an ode to a terrorist...

ok, so this poem is from yesterday's writer's almanac....

Poem: "To a Terrorist," by Stephen Dunn, from Between Angels (Norton).

To a Terrorist
For the historical ache, the ache passed down
which finds its circumstance and becomesthe present ache,
I offer this poemwithout hope,
knowing there's nothing, not even revenge,
which alleviates a life like yours.
I offer it as one might offer his father's ashes to the wind,
a gesturewhen there's nothing else to do.
Still, I must say to you:

I hate your good reasons.
I hate the hatefulness that makes you fall
in love with death, your own included.
Perhaps you're hating me now,
I who own my own house
and live in a country so muscular, so smug,
it thinks its terror is meant only to mean well, and to protect.
Christ turned his singular cheek,
one man's holiness another's absurdity.
Like you, the rest of us obey the sting, the surge.
I'm just speaking out loudto cancel my silence.
Consider it an old impulse,
doomed to become mere words.

The first poet probably spoke to thunder and,
for a while, believedthunder had an ear and a choice.

the spacing is not that of the poet...rather, that of copy and paste