Between The Euphrates and The Potomac
by
Justice Putnam
It might have begun
In the month of Rajab
But I'm sure it was before
The year 490
The sad thing
Is that it continues
To this day.
We were told
It was about
Sacrament
Icon mythology
We were told it
Was about
The fluid of decay.
But it was about
Children dying
Underground
Buried up to
Their education
While the true believers
Stared up at the sky.
The greatest fear
Is that people will bear
Their ignorance and
Humiliation
Just like they
Are mesmerized.
But everywhere
That the innocent die
I pray
Somewhere
At least
One person
Will wonder
Why.
(San Francisco, California)
Bless Me Father
by
Justice Putnam
Bless me Father
For I have sinned
It’s been so long
Since my
Last Confession
Give me penance Father
I’m on bended knee
My heart is crying
No amount of Hail Mary’s
Or Acts of Contrition
Can Absolve me.
I gave my parents
A lot of grief
But that doesn’t compare
To my evil deed
Give me penance Father
I’m on bended knee
My heart is crying
One summer’s night
I stole a neighbor’s purse
But Father I’ve done
Something so much worse
Give me penance Father
I’m on bended knee
My heart is crying
Really Father I’ve tried
To live an honest life
And I know I haven’t
Really done things right
Give me penance Father
I’m on bended knee
My heart is crying
I’ve been known to carouse
Like a soldier will
But my sin
Is so much bigger still
Give me penance Father
I’m on bended knee
My heart is crying
Somewhere near
The Tigris River
Somewhere north
Old Baghdad
Lies an old woman
In widow’s shrouds
I shot her dead.
The Sarge said
It’s kill or be killed
But Father still
I shot her dead.
Bless me Father
For I have sinned
It’s been so long
Since my
Last Confession
Give me penance Father
I’m on bended knee
My heart is crying
No amount of Hail Mary’s
Or Acts of Contrition
Can Absolve me.
(San Francisco, California)
South of the Border
by
Justice Putnam
I’m playing my cadenza
In a boxcar near Del Mar
Tomorrow
I’ll have to pitch a tent
What little was
Of my pension
I just had to cash in
And then it was
Immediately spent
(By going south of the border
South of the border
South of the border
Going south
South of the border
South of the border
South of the border
Going south)
I can cobble shoes
To last half a lifetime
Manufacture steel
That would never
Show a dent
But the buyers
Of the company
Said they found
A better way
For the stockholder’s monies
To be spent
(By going south of the border
South of the border
South of the border
Going south
South of the border
South of the border
South of the border
Going south)
I went from Bangor
All the way to San Diego
Every where the same story
Of the jobs
Just up and went
How our Country
Is now a Homeland
Our children have
Turned to Soldiers
They’ve just been
Ordered by the President
(To go south of the border
South of the border
South of the border
Going south
South of the border
South of the border
South of the border
Going south)
Maybe I’ll wear
A white linen suit
Like Malcolm Lowry
Maybe I’ll attain
An affectation and
Diplomat air
When my days
Are numbered
And my time is at hand
Would the Country
Or the Company
Even care
(That I died south of the border?
I died
South of the border
I died
Going south)
(Guadalajara, Mexico)
Déjà Vu United
by
Justice Putnam
Do you hear the war bells ringing?
Do you feel the cannons blasting?
We must teach or force Them
To do things
Our way!
There is no rhyme or reason
For their terrorist treason
Their hate for us
Comes from a vacuum
‘Cause we've always done it
The Right Way!
Go to sleep you dear citizen
Don't mind the man behind the curtain
The levers that he is working
Don't concern you
Anyway!
Just know that the very next Nation
That is blessed with our invasion
Was attacked for a very good reason
They got in
Our Way!
It is Right for Us to do this
God said that
WE Must Do this
No matter what the excuse is
We're going to
Do It
Our Way!
Just know that the very next Nation
That is blessed with our invasion
Was attacked for a very good reason
They got in
Our Way!
It is Right for Us to Do this
God Said that WE Must Do this
No matter what the excuse is
We're going to
Do It
Our Way!
(Yorba Linda, California)
There’s a Cold Wind Blowing
by
Justice Putnam
There’s a cold
Wind blowing
It’s blowing
North and South
There’s a cold
Wind blowing
No one knows
What it’s about
There’s a cold
Wind blowing
It’s blowing
East and West
There’s a cold
Wind blowing
Putting so many
In duress
There’s a cold
Wind blowing
It’s blowing
Through your town
There’s a cold
Wind blowing
It’s blowing
All the houses down
There’s a cold
Wind blowing
It’s blowing
North and South
There’s a cold
Wind blowing
No one knows
What it’s about
(Berkeley, California)
The Myth of Chimeral Evolution
by
Justice Putnam
Darwin
Berkeley and
Nietzsche
Were traversing
Through the
Primordial soup
When a
Booming Voice
Echoed throughout the
World,
"Ha! Ha! Ha!"
