History Repeating, Looping, SCREAMING

 Of Late

"'Stephen Smith, University of Iowa sophomore, burned what he said was his draft card'
and Norman Morrison, Quaker, of Baltimore Maryland, burned what he said was himself.
You, Robert McNamara, burned what you said was a concentration
Of the Enemy Aggressor.
No news medium troubled to put it in quotes.

And Norman Morrison, Quaker, of Baltimore Maryland, burned what he said was himself.
He said it with simple materials such as would be found in your kitchen.
In your office you were informed.
Reporters got cracking frantically on the mental disturbance angle.
So far nothing turns up.

Norman Morrison, Quaker, of Baltimore Maryland, burned, and while burning, screamed.
No tip-off. No release.
Nothing to quote, to manage to put in quotes.
Pity the unaccustomed hesitancy of the newspaper editorialists.
Pity the press photographers, not called.

Norman Morrison,  Quaker,  of Baltimore Maryland,  burned  and was burned and said
all that there is to say in that language.
Twice what is said in yours.
It is a strange sect, Mr. McNamara, under advice to try
the whole of a thought in silence, and to oneself."

George Starbuck


[Reposted here in honor and in memory of Airman Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, in protest against our support of, and complicity in, the war in Gaza.]

LPK
Dw/LJ
2.27.24