Bruce Whealton: Existential Writing

Jean wrote this recently and I’ve been meaning to post it here. I’ve been posting some of his poems elsewhere, as well, as part of a project. It will be a book of The Best Poetry Of Jean Jones, in my assessment. For a preview, go here.

The latest addition to the collection “The Angel of Death” by Jean Jones, is reproduced below. I enjoyed this, I hope you will as well. Jean offers this introduction, with his poem below.

The youngest son of the late shah of Iran was found dead Tuesday of an apparent suicide at his home in Boston, after he had “struggled for years to overcome his sorrow,” his brother said.

Pahlavi, 44, died from a gunshot wound that apparently was self-inflicted, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office.

Boston police said officers responding to a 911 call found the man dead in his home in the city’s South End neighborhood shortly after 2 a.m. Tuesday. A police spokesman did not know who made the call or whether it came from the home.

Fardia Pars, who is close to Reza Pahlavi, said by phone from Paris that Alireza Pahlavi went into a deep depression following the 2001 death of his sister Leila Pahlavi, who was found in a London hotel room at age 31 after overdosing on barbiturates.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/04/alireza-pahlavi-suicide-i_n_804347.html

THE ANGEL OF DEATH MAKES A VISIT BY JEAN JONES

“So, you’ve come by at last.”

“Were you expecting me?”

“Ever since her death, I’ve been waiting.”

“Did you think you’d escape?”

“No. I knew you’d come.”

“Well, unlike the Romanovs, you escaped.”

“No one escapes you. I know that. My father didn’t escape you.”

“No, he did not. He escaped being sent back to Iran in exchange for the hostages, but I claimed him at the end. Do you know what his final words were?”

“I’ve read them many times: “I wait upon Fate, never ceasing to pray for Iran, and for my people. I think only of their suffering.”

“And now it’s your turn.”

“How do you want it to end?”

“There’s a gun there by the desk. You know what to do.”

“Were you there when the Romanovs were killed?”

“I watched how the princesses had to be finished off with bayonets as they had stuffed jewels in their blouses which had deflected the bullets.”

“You make sure it all works out in the end, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“And what happens to Iran?”

“Many believe that Iran’s fate is being left to the hands of six world powers.”

“And what do you think?”

“After this I saw another angel with great authority coming down from heaven, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. He cried in a mighty voice:
It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen!

She has become a dwelling for demons,

a haunt for every unclean spirit,

a haunt for every unclean bird,

and a haunt for every unclean and despicable beast.

For all the nations have drunk

the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath.”

“Operator, I want to report a death at the South End. . .”