poetry by John Scott Ridgway
a man blows himself up to kill a ford plant
destroy a fur store
disable an suv
in the bitter end
when the air itself begins to choke us
an end written before their time
in an untouchable past
of impossible blues and greens
animals that roamed free
only nihilism will make sense
meaningless acts of destruction
the only way left to sate the rage
religions will spawn out of a great need
to declare it all one big going away party
They will tear up the pictures of our times
make curses of our names
wonder how the people in the past
were ever so stupid
wonder why we let the elite with the most to lose
feed us all our happy news
How we were so cruel
that we just let them turn up the carnival
to drown out the mournful cries of death
even then they will happily sell oxygen
fortunes of money will be made
luxury lives bought and paid for
then as now
with the breath and blood
of the bulk of us
Note To The FBI:
I do not advocate blowing things up... This poem is about relating to the condemned ones in our future, who will curse us poiseners... and uh, about a sociobiological imperative that is probably going to make this poem come true at some point way in the future, after I have lived an uneventful life as an unknown writer.
Note To People Who Care About The THeory Behind This Poem:
So what is a suicide bomber? Someone channeling a sociobiological imperative. I know you were going to say the same thing, that the point is obvious to all the sociobiologists who are attracted to this site (and don't be telling me they are all in my imagi
nation). This is the imperative, the so-called alturistic gene, which makes a soldier jump on a grenade to save his buddies and an old lady walk into a raging fire intent on rescueing her cats, etc... over and over this behavior has been shown, and when the behavior is common, you can bet there is some ape-ish reason we have this impulse.
The possible destruction of all life on the planet will undoubtedly trigger this gene to go into hyper-drive. Maybe there is a nihilistic sci-fi story there? I don't know.. writing too much about suicide bombers would be kind of depressing for all concerned. Though, I suppose slap-stick suicide bombers will have to come out of the closet sooner or later.