Tuesday, March 1, 2016

The Recycle Bin

Among the newly released documents
seized from Osama bin Laden's
compound in Pakistan

on May 2 of 2011

is an undated letter
"to the American people"

appearing to have been written
shortly after President Obama
took office in 2009

and which blames corporate lobbyists
for the then-recent financial crisis

and the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

His letter calls on Americans
to launch "a great revolution for freedom"

to liberate Obama
from these concerns.

In a separate and unsigned letter

bin Laden encourages
a close aide

to stage a media campaign

on the tenth anniversary
of the World Trade Center attacks

September 11 2011

to force Americans to make
"a rational decision
to save humanity

from the harmful gases
that threaten its destiny"

rather than continue
its perceived war against Islam.

It can only be imagined

just how the beliefs
of a long-dead man
killed during Obama's administration

will persuade
Republican presidential candidates

to claim Democrats
are supporting terrorism
by fighting climate change.

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.