The Cold War taught school kids to “duck-and-cover”
to save their lives, not from bullets fired by fellow Americans;
But from Russian bombs put in place
to put America in its place
in every available space
where bombs could reach our shores.
President Kennedy intervened to stop the ships
carrying missiles to fill silos built in Cuba.
School kids stopped to pray that day
before being sent home to “be with their families.”
I recall that day when annihilation of my nation
became too real to hide away.
Khruschev shouted “We will bury you” as he beat his shoe
where he sat at a desk in the UN.
He foretold our future there and then.
He said we will “destroy you from within.”
That is when the great pirates began to grow rich
in their race shore to shore running
arms, and drugs, and sex slaves galore;
depositing money passed hand-to-hand
into banks off-shore until it washed up and over
the World Bank, its monolith waves too big to ignore.
The dish on American tables ran away with the spoon
feeding the greed of a growing American oligarchy.
It has taken my lifetime to measure
the true loss of America’s treasure
amassed in stealth by pirates dressed as lobbyists,
and PACS funded by dark money
who claim the false goal to live free in our fragile democracy,
our greatest wealth.
The pirates stole into control of our country
with entertainment instead of news.
Encouraging citizens to sleep and not be woke to the tragedy
of pirates placed within a government grown too thin
by tax cuts for the pirates like Trump, Vance, Bannon, Musk, Ramaswamy,
Hegseth, Gabbard, Alito and so many others.
Leaders now promise to deregulate all guards against their pirate theft.
And a sleeping nation nods “yes,” ignoring the pleas of true patriots, left bereft.
The pirates have opened the gates and our Ship of State is un-moored.
They smile and smirk with strong-men and must not be ignored.
We cannot simply give up and give in
watching our country destroyed from within,
while Putin and America’s pirates count coins and grin.
annarino writes 
FIGHTING WORDS
Poetry has fled.
Art hides in plain sight
behind clouds of flame,
beyond winds of change,
before plutocrats take the stage,
no longer waiting behind the scenes
which hide their rage.
Words have lost all meaning
when facts go unchecked
flung too fast to sustain truth
and belief in its power to right wrongs
for the weak and the poor,
tossed aside by courts which cower
fearing loss of wealth and power.
Which words are safe when lies procure
the party in power’s silent vote to score
total control of each life, each thought,
each breath threatened by dirty schemes
to pollute the earth, water and air?
Words cannot be spoken, claimed by death
of the rule of law.
No words exist to describe the depravity
some of us saw
as our words lay dying
first inside
then outside
where meaning can be lost.
Words remain frozen in heavy frost,
weighed down by cold hearts
and dead souls
seeking total control.
Freedom resides in words
which too often remain unsaid.
Words too softly spoken to wake
those asleep, escaping, all hopes dead.
Too few words of truth must compete
with an onslaught of unchecked lies.
I listen and watch, lost in thought.
I write and I plead against what we have wrought.
Poetry, I fear, carries too-little weight.
Poetry, perhaps, has waited too late
to escape the threat when so many lies
have buried the truth for power and greed.
Money has always been the creed
clothed in religion and faith
which grants God’s grace
to those who deserve to see His face
on dollar bills and hung on towers.
False gods seek our praise as they devour
a country whose best citizens
refuse to use their power to remain free,
and would rather lose their democracy.
Leave a comment
Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY, POLITICS
Tagged as Bannon, books, courts, elon musk, facebook, Giulianni, John Thune, Judge Cannon, META, news editors, newspapers, poem, poet, poetry, Republican Party, rule of law, SCOTUS, social media, Speaker johnson, Steven Miller, trump, VANCE, WRITING, Zuckerburg