Ozymandias Exploded

By Michael Shay

With apologies to P.B. Shelley

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
stand in the desert.
Near them, on the sand,
half sunk, a shattered visage lies,
tells lies and more lies
about the desert war,
last stand in the desert,
last stand for oil in the desert.

Near them, on the sand,
half sunk, a shattered visage lies
whose frown and
wrinkled lips and
sneer of cold command
stand in the desert
keep standing in the desert,
stand for nothing in the desert.

I met a traveller
(might have been a poet)
from an antique land
or maybe from the future.
She came upon a statue in the desert
and on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is George Bush, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains.
Nothing stands in the desert
nothing beside remains
but to take a stand about the war
in the desert;
nothing beside remains
round the decay of that colossal wreck
boundless and bare,
the lone and level sands stretch far away.

On January 28, 2003, Sam Hamill (writer, founding editor and co-founder of Copper Canyon Press), sent an open letter to a few friends "asking every poet to speak up for the conscience of our country and lend his or her name to our petition against this war". Word spread like wildfire via e-mail, and thousands of poets submitted poems or personal statements in opposition to the Bush administration's headlong plunge toward war in Iraq. According to participant Terry Tempest Williams: "In doing so, they have honored a long and rich tradition of thoughtful and moral opposition by poets and other artists to senseless and murderous policies, including those of our own government."

Poets Against the War announced an International Day of Poetry Against the War on Wednesday, March 5. Poets around the world scheduled readings and/or discussions of poetry and protest for that day. At noon on March 5 on Capitol Hill, approximately 15,000 anti-war poems (including "Ozymandias Exploded" above) were presented to members of Congress. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) hosted the event with other members of the Progressive Caucus including Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA). The poems were presented by Pulitzer prize winner and Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets W.S. Merwin, author and poet Terry Tempest Williams and Sam Hamill. Read an account of this event here.