The Expert Shot

I’m an expert shot.

I can hit a child’s head 

every time

when I’m following orders

and sometimes

when I’m not.

I’m an expert shot.

I can hit a surgeon’s hand

every time

when I’m following orders

and sometimes

when I’m not.

I’m an expert shot.

I can hit a young man’s balls

every time

when I’m following orders

and sometimes

when I’m not.

I’m an expert shot.

I can hit a footballer’s foot

every time

when I’m following orders

and sometimes

when I’m not.

I can do other things as well

when I’m ordered

and even

when I’m not.

What Is To Be Done

History is littered with stories of imaginary futures.

Bread, land and peace were Lenin’s promises

and the Bolsheviks believed them

and, like others before and since,

believed in themselves,

believed they could achieve them.

But power intervened,

power and conflict

external and internal

and internal contradictions

all in the mix

and look where it took them.

Such promises,

such imagined futures,

have a long history

and a large geography.

They were being similarly re-imagined

at that same time by the early Kibbutz movement.

Simplicity and co-operation in one harmonious state.

They believed they could achieve it,

believed they could set an example

for the whole world to follow.

But power intervened,

power and conflict

external and internal

and internal contradictions

all in the mix

and look where it has taken them.

We thought the monsters were defeated,

starved,

dead,

buried

with stakes through their hearts,

but they were sleeping

and being fattened

ready 

to rise 

in power

again.

So what is to be done now the monsters have risen again.

Disconcerting

It’s disconcerting to hear

an intelligent discourse

from those we’re told to hate,

to hear what sounds like truth from the vilified

and proven lies from those we’re told to respect.

It’s disconcerting, 

truth be told.