Not with a Whimper but a Bang: A Decade in Review.
Part One: 2000 - 2003

08 December 2009
 
It begins not with a whimper, but a bang.
Y2K computers do not crash consumer capacity,
We stand until 4 A.M. in London, D.C., NYC streets,
Giving life to the birthing of a new century,
Though, technically, doesn’t it begin a year from now?
 
Boys of all ages are glued to Christina Aguilera,
(what on earth has she done with her hair?),
As Sting expresses our hopes within his words,
About “Starting up a Brand New Day”,
As Billy Joel states to thousands that no,
(pardon the burning from your Millennium ticket price),
We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning,
But only in this upcoming decade will we realize,
How hot those flames can burn the world as we know it.
 
Give us more, the 90’s fantastical heights of folly,
Flash forward into 2000 with the stock going, baby, going up…
Lift into the world of the crash before Bush takes flight,
Perchance to dream, a vision of what shall come?
AOL-Time Warner evolves, Mighty Microsoft slapped on the wrist,
stock index, market, growth, glory,
Go baby go, how high can you fly?
 
We join in hands and celebration in Sydney,
Bringing the Olympics to life,
As spectacular hope reigns through America,
The 90s were a decade of excess and success,
Global boom on economic groom of supply-side,
And yet the first wisps of what shall come,
Give shape with the 17 sailors who meet their fate,
As the arms of terror in Al-Qaeda strike the U.S.S. Cole.
Reaction is weak, when we could have struck hard, we went limp.
If but a decade ago we could know now, what we didn’t know…
 
A word on liberty as Clinton gives way to going…
Elian, Elian, your mother gave her life,
So that you may have freedom in your life,
But with no passport for America,
Back to cruel Cuban hands you are returned,
Riot the streets, Miami weeps,
(as so many others of us as well),
The catch is on the Democratic administration,
Which will come to regret their heartless decisions,
Come November in Florida’s general election.
 
Hanging chad, dangling chad,
We all come to hate chad,
But Florida is once again aflame,
The circus of reporters, counts, re-counts,
News-stations watching U-haul trucks carrying voter ballets,
For the re-counts on the second counted re-counts.
At last, the painful horror is laid to rest,
Global Warming Gore would not reign,
And a new era would dawn in George W.
How different fate may have been,
A world now almost unknown,
Had perhaps America rightfully taken in Elian,
Instead of being ripped apart by political tango.
 
And from this path the stage is all set,
Dawn of a new decade, within a new century,
As I graduate from high school to the birth of college,
Kicking me from childhood into the cosmic karma dance,
As an adult to the flame of life’s lips.
 
II. 2001
 
New year into new dawns,
We see George W., Ariel Sharon, and Tony Blair,
Lift into the ascendancy of their political proclivity.
It is not a kinder, safer, world, as the world prepares,
The politicians wave their fists into the air,
Is this branded "Compassionate Conservativism",
the entity that shall begin two wars before decade's end?
How I miss Dutch along these moments reflections,
true ideology was his now sneered,
Waiting for a single spark from Middle Eastern fears.
 
In China our ten pilots hold their breath,
(as too many military fingers twitch in the U.S.),
And Milosevic is finally brought forward for his brutality,
dictator forwarded into the Hague for his crimes against humanity.
 
It is not at all a fancy and special year,
As 2000 was presented and proclaimed with such zealous passion,
But rather things are rather uneventful,
Stepping into the shoes of our daily lives and daily grind.
Here I come home one morning from visiting with a friend,
Discussing ideas for our dismissal group at Church,
When the world of my youth, when the world of all I have known,
Comes crashing through my Fox News Channel television screen.
 
We have all written our feelings, we have all expressed our thoughts,
But none of us shall ever forget, the fear that morning,
The uncertainty, confusion, and pain, as our world as we knew it crashed.
America was no longer as she had previously been,
And no matter the words or the pain, none of us can take away,
The emotions that will forever run deep from that 11th morning,
In that cool, sunny, morning breeze.
It began not with a whimper, but a bang, and so it continues.
 
To the Taliban a special October greeting,
As our planes crack the fields, and our troops touch the ground,
Signs of “Let’s Roll!” touched on airplane wings,
The sound of rifle fires and mortar crashing,
It’s our time come round, to the harbingers of terror,
We shall make our roar loud.
With all our passion and conviction,
In striking against the enemy supreme,
We never question an Exit Strategy,
Which will ‘eventually’ free us from continued hostilities.
And 'eventually' moves onward, and onward...
 
