OK, it's that time in the reading
we have a little cultural language lesson, all right?
So as far as I'm aware, there are two words in Cantonese
that have worked their way into the English language.
If you know what they are, I'll give you a free book.
Anybody?
I didn't think so.
OK, so the first word is "ketchup,"
which Cantonese "ketchup" means tomato sauce, right?
And I think it crept into our language in the 19th century
when the workers came over to work on the railroads.
And the other word is "gung ho," right?
And "gung ho," to be enthusiastic--
"gung ho" literally means work good.
I've been working on the railroad, right?
So I don't know.
It's upsetting to me that these words that have
crept into our language; they probably go back
to this horrible time, which a lot of our ancestors
came here for a better life at slave wages or as slaves.
And so this is my "Gung-Ho Villanelle."
"Yes, sir, we're going to war on Iraq
again, straight into the heart of Baghdad
to finish off what we started decades back
when the price of crude became a fact
Dubya and his out-to-pasture dad can no longer ignore.
We're going back to finish what we've started,
to attack without provocation, only too
glad to know God's on our side.
America, the only superpower left,
keeping track of just what's what, aborted chads,
but prelude to annihilation in Iraq, where voices are moot,
the odds stacked against stockpiled nukes.
Who's had enough?
Who has the courage to turn back now?
Or are we cowards, having grown fat
on guzzled gas, Humvees, our latest fad,
driving us to extinction?
Democracy's finished when there's no one left to attack."
[RINGS BELL]