Description: The West is now humanist. We are based on reason and freewill.
Yet a man of belief, Usama, has destroyed our twin towers of reason and freewill. Just as a cigarette destroys the freewill of an addict.
Usama says God built the towers that hold up the sky, not man.
We don't even bother to answer back. We light another cigarette.
Postscript: Usama is the correct translation from the Arabic. Notice we can't face the US in Usama; we can't face that he is us. So we call him Osama. We trained him in finance and engineering. He is our own Hamlet holding the skull in the graveyard of humanism.
Dear Slybee, I can't see what's wrong with the grammer. The subject is merely repeated for explication and emphasis and so remains singular, as does the verb. But can't you see Usama holding up your skull?
ok.. firstly i'd like to point out that there really can be no correct translation of the name. there are many letters in the arabic alphabet that do not exist in english and so how a name is spelled really comes down to personal choice. it could be osama, ossama, usama, ussama, ousama etc.. there isn't a 'correct' way to spell it in english.
that out of the way.. you've brought up a very interesting topic. one that is bound to cause some controversy... if you look at the reaction after 9/11.. i dont think you can say that he destroyed reason and freewill. i dont see the correlation. people were brought together as a result. if we look at it on a governmental level on the other hand.. bush never had any sense of reason to begin with. how could he destroy something that never existed? or do you mean on a much grander scale? the reasoning of humanity? i cant relate to that either because i have very little faith in humanity.. there is always some corner of the world that will remind us that people take life for granted. that nothing is sacred anymore. now it's iraq. and there's israel. sudan. there was south africa during apartheid. there was yugoslavia. there was rwanda. there was vietnam. to name just a random few... and there will be more...
something eludes me here... i have read over the poem and the description several times and once i feel that i have fully grasped the concept.. i realise that there is something still missing.
Wow! i'm a marine, and i keep seeing all these poems of freedom and American Spirit, it makes me glad of what i do... keeper of the cold steel. i applaud patriots as yourself, and encourage this writing. thank you very much. PFC Austin-United States Marine Corps.
Submission Name: Usama's Cigarette.