The Booming Voice
Joyously announced,
For He was a
Joyous and happy
Booming Voice,
"So you
have quite a conundrum
Before you now!"
Berkeley,
As was his manner,
Nudged ahead of
Nietzsche and
Announced,
"I know or am
Conscious of my own
Being;
And that I
Myself
Am not my ideas,
But somewhat else,
A thinking,
Active principle
That perceives,
Knows,
Wills and
Operates about
Ideas.
I know that I,
One and the same
Self,
Perceive both
Colors and
Sounds:
That a color
Cannot perceive a
Sound,
Nor a sound a
Color:
That I am
Therefore one
Individual principle,
Distinct from
Color and
Sound;
And for the
Same reason,
From all other
Sensible things and
Inert ideas.
But I am not
In like manner
Conscious either
Of the
Existence or
Essence of
Matter.
On the contrary,
I know that
Nothing inconsistent
Can exist,
And that the
Existence of
Matter implies an
Inconsistency.
Further,
I know
What I mean
When I affirm
That there is a
Spiritual substance
Or support of ideas,
That is,
That a
Spirit knows and
Perceives
Ideas.
But I do not know
What is meant
When it is said
That an unperceiving
Substance has
Inherent in it
And supports either
Ideas or the
Archetypes of
Ideas.
There is
Therefore
Upon the whole
No parity
Of case between
Spirit and
Matter."
Not to be outdone,
Nietzsche elbowed
His way past
Darwin and Berkeley to
His preordained spot,
"With the highest respect,
I accept
The name of
Heraclitus.
When the rest
Of the
Philosophic folk
Rejected the testimony
Of the senses
Because they showed
Multiplicity and
Change.
He rejected their
Testimony
Because they
Showed things
As if they had
Permanence and
Unity.
Heraclitus too
Did the
Senses an
Injustice.
They lie neither
In the way
The Eleatics believed,
Nor as he believed,
They do not
Lie at all.
What we make
Of their
Testimony,
That alone
Introduces lies;
For example,
The lie
Of
Unity,
The lie
Of
Thinghood,
Of
Substance,
Of
Permanence.
Reason is the cause
Of our
Falsification of the
Testimony of the
Senses.
In so far as the
Senses show
Becoming,
Passing away and
Change,
They do not
Lie.
But Heraclitus
Will remain
Eternally right
With his assertion that
Being is an empty
Fiction.
The apparent world
Is the only one:
The true world is
Merely added
By a
Lie."
Darwin strode
Forward in a
Gentlemanly manner,
Cleared his throat and
Began,
"As man can produce
And certainly has
Produced a great
Result by his
Methodical and
Unconscious means of
Selection,
What may not
Nature effect?
Man can act
Only on
External and
Visible characters:
Nature cares
nothing for appearances,
Except in so far
As they may be
Useful to any
Being.
She can act
On every
Internal organ,
On every
Shade of
Constitutional difference,
On the whole
Machinery of
Life.
Man selects
Only for his
Own good;
Nature only for
That of the
Being which
She tends.
Every selected character
Is fully
Exercised by
Her;
And the being is
Placed under well-suited
Conditions of
Life.
Man keeps the
Natives of many
Climates in the
Same country;
He seldom
Exercises each
Selected character
In some
Peculiar and
Fitting manner;
He feeds a
Long and a
Short beaked pigeon
On the
Same food;
He does not
Exercise a
Long-backed or
Long-legged quadruped
In any
Peculiar manner;
He exposes sheep
With long and short wool
To the same
Climate.
He does not
Allow the most
Vigorous males to
Struggle for the females.
He does not
Rigidly destroy all
Inferior animals,
But protects during
Each varying season,
As far as lies
In his power,
All his
Productions.
He often begins
His selection by some
Half-monstrous form;
Or at least by some
Modification
Prominent enough
To catch
His eye,
Or to be
Plainly
Useful to him.
Under nature,
The slightest
Difference of
Structure or
Constitution
May well
Turn the
Nicely-balanced
Scale in the
Struggle for
Life,
And so be
Preserved.
How fleeting are
The wishes
And efforts
Of man!
How short his
Time!
And consequently
How poor
Will his
Products be,
Compared with those
Accumulated by
Nature during whole
Geological periods.
Can we wonder then,
That
Nature's productions
Should be far
Truer in character
Than man's productions;
That they should
Be infinitely
Better adapted
To the most
Complex conditions of
Life,
And should
Plainly bear
The stamp of far
Higher workmanship?"
"Ha! Ha! Ha!"
The Booming Voice
Joyously continued,
"If it were not
For your
Minds,
I would almost
Doubt my own
Existence!"
(Sausalito, California)