks!   Providing a safe harbor
from the rootless sea that has cruelly buffeted every mariner since time began.
Your black pregnant sails form dreams filled with fire and ice.

Roadless waters whose slippery roll endlessly resounds
reflecting my soul?s myriad moods, and where ships weigh anchor
sail with loaded hulls through fiery sunsets of burnished gold,
towards blue rivers, whose ports wait to embrace and kiss
the radiant splendor of evening skies forever insulated from the oppressive cold.

I sink my face in it half-high with pleasure ?
in the mysterious sea that veils her form.
Our souls merge in an embrace,
whose worth is more than any worldly treasure,
hours of rapture trembling in your caress, like leaves lost in a storm.

Collage of earth tones, a phantasmagoric of shadows on a wall.
You cast brown bliss near and far. Across the vast abyss
from those dead individuals who are obsessed with the lives of others
and who are a symptom of a society in disintegration.
High in heaven, we float in sweet confusion to our bed
Specimens under surveillance,
life in a jar,
ready victims for those individuals,
without legal and moral restraint,
obsessed with power and of insidious intent.

               RUMOR MILL

The United State spends $1,000,000,000 ($1 billion) per day on the bogus Iraq military operation.

   Another month has expired and Rumor Mill still waits for an opportunity to write an essay on social economics that repudiates the mistaken position now prevalent among many members of the power elite and radical right think (so called) tanks that to attain social stability society must experience large levels of duress. This unfortunate idea has its historical point of origin with Aristotle and like so many of the great thinker?s ideas it is wrong. Other erudite individuals, like Cardinal Richelieu, of the three musketeers fame, have embraced this fallacious position, too. However, the Rumor Mill must take up its pen and discuss the whispers that have arrived about the continuing tragedy of errors: America?s foreign affairs, specifically Iraq.. Rumor Mill believes that King George Jr.?s announcement that an effort is under way by the US to undermine Iraq?s popularly elected political leader Saddam Hussein bears close scrutiny from a variety of perspectives in order to know its significance
In order to understand the supposed Iraq conflict, a person must realize the radical right has two objectives. The first objective is to maintain control of Iraq?s extensive oil reserves, which is one of the top three in OPEC. Every other consideration is secondary, and the Muslim Shiite extremists, of the Iranian stamp, are considered to be the biggest threat. The political prospect of Saddam Hussein is secondary to controlling the oil. The second objective is to accumulate staggering sums of United States National debt. The premature deployment of U.S. troops through out the Middle East was done to accomplish that objective. The U.S. spends $1,000,000,000 (1 billion) every day that they are over there, whether they fight or not; which will enable the right wing Republican?s to claim that the U.S. can?t afford the entitlement programs, and the U.S. will have to privatize Social Security and Medicare. All of the financially retarded actions of Georgy Porgy?s Republican administration come into focus if you keep those twin objectives in sight.
   As previously noted, that the Republican administration of George Jr. has recently made supposed efforts to generate political opposition to Iraq?s elected leader Saddam Hussein. The Rumor Mill believes a brief review of what are believed to be largely radical right efforts in the Middle East, by placing them in a roughly linear perspective, is necessary to understand the current situation.
   1.) In Lebanon a terrorist truck bomb attack killed several marines during the first term of the Reagon/Bush administration. They didn?t know who was responsible, and resolved to never be taken unaware again. This event catalyzed the policy by the radical right dominated intelligence community to infiltrate and dominate all terrorist organizations and significant political dissident movements in the World.   Which is not as large an order as one would think when one considers that there are only around 120 nations on the face of the earth, and if one considers the amount of resources available i.e. $10 million per country per year for 10 years would equate $100 million - for a poor third world country this sum could easily accomplish its objective in a very short order. And a particular priority was placed on the oil rich Muslim Middle East.
   2.) Hammas, became displaced and dominated by the right wing controlled CIA who used Afghanistan guerilla bases as training camps for recruits throughout the Muslim part of the world. The camps were originally established in and around Afghanistan during the guerilla war against the USSR dominated Kabul government, when the Soviet Union was trying to use Afghanistan as its means for a port directly on the Indian Ocean in an attempt to circumvent Keenan?s ultimately successful containment strategy.
   3.) In spite of Afghanistan?s independence from the Soviet Union?s sphere of influence and dominance by the Taliban, the guerilla camps remain active, and are controlled and funded by the radical right, who continued to politically back the Taliban as the dominate power in the region. This helped to contain the power of extremist Shiite Muslims, which helped control Muslim oil.
   4.) Private funding of radical right covert operations, including international terrorism, is established, because it is thought to be necessary to remove them from the public scrutiny and control of the United States Congress. Drug trade monopolies established and insider stock market manipulations, which eventually helped to lead to stock valuations divorced from economic realities and the subsequent crash, which in turn resulted in a wide spread market restructure of stock prices, where the two primary funding sources.
