It will be necessary to update this poem

This poem was up on The Poets Against the War site October 05

it's only a number


2000 dollars won’t buy a decent used car
2000 feet is not a long walk
2000 miles is not even cross country
2000 drops of water won’t make a shower.


in humankind 2000 won’t

fill a town
a college
a music festival
a ballpark

2000 live humankind that is.


dead nonetheless they do add up
24,000 pints of blood that will never nourish…
10,000 fingers that will never touch…
90,000 miles of nerves that will never feel…anything…ever again.


2000 isn’t very many humans.
unless they’re dead.

all dead for the telling of
one lie.


d.l.marfurt 31 October 2005


Makeshift disclaimer: this poem being a little time in the process is out of date; as of today 2024 is the new number…hopefully when you read this is isn’t any higher.

I thought about updating it when we hit 3000 a few weeks ago but no one seemed to notice. Today we're up to 3053 at this rate I can't keep up. It's time to stop.

"Won't call it murder by another name" Phil Ochs

“U.S. Airstrike Aims at Qaeda Cell in Somalia” (9 Jan07 NYT) I guess that resolves the question of capital punishment. Traditionally capital punishment follows arrest, prosecution and conviction. This “cops of the world” attitude skips over the fine points of law. I wonder how many of the “22-27” people our forces, commanded by our commander-in-chief murdered where actually a threat to the “homeland” and how many were women, children and infirm old men.