Only a moment
in time, outrage so profound,
turns nation around.
Unknown woman posts “I VOTED” sticker on Alex Pretti memorial.
Category Archives: POETRY
WATCHING RETURNS
We await returns, afraid to hope, yet eager for change
while the world turns and twists on battlefields
we cringe to see and do not recognize as our own.
We try to rebuild a prosperous and civil society
while schools, hospitals, highways, trains and homes
are blasted apart with life’s blood by robot drones.
The monsters are everywhere now, colluding to gain
all the world’s wealth and power as their own.
Hell on earth appears on city streets, and outside
schools and Home Depot, even at our own front doors.
We do not recognize the human drones, masked as they are.
We do not recognize the darkness draped now in gold,
gold we pay for that allows monsters to hide,
even from themselves, as gambling games mix with propaganda
aired on every screen, every hour, of every day while we play
with money we no longer have to pay the rent, buy our food,
teach our children in safe schools, roof the unhoused,
treat the unwell, feed the hungry, gas-up our cars
and find a way to stay alive and well – one more day.
The whole world is at war in unrecognizable ways,
on battlefields created as theaters of the absurd
but just as deadly in each its own way; and we play!
We play. We play. And, it is true, some of us simply pray.
Wait for returns. Gird and guard your strength today
for the battles which lie ahead and will not simply go away
as you turn from the poll results to begin another day.
Never doubt what we and all the world’s people are about.
We are all defending freedom and liberty.
Some of us are defending our very lives against genocide.
Americans sharing tax dollars with monsters brings no pride.
We are afraid to claim our well-earned and historical shame.
Return to wakefulness as the young are now doing.
See across oceans, in places with names we cannot pronounce
to wars fought more openly, with death a greater reality.
We are part of their fight as our monsters fund a common enemy,
and throw our support to help other monsters destroy even more.
Monsters are destroying the peace we diligently built
and the freedoms we fostered after the LAST GREAT WAR.
Destruction is at the heart of each and every war.
We play with blocks the monster continually knocks down.
The destroyer is once again, and still, at our door.
TIME CHANGE
Time is meaningless
to those who carry a heavy load
or suffer degradation so far below,
to lovers caught in ecstasy
or artists in creativity’s flow,
to children in mindless play
on every endless summer day.
No timepiece is needed
to mark sorrow or joy.
The heart’s memory is large enough
to carry forth one’s entire story.
Time is meaningless
without acknowledging grief and glory.
Filed under POETRY
RETIRED
I still awaken in the dark cold
to watch ribbons of color tie closed
the sun, wrapped and waiting
below the horizon;
until sun breaks the chords of night
in a quiet song of anticipation,
and rises before my tired eyes
into a blue, partially-cloudy sky.
I remind myself that I am retired now.
Re-tired to sleepless nights of hunger
for more ways to feed my needs,
and naps un-asked for every day.
I cannot resist the unwrapping
of each new, unexpected, gift.
Like any child, I am ready to play
until the final curtain draws a close
to the play I write day by day;
and the last night of the play descends.
And, I shall bid you adieu, my friends.
Filed under POETRY
MORNING DOVE
Morning brings us mindless enterprise
until Brain sorts itself sorts itself out
and finds a side to lean on as
rational thoughts begin to unsteadily rise,
as do we, from beds draped in blankets
and dreams, soon lost in shallow mists.
uncertain what this new day will comprise.
We only awaken when the world makes sense again
and each moment of each hour of this day stops
being a devastatingly horrible October surprise.
Which may explain why so many refuse to awaken,
fearful of what the day may bring to their side.
Living in the dawn of denial and refusing to think
keeps nightmares hidden behind false pride.
Which may explain why so many fear being woke,
and despise those awake, yet steadier, than they are.
It is easier for some to remain in the dark ages,
unable to face each new day with hopeful anticipation.
The unstable on their feet, pushed around in misdirection,
bombarded steadily by false presentation on their way
to the kitchen from the bedroom to prepare for work,
which may or may not be securely theirs if AI has a say.
In darkness, they color outside the lines of common sense,
unable, and scarily unwilling, to follow a rational conversation;
or simply refuse to move an inch, holding on to the fence.
We all need a simple cup of coffee, for satisfaction.
We all need a moment, or two, of silent reflection.
We all need to accept our common imperfection.
We all need a personal course correction.
We all need to reassemble our sleepy thoughts
and start behaving as we ought.
We are stronger than we know.
We can stand on our own.
we can let fear go back to sleep
as we awaken on balanced feet
facing each new day.
That is no mean feat.
It was never meant to be.
We were made from and for love.
We are the morning, not the mourning, dove.
MESSENGERS OF THE FALLEN
Each leaf a messenger from time before time
of cold nights following bright days
along sun’s lowered, angled lines.
Dust particles stir on autumn’s breeze
and from furnace blowers sight unseen.
Fall cleaning is upon us soon as we prepare
for even darker days and deadening cold
reminding us winter snows will silently descend.
We wonder if and when the darkness will finally end.
Falling leaves teach us hope for certain
as we watch them drop their curtain.
They remind us that only if leaves fall, can new leaves grow.
Centuries of Nature’s lessons tell us this is so.
A leaf falls with each vote cast in November.
Elections help us to remember
Spring will come again in fruitful splendor.
