{"id":81,"date":"2010-01-14T09:47:36","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T00:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/?p=81"},"modified":"2010-01-14T11:02:43","modified_gmt":"2010-01-14T02:02:43","slug":"now-that-the-cold-war-is-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/now-that-the-cold-war-is-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Now that the cold war is over"},"content":{"rendered":"

“the true perfection of man lies not in what man has but what man is<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

– Oscar Wilde<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now that the cold war is over<\/p>\n

we can all pay more attention<\/p>\n

to more pressing matters than<\/p>\n

who is or isn’t free<\/p>\n

or<\/p>\n

who can or can’t say<\/p>\n

what they want.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

The question now is not<\/p>\n

to be or not to be?<\/p>\n

but rather<\/p>\n

to have or how can I get one?<\/p>\n

The world over soon to be lit<\/p>\n

by Bic lighters held high<\/p>\n

over temples that ache hard<\/p>\n

over the hopes of having.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

I have heard the Hungarians<\/p>\n

are starting to hold back on the paprika<\/p>\n

so their goulash will satisfy<\/p>\n

the Italian intellectuals who visit Vaci street<\/p>\n

in hopes of illuminating their lira.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

A good friend in Moscow<\/p>\n

swears that soon Bono will play the Bolshoi<\/p>\n

but is very disquieted by the fact<\/p>\n

one can no longer be sure<\/p>\n

the vodka does not come watered down.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Why, it is even said the Chinese<\/p>\n

once the most puritan of peoples,<\/p>\n

are now drunk on the scent of Chanel<\/p>\n

and pay huge fees to always lunching lawyers<\/p>\n

who are ready to doctor their parent’s wills<\/p>\n

so they can put good caviar on the table<\/p>\n

and drink coke, “the real thing”<\/p>\n

until their teeth drop out.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

I’ve just read a brief news item that states<\/p>\n

somewhere in the far reaches of Botswana<\/p>\n

children’s lips are first sprouting the words<\/p>\n

“Xbox”<\/p>\n

and the parents rather than being mortified<\/p>\n

point to their offspring’s early sophistication.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Generalissimos the world over now swear<\/p>\n

given the new climate of good will and good shopping<\/p>\n

they will lay down their arms if only,<\/p>\n

they get a nuclear warhead for Christmas.<\/p>\n

There is nothing to fear except fear itself,<\/p>\n

they sing fearlessly, of course!<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Yes, this world is filling with the bountiful rush<\/p>\n

of those in search of some thing — any “thing”.<\/p>\n

My kingdom for a pair of Calvin Kleins!<\/p>\n

(I’ve even heard Gaddafi wears them,<\/p>\n

they are the only thing that can take the heat and<\/p>\n

half way hold up his Arab manhood.)<\/p>\n

There is a rumor that even on the sane streets of Kabul<\/p>\n

a one legged Kazak sells fake Rolexs<\/p>\n

shaking a can of emptied artillery shells<\/p>\n

to attract his most loyal clientele.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Ah! Who am I to pretend to be a saint.<\/p>\n

I too confess, I too have measured my driveway to see<\/p>\n

how many cars it might hold<\/p>\n

have bought pants whose label was outside<\/p>\n

have cursed the fact that I had to use 1 ply toilet paper<\/p>\n

have thought about not writing any more poetry and<\/p>\n

making some “hard” cash.<\/p>\n

But even if I were a saint, I’m sure I’d think up<\/p>\n

some quaint rationalization like good old St. Augustine,<\/p>\n

“Love and do what one will.” or something similar.<\/p>\n

I’m told by my protestant friend that even the pope<\/p>\n

(and he assures me this is true, he bears no bias)<\/p>\n

puffs pontifically every now and then on a Marlboro<\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

the world still goes ’round, hasn’t gone up in smoke.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

All I can say is thank god everyone still has to<\/p>\n

eat, shit and breathe<\/p>\n

and some days read a few poems like this one,<\/p>\n

to keep the cold away<\/p>\n

now that the cold war is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“the true perfection of man lies not in what man has but what man is.” – Oscar Wilde \u00a0 Now that the cold war is over we can all pay more attention to more pressing matters than who is or isn’t free or who can or can’t say what they want. The question now is … Continue reading Now that the cold war is over<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}