And Then There Were None

*

Handed black flowers
Lined with dead moss
They release the pungent stench of disease
Scorched by the sun
Decayed to ashes
Animated sleeves of despair


But with each chapter
We learn much more
But it brings us closer to the end

Edge burned photos
They show the past
Seven deadly sins hold their purpose
Just lives to breed
Summary of a virus
Running rampant through the races

Encased in glass
Each breath you take
It brings us closer to the end

Cannae.

Black flowers grew against the glistening walls, he wasn't sure what would happen next, he was summonsed and dismissed, he was carried forth and surrendered up; and in this sacrifice, the cruel passage of time, he found at last the peace he had long craved. There weren't going to be any reverses now. He had fallen off the cliff and had no deep care whether he survived or not. He woke each day in the most appalling state of mind; and so it continued. There was no way back. He didn't love anyone; lost in the woods, afraid of the dark. But what was more frightening than anything was his own sense of self destruction, the ease with which he could slip into oblivion.

There were mistakes made; that was for sure. People are like dogs. When you're vulnerable they attack. Well he didn't much care. There wasn't going to be an easy way out. There wasn't going to be another summer of joy. And what was for sure; there would never be another lazy summer afternoon where their bodies caressed each other; and their youthful flesh came together in excitement. None of it was deserved. And none of it would return. It was in one of these states; in the afternoon when you were blessed; that he saw the black flowers glistening against the canyon walls. Oh how much, how dreadful, it was, to step into another life.

He had flung himself off the cliff and had survived; and was slowly regrouping, changing addresses, changing lives; forced from one slump to the next to be ridden high, to know exultation again. He came crawling back into the real world, chastened, desolated, secretly proud of his own survival in such hostile circumstances, despairing at the relentless predictability of it all; savage and sad and weeping for no one but the lost. He wasn't going to take it anymore. But all of his anger went inwards; and black on black became the motif; glistening light in the evil dark; it was no way to live.

But his mind kept returning to the original act, the leap without the parachute, the dive not just into oblivion or even into greater despair, but into some mindless dark inky malignant tide where everything that was dear, everything that was fragile and human, cosy and warm, life affirming and giving of purpose, was swiped away with a callous, suicidal hand, and everything he had ever believed in, those noble purposes, telling the story, exposing injustices, making life better for a struggling race, all of it was swept aside, inverted, blown dark and gusty and very very cold, because at the end of the day we weren't just fragile creatures groping together, but plinths bobbing in a black sea; waiting to be extinguished.

There were seven bells and greater discord, a clinging to melancholy for comfort and to humanity for warmth; but we as humans were capable of greater discord, greater discomfort, happy to fly, happy to be away; and yet he couldn't understand why he had done something so basically suicidal. Things were afoot, things were changing at deeper levels than he could understand, but even in that act, the soil crumbling beneath his feet on the edge of the abyss, glancing back so briefly at the land from which he came, nothing could stop him, nothing could prevent his own embrace of disaster; and he listened to the voices of warning and dissent as if they were far off tweets of morning birds, cosy but irrelevant.

And as he became airborne, the sickening depths of the canyon beneath him, those slippery shiny walls encrusted with black flowers, voices and entities howling as the air rushed past his grimacing face, watering his despairing eyes; that was when he knew it was all over; that survival this time would depend more on good luck than good management. These were the times he knew, as he had known from his very first suicide attempt, that there would be no welcoming hand, no rush to judgement or confirmation, no kind excuses or cosy bars along the path, nothing but the cold wind and the opening abyss, the dark rush of menacing air and the black on black, encrusted, curling, and very very cruel. There would be no way back - that, at least, is what he believed as his heavy, frightened form gathered weight; and the air swirled faster as he slipped away.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzqP6wOm-0n3ddq-Zez6X801zp1AD9CH6UC80

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama split the difference in his Nobel speech, laying down a doctrine that will likely define his presidency: a steadfast defense of warfare against evil mixed with praise of nonviolence and exhortations for mankind to affirm the "spark of the divine" in everyone.

As he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, the world's highest honor for peacemaking, Obama voiced his starkest rejection yet of the pre-emptive war doctrine and unilateralism articulated by his predecessor.

At the same time, the young president carefully set forth and sought to explain what might appear to be contradictory principles that have guided his foreign policy decisions during his first year in the White House:

_That military force is justified to confront evil or stop organized human depravity.

_That all nations must follow international rules of conduct that govern the use of military force.

_That the United States cannot act alone when going to war.

_That lasting peace is built on united global pressure on errant nations, tough sanctions — when needed — to change the behavior of countries such as Iran and North Korea, recognition of the inherent rights and dignity of every individual, and assurance of mankind's security from fear and economic want.

In a certain sign that he, for once, had not automatically offended the conservative Republican opposition at home, Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, said the president's message in Oslo "was actually very good."

The deeply conservative Gingrich said the liberal Obama acknowledged he was "given the prize prematurely" but wisely reminded the Nobel committee "they wouldn't be able to have a peace prize, without having force. ... I thought in some ways it's a very historic speech."

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/police-target-alcoholfuelled-violence-20091212-kowu.html

More than 800 additional police officers patrolled Victorian towns overnight as part of a national blitz on alcohol-fuelled violence.

The two-day crackdown launched on Friday against drunken violence across Australia is a campaign of "being strong, being positive and enforcing strongly", Victoria's Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland said.

At least 800 additional members on foot and van patrols were joined by plain-clothed licensing police inside venues, traffic units and booze buses at nightspot areas in Melbourne, Geelong, Frankston, Bendigo, Ballarat and Bairnsdale.

Dubbed Operation Unite, hundreds of extra police converged on major cities around Australia to tackle revellers who drank to excess and behaved violently.

More than 4,000 additional officers will be on duty across Australia on the weekend, including 1,000 in Sydney's hotspots.

Queensland poured 800 extra police onto the state's streets, while South Australia and the nation's capital also witnessed a flood of police uniforms.

Operation Unite will take place until 6am on Sunday morning in all Australian states and territories, and also in New Zealand.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/rebellious-joyce-slapped-back-into-line-20091212-kowv.html

SHADOW treasurer Joe Hockey has slapped down new Opposition finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce over his comments on debt and banking.

Mr Hockey said the senator was wrong to claim Australian states and the US Government might default on debts, and that his comments on banks and Chinese investment were not policy.

Mr Hockey stressed that he, not the outspoken Nationals senator, was in charge of Opposition policy on foreign investment and banking.

As Kevin Rudd pilloried the Opposition over Senator Joyce's provocative comments, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott read his frontbench the riot act about discipline at its first meeting.

The Nationals' Senate leader had spoken out about the dangers of the US Government and Australian states defaulting on debt. He warned that if the US defaulted it would cause an ''economic Armageddon''. He urged a tougher approach to the banks and a harder line against Chinese investment in Australian resources.

Mr Abbott said he had told frontbenchers at yesterday's meeting that ''shadow ministry and shadow cabinet solidarity starts now … Everyone understands that and everyone will play by the team tactic, play by the team rules.''

Asked whether state governments could default, Mr Abbott said it was ''very important that we have sound public finances''.

Mr Hockey said Senator Joyce's comments were not Coalition policy.