The children smile, bright-lit moons
trace their trails across sky
the lands of Christians they just left
over Muslim worlds they casually fly
oh, those naughty, haughty balloons!
Terrified, angrified,
the world-dominating-fantasizing
see red spots, to Mecca yell,
“Invaders! Crusaders from the West!"
Call Jihadi! Infidels!
99 red balls-of-gas
have the world in a mess
in their peculiar way again…
One more time this city is dust,
civilization- kaput,
mankind a flop, the traffic stopped
except to a little balloon toy shop…
There they are! Again! They fly!
Neunundneunzig Luftballons go by!
click to hear the 99 luftballoons going by…
*lyrics below
Author notes
Both the English and German versions of the original song tell a story of ninety-nine balloons let go during the Cold War and accidentally triggering apocalyptic military nuclear missile responses, because the errant balloons were unidentified blips on the radar screens that did not identify themselves properly!
The above piece represents the balloons' new adventure...
(The world-dominating-fantasizing? They are the Shiite with no job skills to speak of, who believe that the world is due for an apocalypse where they, the skill-less Shi'a, will emerge as rulers of the world (don't laugh- it has its precedence’s in history!) and of the intolerance, illiteracy, paranoia, and twisted thinking of a held-hostage-by-thug-dominated-mind-controlled-saber-rattling weak and backwards medieval Muslim world in general that, in one of today's greatest ironies, owe their continued existence to the charity and tolerance of those they are taught to hate and take as slaves or kill- while hate is still their preferred source of animalistic strength and one of the primary fuels for their ridiculous fantasies, in an age where most others have already moved light-years beyond that kind of barbarian-in-the-sand mentality. ...ahhh! nothing like a big, long ranty thing to soothe the soul!) Now excuse me, I'm off to read Nasrudin, a man of kindred spirit...
Nena - 99 Red Balloons (1983)
(cover version by Siobhan Duvall)
You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons
With the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message
"Something's out there"
Floating in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by...
99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here
From somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Where 99 red balloons go by...
99 Decision Street
99 ministers meet
To worry, worry, super-scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by...
99 Knights of the airway
Ride super-high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a Superhero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
As 99 red balloons go by...
As 99 red balloons go by!
99 dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standin' pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go...
and I read Chantelle's rules!
Hope you enjoyed!
Written August 1st, 2006
In a list
A contest entry
Comments
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Adding your comment:
This was amazing. The best poem I have read all day. It was so powerful, and held true to the song (although with this title, I'm not sure anyone could write anything else!). You captured the emotion nicely, the whole piece flowed well.... I really have nothing bad to say. I also liked the fact that you linked the song to this. I think its good for people to hear the song that inspired the poem.
And I remember my father listening to that song...
11 old applause