   5.) The fact that Hammas had become synonymous for the CIA was common knowledge, which compromised its utility to the radical right. Then, Hammas was fragmented into regional and national organizations (like Hydra?s teeth), which spread from Morocco across N. Africa and parts of S. Russia extending all the way to Indonesia. But, the radical right dominance in recruiting, organizing, training and funding continued uninterrupted.
   6.) The advantages to the radical right in the oil rich region were considerable. In the Post Cold War Era the radical right felt it had no longer any leverage over the conservative Arab governments, which it regained with the rise of the terrorist threat. Then, the radical right could play both sides off against each other, and stood to win regardless of which side came out on top in the local regional conflicts. Thus, the continuous control of Muslim oil was practically guaranteed.
   7.) We now skip ahead to the phony war between Iraq and the USA, which was designed to accomplish two objectives. First, it was designed to win political re-election for George Bush Sr., though obviously it failed, it tried to win the election by providing a foreign threat to the United States. Second, it was designed to separate Saddam Hussein from the USA after he had fought the USA?s dirty, punitive 10-year war with Iran, and which had made him immensely unpopular at home. It succeeded in making Hussein more popular in Iraq, while defusing the potential Shiite political opposition. But, most important of all, it kept control of Iraq?s share of Muslim oil.
   8.) The radical right lost control of the White House when the Democrats beat Bush Sr.?s bid for re-election. The radical right separated itself from the US government, and began to function as an independent entity, with its own factional interests and private funding sources. The radical right began pursuing its own policy lines independent and often in open opposition to the United States? foreign policies, in arrogant violation of Constitutional Law. Also. the factional interests of the radical right came into increased opposition with the World Trade Organization, whose broad based fundamentally solid economic policies benefited everyone not just the factional interests of the radical right, in regions like SE Asia and Central and South America.
   9.) Radical right sponsored terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York. The period of open antagonism by the radical right ends and settles down into a pattern of guarded cooperation on their part, which was necessitated by the depression. A depression caused by the avaricious policies of the radical right.
   10.) A phony two year war with an Afghanistan tribe the Taliban, who were supposedly the ?only? external support for the terrorist group who had attacked the World Trade Center and whose leader had conveniently taken up residence in Afghanistan was waged. The terrorist leader was not captured during the two-year war, and some how miraculously remains at large. It was a two-year multi BILLION-dollar hole in the USA taxpayer pocket, and evidently didn?t accomplish anything except create the World?s largest National debt. What a record of accomplishment for the Republican Party and George Jr. after the first two years of control of the White House
(OUT HOUSE): a two-year plus depression, a failed war, and the world?s largest debt.
   Rumor Mill suggests that there are those who think that right winged Republicans are, as usual, integrally linked with both terrorists and the conservative government, so obviously their tired formula of conservative government (usually in the form of a strong man dictator) vs. terrorist dissidents no longer works in Iraq. The prospect of ultra political conservative Saddam Hussein suddenly, after a political lifetime of extreme conservative politics, recycling himself into a reformed terrorist supporter, with hidden weapons of mass destruction, is unbelievable. More about this later! Now, we learn how George Jr. is sending emails and dropping leaflets to Iraq citizens encouraging them to politically oppose Saddam Hussein. What seems obvious is that efforts are being made by certain parties to play the same old political game of both sides against the middle. If Hussein survives this theatrical production, then his political opponents have been conveniently identified for him. And, it is reasonable to expect a period of intense brutal political retaliation to follow. If Hussein doesn?t finish this play, then the radical right is in position to identify, organize and control whoever fills the gap in leadership left by the ouster of Saddam Hussein. And, the radical right intend on being in position to nullify the Shiite Muslim?s political prospects in Iraq: once again maintaining control of Iraq?s portion of Muslim Oil. The point being we still see the same divisive policies being played instead of the development of fundamentally sound economic policies that benefit a broad base of a countries population. Finally, after the reprisals following the last Iraq and USA theatrical production, where Saddam Hussein ruthlessly crushed all political opposition that naively trusted the US Republican administration and identified themselves, who will be so stupid as to step forward now. This is nothing but another re-run. The only question is which one?
