Poetry Magazine, Jennifer Bosveld, April 2002

Poetry Magazine

Jennifer Bosveld

USA

Editor Pudding House Press

www.puddinghouse.com

Abolish the Death Penalty Because

Killing killers caused 120 proven wrongful executions in recent years
Killing killers grieves The Interdependent Web of Life
Killing killers sanctions killing and is against most religious teachings
Killing killers is not what the Dali Lama would do
Killing killers breaks the Commandment, Thou Shalt Not Kill
Killing killers contributes to a violent society
Killing killers opposes the Beatitude, Blessed are the merciful
Killing killers creates another victim of violence
Killing killers is always murder
Killing killers is unconstitutional and is "cruel and unusual punishment"
Killing killers is politically dangerous because many are willing to die;
executions risk opposite effect
Killing killers is not logical revenge
Killing killers is not suitable revenge
Killing killers is only revenge and is therefore not honorable response
Killing killers makes it hard to get an impartial jury in capital punishment cases
Killing killers does not help victim families and keeps them in a revenge mode
Killing killers disrespects victims whose cases should be remembered
Killing killers doesn't fit the concept of "corrections"
Killing killers is not an honorable legacy our children should inherit
Killing killers cheats us from our highest selves
Killing killers gives the state power over life and death; some people thought that was God's job
Killing killers means murderers have no chance to repent
Killing killers destroys the killer's chance to learn
Killing killers makes us concentrate on killing and killers
Killing killers dishonors federal government and our entire country
Killing killers makes each taxpayer an accomplice
Killing killers is savage, irresponsible, and against the world's way
Killing killers makes us ignore what's essential and remember what is evil in us as a community
Killing killers means murderers don't face their crime
Killing killers violates the universal declaration of human rights
Killing killers allows murderers quick release
Killing killers distracts us from additional good work for justice
Killing killers is not a way to clean out prisons
Killing killers means you'd be killing your brother, your sister
Killing killers creates martyrs out of criminals
Killing killers causes chaos on the streets, causes confrontation on the sidewalks
Killing killers forces victim families to anticipate more death
Killing killers does not avenge victims
Killing killers dishonors voters
Killing killers is not "An Eye for an Eye;" it does not equal the original "sin"-both are unique sins
Killing killers is not a reason to save money
Killing killers makes us concentrate on death instead of life
Killing killers dishonors the judicial system
Killing killers means murderers have no chance to pay back
Killing killers does not show that killing is wrong
Killing killers makes us all "affected parties" though most are unwilling citizens
Killing killers means murderers have no chance to reform
Killing killers is not a reason to clean out the prisons
Killing killers dishonors the local/state government
Killing killers does not influence future killers not to kill
Killing killers breaks another mothers heart
Killing killers is not what Martin Luther King would do
Killing killers destroys the judge's, jury's, prosecutor's, defense team's, and governor's chance to learn
Killing killers does not bring back the dead
Killing killers is not what Gandhi would do
Killing killers is not what Jesus would do
Killing killers ignores "No Man is an Island"
Killing killers stops world assistance toward capture-Europeans long centered ethics anti-execution
Killing killers is not pro-life (in case you say you are pro-life)
Killing killers is not pro-choice (it's not your body)
Killing killers makes us guilty of doublespeak, contradiction, illogical reasoning
Killing killers is a hate crime
Killing killers means deep and sorrowful regret when later someone else confesses
Killing killers means deep and sorrowful regret when later the eye witness retracts
Killing killers means deep and sorrowful regret when later we discover tainted evidence
Killing killers does not save us money
Killing killers makes the State a killer
Killing killers dishonors the legal system
Killing killers works against prison reform
Killing killers is not the best we can come to by now.

-Jennifer Bosveld, American Poets Opposed to Executions

© 2001 Jennifer Bosveld

Stand vigil where we are the least humane until all lives are enabled toward a greater good.
When faced with difficult decisions, all we need ask is, Is it Life-Affirming.

A Stabilized Culture
in the Love of the Flag

It was a squirrel
that beat around the bush
of the taxus,
night far from dark, full moon
in fact and stars
slung all over.
Midwest like that and lights all over Broadway.

