[Newspoetry] FOR NATURE AGAINST UNNATURAL DEATH

[Donald L Emerick]

For Ben, who says I say not much UnWestern,
Against whom I recently pled ignorance,
Asking on grounds of mercy (innocent),
To you I commend this Western scripture.

NYTIMES 04 April 2002
Why Suicide Terrorism Takes Root 
By SHIBLEY TELHAMI 
Suicide bombings are immensely empowering
to many people in the Middle East
who no longer believe
that their governments can do anything
to relieve their humiliation
and improve their conditions.

Think on the spectacle of Buddhists monks
Wrapped in fires of flames they ignited.
Self-immolation, fair extreme, protests
Against unjust wars waged by super forces;
Think Camus' claims that suicide's status
Brings to our minds moments of other death,
Brings to mind questions of power over death
As contras questions for powers of death,
Think down film strips, Revolting patriots,
Roman gladiators, Scottish free-men,
All as heroes, near-deaths for hells of wars,
Served ala Hollywood, die glad for causes,
Kill others lest ye would also be killed, 
I append concerns, unWestern canon.


FOR NATURE AGAINST UNNATURAL DEATH
Nothing should want to be more earth-shocking
Than taking away life from some person.
The foundation of each heaven is life.
Death defies heaven's death-defying acts.

In the West sacrifice is verboten:
Its prime directive for proper killing
Is an either-or: kill or be killed.
It's unholy to kill and be killed.

If you can not kill the other safely,
Then what could be the point of killing him?
Safe killing is what we make our world for:
We want wildlife refuges for safe killing.

Only our unfair fights are worth fighting.
A fair fight foolishly risks far too much.
Suicide bombers are just fair bombers,
Giving up life equal to those who die.

Fairness in dying just offends the West,
For it pretends that dying's fair nature
Is most painless, purest when most unseen:
"I want to die in my sleep, peacefully."

Do you offend Gods of Western nature
To kill some others even as yourself?
No!  Kant and Golden Rules always agree:
Do for others what you do for yourself.

Buddhist monks exceed laws of selfishness.
They suppose that one ought to die alone:
'Spare others as one wants to be spared'
Means dying for others when some death comes.

Show all the world the true meaning of death
Means you shall live to die self-sacrifice:
Legends of Jesus are Buddha's tales
Bringing a different Enlightenment.

The West rejected this Inconvenience
Because it denies Net Utility
Whose Prime Axiom is Profit Margin:
How to get ahead of eternal death?

Death-denying death-defying delays
Redistribute death as economy:
More will die over there, but fewer here,
Who shall live a longer and better life.

Pyramid schemes shall rob many for few:
It is not one Peter who pays for Paul:
It takes tens of thousands of such Peters
To make one King live higher and longer.

A million Peters are barely enough
To make God live forever, eternal. 
Jesus wept, to transplant Buddhism in us:
To live to learn to die, self-exemplar.

If God is not "I am", who cares who is God?
If only I-am-God, am-I lonely?
Need I be so lonely that I could die?
Need I make an ungodly world to try?

The secret of my success is to fail
At having any secrets for hiding.
That is what Being God -- undeciding --
Says, happily, on the road out of hell.

If you want something done, says God, wisely,
Then you may just have to do it yourself.
When you need death, says God, do it yourself,
To your own self then should you be most true.

Suicide bombers' deaths would be noble
Were they to exclude unwilling others.
Follow no ignoble corrupt credo
America: he who bombs last bombs best.

The only bomb that you should ever hear
Is the one that goes off in your own ear,
And it shall last as it is first and last,
Best is decided by those it left out.

To not prejudice samples unfairly,
Suicide bombs should kill no bystanders;
Tell no lies: when you die, you die alone;
Others may see your truth and be set free.

Undying thanks listens undyingly.
I am sorry that I am, unpacking,
Leaving this wooly stuff so unneatly,
Words scattered in rough chunky fragments,
Blasted from some texts by suicidal bombs,
I hope none got hurt when I had a blast.
Thanks for listening to any last sound,
That Gods like 'Donald L Emerick' make.
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