Ode to "24"

IT COULD BE VERSE

Itzin offers his poetic reflection on President Logan's epic ''24'' hours

Courtesy of EW

THE PREZ

I am the President of the United States,

And no one dare say me nay.

I am the President of the United States,

If only for a very long day.

I set the wheels in motion,

I am the primo mobile,

I am the President of the United States,

So get the hell out of my way.

The day began so hopefully,

A treaty on the table,

Then Russian rebels intervened,

And there begins our fable.

The plan seemed such a good one,

Gain a foothold in the East,

We could stake a claim to foreign oil,

Since on fuel we do feast.

But the best-laid schemes Oft gang agley,

Once wisely it was said,

And barely five minutes into the day,

We were bringing out our dead.

David Palmer fell fast and first,

A sniper's bullet took him down,

And at Logan's Retreat there was Chaos! Chaos!

''The Russian President has come to town.''

Mike Novick had no time to grieve

His former partner's parting,

Though wanting to, he could not leave;

An ugly day was starting.

And Bauer's up in Bakersfield,

A new life undertaken,

And learning of his old friend's fate,

It's to his core he's shaken.

Then Tony's loss,''Michelle! Michelle!''

Her death our loss as well,

And what this means we cannot tell,

But surely the road leads to hell.

A conspiracy is under way,

Of that we have no doubt,

How high up has infection spread?

By day's end we will find out.

The first man implicated Is Walt Cummings, Logan's friend.

He's broken bad by Bauer,

And left hanging in the end.
And terrorists and sentox gas,

Civilian deaths that come to pass,

President Logan's cross and crass,

The man's behaving like an ass.

And Martha is Cassandra,

The First Lady prophesies,

In Denmark something's rotten,

And the air it stinks of lies.

Oh, the loyal soldiers marching,

They're Mike Novick, Aaron Pierce,

Bill Buchanan, Chloe, Curtis,

They're devoted, they are fierce.

And our world is whirling, whirling,

In a maelstrom we are swirling,

And Death's finger beckons, curling,

And time's clock face spins, it's twirling.

And Death it stalks a shopping mall,

Lord, is there no safe place?

No airport safe, no public space,

We cannot see the terror's face.

So we play the game ''Who do you trust?''

Jack Bauer, Yes? That's all.

And even there at CTU,

They're heading for a fall.

For they are breached by family ties,

(McGill does love his sister),

And to her loving Lynn she lies,

And we scream,''Watch it, mister!''

And more death, more death, more friends gone,

There's Tony! Edgar! Stricken!

And Lynn McGill, heroically,

And viewers' pulses quicken.

And we watch Logan sacrifice,

(He and Novick on their knees),

The Suvarovs and his Mad Wife,

''The country's good'' is all he sees.

But failure follows hard upon,

The Good Guys save the day!

Or ''save the moment,'' and terror moves on,

There still is hell to pay.

There's Bierko, yes? And Henderson.

Now Terror has a Face.

And if one falls, it matters not,

Another takes his place.

Inexorable, inevitable,

It seems we have no choice,

And all the witnesses, safe at home,

All cry out with one voice:

''Don't ask Charles Logan! He can't decide!

He's Weak and spineless, doubting.''

When systems fail, as they have to do,

He's silent...then he's shouting.

He blames his minions, lashes out,

As things go from worse to worser.

Look deep down in those darting eyes,

You'll see there the precursor.

And CTU's a foreign land,

That Woman at the helm,

And the Sullen Snake is at her side,

CTU's a brand new realm.

For the best-laid plans turned out a mess,

They crumbled fast beneath the stress,

And people have to die, I guess,

There's nothing more, and nothing less.

A tape exists, incriminating,

And Evelyn's to blame,

And what becomes of her and hers,

Is to the President's eternal shame.

His sins, they stack up higher still,

Of omission and commission,

At the well of fate he drinks his fill,

''Bad things happen,'' with his permission.

But the Country's Avenging Angel,

Yes? Is hard upon his trail.

Jack Bauer seeks revenge, no less,

And we pray he will not fail.

The pendulum swings back and forth,

Jack's lost it, now it's found,

And Logan contemplates his end,

He hears the baying of the hound.

Palmer, Cummings, Heller; dead,

The blood of these upon his head,

And other innocent souls have fled,

Oh God, that he'd died in their stead.

But for him, there is no remedy,

For him there's no release,

An eleventh-hour reprieve arrives,

So for him there is no peace.

The tape is gone, he's safe again,

But do you think he's safe, my friend?

His road is straight, it does not bend,

He moves towards a quite certain end.

For this is 24. Indeed.

The day moves with increasing speed.

The drama has a built-in need:

It needs to see the villain bleed.

So Jack and Charles triangulate,

The Hunter seeks his prey.

These two are sure to share a fate

In the last hour of this day.

And so, at last, they're face to face,

And accusations fly.

Jack works on him as Time does race,

Guilt brings a tear to Logan's eye.

But in the end it's not to be,

Jack cannot kill his man.

The Secret Service sets him free.

And we're on to another plan...

The Woman whom he loves and hates,

She sets to work, she seals their fates,

Like spiders who consume their mates,

Displaying oh so human traits.

The pain, the pain is everywhere;

Betrayal, loss of trust.

The King done in by his Lady Fair,

Done in by love and lust.

Our day is almost over,

As the noose gets tight and tighter,

But Logan struggles til the end,

For the President is a fighter.

We watch the limo roll away,

But hope is there inside.

He lives to scheme another day,

He will nurse his wounded pride.

And Jack? He's fine, he's happy,

For his Audrey he has found,

But in our hearts, the warning bell,

Alas, he's China bound.

But stay tuned, folks, six months from now

It all begins again,

Day Six will spin out, hour by hour…

I can hardly wait til then.

Itzin/Logan