The Cool Blue Blog

Freedom's Purple Finger

The following was submitted by a kind reader.

Freedom's Purple Finger

 

I think I will find a factory to produce 8 million purple rubber covers for fingertips

embossed with the word Freedom and an Iraqi flag

and with these purple fingertips, Iraqi men, police and soldiers

will use their triggerfingers to defend their land from terrorists

who threaten peace and freedom.

Iraqi women will use their purple fingertips like thimbles

to sew the fabric of their families lives back to prosperity again

and sew many brightly waving flags to keep Iraq free.

Iraqi children can dip their fingertips into the deep purple ink of education

and build futures never dreamed of before this Purple Finger Day.

American soldiers and civilians, too,

might wear these purple fingertips to celebrate Iraqi Freedom

and push away the terrorists before they come home to stay,

and some may choose to give Saddam

a Purple Finger, too.                        

by Joyce, still a Democrat-free to vote

Rough Men

Rough Men

by Russ Vaughn

“Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men

stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” George Orwell

With a nod to the Mudville Gazette for the quote

There’s a character trait that’s decided by fate

Comes “sadly” to many, far too faint, far too late.

They won’t face the aggressor, stand up to his ire

They have not the will to fight his fire with fire.

So they bend over backwards to see all sides as fair,

Till they’re faced with dragon breath fire in their hair.

Like our brethren in France, who’d know better than we,

Yet seem never to learn, seem doomed never to see.

Yes, it seems there are some who’re determined by fate,

To possess not the courage to step up to the plate,

Who shrink from all threat because nothing’s worth war.

But how can they know lest they’ve been there before?

Thank God some have courage, the will, yes, the grace,

To stand for the shirkers, stand strong in their place.

Thank God we have stalwarts who’ll stand for us all,

Who will rise to the challenge at their nation’s call.

The faint-hearted, who fear, whose reaction is flight,

Have no comprehension of those who will fight.

To hide their own trepidation they attempt to demean

The rough men, who defend them, as barbaric, obscene.

Yet these rough men stand ready, hard weapons to hand,

To put placaters behind them, draw a line in the sand,

To preserve for the peaceniks what they won’t defend,

So their own unearned freedom won’t perish, won’t end.

To appeasers, rough men are coarse government tools.

To rough men, appeasers are dumb delusional fools.

Russ Vaughn

2d Bn, 327^th Parachute Infantry Regiment

101^st Airborne Division

Vietnam 65-66

The Stranger you Know

Another night at the roadhouse
The band is playin blue
The air is electric desperation
The darkness muddy too
She's starin' at the entrance
Waitin' just for you
"I'd give you some attention", he says
"But I'm just passin through"
On my way somewhere

Lady Martin looks so out of place
Takes a cigar from her ward
Lights it with her free hand
Taps the heartbeat on the board
"I just come for the pleasure, man
"I like mine strong and sweet
"If you don't want to serve me here
"I'll take it down the street
"Somehwere over there"

I'm a stranger in this town of mine
Everybody knows my name
I'm hiding in the shadows
That is why I came
When I look into your eyes of blue
Everything is plain as day
Understanding things too quickly
Is as dangerous as they say
I'm a dharma bum
On my way somewhere

Upon Meeting Myself Surprised

Recently received by the ghost of my father
I studied his priestly stature
That I might gather from this the texture of words
I must speak with just a gesture.

But I, not schooled in this manner
Would require a script to be
The interpreter of dreams and crusty glamour;
A bridge from him to me.

For many long years I desired this meeting
And had so often been denied
The agony of his spectral greeting
That I thought that I must die.

Now, suddenly presented with his shining presence
The ghost of a smile I could see
And the dawning of a thought replaced my good sense
There was no other here, just me.

Silence and Thunder

The world is a silent place
Full of motion and changes
Full of gestures and significance
This is how I live
This is what moves me
Standing at an open door the void pulsing through it's threshold
My ears ringing

This is where I stood, and looked and gazed upon the galaxy
In the world of silence and thunder

The world is a colorful place
Full of hues and textures
Full of static images and vibrant exaltations
This is what amuses me
This is what transfixes me
Standing next to the consuming heat, gazing on it's fickle nature
My skin burning

This is where I stood, and looked and gazed upon the galaxies
In the world of silence and thunder

The world is an invisible place
Full of life and creation
Full of potency and imagination
This is where I am from
This is where I am to be
This is where I stood and created the universes out of the universes
Purified by the scathing thought of the other

This is where I spoke aloud the words that named the galaxies
Near the world of silence and thunder