http://tiki-lounge.com/~lussie/germany.html
On The Today Programme, the BBC’s much praised, much maligned morning news-and-views digest, I caught the end of an interview with an American general in Iraq. He was asked whether a settlement of conflict was a feasible prospect before the handover date in a couple of months. What he said in answer I didn’t really notice; I was still relishing the crackling silence that followed the question. It only lasted a few seconds but what noisily eloquent seconds they were.
Maybe Bush’n’Blair do still believe that the conflict can be resolved; that they are going to create historical precedent & destroy revolutionary ideas, nationalistic passion & blind faith with bombs & bullets. But as that convocation of senior British diplomats have made clear – nobody else of consequence does. Downing Street has dismissed their energetic criticism of the continuing strife, attributing it to little more than the flummery of a bunch of old-school ambassadors gone native. But there is a gravitas to the judgement of this body of critics that our government will patronise & then ignore at their risk.
Fifteen years ago the Berlin Wall was finally breached. At the time, even my hardened scepticism had a few holes knocked through it. Not for long, alas. But my brief euphoria produced a poem celebrating one of those oh-so-rare events when ordinary people are brought by circumstance to recognise that they have so very much more to draw them together than to cast them apart.
DIE MAUER IST RUNTER
The wall is down. Incredulous
we contemplate, through raw gateways,
dawn in the West. You, the baker,
me, the busdriver, there the student
carrying a flag, there the woman
who cannot forget or forgive.
We move through rubble,
through the searchlights, through
the water cannon’s crazy rain.
This is the real dance.
We stitch its paces over
the Kaiser’s cobbles in between
the Weimar tramlines, through
Hitler’s broken archways, empty squares,
up and down the grim lattices
of Russian tanktracks. Laughing,
we invade the territory
inside each other’s arms.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
This curious dyslexic collision was seen in Suffolk by Anna of the excellent blog Self Winding:
RUEBURB 60P A BUNDLE ROUND THE BACK.
Why not make a tart this week-end?
11:43:15 PM 
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