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Sunday Night
Osama Bin laden died
the 1st of May; American citizens
lined up in front of the White House
to cheer and sing - death
has seldom been welcomed
with such open hearts, fists
in the air, hands joined with
ghosts between their fingers -
I wonder about the mothers,
fathers, sitting in front of their TVs
wondering if their sons and daughters
can hear the chanting from their pine boxes
sitting in the same silence -
for this death, no Americans
were harmed
and none have gone home,
some never will.
I tell my father, who says “There will
be another nutjob to follow in his place.”
I’m just having a hard time cheering -
death has never made me smile -
my fist knows everything but air
my fingers thinking of the
triggers and the dirt
the casualties in body bags
the casualties marred in the retinas
some things can’t be forgotten
what you were doing the day
the World Trade Center fell
but there are soldiers whose names
are worn away by the rain
Afghan civilians whose blood
will become a part of the soil and all
my kids will learn about is the numbers
I won’t be able to teach them
an Afghan mother’s tears, clutching
her dead baby, killed by an American
grenade
I won’t be able to teach them
what those picket signs meant, the thoughts
of their holders, what Hell is, why
they think American soldiers will
go there, why God should be thanked
for their deaths
I won’t be able to teach them
about how Korans could be
burned, cultures
marred by prejudice
I won’t be able to teach them
how a child their age
can grow up and have a funeral
the entire world celebrates
I could never, I don’t have the heart,
to teach them the meaning
of hate, of fists in the air
at one man’s death -
I could never teach them every name
every tear
how I cried when my friends went off to war
came home from Iraq and got sent to Afghanistan a week later -
some things don’t end
life is not one of them
but never have I seen it amount to something
so small, and death
so huge
and if I had to tell them
what hate was
I guess I could only show them this
fists in the air
screaming
chanting
singing the
Star Spangled Banner so loud
the entire world can hear
the power of our guns.
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This article has 7 comments.
I don't disagree with celebrating it - I just think the celebration was with misplaced intentions for a lot of people, and came off very tacky. All over D.C., I kept seeing these 'Osama got Obama'd' t-shirts, and overall, it seemed to be a very aggressive celebration.
We have every right to celebrate his death, or be happy about it, but the war is still a very sad thing that is continuing to happen. Plus, I don't know, it just seems like hate perpetuates hate, and being hateful towards a hateful man doesn't really make hate stop.
I don't know if you fully understood my poem.
It is a VERY good thing that Osama is dead. A VERY good thing. I have no problem with the fact that he's dead. I just don't like how people celebrated it in such a disrespectful and barbaric way. A lot of anti-Muslim sentiments increased at his death as well. I'm not saying Osama should live or anything like that. I'm saying it is sad that someone grew up in an environment that made them so horrible. However, hatred in his environment made him that way, and by celebrating so barbarically, we are creating a similar sort of environment for those who are impressionable - the country has a lot of anti-Muslim sentiments, for instance, and that is being transfered to younger kids. Furthermore, people are still overseas being killed; this hasn't ended the war.
I don't exactly know what part of my poem you disagree with, or what you're trying to say. I know a lot of people disagree with any poems that disagree with how the celebration of Osama's death played out - but the way the people just signed up in front of the white house, and all the 'Osama got Obama'd' shirts I keep seeing - I don't know, it just seems very tacky to me, and puts the American public in a bad light.
This is very compeling and yet i can't agree with you. I respect what your saying but I don't find it true for me. Bin Laden killed many American troops and his own people. He had children walk up to American soldiers with bombs, because he knew it would be hard for the soldiers. It was hard for my brother to shot a kid my age because he was about to kill my brother and his group. Look, I agree that we can't over look that we took a boys father from him. But does that mean that we have to over look that American men and women are killed everyday and leave their children a parent short. Or do we over look that Afghan mothers hold their blown up babies in their arms because Bin Laden's soldiers made the child kill himself. Should we over look an of these killings, no we shouldn't. We should remember them. And as for Bin Laden's kids, we just gave them a second chance at life. They now have a life that doesn't require them to work for their father and kill others. And I have one final thing I have to say. The Army isn't allowed to send a soldier back oversea after a deployment for a half a year. And mid-tour, when they get to be off duty and off base, last 3 to 6 weeks.
my experince is with my brother-army, my uncle-army, and grandpa-airforce
I really like this. It has a truth that could never be explained jusst by...saying it. ...To me poetry is about saying.."hey this is whats true"..and u did hun ..thanks :)