GENERAL:
Are you OK, Lieutenant?
Clark coughs again, regains her composure.
CLARK:
Yes, sir.
GENERAL:
What about the attacks in Malaysia and Australia and
Britain?
CLARK:
Ah, yes, sir, you raise an interesting point.
(gaining steam, reads from her file)
After the July 7th 2005 London bombings, Britain’s
Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, stated
that “Al-Qaida is not an organization. Al-Qaida is a way
of working…al-Qaida clearly has the ability to provide
training…to provide expertise… and I think that is what
occurred here.”
The GENERAL regards her warily.
GENERAL:
What are you saying, Lieutenant?
79
CURTAIN CALL
by Franz S.
When the final curtain falls
I will throw three roses
at your feet
One of pink and two of
White
I am still trying to figure out
How to accept defeat
And surrender gracefully
To the ebb and flow of life
….
My mother was a collector of flowers
And pretty leaves
And I was her apprentice.
Should I ever be drawn to a flower,
I should hold its roots between my thumb and index fingers
Hold the pressure, steady now, and
Yank, yank, yank!
Put it in a vase filled with tap water
And leave it by the window
So that it can still feel the warmth of the sun
I started to realize
The vanity of my admiration
When your eyes lost their glow
To these god-awful stage lights.