Passing the Patriot Act,
Our civil liberties placed on trial,
Against the greater enemy of our society.
Is it worth the freedoms we hold dear,
For our fear of terrorist reprisal for our culture?
For fear of the death of our society,
Does it stop with water boarding and wire tapping,
Or is it just a matter of time before we’re all under scrutiny?
Don’t open that letter, chief, if you don’t know who sent it,
As threat of Anthrax, and not the sound of the 80s band,
Run rampant through American lands.
 
Alas, Enron brings up the rear,
As stocks start slipping with some fear,
Chapter 11 filed with billions in debt,
Arthur Anderson cooking books like a great chef,
And we wonder how deep corporate and government greed,
Has shaped the nature of our current society.
Where does the buck stop, where does the blame lay,
As the beginning of the corporate chaos,
Is etched within this example of Enron.
 
III. 2002
 
“No Child Left Behind”,
Beheading reporters,
and the Euro boom through ‘New Europa’,
we kick this one off right, baby,
with the pace of pessimism for a new dawn, slipping down.
 
No one is buying gasoline at D.C.,
For fear of being shot, the Beltway snipers reigning true,
While we watch silly people kneeling before gas pumps,
(though perhaps it would make a great American portrait),
WorldCom, U.S. Airlines, and United Airlines launch their CH. 11’s,
Seems no one is wanting to fly the ‘friendly’ skies for 2002,
And piss poor corporate management continues to slump.
 
Here within, a birth to Homeland Security,
To ensure that all our thoughts and words are pure in act and deed,
Never for us to be contrived apart from great Uncle Sam’s seed,
When we sacrifice our individualized freedom,
Are we worthy of the continued sacrifice of soldiers in Afghani fields?
Where, where does the line become drawn?
George W., when my hand lifted the lever true,
to elect you as my first president at 20,
I thought the lever said "Republican", but seems I, too,
have been led astray with these continued governmental growings...
 
Meanwhile we look to Iraq,
Resolutions are passed and enacted,
12,000 useless pages to the U.N. Security Council,
Slaps and assails and continued failure to permit,
Nuclear inspectors banned from following their standard procedures.
Come, Saddam, how much cost will you bring upon us all,
When Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld hold their eye-sight locked on you.

Down the hatch,
like the airlines landing planes for lack of travel,
so lands the bear market to 7,000 from 11,000 two years prior,
with continued resolve, politicians assure us the end of fright is nigh,
no one assumes where it will stop, as it slips down, and down...

IV. 2003

They slipped the surly bonds of earth,
to touch the face of God,
and when they attempted to return homeward,
our brave NASA crew returned to the Creator instead.
Blessings to you, as a nation we weep,
for there are none more deserving of veneration,
than those who seek with bravery the ongoing American adventure.
Farewell, brave souls of Columbia, may you forever live within us.

Watch how the minions of citizens,
frightened by over-blown fear, lock themselves away,
in terror that SARs will ruin their day.
SARs is on the news, in the streets, and within our very homes,
so the minions of fear would have you believe,
but it doesn't keep us from flipping the channel,
when Martha Stewart's Living is temporarily suspended,
along with that lady within cell-block for a giant investment "whoops"!

Across the globe,
anti-war protestors take to the streets,
most older than my generation,
those who still remembered that marching with your feet,
of a revolutionary beat meant something.

Shock and Awe,
shuck folks, guess we didn't think this one through,
as Saddam is trampled,
Baghdad is wiped clean of his Republican Guard,
and upon a battlecruiser the commander-in-chief,
announces to us all the "Mission Complete"!
Yet, 2003 would only mark the start,
of our Iraqi imposition as an increase on spending,
and six years later, we're still spilling soldiers blood,
within the reddened ground of an ongoing troop flood.
Never with a whimper, we begin to pound the earth,
stomp the ground, and with a bang begin our inquisition.

Saddam is found deep underground,
but not a single "weapon of mass destruction",
seems to materialize anywhere around,
seems that our "best intelligence",
missed that element of suspense,
and we look scathingly at D.C.,
as our hope for that new decade,
new century,
new millennium,
that hope seems to fade fast from us.
Here's a kick to the soul, it's only four years,
and we have a great deal of ground to still go.

For all the chaos and tragedy, we look to 2004...

-- j.

i love your poetry Jp
always interesting and i have nothing to say but i loved the
90's as well
i was very young but i remember them
i am not the best person to critique a poem
but i love this piece from you!!