Posts Tagged ‘drones’

American murder bird

May 14, 2017

Our absolutized aversion to dealing with any kind of tragedy imposed from without has truly dark applications. It is precisely this existential-dread level of ass-covering and risk-management that informs the American security state’s adoption of the drone “signature strike,” in which men and perhaps some bystanders near are killed by drone attack even if we have no idea who they are. Their “pattern of life” in Yemen is just deemed too risky for their existence to be endured by the American military. Fire away.
—Michael Brendan Dougherty

He tried to call his cousin
Now everybody’s dead
American murder bird
Flying overhead

Such a lovely wedding
Did you give your mom a hug
Before the murder bird
Squished you like a bug?

The pattern of your life
Gave us cause to worry
Dispatching murder birds
Who needs judge and jury?

Courageous first-responders
Are likely to get zapped
Ignore the murder bird
And feel its double tap

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Poetry | Leave a Comment »

Scared Little People

December 27, 2014

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Our absolutized aversion to dealing with any kind of tragedy imposed from without has truly dark applications. It is precisely this existential-dread level of ass-covering and risk-management that informs the American security state’s adoption of the drone “signature strike,” in which men and perhaps some bystanders near are killed by drone attack even if we have no idea who they are. Their “pattern of life” in Yemen is just deemed too risky for their existence to be endured by the American military. Fire away.

—Michael Brendan Dougherty

Scared Little People

Eighty-six hours in stress positions
Those horrible people make us so mean
We burn the tapes of Crucifixion
We glamorize torture on flashing screens
We shrapnel the flesh of people who gather
At weddings and funerals and blitzkrieg scenes
Protecting the lives of people who matter
From monsters who claim to be human beings
We hide from ourselves avoiding detection
Righteous folks we’re pretending to be
That’s not a window; that’s a reflection
That stain on our soul is a shocking decree
What a scared little people we have become
With hearts and brains rendered totally numb

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Poetry | 1 Comment »

Perhaps

February 22, 2014

Love enemies

Those people loved their children too?
Afghanistan and Viet Nam
Pardon me; I never knew

Now they’re just a mass of goo
Or cinders left from firebombs
Those people loved their children too?

Lives destroyed and bodies strewn
Interrupting morning calm
Pardon me; I never knew

They’re savages, what can you do
But kill them all with robots bombs?
Those people love their children too?

Are they just like me and you?
Earnest dads and doting moms?
Pardon me; I never knew

I’ve been told; it must be true
They’d kill us all without a qualm
Those people love their children too?

Perhaps someday we’ll have a clue
Perhaps we’ll send them love and alms
Perhaps we’ll love their children too
Pardon me; I never knew

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Poetry, Villanelle | Leave a Comment »

Up to No Good

January 17, 2014

cluster

You can call me paranoid
You can say I live for hate
When evildoers strike
It ain’t no time to debate
I’m gonna rain down some metal
When hoodlums congregate

They were up to no good
It’s my duty as a man
To protect my neighborhood
And do everything I can
I‘ve always understood
Sometimes a feller’s gotta fight
They were up to no good
That’s what gives me the right

Comes a time to make a stand
No matter what the cost
Things don’t always go as planned
Sometimes guiltless lives get lost
I try to do the best I can
It ain’t no cinch to be the boss

They were up to no good
It’s my duty as a man
To protect my neighborhood
And do everything I can
I‘ve always understood
Sometimes a feller’s gotta fight
They were up to no good
That’s what gives me the right

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in If it sounds country, Lyrics | Leave a Comment »

Drones Don’t

January 11, 2013

Matt Sestow

Drones don’t think
And drones don’t pray
Once released
They don’t delay

Drones don’t feel
And drones won’t snap
When they are told
To double tap

Drones don’t doubt
They can’t be swayed
Drones don’t read
UCMJ

Drones don’t hate
And drones don’t love
They rain down murder
From above

Robot bombs
Are nothing new
Adolph Hitler
Used them too

Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Poetry | Leave a Comment »

Righteous Retribution

June 14, 2012

What if life were simple
For all to understand?
What if we could settle things
By killing just one man?

What if crime and evil
Had a clear solution?
What if all it took were
Gallant executions?

Does he walk among us?
A man of grace and skill
Sent by God to tell us
Exactly whom to kill?

Deliver us from feeling
God grants us alone
Righteous retribution
Delivered on a drone.

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Poetry | Leave a Comment »