Good Tidings and Good Will in a Monsoon Drizzle
Henry Beissel
To everything there is a season
and a time to every purpose
under the heaven: boy and girl hand in hand
holding a mekong dawn
delicate in their hearts
a time to love a time to kill
youth between rice paddies their
dreams cut down ripped open
their groins by bullets machine
guns by boys who left their girls
their mothers taught them to spell
this bang gang man’s game:
“I have no words to express the satisfaction and gratitude
I feel for what you have done” —
250,000 children killed so far
(and more to come)
stand to attention jesus the cardinal is coming
jingle jingle all the 11,000-mile way
from the united states of paradise
3,000 boys faithful in a monsoon
drizzle 390,000 santaclaus fans
(and more to come) devoutly worship
the lord of love and peace
with tanks planes rockets rifles gas
from good christian manufacturers
his eminence personally a shareholder
godliness is profitable to all things
blessed who die for the lord
taking cocktails at the u.s. embassy
vice marshal ky fresh from an execution
exchanging pleasantries about hitler
refugees in the mountains
a million dying from cold
disease malnutrition (and
more to come)
burp by saint francis burps the prince
the steak rare chitchat at saigon
modernize the gospels according to saint john —son:
I came not to send peace but
napalm poison chemicals bombs
unto him that pierces thy cheeks offer also
the hands pierced wired through
cheeks pierced prisoners hung
by the feet vietcong suspects
by the neck all not u/s citizens
are not humans blow out their brains
crush cut balls bones slit eyes
all over this stone age
it’s in the book: no flesh should glory
I say unto you love your enemies
back in paradise 390,000 g.i.s.
learning their bible lesson
chapter and verse for every occasion
francis calls for war for peace paul
hatemercywrathlovehell to please all:
great things doeth the lord which we cannot comprehend —
a village hewn out of the jungle
deserted defoliated the old now
mutilated generations the stench
flies red fever ants leprosy
fear sweltering in huts hunger-
bloated children bellies men
tending scorched fields women
bearing terror the earth cries
tears of blood
let the sliteyed bastards have it
buddhist atheist commies pour in
shells slugs liquid fire blessed
who are chosen from nazareth (texas)
from bethlehem (maryland) called
to cast out the yellow heathen
vermin roll in their own guts
vomit peace lung & stomach
freedom torn limb to limb:
“You are in defence protection and salvation of civilization itself”
pools of piles of
bloodwomenscreamchildrenmenfire!
Napalm once in contact with human skin burns the flesh to the bone:
rockefeller research at the
university of human knowledge
suffer little children for
such is the kingdom of heaven:
B 52 bombers fighters helicopters
flown by nice cleancut christians
strafing schools highways open
markets bombing hospitals —
“I have no words to express the satisfaction and gratitude
I feel for what you have done”:
the mangled the crippled the
tortured the butchered love
of many shall wax cold
in the name of the father (on wallstreet)
and of the son (in the vatican)
and the holy pentagon ghost
Beissel, Henry. “Good Tidings and Good Will in a Monsoon Drizzle.” EDGE 7 (Winter 1967-68): 66-67. Repr. in Face on the Dark. Toronto: New, 1970. Repr. in Mirrors: Recent Canadian Verse. Ed. John Pearce. Agincourt, ON: Gage, 1975. 79-81. Repr. in Henry Beissel, Poems New and Selected. Oakville, ON: Mosaic, 1987. 33-35.