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Mar. 22nd, 2003 01:55 pm![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
christyedna: Yeah. I guess she took over his body. Don't ask me how that works.timefortea: I think so. I love him a great deal. And I can't think of anybody else I would rather bitch with more.Mar. 22nd, 2003
christyedna: Yeah. I guess she took over his body. Don't ask me how that works.timefortea: I think so. I love him a great deal. And I can't think of anybody else I would rather bitch with more.
(no subject)
Mar. 22nd, 2003 05:30 pmI don't know why everybody's posting poetry, but I think I will too.
The Mercy
The ship that took my mother to Ellis Island
Eighty-three years ago was named "The Mercy."
She remembers trying to eat a banana
without first peeling it and seeing her first orange
in the hands of a young Scot, a seaman
who gave her a bite and wiped her mouth for her
with a red bandana and taught her the word,
"orange," saying it patiently over and over.
A long autumn voyage, the days darkening
with the black waters calming as night came on,
then nothing as far as her eyes could see and space
without limit rushing off to the corners
of creation. She prayed in Russian and Yiddish
to find her family in New York, prayers
unheard or misunderstood or perhaps ignored
by all the powers that swept the waves of darkness
before she woke, that kept "The Mercy" afloat
while smallpox raged among the passengers
and crew until the dead were buried at sea
with strange prayers in a tongue she could not fathom.
"The Mercy," I read on the yellowing pages of a book
I located in a windowless room of the library
on 42nd Street, sat thirty-one days
offshore in quarantine before the passengers
disembarked. There a story ends. Other ships
arrived, "Tancred" out of Glasgow, "The Neptune"
registered as Danish, "Umberto IV,"
the list goes on for pages, November gives
way to winter, the sea pounds this alien shore.
Italian miners from Piemonte dig
under towns in western Pennsylvania
only to rediscover the same nightmare
they left at home. A nine-year-old girl travels
all night by train with one suitcase and an orange.
She learns that mercy is something you can eat
again and again while the juice spills over
your chin, you can wipe it away with the back
of your hands and you can never get enough.
The Mercy
The ship that took my mother to Ellis Island
Eighty-three years ago was named "The Mercy."
She remembers trying to eat a banana
without first peeling it and seeing her first orange
in the hands of a young Scot, a seaman
who gave her a bite and wiped her mouth for her
with a red bandana and taught her the word,
"orange," saying it patiently over and over.
A long autumn voyage, the days darkening
with the black waters calming as night came on,
then nothing as far as her eyes could see and space
without limit rushing off to the corners
of creation. She prayed in Russian and Yiddish
to find her family in New York, prayers
unheard or misunderstood or perhaps ignored
by all the powers that swept the waves of darkness
before she woke, that kept "The Mercy" afloat
while smallpox raged among the passengers
and crew until the dead were buried at sea
with strange prayers in a tongue she could not fathom.
"The Mercy," I read on the yellowing pages of a book
I located in a windowless room of the library
on 42nd Street, sat thirty-one days
offshore in quarantine before the passengers
disembarked. There a story ends. Other ships
arrived, "Tancred" out of Glasgow, "The Neptune"
registered as Danish, "Umberto IV,"
the list goes on for pages, November gives
way to winter, the sea pounds this alien shore.
Italian miners from Piemonte dig
under towns in western Pennsylvania
only to rediscover the same nightmare
they left at home. A nine-year-old girl travels
all night by train with one suitcase and an orange.
She learns that mercy is something you can eat
again and again while the juice spills over
your chin, you can wipe it away with the back
of your hands and you can never get enough.
(no subject)
Mar. 22nd, 2003 06:18 pmAmen, Rebecca.
I don't know where the hell the hawks got the idea that just because somebody doesn't support the war or the administration behind it, they're not happy to see Saddam topple from power (since we're being dragged into this fucking thing kicking and screaming anyhow). Before the term was out at school, flyers advertising the protests were papered over with statements about how protesting the war would be tantamount to supporting a man who's murdered tons of his own people, etc etc etc. The papers were unsigned, but my money is on these guys (the College Republicans haven't made a peep since these morons surfaced a year ago, probably in fear of people thinking they were as stupid as the Spectator). Nobody's protesting because they support the man, y'know?
I don't know where the hell the hawks got the idea that just because somebody doesn't support the war or the administration behind it, they're not happy to see Saddam topple from power (since we're being dragged into this fucking thing kicking and screaming anyhow). Before the term was out at school, flyers advertising the protests were papered over with statements about how protesting the war would be tantamount to supporting a man who's murdered tons of his own people, etc etc etc. The papers were unsigned, but my money is on these guys (the College Republicans haven't made a peep since these morons surfaced a year ago, probably in fear of people thinking they were as stupid as the Spectator). Nobody's protesting because they support the man, y'know?
(no subject)
Mar. 22nd, 2003 08:44 pmThe UN has no legs of responsibility!
Okay. So did the U.S. fire them, or did the U.N.? I'm confused.
Ari Fleischer defended the President, saying that Bush had simply had a "language spasm," but that it required no medical attention and was nothing to worry about. "The President was clearly explaining that the U.N. needs to develop some intestines of jocularity," he stated.
*blinkblink* Was that Ari Fleischer trying to be funny? I'm not really sure.
Okay. So did the U.S. fire them, or did the U.N.? I'm confused.
Ari Fleischer defended the President, saying that Bush had simply had a "language spasm," but that it required no medical attention and was nothing to worry about. "The President was clearly explaining that the U.N. needs to develop some intestines of jocularity," he stated.
*blinkblink* Was that Ari Fleischer trying to be funny? I'm not really sure.
A mind full of wicked designs
Mar. 22nd, 2003 11:03 pmThis song makes me want to take Poe and do nasty but incredibly pleasurable things to her. RAWR.
(no subject)
Mar. 22nd, 2003 11:45 pmIn response to Shani's last post, good god. They actually said "so-called?" I am mortified that this is the face CNN presents to the world. Granted, I still think it's a tool of American propaganda, but a little fucking respect please? Thank god for the public radio broadcasts of BBC news. And as for the Iraqi civilian casualties, I don't think CNN is stupid enough to deny that they exist, but they're not going to report on them if they can help it. For verified casualties, go to the rather unfortunately named iraqbodycount.org.
And, ugh. Not just the headline, but "irrespective?" *inner grammarian squirms*
And, ugh. Not just the headline, but "irrespective?" *inner grammarian squirms*