[Newspoetry] Rights of Sanctuary as Asylum

[Donald L Emerick]

Bush Demands Syrian 'Cooperation'
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER
President Bush accused Syria of harboring
Iraqi military and government officials, but
stopped short of threatening military force.

Rights of Sanctuary as Asylum

It is an immense secret of state:
Bush does not know how to read.
Facts prove this certain inference,
for all those who can read and do.

One does not even have to read,
between bold-faced bloody lines,
there, what is written in red ink,
what was said, what was done,
of what rights every person has.

Unable to read, Bush blunders,
overlooking his own scriptures.
Bush can not read; even a Bible,
to know what is true, for himself,
to know what's true for all men.

Self evident truths are so obvious,
that no one has to explain them.
One has only to mention them,
to gesture at them, indicative, but
Fools and crooks deny all truths.

The reason for this is common,
ordinary, universal to all people.
Only when one warps reason,
by unnatural desires or growth,
does one deny common sense.

The cure for evil fools is written,
but they can not read it at all,
or else they roll on heedlessly,
impatiently, impetuously evil,
wanting to line things up in time,
wanting astrological alignments,
wanting the stars in conjunctions.

Scripture, could Bush but read it,
would have told him of the rights,
of those accused of blood guilts,
how his God said, "Let them be!
Let there be sanctuary or asylum,
where even the guilty may flee."

Levinas wrote about this cause,
how it shows God's Otherness,
how God would forget every sin,
which seems impossible to me,
as none of his followers do this.

The God of Bush's Bible is so
all-powerful that He can forget!
He promises to forgive and forget
all mistakes lesser others make.
Why would such a God do this?

I don't know; I can't imagine it,
not easily, as I can't intend it:
I can't actually intend to forget:
I either remember or else I forgot,
as by accident, I do not recall.

Even our common sense says,
"We grant our political system
as an asylum to those who flee,
from other places for any reason
that lies in our nation's interest
to recognize in our careful way."

Bush declared Indecent Wars,
when he said we had the right,
to hunt the "terrorists" anywhere
that we could find them on Earth.
He mistakes his power for rights.

Bush neither reads nor reasons.
He leads, which means he rules,
which means he has no intent
to remember what the law is,
nor even to try to follow its will.

The law does not intend revenge:
a Constitution is no murder pact,
where we agree to kill the other,
when we begin to fear difference,
that makes other be threat to us.

A Constitution is universal law,
protecting us, from every one,
and all else from us in our rage.
Like Ulysses, we are bound up
to hear Sirens; we can not reply,
no others hear their madness,
and none may heed us, either.

Sanctuary asylum is like that:
where the guilty may be seen,
out there, madly beyond reach,
as we ourselves follow the law;
do not obsess over doing wrong
to those who have done wrong;
do not think that your violence
just rights its kind in any reply.

It is time to be done with wars,
for they can add nothing to us,
not healing nor its fearlessness,
in innocence from knowing evil,
nor its obsessions in warping,
in self-inflicted state suicides,
mutilating a public well-being.

That is what a sanctuary is:
the moment of peace happens
when one gives up fear's hates,
not because there is no more evil,
but because there's too much evil,
because all evil grows ever larger
when fear and hate feed its roots.

Thanks for listening,
Donald L Emerick
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