We walk with heroes
On paths of love for freedom.
Let us walk in peace.
Category Archives: POETRY
NO KINGS DAY
The day begins with signs
Of all that any patriot finds
In need of expression
To resist oppression.
We line the streets
Feet deep
Only to meet
Aggression
From those who seek
Our suppression.
Gerrymandered districts
Are incomplete,
Unable to meet
Fair representation,
Denying the nation
one person one vote,
Intimidation afloat
In every state.
We pray it is not too late.
We pray our efforts matter.
We pray our mad-as-hatter
Administration
Stops destroying our beloved nation.
We sing. We dance. We shout.
This is what democracy is about.
No kings today.
No kings in any way.
No kings over courts’ justice.
No kings over any of us.
Every king eventually falls.
We do not want a king at all.
ONE or NONE
There is no I.
There is no Thou.
There is only We.
If only we knew how.
Filed under POETRY
THREE MONKEYS
It seems all you do is wait.
I know what for.
As do you.
But is your imagination
bright enough to see,
loud enough to hear,
courageous enough to speak?
Do you believe you can cope?
Have you lost all hope?
Does fear hold you captive,
dim your sight,
close your ears,
silence your tongue?
Do you most hide
from lost pride,
knowing what you most fear
is already here?
Open your eyes.
un-stop your ears.
Loosen your tongue.
Resistance, too,
has already begun.
YOUNG AND OLD
The young ones seem to know
that our world is threatened
is ways we not fully know
but fear all the same.
With each sunrise
another un-nerving surprise
until we are afraid to awaken,
afraid to open our eyes.
Not so, the young
for whom time moves slow
and each change is noted
and each move forward
is celebrated, not feared.
But, we, the old
whose breath is slowed
while time speeds away
know life becomes shorter
day by day;
even if the earth
should pass away.
It will not be without us long.
We are growing weaker
as the young grow strong.
So, we must listen
to their protest and shouts.
They understand better
what each bully tactic is about.
We pretend it is only intimidation.
In reality, it is annihilation;
the end of freedoms seldom known
in ages past. As time has flown
we old ones forgot to pay attention.
Now, the young, whom we also ignored
beg for our attention.
We are never too old to mother the young.
We are never too old to stop what has begun.
We may not be able to march so far as they.
But we can shout from each of our front doors.
We can organize, assist and earnestly pray.
We can honk as we pass the marchers on parade.
We can give courage to those who are afraid.
We can write and call those in charge of our fate.
Time passes quickly for us, but it is not too late.
MERE POSSESSION
Being part of a collection
may not be
lack of true affection.
In truth, it may mean
one is a treasured possession.
Such lonely, lonely honor
disturbs connection.
Dust gathers on the shelf
as one is admired upon occasion,
and coats the confident self
in dismay and utter confusion.
Untouched, unfelt,
as time passes, hearts
become too hard to melt.
Harder to recall all one felt.
Until one feels
nothing at all.
Filed under POETRY
WHAT WE’VE GOT
Kent State taught us that white deaths matter more
than Black students shot at Jackson State the week before.
Will protests-to-come under attack by armed and masked militia
teach us that Brown and Black people under attack is indicia,
within the borders of a nation dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal to the oppression,
of rich men of ill will in hiding from congressional oversight
and protected by the US Supreme Court’s judicial might?
I see the writing on the wall, not graffiti, after all,
but executive orders illegal and ill-tended to destroy
the hoped-for dreams of every American girl and boy
not born into wealth, in no need of human labor
to offer enough cash to create a way to savor
all that life could offer a middle-class caste
now turned in serfdom, as in decades long past.
We are not in a culture war.
We are in a class war.
We are in war we thought civil war had ended.
Yet, we continue to watch the republic untended
by leaders who did not see the need to fight
and believed compromise with bullies was right.
Workers sold out over and over again.
Blocked in every effort to build strong unions.
Students sold out over and over again.
Blocked in every effort to get a sound education.
Children sold out over and over again.
Blocked in every effort to find safe protection.
None of us now treated with human affection.
