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Patriot games
(Editor’s note: The following poem was
written in response to one printed in the Sunday, April 27, edition of the Durango Herald. It is
printed here at the author’s request.)
I see you flexing your muscles and your guns/ Yet unaware to
why the world feels on the run/ From a GOP foreign policy that puffs up its chest/ That gives
dictators arms-for-oil one decade/ And bombs them the next.
Oh, and it IS about oil! Have you paid attention?/ Who do you
think Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney/ Worked for, when the President was Clinton?/ Try Halliburton,
Harkken; The “Big Oil” guys./ But I Digress. Did someone mention Freedom
Fries?
The stock market’s down, the economy in a slump/ And
Bush’s best defense is Alan Greenspan on a stump/ Telling us this week’s low number,
“Buy something BIG!”/ Never mind Vets and Elderly can’t afford to
live.
Why can’t you see GW’s pickin’ this fight/
To keep the media away from our nation’s plight./ Bin Laden and Saddam are weapons of
distraction/ To blind us just like tossing out another interest rate fraction.
You are right though, it is how we live our lives,/ Shoving
Judeo-Christian morals into their Islamic eyes./ Levi’s! McDonalds! Starbucks! That’s
what these people need!/ Capitalism disguised as democracy.
Not denial, but truth from me to you
Is the only connection Iraq has to Al Qaeda is
“Q.”/ I can see that my rights are being attacked,/ Secret searches, detainees, the
Gestapo is back./ My main fear now isn’t Iraq, but Tom Ridge Ashcroft, and the
unconstitutional Patriot Act.
Don’t forget we trained Osama to fight our own Soviet
pain-in-the-neck,/ We gave him money and we gave him armor
While our own planes stayed on the deck.
In the ’80s we also sold Iraq money and guns,/ Back when
Saddam and Rummy were “good-ole-boy” oil chums.
Preserving our lives against tyrants is also why/ Bullets in
the Revolutionary War first did fly./ Those dissidents had their detractors, as they always do,/
While you would have worn the status quo redcoat
I would have been a Patriot then, too.
– Shane Buchanan
Missing Riker
Dear
Editors:
Last Tuesday, April 22, I lost a wonderfully loyal friend,
my handsome, strong, 120-pounds Alaskan Malamute, Riker. Known
by several pals and pooches around town and throughout Kentucky
(his birthplace), he will without a doubt be genuinely missed.
Riker lived it up in the short time he was here...three months
shy of being 3 years old. He left this world after being struck
by a car, and with the help of his caregivers, he was allowed
to rest in peace. Thanks to Dr. Stacee and her loving staff
at Riverview for giving Riker a pain free exit to a world he
loved so much. My dog taught me so much in his short little
life, and now his death is sadly a part of that beautiful life
as well. You will so be missed, little pup.
– Your bud forever, Maggie Fuller
In the bluegrass hills of Kentucky where we
first met to the snow-covered mountains of Colorado, your soul shines in me as bright as the sun. I
felt so close to you, I was sure I knew what you were thinking or feeling at any given moment. I
watched you grow I watched you play. You taught me so much about my own life it cannot be
described. The joy and happiness you brought into my life and many others I’ll keep with me
forever. The world is gonna miss you pup. I Love You Riker!
Dear
Editors: