photo#1975
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
photo by The British Museum at Unsplash
photo#1975
what fishes?
there are no fishes
the big boys with the nets
have trawled them
and what remains
are miserly opportunities
that are slipping by
slippery beyond grasp
me, i get by
with small fry.
undated. prob. 80's
***************
Found this old piece in an old (read angry) journal, sighed, and let it loose on the internet.
Rosemary at Poets and Storytellers United tells us "to bear witness to these times we are living in, and how it feels to be living in them." I am posting one that is not about these present times but about a certain year, and a rather pivotal one.
The Vietnam War ends with the fall of Saigon. One of the lasting images of the war is that of a helicopter lifting off from the roof of the American Embassy, evacuating. Over in nearby Cambodia, the Communist Khmer Rouge had captured Phnom Penh earlier and begins a genocide of anyone who looks smart. In the space of slightly more than two weeks, US President Gerald Ford survives two assassination attempts by two women wielding handguns, both times in California. Perhaps the girls have been in the sun for too long. Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft and Jaws opens in cinemas, frightening us off the summer beaches. Back home, amendments to the law are made to introduce the mandatory death penalty for some drug trafficking cases, and the Area Licensing Scheme is launched in a bid to control traffic into the city core, the world's first such scheme. And I complete my conscription service in the army. All these in 1975.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2022
Labels: 70's, life, military, news headlines, Singapore, social issues