A Pilgrim’s Digression

Pay No Attention [a poem]

Pay no attention to ill tidings;

Pessimism is harmful to morale.

Feel free to disregard

All those of an opposite opinion.

They are either loons or traitors.

Truth is simple, if you don’t think about it.

Ignore those who say otherwise.

Or else denounce them publicly,

With reference to their moral failings.

Dismiss the 2,370 killed

[April 18, 2006; 12:15 PM].

The number is paltry, really,

Compared to previous wars.

Especially when only American dead are counted.

Pay no attention.

Be proud.

Join us in our pride.

Don’t be one of the doom and gloomers,

One of the naysayers on the loony left,

A dead-ender, or a cut-and-runner.

Be one of us, the proud and the brave.

Look, People, freedom is messy,

And we never said it was going to be easy.

Or if we did say it was going to be easy,

We have changed our minds.

It is our prerogative to change our minds

As necessity dictates.

Unlike our dastardly opponents.

Do not throw our words back at us,

As we do to you.

They did greet us,

Perhaps not with flowers,

But they greeted us nonetheless.

Some were even happy.

Pay no attention to all the negativity.

Our good intentions make us irreproachable.

If our actions in furtherance of our good intentions

Sometimes fall short of the ideal,

These are the bad acts of a few lone evil-doers.

They aren’t one of us.

Pay no attention to them.

You can be proud

Of our noble men and women,

Not to mention our brave leaders,

Who daily suffer the stab in the back

From slimy, traitorous internal enemies.

Nothing else matters

But our pride.

Be proud, be proud.