(Trying to keep track of what was happening then, I put this poem together March 19, 2003, the day before the US-led coalition invaded Iraq. It's a collage of texts taken from various places on the Internet. The first four lines are from The Moldau Song by Bertold Brecht.) At the bottom of the Moldau, the stones wander. There are three emperors buried in Prague. The powerful don't stay powerful and the weak don't stay weak. The night has twelve hours, then the day comes. There was little of Baghdad's usual bumper-to-bumper rush-hour traffic as residents hunkered down in the final hours before the U.S. deadline. Bild empfangen / Find Your Dream Cruise SPECTACULAR DEALS 7 day Mexico from 559 dollars. Travel in style to three resort towns on the Mexican Riviera. Feel the warmth of the sun hunkered down in the final hours and the pulse of mariachi music in Puerto Vallarta. Bild empfangen / Bin Laden's laughter echoes across the West. Sweating and pumped, you wander. Travel in style to the streets of Baghdad. You see these burn marks in the streets of Baghdad? It is the soldier. Bild empfangen / Outside, on a hazy day, the streets of Baghdad were quieter than usual. "Death will come to you no matter where you are. I am not going anywhere when the bombs fall. I am staying in my house." Because outside, on a hazy day, death will come to you. In your house, death will come to you. In the final hours, death will come to you. When the bombs fall, death will come to you. So the step of Iraq destroyings its weapon was useless. It make Iraq weak and nothing else. It made Iraq enemy stronger. Dear Americans, Britans. You will get something from your country, taken from poor people hands, shed blood of poor people. It is like taking flesh of ones and giving to other to eat it. The message to Muslims is clear: if you have nuclear weapons, no one is gonna mess with you. Muslims need nuclear weapons and we need them fast. If anyone wishes to help us acquire them, we are prepared to make it extremely rewarding for you. Spectacular deals. You see these burn marks? It is the soldier. It is the soldier, not the journalist, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the peace organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag; who allows the protester to burn the flag. All this, the soldier till death will defend. The soldier spreads sunshine in the streets of Baghdad. A soothing death will come to you in the final hours; a soothing Caribbean cruise, wherever you are. Unless you live in the United States, you can't possibly comprehend the magnitude of the situation we are facing. You are looking at this threat from a third-party standpoint. If you're wrong, it will not affect you. And what do you care if something bad happens to us again? Our own perspective is the only one that matters when dealing with national security. Do you think the rest of the world is looking out for our security interests? As long as we perceive the threat to be there, we will defend against it till death. You may think we are arrogant Americans, but it's a simple and practical approach. 11th hour, Saddam. Time to run like the coward you are. You see these burn marks? That's what the guards do to you in Iraqi prisons. This is not about whether we should go to war. This is spectacular deals. Sweating and pumped, you wander out of the great big glass athletics hall into the mariachi streets of Baghdad. Into the cigarette streets of Baghdad. Sweating and pumped, you wander. Death will come to you no matter where you are. Death will come to you no matter where you are. You see these burn marks? You see these burn marks? Time to run like the coward you are. Time to run like the coward you are. At the bottom of the Moldau, the stones wander. There are three emperors buried in Prague. The powerful don't stay powerful and the weak don't stay weak. The night has twelve hours, then the day comes.

A quintessential quadratic tricycle, bilingual, monochromatic, zeroed in, three, two, one suponatime.