Tad Tuleja

TAKE NO PRISONERS

Two months into the special operation, Mariupol in ruins
and millions exiled, the news shows a clip of a man and a body
lying in the street where the invaders left it. The man—an aid
worker or a neighbor—pauses before rolling it into a bag
to cut the fetter binding the victim’s wrists.

In that small reverence, hope crawls weary from Pandora’s jar
and the dominion of the unholy is briefly undone. I give thanks for
that man’s decency even as I recall that the 20,000 Poles
killed at Katyn died according to the same grotesque formula:
bound then shot in the head by hollow men.

Now, as in 1940, the killers were following orders from afar—
the grey seats of power near Saint Basil’s. I wonder, when they got
home, what icons they kissed, what penances they mumbled, what
words they used when, holding their children’s hands, they spoke
of Mother Russia and righteous battle.


Tad's YouTube video reading of "Take No Prisoners":



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Tad confesses: "This poem, inspired by seeing film of a man cutting free the bound wrists of a murdered Ukrainian civilian, asks the reader to consider what a 'no prisoners' policy does, not just to its victims but to the soldiers who are ordered to carry it out."

TAD TULEJA is a Texas-based folklorist and songwriter with interests in the Hollywood Western, honor cultures, and the mythology of violence. He has written or edited thirty books, including novels and nonfiction works on language, history, popular culture, and military traditions. His thoughts on nationalism inform his weekly podcast Skirmishes with Patriotism. The recipient of a Puffin Foundation grant for his song cycle Skein of Arms, he performs his songs on YouTube under the name Skip Yarrow.

Tad Tuleja

EPIPHANY 2021

I had not thought I’d see the country that
I loved with blind delight become a mob
In dizzy fealty to a feral brat
Whose every weave and pounce aspires to rob
Them of their birthright. What’s to be done? Half
The land that claims it’s free burns incense now
On altars of autocracy. First laugh
Then wince to see a wolf command a cow
As buzzing cadres of indignant drones
Are jostling for attention at the feet
Of our new Duce. Hear the undertones?
That’s fear behind the military bleat.
What’s to be done? When shepherds are exiled
Ravenous mouths exult, “It will be wild.”


Tad's YouTube video reading of "Epiphany 2021":



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Tad confesses: " I wrote this sonnet toward the end of 2021, as we were approaching the first anniversary of that year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol. It had happened on January 6, a date that the Christian calendar calls the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrating the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. The irony of that conjunction inspired the poem."

TAD TULEJA is a Texas-based folklorist and songwriter with interests in the Hollywood Western, honor cultures, and the mythology of violence. He has written or edited thirty books, including novels and nonfiction works on language, history, popular culture, and military traditions. His thoughts on nationalism inform his weekly podcast Skirmishes with Patriotism. The recipient of a Puffin Foundation grant for his song cycle Skein of Arms, he performs his songs on YouTube under the name Skip Yarrow.

Tad Tuleja

I HAVE TO WARN YOU
(On the death of Andrew Brown Jr., April 21, 2021)

Just a routine raid in the land of the free
Some sorry joker who sold one too many bags
Or waited a day too long to fix that tail light
Or was just unlucky enough to be driving while black

The network anchor, mindful of our feelings,
Warns the clip they are airing might be disturbing.
But all we see is seven guardians of the law
Protecting themselves against a known bad guy.

And editing thank God has cleaned up the language
So that all we hear besides the patter of bullets
Like the one that spiraled into the back of his head
Is beep and beep and beep as the deal goes down.

So thanks to the sensitive suits at CNN
For considering, as you did, my tender ears.
God knows what lifelong trauma I might have incurred
Had I been forced to endure an uncivil word.


Tad's YouTube video reading of "I Have to Warn You":



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Tad confesses: "While this poem responds overtly to the “justified” killing of a black man by sheriff’s deputies, it reacts equally to the absurdity (or hypocrisy) of a media protocol that follows the tabloid principle “If it bleeds it leads” while bleeping out epithets every teenager knows. As if the real offense here was not the killing but the chance that snowflake viewers might feel assaulted by language."

TAD TULEJA is a Texas-based folklorist with interests in the Hollywood Western, honor cultures, and the mythology of violence. He has edited books on American vernacular traditions and military culture and has received a Puffin Foundation grant for his song cycle “Skein of Arms.” He performs his songs on YouTube under the name Skip Yarrow.

Tad Tuleja

CROW

On the murder of the poet Peppino Marotto
in his home town of Orgosolo, Sardinia


An old man of regular habits, he walked every morning
To the corner, took coffee and a paper, fed a dog
Like the one who scattered wolves when he was a boy.
The shadow of a crow above his shoulder.

He became a communist because in 1945 children
Were starving. A poet because that was the voice
Of this land. A singer because he could or had to.
These roles gave him a certain distinction.

The reports said five or six shots. Identity and motive
Were unknown. Perhaps he knew his killer
Or knew of him. Perhaps it was a distant male relation
Of someone he had offended long ago.

The answer is being washed away just now
By two carabinieri with fire hoses as the dog makes his way
To another table in a town whose name looks like pride
And crows outlive old men.


Tad reads "Crow":



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Tad confesses: "Years ago, while teaching a course on revenge, I came upon this sobering observation: ‘I took revenge after 100 years, but I acted too quickly.’ The pathology of vendetta suggested by that comment was perhaps at play as well in the murder of the Sardinian poet whom I honor here."

TAD TULEJA is a Texas-based folklorist with interests in the Hollywood Western, honor cultures, and the mythology of violence. He has edited books on American vernacular traditions and military culture and has received a Puffin Foundation grant for his song cycle “Skein of Arms.” He performs his songs on YouTube under the name Skip Yarrow.