Some geologist said
(thought he was an expert on . . .)
only one animal lives in its own
sensory world
and "I'm not telling."
But the squirrel talked and it talked like mad.

He also said
(this geologist that is)
we'll never know a thing
worth knowing about the human brain,
while evolution chattered there in front of us.

I'm pushed to protest-
something about nuts
Rock scientists should study
MTV and politicians the Cartoon
Network or be retracted as raccoons on halloween

We the people
need discernment camps
coffee perks at poets hide-a-ways
sniff out our days to make
a squirrelly universe a study of
the enemy the greed-culture makes
an enemy where there would be none
I am not glad to have
wasted so much time.

The dark is light. There
is nothing in it that can save us
or destroy.

A dog is asleep at the circus

an unlikely form enveloped in neon
shook once, perhaps in dreams he breaks
the glassy surface of a lake but here
he is dead to the world as they say

He's an unlikely form in neon
no thought of a master or bone or mate
he's on the boulevard of barebacks
and barkers

no thought of the circus
we're mad at the dog who ignores
what we pay for. We're not even curious
on this boulevard of barkers,
tickets traded; faces painted

we're mad at the dog who can sleep
through kaliope racket and clappers
the tickets scalped higher from
faces so painted the world is dead
to us even the neon performers

think nothing of masters or
bones that are tossed we bark
in costume and mask and can't
sleep with all of the racket of
dreaming he writes us we stay

Prayers from Ireland
Ring of Blessing

1.

Guitars from all over Ireland north & south fall from the skies
from Belfast to Dublin they pluck their harmonics in opposition
to the news-RockGodz Bless America, fill Appalachian shanties
and CitySky alike. They bless the world; we play it to heal.
We catch these prayers as we're stuck in a moment and as though
they are homing birds and send them back to Ireland
full circle with message, welcome them repeatedly, never dreaming
terrorism will visit here where I live, the home of the so-called free.
U2 sings One, for unitarians and trinitarians equally; Van Morrison
rings in peace-talkers ears, "Enlightenment-don't know what it is."

2.

My right hand releases a concrete moon destined to sink
like peace-hopes overnight. My left on a handle for hope.
I am not poet or goddess enough. Three things I hold holy
I would trade for the music that saves me: My blank page
for a viola; a mouthful of meadow for a dobro. If only
we could keep us singing-speech for song.

3.

Canvases stacked, oils nearly dry, weavings stretched like truth,
sculptures pedestaled inside the windows of a braided heritage-
I call the muses constantly to work, to breathe, I pray Let Go &
Let ArtGodz rule protestant & catholic, muslim and jew, all
I refuse to capitalize. Musicians rise from grassroots and restore
my soul like ole time religion. We have not been troubled
to know how to sing. Here, take this only thing I own. This book
full of empty. This silence struggling to come home.

-© Copyright, 8.14.01 rev. after 9.11.01 rev 1/18/02, Jennifer Bosveld.

FORTUNE
thank you, David Baratier for the reminder about
Estrella of the old amusement parks and that we make our own futures

Estrella says:
Do your bills get you down?
Do they make you fret and frown?
Despair not my own fair one,
Your battle against them will soon be won.

You will return to a dark house next Friday
another blackout to last 4 hours, you are
practiced at walking your house blind
because of these frequent nuisances. The matches
will be in the top buffet drawer on the right,
under the antique tatted tablecloth
your grandmother made. They will strike
the first time and light 6 candles on a match.
The mantel will adequately light the room where
you can read your mail. It will be September 12
and in the name of the next scheduled execution
of a death row inmate, you will walk blindly
into your study, lift the stack of bills now due
and hum a Bruce Springstein tune and say to the
person coming in the back door, "Dead bills walking".
You will take a candle to the kitchen sink and
burn the little folded statements of debt and their
envelopes one at a time. Burn each amount due-
$25 this month on your $3,000 Sears bill.
By the end of the day, you will have no balance
on 20 credit cards and business accounts.
The ceiling outdoors will lift, the ground quake
with laughter, and all because your grandmother
will die, on a Sunday in August, just before
midnight, while you are posting trash on ebay
with your fingers crossed, your eyes to the sky.