DECEMBER BLUES
by Robert Pinsky
At the bad time, nothing betrays outwardly the harsh findings,
The studies and hospital records. Carols play.
Sitting upright in the transit system, the widow-like women
Wait, hands folded in their laps, as monumental as bread.
In the shopping center lots, lights mounted on cold standards
Tower and stir, condensing the blue vapour
Of the stars; between the rows of cars people in coats walk
Bundling packages in their arms or holding the hands of children.
Across the highway, where a town thickens by the tracks
With stores open late and creches in front of the churches,
Even in the bars a businesslike set of the face keeps off
The nostalgic pitfall of the carols, tugging. In bed,
How low and still the people lie, some awake, holding the carols
Consciously at bay, Oh Little Town, enveloped in unease.
 |
| By Joseph Palazzo - Times Square in New York City, at the corner of Broadway and 46th Street on a rainy night in late December, 2011. |
And...If We Make it Through December by Merle Haggard:
POSTSCRIPT: I had prepared this post a couple of days ago, before news of yesterday's mass shootings in California. It, accidentally, does fit the blue, sad mood everyone is now feeling.
Just another day here in America, with another mass shooting, more inane remarks from the GOP candidates, another black person murdered by the hand of a police officer, and Muslims are targeted as our numero uno threat, so we'd better beef-up security and trash some more liberties. If all of those murdered individuals in San Bernardino had AK-47s, none of this would have happened. At least one suspect had a Muslim-sounding name, so I suppose The Donald and Dr Ben are right to say we should have sequestered the family before this incident occurred. If the police had more legal authority and impunity from their actions, with better access to our privacy, this could have been prevented. Strip searches with cavity checks should be routine at any time, any place. The less freedom and liberties that I have make be feel much more secure.
ReplyDeleteI've never encountered the word creche before...had to look it up.
P.S. - Yesterday's shooting made me forget about the recent abortion clinic murders by a right-winged, white geezer, but that happened the end of November.
ReplyDeletemike ~ With the UK government yesterday approving the bombing of Syria, I fervently hoped that there would be no possible link to Islam or Muslims in the horrific events in San Bernadino yesterday.
ReplyDeleteDidn't happen.
Apparently, though, motive remains unknown. The attackers were man and wife, he born in the USA with Pakistani family background, not sure about his wife, but I think also Pakistani, married for 2 years with a 6 month old child, said to have been left with its grandmother. It would seem, one hopes, because of their baby, that the couple had either expected to escape (highly optimistic), or hadn't expected to do what they did.
They (or he) had been attending a seasonal party for county employees, of which he was one (a health inspector). He, according to news stories, had left the party in anger, returned with wife, both clad in combat gear and wielding AK whatevers and hand-guns. Hardly an "off-the-cuff" angry reaction to something said or done at the party - the action must surely have been planned ahead.
A mystery still to be solved.
More sorrow, more grieving, more fear.....more opportunity, as you've outlined, for some individuals and groups to turn the event into something it might not have been.
We simply don't know yet - but they will try to make us think we do.
ReplyDeleteI am saddened by another horrific loss of life.. Kinda quiet today as I ponder when, how can we change this.. I am rational enough to know that regardless of any of the flowery, heartfelt speeches and intentions about controlling gun sales- it aint gonna happen.. To much money involved and too many scared "crapless" of losing a vote.. Yet, I know I'll hear the speeches all about::"" we MUST stop this and I am the one to do it~!!"" :: They may wish it were so, but it wont be. Sounds good to the populous though.. You'd have to replace every congressperson, every House member, governor, mayor, representative of any kind.. NOT HAAPENIN'..
Mike, as for what you said about DT and Ben, I wish folks would remember they wouldnt have sequestered Timothy Mcvey.. talk about internal terrorism~!
Sonny ~ Regretfully I have to agree on the gun control issue - that's one aspect of yesterday's horrors. Though maybe this will turn out to be the proverbial last straw on the gun control front - but I'm not holding my breath. The other aspect relies on the attackers' motive. If it did turn out that the couple had some connection to a Middle Eastern terrorist organisation THAT's when things could become scary, and the US might join the UK in taking some retaliatory action, somewhere. With Russia already involved, and France....sigh.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteyou are so right Annie and my deep sigh matches yours..
Truly I am not a pessimistic person but I have felt for awhile now, we were headed in that direction. Its like watching all the chips fall into place, like the higher ups set it to be long before it ever became a topic for us.. What I mean is- the government/ments knew exactly what they intended to do long ago and all the talk about and then bringing many of the troops home was just a ploy to placate us into lalaland again.. Then months later, in tiny increments/ situations, they started gearing it back up, very slowly so as not to incur our rath but gearing up , nevertheless...the majority of most folks world wide is to be completely
content with whatevers going on as long as it doesnt really affecct them. sad, but oh so true.
then the dominos began to fall and one by one, here we are.. if it isnt this latest shooting- it will be something and we'll be right back in it arseholes n elbows deep.
I can FEEL it coming, like the incoming tide.. its in the air . a tiny vibration like before an earthquake.. as Mike said the other day in one of his comments-- Hold on Tight~ its gonna be a bumpy ride and thats surely a fact.
Sonny ~ I try to stay positive, but it's not easy. The last words of the poem I posted : "Oh Little Town [or planet!], enveloped in unease" do, kind of, match our feelings.
ReplyDeleteLet me help ...
ReplyDeleteHere's a story ... part 1,2,3
https://youtu.be/79LtU6VDiZc
https://youtu.be/TXpHOyM9es0
https://youtu.be/z0qt1J6grfI
Kidd ~ (no longer Anonymous!) ~
ReplyDeleteThank you for those links - I listened to them while downing morning coffee, Anyjazz, who was finishing bis brekkie, came over to listen - recognised the voice, and chortled along with me. LOL! I'd never come across Stuart McClean before, but he had.
Funny stuff! :-D
ReplyDeleteKidd,
you made my day. I laughed till I cried and saved his utube videos to watch later..
he's Great~!!