The Beacon of Liberty

The people of Iraq failed to kiss the boots of Satan
And so the Beacon of Liberty dropped bombs on them

Cut off from all humanity with sanctions
The Beacon of Liberty dropped yet more bombs

And when a band of upstarts in Afghanistan refused to kneel to the empire
The Beacon of Liberty dropped bombs on them

The Afghans were already living in ruins but that didn’t stop
The Beacon of Liberty from dropping bombs anyway

When the Libyans sought to set up a gold-backed dinar
The Beacon of Liberty dropped bombs on them

When the people of Yemen yearned to be free from the Saudis
The Beacon of Liberty dropped bombs on them too
And then helped the Saudis to drop even more bombs

The Serbs told Western Finance Capital to jump in a lake
And so the Beacon of Liberty dropped bombs on them

And when barbarians in Syria and Neo-Nazis in Ukraine wanted new weapons
The Beacon of Liberty happily delivered entire planeloads

And when the children of the West were reading a few too many books
The Beacon of Liberty turned a flamethrower on them

Feeding their own children to maws ever ravenous, and inflicting apathy
And soullessness on sons and daughters once of yore

And that is how hallowed memories came to be floating in the wind
For the Beacon of Liberty set fire to them

David Penner’s articles on politics and health care have appeared in Dissident Voice, CounterPunch, Global Research, The Saker blog, OffGuardian and KevinMD; while his poetry can be found at Dissident Voice, Mad in America, and redtailedhawk.substack.com. Also a photographer, he is the author of three books of portraiture: Faces of The New Economy, Faces of Manhattan Island, and Manhattan Pairs. He can be reached at 321davidadam@gmail.com. Read other articles by David.