April 26: New Political Party, Tyehimba Jess, "Mercy"

I just heard a report on National Public Radio, which still exists (so far), that the threat of a federal government shutdown in the United States has been averted.  It seems that the 45th President backed down on his threat to close things down if Congress didn't pass funding for his little Mexican border wall.  The President was waiting for Congressional Democrats to blink.  They didn't.

I'm a little tired of all the rhetoric about Islamic extremists coming out of Washington these days.  There seems to be a great supply of fear-mongering and finger-pointing, not a whole lot of compassion, understanding, and empathy.

Maybe Saint Marty should start a new political party.  He'll call it the Mercy Party.  Anyone interested in joining?

Mercy

by:  Tyehimba Jess

the war speaks at night
with its lips of shredded children,
with its brow of plastique
and its fighter jet breath,
and then it speaks at daybreak
with the soft slur of money
unfolding leaf upon leaf.
it speaks between the news
programs in the music
of commercials, then sings
in the voices of a national anthem.
it has a dirty coin jingle in its step,
it has a hand of many lost hands,
a palm of missing fingers,
the stump of an arm that it lost
reaching up to heaven, a foot
that digs a trench for its dead.
the war staggers forward,
compelled, inexorable, ticking.
it looks to me
with its one eye of napalm
and one eye of ice,
with its hair of fire
and its nuclear heart,
and yes, it is so human
and so pitiful as it stands there,
waiting for my hand.
it wants to know my answer.
it wants to know how i intend
to show it out of its misery,
and i only want it
to teach me how to kill.