America, by Gertrude Stein

(A poem to mark National Poetry Month)

Once in English they said America. Was it English to them.

Once they said Belgian.

We like a fog.

Do you for weather.

Are we brave.

Are we true.

Have we the national colour.

Can we stand ditches.

Can we mean well.

Do we talk together.

Have we red cross.

A great many people speak of feet.

And socks.

(credit: 1906 portrait of Gertrude Stein by Pablo Picasso)

On this day

On April 1, ...
... 2001, former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested and taken to prison in Belgrade, ending a 36-hour standoff at his home. Within months, "after US pressure," he would be "was extradited to The Hague to face the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia." His trial there began in 2002, but in 2006 he died in his ICTY prison cell before any verdict was returned.
... 1983 (25 years ago today), tens of thousands of peace demonstrators "formed a human chain stretching 14 miles" along a route in southern England that "the protesters call 'Nuclear Valley.'" Organizing the event was the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, about which we've posted. (photo credit)