None of us now safe in our streets or our beds.
None of able to take a breath without dread.
Whether you voted for this, or not.
This is what you wrought.
Now, this is what we’ve got.
DREAM OF MY SELF
In dreams we are known
in ways we can’t know ourselves.
Keep dreaming, my soul.
Filed under POETRY
AUTUMN IS IN THE AIR
Cold air is heavier.
Its density
has a propensity
to hold us in place,
inside,
asleep.
It is enough
to make one weep
who loves the heat.
I welcome it
for its cooling property,
its innate ability
to calm and soothe
the painful reality
of an overheated,
seemingly defeated,
world once at peace.
Oh, it was but a brief
moment in time
when hope was alive
and the country thrived,
and nations strived
to help democracy
overcome autocracy.
But, I digress
under great stress.
Cold air is weighted
with shards of ice
torn loose from northern fields,
with such power to wield
that it weighs down sunrise,
to no one’s surprise.
It puts the worker bees to sleep.
They awaken inside flowers
lacking the power
to find their way to their hives.
Cold air makes dreams
more difficult to bear,
their messages too heavily aware
of all the world’s problems
fair and unfair.
Autumn is here
and the world bows down
under the new weight.
Winter is not far away.
I cannot wait!
As sun rises the only sound
is the song of geese southward bound.
I place the heating pad round
a sore back from bending down
to plant bulbs squirrels have already found.
Soon, snow will coat the frozen ground.
DECONSTRUCTION
The streets were lined for blocks on end.
Signs reminded all who rejoiced to attend
Why they walked and talked and smiled and waved
At passing cars who braved delays
While drivers honked horns and shouted out
“Vote him out and make it a rout!”
Costumed critters danced to our delight
Knowing their freedom would give him a fright.
Deconstruct the lies we have been told.
Deconstruct the narrative being sold.
Deconstruct the bullie’s hold.
Deconstruct institutional mold.
Gather in peace the young and the old.
Stronger are you, more wise, more bold.
Deconstruct so we can rebuild
What he has destroyed with his minions’ lack of skill.
We know how to do this, and more.
We have done it many times before.
My thanks to my friends in Clintonville area of Columbus who helped me attend this moment of patriots’ challenge to the con men robbing the USA of its power, wealth, ideals and humanity. The lack of media coverage was appalling. The misrepresentation of attendance numbers cannot be challenged when media fails to provide images of the gatherings. A local station covered it AFTER it was over and crowds had dispersed. Another stated hundreds attended when it was actually thousands. We are here. We are resisting. We are going nowhere until the despotism and kidnapping of people and the Supreme Court, universities, news organizations, social media outlets, medical and public health Institutions… even our very language and the meaning of words and phrases has been brought to an end and freedom restored.
We shall not be silenced.
Leave a comment
Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY, POLITICS
Tagged as activism, American democracy, American History, animals, anxiety, authoritarians, AUTOCRATS, Bill of rights, bullies, citizens united, civil rights, climate change, community, congress, corruption, courts, creativity, DEATH OF DEMOCRACY, democracy, discrimination, disinformation, diversity, DOJ, economics, economy, education, election, elections, environment, fascism, FBI, free speech, freedom, global warming, government, grassroots organizing, greed, gun control, gun regulation, health, health care, history, human rights, HYPOCRISY, immigrants, immigration, insurrection, isolation, J.D.Vance, journalism, judges, justice, laughter, law, leadership, LGBT, lies, light, MAGA, media, mental-health, middle class, misogyny, money, national security, news, news media, No Kings, NOEM, Ohio, Ohio politics, oligarchs, pandemic, patriotism, peaceful protest, photography, poetry, poets, political propaganda, politics, power, Project 2025, propaganda, protest, racism, republican leadership, Republican Party, resilience, resistance, resistance movement, rule of law, security, silence, social media, Supreme Court, teenagers, trump, Trump administration, truth, U.S. Supreme Court, Us Constitution, VOTE, voter suppression, voters, voting, voting rights, white supremacy, woke, women's health care, workers, youth