China's Lost Libyan Oil Contract Poem by Terence George Craddock (Spectral Images and Images Of Light)

after Gaddafi partially
atoned for Lockerbie
new generation world

leaders sought
Gaddafi's help
in War on Terror

to secure energy security

after all this son
of an illiterate
Bedouin herder

had already hatched plans
to topple Libyan monarchy
when still at study in college

after military
training in
Greece Britain

our boy Gaddafi
led a successful revolution
at the age of 27

like Mao
Gaddafi outlined
his political

views in
a brief blunt
Green Book

yes like our
dictator Idi Amin
of Uganda

he was ours
for a time
until escaping

Gaddafi was
a good man
donated money

for humanitarian
causes across Africa
allowed Africans

to work in Libya
built mosques
in African countries

supported African
rebels in South Africa
Zimbabwe against

Apartheid but!
Gaddafi also supported
scores of rebel

movements in places
like Chad, Liberia,
Sudan, Sierra Leone

Gaddafi sent
high school pupils
to the frontline

in Chad's
Civil War
telling them

they were
going on
a field trip

Palestinian militants
Ugandan dictator Idi Amin
Irish Republican Army (IRA)

all had training camps
in Libya but the Irish left
due to tight alcohol laws

unseemly connections
earned Gaddafi the title
world's premier state

sponsor of terrorism!
implicated in terrorist
attacks Munich Massacre

in 1972 shooting of protesters
from inside Libyan Embassy
in London in 1983 the Berlin

discotheque bombing 1986
Gaddafi mad dog of Middle East
authorized bombing of Tripoli

killing his own adopted daughter
Lockerbie Bombings of 1988
to name dropp but a famous few

Gaddafi his vision a second USA
Gaddafi's United States of Africa
modeled after the European Union

Gaddafi himself to be "King of Kings"
emerged as key mediator in negotiations
for Western hostages kidnapped in Mali

and Niger Gaddafi at 2009 G-8 summit
a bogeyman ally in War on Terror
Colonel Gaddafi a bizarre twisted history

"betting on futures
old buddy Gaddafi
your out bad boy

Libyan oil is in
renegotiated deal
new rebel alliance

for empire
Libyan Chinese
oil contract

guillotined
new management
no fly zone"

but don't foolishly count
Gaddafi out on rung bell
vampires are hard to stake

Libya is engaged in tribal war
a martyr Gaddafi will haunt
grave terrorism his ace card

beware mad dogs on last legs
beware four decades survivor
beware revenge of mad dictator


Four stanzas quoted are from ‘Sweet Words Freshly Banked' by Terence George Craddock.
Copyright © Terence George Craddock