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Gulf of Bonkin’

Thief
2 min readDec 30, 2024

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civilized poetics

Thief Art

There was a time, yes we were civilized
There was a time, no need to point the bone
No need to go online to be chastised
Just do our gardening and talk on the phone
There was a time Uncle Sam was sublime
Queen Mary would take her scones — jam and cream
No need to scrutinize Uncle Joe’s lines
Nor Aunt Mary’s, she’d just cream our dreams
And what if Humpty Dumpty did take dump
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Midnight could claim Cinderella’s a frump
Put Cindy Humpty together again
Recalling lone assassins — without chums
Efficiency saw no need for back ups
No misguided shots — not them sweet guns
No ear muffled impact, nor moving slipups
For all were free to frolic the jungle
Travel the world to the Gulf of Tonkin
There were no death cults to force a bungle
We were civilized — not out there bonkin
When one is civilized, no need for storms
Daniel is my brother — not my lover
Gulf ‘tween a bonkin and a White House lawn
Filmed in an odyssey — drones don’t hover
No disinformation nor Chinese rings
No Russian laptops, nor getting off free
No sweet old guns, limp-wristed chicken wings
No enemies subdued — freed for a spree
Quick! Take a look on high, what you see there
Another tricky dick or two in air
Happy thanksgiving…

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Thief
Thief

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