[Newspoetry] mcveigh pome

[Joe Futrelle]

5/11/2001

Detroit (Associated Poets):

Today the news of
Timothy McVeigh's execution
is as inescapable, and the pundits
whisper sweet nothing in our ears
in practiced, measured tones,
the test of their journalistic skill to mask
the utter hypocrisy of at once condemning
and celebrating
killing people.

As the governments and McVeighs of the world
have proven many times over, killing people is easy,
effortless even: a small investment and the touch of
a button.

Ask Henry Kissinger, if he's not too busy.

On the news we cement our right to kill by
indulging the survivors' stories, their horror
a microcosm of hell's soulless monotony

Then there are survivors we don't interview,
or want to.

Intolerance, greed, oppression,
and other horsemen.  Alive and well,
undeterred, they are hell
yet we live with them only
because we cannot kill them
with executions or wars
against people.

McVeigh is dead
and we can't contain our unconvincingly denied glee
at revenge; but
the real victim is
our presumed innocence

--
Joe Futrelle
editor-at-large
Newspoetry daught kom