Just the Tickets

by Korvus Korax / August 22nd, 2021

Forbidden  to use honest names
to utilize terms that might invite blame
              words   that might arouse shame

being as they are under strict instructions
              to never label   a spade a spade
state spokestoadies  when forced to wade
into the swamp of their nation's predations

find themselves admitting
that while their side may  “on occasion
              and only with utmost reluctance”
                                   find itself inflicting
'collateral damage'

and carrying out  'targeted killings'
'regime change operations'
'preventive wars'  'extraordinary renditions'
                     and 'enhanced interrogations'

              (in short  just the euphemistic
                                   doublespeak tickets
              to sugarcoat maleficence
                                   and justify injustice)

the enemy  conversely  engages
both avidly and on a tragically regular basis
                     (and in corresponding order)

in civilian slaughter  rank assassinations
butcherous putsches  naked aggression
savage abductions and barbarous torture.


Just the ostensibly well-intentioned
pretexts
to mess  with out-of-favour neighbours

       so-called-liberal  interventions
       (in all their uber-presumptuous
       misguided flavours)
                     are rolled out right on cue

by the usual brutish  self-righteous crews
of humanitarian-imperialist thugs
       to blaring blasts of faux-caring fanfare

in much the same  underhanded manner
that NGO/front group promoted protests
which allegedly reflect the people's wishes
are plied   by astroturfing foreign interests

as their tried and true disguise of choice
when staging coups   their media portray
as grassroots plays to give natives a voice.


Just the tickets  to give conscience the slip
and make malfeasance  plausibly deniable
weasel words offer the perfect verbal cover
                     to fig leaf over the unjustifiable.
From his lofty perch near the top of the earth, Korvus observes the whirling world of humans, with equal parts wonder, disgust, and amusement. Korvus is the author of the unpublished book "RED PILL POEMS: The Poetry of Empire, Politics and Power" and may be reached at ravenzroost@protonmail.com Read other articles by Korvus.

This article was posted on Sunday, August 22nd, 2021 at 8:03am and is filed under Poetry.