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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Click (Never Forget)


Click.

Look at all those bodies
in that pile,
they’re practically skeletons,
and watch this-
they just bulldoze them
into a giant grave,
those goddamned Nazis.

Click.

Watch when Ruby
steps in
to shoot Oswald.
Back up,
now freeze it -
look at that face.

Click.

This is video
of the last helicopters
leaving Saigon,
look at how they’re
holding on
trying to fly out of there.

Click.

You remember this one:
the famous video
of the second plane
hitting the Twin Towers,
and now listen 
to the panic.

Click.

This is Hurricane Katrina,
look at that poor guy
in a rowboat
with his handmade sign.

Click.

And this is
from last summer
in Aurora, Colorado.

Click.

And there’s
Hurricane Sandy.

Click.

And the
Sandy Hook massacre.

Click

And the Boston marathon.

Click.
Click.
Click.

I don’t have all these
sites bookmarked for
some perverse thrill.

I keep them
so I will
never forget.

Yeah, I know,

I sound desensitized,
but I’m not:

I’m just overwhelmed.

[Posted for #meetingthebar at http://dversepoets.com/2013/04/18/meeting-the-bar-the-unfathomable/ - come along and mourn with me.]

28 comments:

  1. I like this. I can hear the mouse clicking and I can feel how overwhelmed the speaker is.

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  2. Anonymous3:26 PM

    I'm not sure if it's better to remember than to forget. we must keep going

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    1. It's more fun to forget - but it's our duty to remember. Thanks.

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  3. it wasn't until the end that I realized it wasn't a snapshot being taken, but the clicking of the mouse. regardless, each click brought forth a new image before my eyes...no need to bookmark them; they're planted there, etched into the hollows of my mind. as you said they're there not for some perverse thrill, but a reminder that truthfully I don't know what to do with. though...

    this week I had the honor of listening to two holocaust survivors speak to a group of eighth grade students; one of them said it was important to share and remember so there story can live past them and hopefully keep such evil from happening again. but...

    I don't know; we learn and protect against one evil just for another to creep up...it is quite overwhelming.

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    1. Yes, that is why we also need to bookmark the beautiful things as well. Thanks.

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  4. Interesting and origianl approach here - glad I checked your work out and will be back...

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much. Come back anytime.

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    2. Thanks, and come back anytime.

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  5. The bookmarks work well to transition and also to ramp up the intensity and sense of being overwhelmed. Very well done, thank you for joining us tonight.

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    1. Thank you - yes, I can overdose on clicks.

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  6. Overwhelmed indeed! We are fortunate however that we don't live in countries where it is even more rampant..

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    1. Or that our news media is so typically soft and mushy. Thanks.

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  7. Oh, I know what you mean. How much pain can we hold?

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    Replies
    1. I don't know, but we always seem to add a little bit more.

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  8. i still haven't watched the news cause i'm afraid of the pictures... well done mosk

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    Replies
    1. Don't watch the news - you already know what happened. thanks.

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  9. Buddah..Very moving piece and realistic. I was thinking you were showing a video to someone in the future...that maybe we had evolved out of this violent nature....)oh well, thats just my childish nature that magical thinking)But yes, keep the collection not for shock value, but so we will never ever forget. Because people do forget with time and we keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Very powerful piece. Thanks for sharing

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    1. Thanks, and I liked your perspective better though. :)

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  10. To remember can be especially painful when we realize how many times history repeats itself, but we have to remind ourselves in the hope of breaking that cycle, and your poetic bookmarks help do that.

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    1. Right and I'd say history doesn't repeat itself, but we do. Thanks, Mosk

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  11. overwhelmed we all are. The flood of disasters and the speed which it arrives is so different today..

    Today I'm probably desensitized by the sheer magnitude of it, and thereofore I need the story of the individuals than just body-count.

    We as poets and authors should probably rememeber that.

    Anne Frank stories touch our souls much more than the overwhelming pictures. Sad but true.

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    1. Exactly - I agree. I try to also learn some of the victims' name as well as the murderers. That seems fitting.

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  12. the lineage of happenings is very powerful

    but those last lines hit me the most :

    " Yeah, I know,

    I sound desensitized,
    but I’m not:

    I’m just overwhelmed."

    thanks so much

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  13. such a novel approach, very impactful and yes, it is indeed overwhelming

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  14. Anonymous6:32 PM

    I didn't see where you were going with this, until the end, poet friend. Thank you for helping us all deal with what we are feeling today. - deb

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  15. Your last line choked me - didn't know where you were going either until then.

    Anna

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  16. The click has several faces, including a trigger... this is one of the most profound poems I've read this week. Brought it into perspective.

    And now the Pale Stales will start hating on Chechnyans and Russians in general, because we NEED another Cold War, right? Jesus, Mosk, you just tore society a new one. And I know how weary we all are... if only the drones would stop and the freaking pieholes called diplomats and heads of state would open their MOUTHS and say "Enough," maybe we'll have peace... love you, my bruddah. Ameleh

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