'Ignobel'

- by Ian Reed -


I checked the dateline twice: October 9th.
Not April 1st? No hoax, no prank, no jest?
Obama's got the Nobel Prize for Peace?
Some sick joke played by pundits of the West?

Intelligence-insulting irony
that this new rider of th'imperial beast
should garner that or any accolade
while daily orchestrating War's increase.

O History's Muse, report what you have seen:
how War devours the labors of the poor,
their livelihoods. Meantime, the sick get sicker;
the rich get even richer than before.

Perhaps the noble Norway nobles hoped;
a self-fulfilling prophecy foresaw,
yet merely gloss Obama's rhetoric:
Though subtly waged, it's still peace-polished War.

Oct. 9, 2009
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