The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

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Just the Highlights

It won’t help to spike the Bible
in the end zone

or to happy-dance circles
around Planned Parenthood clinics.

God doesn’t give a crap – the wages
of everything are death.

Of course there are little Satans ablaze
like Anti-Christ fire ants on your ankles.

Ship them to Oz, in shackles. Redline,
tattoo, torch. Weeds always grow back.

I hope you’re not disheartened.
Your friend went down today.

I don’t think his defense will prevail:
I never said I was Roger Stone.



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Nice one Tracy.
Can't say the same about him 
 

I am trying to sort out the players in this one. Starting out on the first read, I assumed the poem was addressed to Trump's religious right supporters. The idea held.  Love the Anti-Christ fire ants but they threw a wrench into what had been my interpretation up till then. I guess those ants could be seen as the fear of satan that drives the RR but I doubt that. I see those religious supporters as people who are powerless except as they are able to appropriate the power of god to their own purposes. 

So here is my main dilemma: 
Who might be disheartened--Trump when Roger went down or the RR when Trump caved? The final S is a complete mystery to me .I may receive a flash of insight in the next few reads---that happens.

And its worth the effort because it's a significant poem--that I know.

One of the best films on Netflix is a documentary on Roger Stone, entitled Get me Roger Stone, which I can highly recommend, even if it is somewhat depressing. It does make it clear that Trump is not a buffoon but is indeed morally void and dangerous.

The poem is quite a challenge, starting from line 1:
It won’t help to spike the Bible - Bible a clear religious context and spike, which has quite a few potential meanings here from nail, to raise in price, to refuse a story.
Line 2 is sport suggesting recent controversies around kneeling to the flag.
End zone comes from football but could be war, politics and the end of time/Trump's time in office.
This is the kind of political poem we need. On the one hand cleaver and concealed on the other direct and taking a stand.
Will continue to pick over this for some time.
Dave
 

Thanks Colm. I agree.

Indar -- The Special Counsel is prosecuting Roger Stone. Stone lies so prolifically and bizarrely I imagined him claiming in his defense, "I never said I was Roger Stone". That's the sense of the closing lines. The ants are a different matter. The more authoritarian a regime, the more hatred is directed toward specific groups -- the poor, the helpless, some religious groups, ethnic minorities, and those deemed as human trash by the moneyed classes. These are the ants of the poem.

Dave -- There is a practice in American Football of spiking (throwing down hard) the football in the end zone (last 10 yards of the field) by a player scoring a touchdown. It is celebratory and exclamatory. The is the poem's opening reference. Hope this gets you off on the right foot. Thanks for the Netflix cite - I will look for it.

Cheers.

T

I can't tear myself away from MSNBC. Pundits seem to agree Mueller has found no conclusive proof that Stone was communicating directly with Assange, despite Stone's public claims to the contrary. All involved are so blatantly out there RS might actually get away with that defense. 

 

Update: Stone blew it today.

He did. More to come, I expect.

Tracy Mitchell wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 27, 2019 11:55 am

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Just the Highlights

It won’t help to spike the Bible
in the end zone

or to happy-dance circles
around Planned Parenthood clinics.

God doesn’t give a crap – the wages
of everything are death.

Of course there are little Satans ablaze
like Anti-Christ fire ants on your ankles.

Ship them to Oz, in shackles. Redline,
tattoo, torch. Weeds always grow back.

I hope you’re not disheartened.
Your friend went down today.

I don’t think his defense will prevail:
I never said I was Roger Stone.



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Hi Tracy,
            The 'newsy' final two lines will draw reader responses. I guess you wanted that reality weight by concluding there. In terms of highlights/headlines, I like the reader prompt to thread/framework narratives. I'm picking up on transgressors. And the bite.

best

Phil

 

You give me new things to think about.

Thanks Phil. Hope all is well in Matty-ville.

T