LIFT HIGH YOUR LAMP
The Mother of Exiles lifts her lamp high above the shore.
Showing the world the open, golden door
which does not close on the rich, nor on the poor.
Greatness lies just beyond it where
no storied pomp, nor propaganda can close a door
where freedom reigns instead of princes and kings;
despite the mean-spirited ads, rallies, rants and roar.
The huddles masses of those who came before
yearning to be free are just like you and me.
Together, we immigrants to a foreign shore
watch not the dismantling of the door,
as we watched the destruction of the East Wing;
but, the boards of hate and fear nailing it shut
wondering what an AI fascist future may bring.
Meanwhile, MAGA boasts and laughs and struts.
All that now remains is a frame and lintel
on which voters hopes patiently hang.
And, those seeking safety on American shores
are hunted and locked up by those who fear and hate,
whose violence has been unleashed
as it has been many times before.
A nation built using violence to seize its manifest destiny
none-too-soon learned to use restraint;
amended a constitution, and regulated greed and hate.
A new door must be built, open to allow hope to flourish
and America’s soul renewed by love for all,
that we may see its faith is restored.
Vote to end America’s soul-less rage.
Vote to turn America’s fearfully hate-written page.
Vote our constitution and rule of law to be restored.
Vote to lift your own lamp above every closed door.
Lift the lamp of freedom over America forevermore.
Hiding your light under the barrel and staying silent
has never worked before.
GO VOTE!
Then light the space around you
until the nightmares are put at an end;
and America is, once again, on the mend.
THE BREAK-UP
I waited awhile for your smile,
perhaps too long.
It never came until too late.
I shall never know
why you made me wait
until I said, “I’ll
be going now.”
Your face lit up in joyful prose
and told me all I needed to know.
Filed under POETRY
HUMAN-KIND
At night, in my dreams, the people keep coming.
They arrive as if expected.
I do not know from where.
One by one, children are dispersed among them,
and placed in their care.
I guide their placement into pairs;
and offer up a silent prayer
that their fit makes some kind of sense
of which I am not completely aware.
It is not a sense of mind, nor heart.
It is the sense we are no longer apart.
Human-kind has become a true compound
of Earth and Starlight united in harmonic sound.
In the darkness of dreams stars musically alight.
And hearts once in despair no longer break at night.
In my sleeping dreams they arrive.
At dawn I arise
and sing a new song in my heart
knowing we are together again, never to part.
Be Kind is my song, as a new day starts.
Filed under POETRY
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
The dark of night yet lingers and hides horrors from our sight,
as surely as using his poisoned pen our would-be king
claims undeserved, and hitherto unknown, power and might.
Disguised as feeble-minded and deranged in his fake rage,
surrounded by sycophants helping him turn every page,
he orders and re-orders freedom as his serpent
sibilant breath hisses and shouts across a stage,
revealing his sins and our own, as old as this nation.
Our fears and incoherent anxiety revealed with every breath,
as old as earth’s uncertain and unknowable creation.
Our American Garden of Eden has been turned into hell
for people of color and women, immigrants and refugees
who come with promise and work hard to make true
the promise that over 250 years determinedly grew,
and journalists pledged to tell us truth that is balanced and fair.
Even a live view of a firing squad of a criminal in a wheelchair
does not diminish the would-be kings charm
like a snake sung into action by Congressional inaction
which daily increases a litany of new harm
while they refuse to impeach and remove him
and his co-horts who claim he is only joking,
and ask us to believe he is such fun,
as he destroys the Bill of Rights, one by one;
and ignores every court order to cease and desist
his personal form of corruption and grift.
The rule of law, its lawyers and judges live in fear
as he unleashes his supporters to threaten and sneer.
Americans, it seems, find some ability to be tolerant,
though not as we hoped, to keep us solvent.
Americans accept racist and sexist firings
to make white supremacy in charge, and re-wiring.
Americans accept attacks on the Capitol and its defenders,
and pardons for criminals whose attacks never ended.
Americans can accept attacks on electoral process
and threats of vote seizures meant to intimidate
and stop voters who cannot wait to participate
in tossing the bums out with freedoms’ voting clout.
Americans can accept endless war financed by the poor
while the richer get rich making deals with enemies galore.
But, hands in our pockets, is a step too far for us.
You cannot steal our money like you steal our Jesus,
to convince us neither He, nor we, are who we once were.
Money has become our one, true god;
and whiteness, and gas prices, our only guiding star.
Vote evil out of this garden of Eden,
the serpent and all who will not act against him,
who now pretend they are on our side with false pride;
while cutting trees into crosses and debasing the wood.
The promise of America requires you vote Blue
to keep this nation free, progressing, and claiming what is true.
Join NO KINGS rally and marches near you on October 17.
Make a plan and VOTE on or before November 3.
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Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY, POLITICS
Tagged as American voters, American women, bible, CHRISTIANITY, CIVIL WAR, con men, corruption and fraud, democracy at risk, faith, fascism, God, grifter, Haitian immigrants, immigrants, Iran War, Jesus, judges, MAGA, mail-in vote, mid-term election 2026, NO KINGS RALLY, politics, racism, religion in politics, Republican Party, rule of law, SCOTUS, sexism, Somalis, trump, US CONSITUTION, white nationalism