Today is Sunday.
Another week of dissent.
Restore freedom now.
freedom haiku
NO!
The strongest word in any language is “NO”.
It is every child’s first word for a reason.
To a toddler’s parent it is treason.
It carries more weight than cuddles or cudgels
used to reprimand, remand and reform.
Its power can overturn threats and intimidation.
Its shout can garner attention and create doubt.
Its momentum can move mountains about.
Its clarity quickens response to its shame.
It calls attention to errors or cheats in any game.
It works where no other method succeeds
to enforce self-interest’s vitality and need.
Its surprise increases the ability to annoy.
“NO!” can be weakened if too late employed
Authoritarian rule is under attack
every time the word “NO!” is shouted back.
“No!” used in concert create symphonic dissent,
until the whole world rises to up-end
intimidation by armed and masked men
who invade our streets and use force to bend
our knees and our minds and our very lives.
When will such madness end ?
When more “NO” is heard than “yes”.
On such “NO!” does one’s freedom depend.
Every child knows this to be true.
Speak your “NO!” now before freedom is lost
to me, to all of us, even to you.
SMALL SPACES SMALL MINDS
The smaller the space in the head
or in geography, or in any cartography,
The less room for challenges and new ideas.
Facts have only so much space.
They must cling fast to last.
Those who limit themselves
to live inside bubbles
seldom recognize such troubles.
They are sure of everything
and wrong about nothing.
They have organized their small space
impeccably, intelligently, flawlessly.
So they must be as well.
They have neither time nor space to dwell
upon possible fallacy.
Only those outside the bubble can see
the absolute dangers of such insanity.
It is a new kind of mental illness
born in the stillness of active minds
revolving unchallenged by facts
that would make their theories unwind.
No such persons should be given power
over those who would see freedom flower
with a just and truthful effort, hour upon hour.
Those who live in openly-wide spaces,
who are woke to every possibility,
to every person and new discovery
are shut down and shut out
until autocracy has destroyed democracy.
CICADAS
Cicadas are singing an age-old announcement.
In six weeks the first frost will replace,
at least for some small time and space,
humid-heavy heated air
and gasps for breath
with a cool-crisp
galloping pronouncement
that Summer passes over to Autumn
all responsibility
to foster human civility.
It has been a tough time this summer.
Climate change disordered earth’s coasts
with rising oceans and in-land flows,
a drenched earth policy
to point out the fallacy
of carbon overload.
Fire’s rages grow stronger.
We cannot ignore any longer
the impact of humanity
which seems to clasp insanity
as an entitled mother-load
to wealth and power.
Greed has become
the man of the hour.
while most of us simply strive
to find someway to survive.
The earth belongs to all, not some.
With stately haste Winter comes.
We have little faith Winter will grace
the earth with a surcease of worry.
Worry mounts with each snow flurry.
Earth shall eventually find balance.
Hopefully, we shall earn similar allowance.
STORMY NIGHT
STORMY NIGHT
Scattered rain was predicted.
The evening news meteorologist
calmly warned of light rain.
Instead, a wild storm came
filling the night with thunder
and meaningless blunder
as lightening broke asunder
a peaceful, if not restful, sleep.
Too wild a storm to venture out in.
A storm to set us back and shut blinds
to keep from seeing or fearing ruin.
This storm rapidly blew in
while most of us slept.
At sunrise, when I rose, I looked outside,
finally, and see the truth.
It is not what I was told, nor surmised.
The yard is battered.
its inhabitants scattered in burrows;
the garden littered and furrowed
by limbs dragged and cuffed.
The flag hangs upside down
until it touches the ground
in sacrilege and shame.
The flag holder has been pulled loose,
its screws unscrewed, its anchor
pulled apart and left hanging in dark space
through a night of constant turmoil,
leaving my flag drenched and soiled.
In morning light I could finally see
the upending of democracy,
right on my front porch
where everyone could if they would
easily see. No neighbor reported
nor interceded to fix a flag so distorted.
But, false solar lights alone
across the yard ways shone,
too low-light to assess
a flag under duress.
In morning light, in my nightgown I alight
to pull my flag up and close.
I place it upright to stand tall,
allowing the tears soaking it to fall,
that it may slowly dry out with the sky;
held by a newly installed holder,
one stronger and bolder.
I promise you this: the flag, my flag,
will soon again fly safe and free.
