Old Glory

Guest Poet Robert Pipes



September 11, 2001
 
The sword of religon sparkels in justice
So bright that i am blinded by both sides
 
Kaleidoscopic spins
 
Am I drunk with divine power 
Or questioned by a sophistic devil?
I felt something beautiful and i don't know what it was
 
Did I feel provential winds
Blowing back the smoke and
Opening the gates of heaven
 
For a moment I saw his face warmly inclined 
To the reckless vulnerablity of freedom
Glancing down at his children
As terrorist and victim alike ascended into paradise
I felt something
 
Like nonsense
As I was crushed by absolute nothingness
What left me except dying life?
 
Maybe I should have felt it earlier
Survival motivates,
Life degenerates, and entropy is our destiny
Hasten life to propegate belief
And survive.
 
The spinning array of color leaves me alone
Baking under florescent light
Watching replays over and over
Until divine power could not be felt
 
Now I wander through the dry sands and swirling wind
Deserted in reality just like you
Lonely, without faith in belief.


October, 2001


Correspond with Robert Pipes at
rpipes@indiana.edu
with your ideas about this poem.



The Albany Poetry Workshop