{"id":9310,"date":"2015-06-01T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=9310"},"modified":"2015-04-26T13:02:13","modified_gmt":"2015-04-26T17:02:13","slug":"a-bitter-mockery-and-blazing-eagle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/a-bitter-mockery-and-blazing-eagle\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bitter Mockery and Blazing Eagle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bittermockery\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

A Bitter Mockery<\/h3>\n

They say
\nthat America
\nis an old whore,
\nwho wore out her welcome
\na long, long
\ntime ago,
\nand now,
\nonly pockets of sanity
\nremain.
\nThey say that she is nothing more
\nthan a joke,
\na bitter mockery
\nas the rich skyrocket,
\nand the poor crash and burn.
\nHer tongue is soiled,
\nand her hands are bloody.
\nHer body ravaged,
\nconsumed,
\ntattooed with strip malls,
\nand her blood is green.
\nJustice is blind,
\nthe very white
\nof her eyes
\nfor divided are we,
\nand I can\u2019t breathe.
\nHow she has aged.
\nOnce so glorious
\nand now so decrepit,
\nstaring six feet down
\ninto oblivion.
\nThose golden days are obliterated,
\nannihilated,
\nand time has marched on
\nwith its back turned this way.
\nShe\u2019s no queen of the world anymore.
\nMaybe, she is gone already,
\nnothing but an afterthought,
\nor maybe,
\njust maybe,
\nif we cut deep,
\nif we listen close,
\nwe\u2019ll hear her heart
\nbeat.
\nDespite anguish and pain,
\nthe lies and betrayal,
\nshe remains.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blazing Eagle<\/h3>\n

From Melissa’s\u00a0poetry chapbook, Tears of Sand\/Amazon Kindle<\/em><\/p>\n

The death toll echoed
\nthroughout the shattered city
\nas children clung to pictures
\nof people buried beneath the ruble
\nwhile the dust swept over the dead.
\nThe sun vanished beneath the clouds
\nas millions of tears were spilled
\nfor those lost and injured
\nbecause their world was violated
\nby an invisible enemy
\nwho used pawns
\nto take away our beloved city
\nand leave us open
\nas a reminder
\nthat we too are vulnerable,
\nbut our enemy is wrong.
\nWe may be vulnerable
\njust like anyone else,
\nbut we are also strong.
\nWe can be knocked down,
\nbut we will get back on our feet
\nto kick down our enemies
\nbecause our spirits will not break.
\nAnd the demand for justice
\nwill be so great
\nthat we will become one mass
\nto swarm over our enemy
\nand release our anger and sorrow
\nin one blinding flash
\nand leave the enemy
\nbegging for death.
\nWe will not lie down
\nfor those to storm on top of us.
\nWe will not beg
\nto be left alone.
\nWe will not hide
\nand hope our enemies disappear. 4<\/p>\n

We will not lie to ourselves
\nthat this was all a mistake.
\nWe will not die
\nand throw our orphans away.
\nWe will not give up!
\nWe will fight
\nwhen the enemy is unmasked.
\nWe will avenge our loved ones.
\nWe will remember this day
\nthat we were bombed
\nbecause it will give us strength
\nto stand up tall
\nand to say,
\n“No matter what you do to us,
\nwe will come after you
\nand punish you
\nfor throwing away the people
\nthat we have known and cherished
\nand crushing our pride into the dirt
\nbecause we are Americans
\nand we will not take your shit.
\nSo don’t dare try us
\nbecause it will be your last mistake.”
\nAnd as I now contemplate my move,
\nI bow my head
\nand say a prayer
\nfor those who died today.<\/p>\n

This poem was written on 9\/11\/01.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Melissa R. Mendelson is a published author and poet with publications both online and in print. \u00a0She is also a New York State Employee. \u00a0She has three books out on Amazon and Amazon Kindle that range from Supernatural to Horror to Science-Fiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They say
\nthat America
\nis an old whore,
\nwho wore out her welcome
\na long, long
\ntime ago,
\nand now,
\nonly pockets of sanity
\nremain. <\/p>\n

READ MORE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":9312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,218,219,199],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9310"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9310"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9327,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9310\/revisions\/9327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}