As will all of our beloved country.
MONARCHS
The monarchs are back
after an arduous journey
from, of all places, Mexico.
Monarchs will leave, eventually.
We now have a monarch in D.C.
who also road in over Mexico.
Unlike the butterfly
which sips nectar and gathers pollen
to leave the garden better and intact,
the D.C. monarch calls flowers weeds
in his obstinate refusal to face facts
and cuts every bloom in the garden back.
He leaves the soil once rich and black
lie fallow so the garden cannot grow back.
This monarch guards his new wasteland
that those who come to take his place
can plant their own seeds
of power and greed.
The monarch will leave as all men must
beneath the weight of soil, and those who lust
for power will take his place in the dead of winter,
and amidst the death of democracy inter
our constitutional republic.
Gardens need much more than monarchs to thrive.
It takes great effort to keep freedom alive.
TECH SAVVY
Silicon Valley controls the game
while its MAGA cheerleaders
lead us astray.
All eyes are on the cheering
and bullying ways
of Trump,Miller, Noem,
Hegseth, Witkoff ,Leavitt and Bruce
who entertain, cheer and introduce
crazy chaos and lies
to divert and divide our tired eyes
from the fields in play.
The Musk and Thiel
have taken over the field
giving JD Vance their power to wield.
CEO dictators are now all the R.A.G.E.
They are not bending knees
with golden gifts on display;
simply, reminding the Trump
who really controls the plays.
Never again will I say
I am not tech savvy.
I clearly see what the tech guys are about;
a complete dismantling and rout
of government, education and law
to stop future votes as they rule on their own.
They think we are stupid and feel so alone
that we would allow democracy to die.
No, we will not. That is the big lie
they tell themselves, and try to hide.
We are tech savvy. We are not leaving the field.
We will never our individual rights to bullies yield.
NO RETREAT
My country is not being stolen.
It is being sold to the highest bidder.
Wealth and power
are the voices of the hour.
Not unexpected
in a consumerism frenzy
fueled by media and investors.
Capitalism has its own axes to grind.
Now, it seems to grind down me and mine.
Turning to fascism is an easy turn of face
for a people untroubled by greed and hate;
for a nation built on slavery and Jim Crow,
and denial of women’s rights to earn and grow
at the same pace, with the same grace,
all men seem entitled to know.
Religion once again is used to shame
and disgrace anyone unwilling
to bend the knee to fake gods
and destroy all faith
in a democratic republic of equals
with equal rights to remain free
of religious bigotry.
This is an old story, one we left behind
to build a new nation inspired by the divine
rights of all men and women to be free.
Now thugs are granted bounties
to place their heels on our necks.
Military mission which once defended
is now on our own streets, its purpose up-ended.
Wealth and power which once plundered
third world nations for fossil fuel and cash
now plunders our economy and middle class.
Science once built a solid foundation
for a healthy, productive nation.
All our scientists built is now being turned to ash.
Massive turnouts in the streets.
Massive turnout at polls complete
our voices shouting, “ no retreat! ”
“No retreat! No retreat!”
PUTINIZATION NATION
We now live in
Putin’s America.
Thanks to all of you
who voted
for Trump/Vance
and every republican
in every state house
in every political position.
I could not feel more derision
for you and what you do
every day you stay
silent,
unapologetic,
absolutely pathetic.
A country I thought you loved
more than you hated
women and people of color,
the disabled, war veterans,
children and the elderly,
homosexual and transgendered.
I underestimated your greed.
I underestimated your need
to make yourself
feel better than someone,
than anyone,
else.
I lost your pulse.
My bad!
And, I know you blame me,
and every liberal,
compassionate,
forward thinking
person you see.
So, you bend the knee
and deny democracy
its rightful place
in American History.
Our loss is Putin’s gain.
Your patriotism
has always been feigned.
Mine, yet remains.
My country may not.
NOT ENVIOUS JUST HUNGRY,By Louise Annarino,December 27, 2012
NOT ENVIOUS JUST HUNGRY,by Louise Annarino, december 27.2012 On January 20, 2012 I wrote the following commentary.Sadly, near a year later, failure…
NOT ENVIOUS JUST HUNGRY,By Louise Annarino,December 27, 2012
Hard to believe 13 years later we face the same intransigence of Republicans. Only the names have changed. Policies are even more entrenched and courts stacked against the 99%z
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