Duck! It's An Arrow!

It's Valentine's Day, folks.

In a normal year, we could give love and romance the attention they justly deserve. Certainly, Cupid's arrows add sparkle to the eye, lightness to the step, and ebullience to the heart. A wondrous feeling.

Yet, President Bush shouts at us. Demanding we pay attention. We are at war.

There's no time for the frippery of innocence. Focus on gloom, doom and terrorists. Surely, Vice President Cheney's actions brought that home to us this past weekend?

Yep. Bush has surely led us past the garden path, through the gates of Hades, and into the realm of hell. No frippery valentines here, decorated with lacy ribbons and silly verses of love which tickle the heart with laughter and warmth.

I remember a time, six years or so ago, when my heart was so young, it trilled with joyous expectation.

Why?

Ah shucks, folks, it was Valentine's Day!

But hush! Don't tell President Bush and his cronies about that. They wouldn't approve.

Like the naughty neighborhood brat, this administration's toys are guns. They fancy themselves as heroes in a violent world. Far as I can see, the problem with being a hero is: your career, a terminal affair, is short-lived; a temporary spectacle easily forgotten by passing generations.

Shakespeare's valentine verses? Ah! They live, forever, in our hearts.
Duck! It's An Arrow! © 2006 Chaeli Lee Sullivan