A Tale of Freedom
by Gary Steven Corseri
www.dissidentvoice.org
March 10, 2006



 

"War is Peace.  Freedom is Slavery.  Ignorance is Strength."

-- George Orwell

1.

They gave birth to a child called Chaos

whom they nicknamed Freedom.

2.

Feeling feisty, Freedom

went out and bought an Uzi

after a 24-hour cooling-off period.

He looked down the barrel

at the young father

shopping at the mall with his daughter.

He took aim and fired

at the homeless veteran

digging for clams

in the dumpster

behind Publix.

He sighted the old people

in their apartment

watching their DVD cozily.

He went to the beach where the students

hung out

in delicious nonchalance.

He waded and nuzzled against them.

3.

True Love and Freedom

were on a collision course.

They'd been toolin' the country for a year.

They'd pick off a coupla gas stations,

shoot up the back roads

past the blue sirens

into the Ozarks and Rockies.

They lived in an old school bus

an hour out of Boulder.

Now True Love was expecting.

Freedom got rough with her.

"I don't want no whining machine

camping out on my lifestyle!"

He flashed his sharkgrey teeth,

raised his irongray hand.

True Love sobbed when he left her

in the mottled motel --

black-eyed, bruised, miscarried.

4.

Freedom went down to the jungles of Colombia

to sniff around.

He bribed some local padrones,

set himself up in the mountains

of the occupied territory.

The white powder came

and he made it green paper.

Washington sent helicopters and rifles

and he turned it all to green paper.

He put on his business suit and made a speech on Fox.

"The people of Columbia are dying for Freedom," he said.

"Freedom requires sacrifice."

He wept as he spoke.

The Nielsen Ratings were the highest in history.

5. 

Transforming into a sleek jet fighter,

Freedom streaked over Fallujah.

He shat white phosphorous

and six thousand Iraqis writhed like bugs.

He kicked down the doors of ten million homes,

siced dogs on old men, ravaged the girls,

imprisoned young men,

looted the treasures of old Babylon--

the jewels of antiquity jangling

through five thousand years of ruin.

Freedom to pillage, rape and murder,

Freedom to terrorize,

enslave, and impose

its indelible stamp on this floating world;

Freedom to oppose

every countervailing freedom;

Freedom to censor and expropriate,

To spy, torture and shred evidence,

to be foolish, loutish, boorish and

to sell Christ for silver,

to bow before the God of War;

to be mercenary,

hateful, lustful and sadistic;

to lie in all sincerity.

Freedom smacked his lips, burped,

looked over his work, blessed it,

lay down on a pile of corpses, and slept

while Predators swept dark clouds above,

and the Machine whirred on below.

Gary Steven Corseri’s work has appeared at Dissident Voice, Common Dreams, CounterPunch, The New York Times, Village Voice, City Lights Review, Redbook, Sky, Georgia Review and PBS-Atlanta.  His books include A Fine Excess, Holy Grail, Holy Grail, and Manifestations. He has taught in public schools, prisons and universities and can be reached at: corseri@verizon.net.

Other Articles and Poems by Gary Corseri

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