Bastille Day - Georgetown

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by Martin Carter


Not wanting to deny, I
believed it. Not wanting
to believe it, I denied
our Bastille day. This,
is nothing to storm.
This fourteenth of July. With
my own eyes, I saw the fierce
criminal passing for citizen
with a weapon, a piece of wood
and five for one. We laugh
Bastille laughter. These are
not men of death. A pot
of rice is their foul reward.
I have at last started
to understand the origin
of our vileness, and being
unable to deny it, I suggest
its nativity.
In the shame of knowledge
of our vileness, we shall fight.

Comments

  1. Mary EllenJuly 14, 2009 at 3:34 PM

    Unsettling. The "they" and "we" keep shifting - I want to put some distance, but then can't.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The CrowJuly 14, 2009 at 5:50 PM

    Thought-provoking and, as Mary Ellen said, unsettling. Especially the unspoken subtext of the photograph.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. OwenJuly 14, 2009 at 6:14 PM

    What courage it must have taken to pick up pitchforks and scythes to go face cannon and muskets, to go face down the very people who held the power, who structured the whole show, to tear down prison walls. Courage or sheer madness, blind rage? I'm thinking our daily battles with automobiles and jobs and computers and so on seem somewhat insignificant in comparison ?

    ReplyDelete
  4. KathleenJuly 14, 2009 at 8:06 PM

    May humanity always prevail . . .

    (How're you? Have missed you round the 'hood lately.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownJuly 14, 2009 at 8:36 PM

    I know...and I apologize. My days have been really chopped up trying to study Critical Care Nursing stuff, driving the HoneyHaired Grrrl to camps, trying to see CollegeGrrrl more, and my mother needs to be driven to her MDs' appointments which have multiplied exponentially. Been listening to a lot of NPR on the radio,though...:>)
    School starts for both grrrls in August, so I imagine it will all settle in soon enough.(But I still feel beastly some days)

    ReplyDelete
  6. KathleenJuly 14, 2009 at 10:18 PM

    Oy. No apologies necessary. Just wanting to make sure you're A-OK.

    Sounds more like D-OK. Or maybe even Z-Not OK.

    But you take care of YOU, OK? Before August, that is.

    ReplyDelete

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Hey, thanks for your thoughts and your time:>)

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