The
Murderer Laid to Rest
by John Verlenden
--all lines from CNN live coverage
Watch the men
--to get from this stage
fight
--how much more alive
to get to the casket
--I can see women in black
through the security cordon
--pouring water over her head
into the mausoleum
--people collapsing from grief
where the mourners gather themselves
--draped in the Syrian flag
around the late president
--the religious side of the ceremony
and the interim president
--trying to consolidate power
creating an opportunity to say
--in the difficult country
--(another woman to collapse)
an opportunity to say goodbye
--salaam aleekum
and indeed the solemnity of the occasion
--religious leaders offering prayers, tribute
the people can tell you, the security
--security of thirty years
the violent political disarray
--(gap here, power outage)
that faced his father thirty years ago
--the son, ready to step into power
particularly from Western borders
--leaders-friends and enemies-paying respects
unknown period of transition to follow
--no political experience
the United States believes
--but considerable poise
in a word someone
--pivoting for the better
they can do business with
--ambivalence of contradiction
in this the twenty-first century
--a nation that had control over its own
indeed they've remembered what he left behind.
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