Song, on Reading Hitchens' Good Time for War
Vanitas, Vanitatum, so the ancients said.
When we view our country’s woe
Must we issue bombast? When read,
Is that what makes our juices flow?
Et Omnia vanitas
The ancients had it right.
As we lurch toward rolling might,
Recall John Donne, within sight
Of all the many hearses.
He, with spare and few verses,
And elusive Marshall McLuhan
Both strove to give our village light.
To lead us not , to the dark of night.
Christopher Hitchens, a nabob at VANITY FAIR, penned a piece for THE BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE of Sunday, September 8, 2002.
This song was in response. A couple of weeks later they published it, in a chopped up form, in the letters section. My vanity was wounded.
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