Poem: Pogo Had it Right

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Pogo Had it Right

Life Will Get You in the End:
Short Stories by David Satterlee

from the book: Life Will Get You in the End:
Short stories by David Satterlee

Find out more, including where to buy books and ebooks

Read or download this story as a PDF file at:  https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4eNv8KtePyKUjBtRWptWFVWaFU/edit?usp=sharing

This is an allusion to (or, at least, what should be) an iconic story in mythology about men doing battle with themselves. 

Pogo was a cartoon character created by Walt Kelly. Among many other wise and witty things, he said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." There, that should get you started. 

Pogo Had it Right

I enter the plains to do battle.

I gird up my loins for the fight.

I turn to my bearer for armor.

My helper is nowhere in sight.

In panic I fumble to unsheath my sword.

Striking blindly, I render the air.

I search for the foe that I might dispatch.

But, I’m really the only one there.

In confusion, I retreat from this threat with alarm—

Begging my mind to admit this a dream

Of the night before more than just here and now

In this day, as it truly does seem.

I turn again to check the field

And find it not clear as before,

As I am there to face myself;

A foe that I cannot ignore.

We fought for years to find out who

Was good and who was bad.

But, when at last I won, I lost

The horrible dreams that I’ve had.

But, who can say that I had won,

And who can name the foe?

Yes, who of you can read my heart,

And of its ways to know?

                            December 7, 1970

 

Re: the 2nd stanza: Bingo. I just made a note to someday write a SciFi story about two friends in a remote battle control room discovering that the field-droid avatars that they are controlling are actually fighting each other. "Oops, 'sorry dude." Remember, you read the surprise ending here first.

Poem: Thank you for your hospitality

Information and comments on the story:

Thank you for your hospitality

from the book: Life Will Get You in the End:
Short stories by David Satterlee

Find out more, including where to buy books and ebooks

Read or download this story as a PDF file at: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4eNv8KtePyKNjg3al9rVUNHcUU/edit?usp=sharing

Life Will Get You in the End:
Short Stories by David Satterlee

A poem of the “police action” in Vietnam. Also a disturbing piece. Note: contains violence and some profanity. This is mean stuff for grownups. Even the ending line of every stanza shatters the cadence and rhyme of what came before. 

No, I didn’t serve in Vietnam, but people I knew did. Many of my readers will not remember what a dark, angry, and desperate time that was — for both sides. This came out of a dark place that surprised me too. [Note: contains profanity]

Thank you for your hospitality

A poem of the “police action” in Vietnam.

by David Satterlee

No, I didn’t serve in Vietnam, but people I knew did. Many of my readers will not remember what a dark, angry, and desperate time that was — for both sides. This came out of a dark place that surprised me too. [Note: contains profanity]

Nothing so rapturous, so beauteous, and grand
As napalm applied to a section of land.
Earth dances and sways and it bucks where you stand;
Consuming at once, in cataclysmic orgasm, every foe, every friend, every frond, every f-ing leach.

Don’t know when to duck; there’s never alarm.
Shot at by snipers. Pinned down near some farm.
I cradled a buddy as he died with no arm.
He gave as a gift the last whisper of breath from his lips.
I would have liked to shake his hand.

Pacify, pacify, pacify thou.
We’re torching your