Edited by Richard Stone
Visalia’s Uncle Bill does it again with a really fine mind-twisting poem definitely needed in the wake of the 10-year commemoration of 9/11 used as another opportunity for jingoism and warmongering.
The Question
Everybody knows the what of it,
But no one wonders why.
Why would someone attack us?
Rain death down from the sky?
So many people wounded
So many had to die.
Everybody knows the what of it,
But no one wonders why.
No one attacked their country
Why do they hate us? Why?
What did we ever do to them?
We don’t deserve to die.
Everybody knows the what of it,
But no one wonders why.
We were no threat to anyone,
So why invade us? Why?
What weapons have we used on them?
Their will did we defy?
Everybody knows the what of it,
But no one wonders why.
Note: Dedicated to the innocent victims of 9/11, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Libya, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Haiti, Hiroshima, Dresden, London, the Indian Wars, the World Wars, the pogroms, the Philippines, Nanking, ethnic cleansing and other atrocities based on lies, greed and ignorance.
—Uncle Bill