   Currently, our propaganda machine tells us that Hussein is complying with U.N. sanctions. King George Jr. says that doesn?t matter, its not enough; which is predictable, because, let?s face it, for Georgy Porgy to gain credibility for this play?s production he has to present himself as extremely bellicose. Further, when King George Jr. says that Hussein has played this game for 12 years, and that if he dismantles and complies it really means that there must be (look out paranoiacs) more missiles out there somewhere, it means the United States is in for a prolongation of the US getting bleed to the tune of $1,000,000,000 ($1 Billion) per day. Forgetting for a moment that this is all a bogus show, determining whether Iraq is compliant should be a relatively simple affair.   If one considers that during the first year of those 12 years Iraq was receiving direct military aid from George Jr.?s Dad Bush Sr., then we can check to determine what aid Hussein received in terms of missiles and chemical weapons. Next, we can check on the weapons obtained by Iraq, after the US vs. Iraq war, when Bush Sr. was providing military aid to rebuild Iraq?s military forces disguised as agricultural loans, one merely has to check Iraq?s shopping list, to determine what their planned purchases where. All that is then needed is for the US to check with its allies major arms manufactures including Russia and you will exhaust all possible avenues for Iraq to obtain weapons. Remember, the U.N. arms embargo will have screened out all possible war supplies to Iraq, from either China or N. Korea during the period of time from the Republican Bush administrations post war US aid and the present.
   Please forgive the following brief digression, but consider the USA vs. Iraq war. It was fought without one major battle. It was fought without Iraq trying to maintain control of any portion of the neighboring state it had invaded. And, it was fought without Iraq seriously trying to attack any major military and/or economic targets. Iraq did drop a few missiles on Israel, which were aptly named (miss) for they rarely hit anything, and we paid millions for Israel not to beat Iraq before we could get there. Iraq never attempted to attack US military basis in the period of time before our armies arrived in the region, which would have vastly improved Iraq?s war situation, instead it passively sat waiting at their borders for a period of weeks while the USA mobilized on TV. Talk about stupid! What an unusual way to wage a war.
   Consider the last half of a century?s major wars. Most recent was Vietnam, and it was gradually built up over a few years, but it was not fought to be won it was fought so that the US Industrial-Military could make excessive profits. In the Korean conflict, we were suddenly attacked. In WWII Japan in the East attacked the US suddenly, in a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor; and, in the West, Germany without provocation suddenly attacked Poland, then paused while trying to negotiate there way out of the war, simultaneously utilizing the time to eliminate allied air capacity that could have helped delay their blitzerig. The point being that no one in their right mind announces their intention to attack, describes their troop deployments in detail by publicly announcing them, and concludes by stating when they intend to attack!!! To prepare for war like this guarantees higher casualties and greater costs. Currently it costs the USA $ 1,000,000,000 ($1 billion dollars) a day, whether we fight or not. It does not get any more stupid than that! And, being a bogus operation designed to spend money and accumulate National Debt, all of these expenses are unnecessary!
   Consider the following review of a comprehensive and practical plan to easily avoid a needless and expensive war. If any one in the present administration can be bothered with thinking, we have an easy way to know Iraq?s military capacity. First, review the records of weapons sales to Iraq by our preceding Republican administrations. Second, during the Democratic administration of President Clinton and Vice Pres. Gore check on the substantiated trade embargo invoices for equipment that could have been converted into weapons systems of mass destruction. Third, if any doubt remains, then the U.N. needs to check up on potential production facilities and track equipment purchases to confirm there legitimate use. The result is an ironclad method to verify either compliance: or, Iraq?s violations, by verifying the existence of potential mass weapons and/or the existence of any potential production facilities of mass weapons. Finally, the fourth and last component to a legitimate comprehensive U.N. observation program is an identification and listing of potential facilities that could be converted into production plants of mass destruction with an accompanying estimation of a realistic time line required to make the conversion. The USA should be vigilant, too. We should be constantly subjecting these sights in Iraq to surveillance. These sights should be targeted and tagged, they should be monitored continually in a variety of ways by a combination of surveillance satellites, periodic on sight U.N. inspections and the other invasive technologies available which make walls virtually invisible. If we have this kind of assurance from the U.N. and even grudging compliance from a country that has been a staunch ally of the radical right; then, the USA should have a pragmatic, cost effective means of preventing Iraq from pretending to be a threat to peace to the region and USA interests. If we had adequate leadership we would have been spared this needless $1,000,000,000 (1 billion) expense per day. The U.N. process, augmented as the Rumor Mill suggests, would work. We would not have wasted 2 years and $10?s of billions of dollars of USA taxpayer money in Afghanistan, with nothing to show for it; but, the prospect of a billion dollar a day expense in Iraq.