Nine to three line pockets
of those whose greed
suppresses votes,
suppresses women,
suppresses refugees,
suppresses America’s survival
suppresses Earth’s survival.
RESPECTFULLY, I DISSENT
Filed under POETRY
GEESE LESSONS
Feathers line the ponds’ paths.
The geese are in their molt.
They willingly pull feathers loose.
They do not fear their loss.
They know feathers are merely the surface
of who they are, a cultural statement,
not an identity.
They realize they remain geese
even if every feather is lost.
They poke no fun at their flock members.
They do not call them “geese in name only”.
They welcome the molt.
It comforts them to lose well-worn feathers.
Geese accept new feathers.
They know they can fly better
even if they look different.
They accept that different is better.
They are still members of the same flock.
They are still geese, just renewed and improved.
If only Americans could accept the molt
of culture and it well-worn surface.
If only Americans could rejoice in new feathers,
and realize they could fly better
and still be one flock.
We could learn lot from geese.
We could learn to fly in a vee formation
with everyone a leader sharing the point
and bringing the nation
into a new age with the strength and grace
to let go of the old feathers and old fears,
and fly free. If only we were like geese.
Filed under POETRY
HAIKU / U.S. REP. MARY MILLER
“Saving white life” may
have been a Freudian slip.
The story it tells!
Filed under POETRY
WOMEN’S MARCH
I would not trade away today
despite the perilous fray
sure to come.
Interesting times they say
should be avoided.
Yet, history turns her gaze
on such days
making us preciously aware
of what truly matters.
Attentively, I hold my heart steady,
bracing, by body ready.
I have marched through the nation’s streets
with tired legs on weary feet
for too many years to count,
hoping to finally count for something.
Ever more alert,
our marching tread announcing
we are here, here to stay.
History has our ear
exactly as we feared.
Today we march side by side
hoping to turn history’s tide.
There is no place to hide
from white male supremacy,
and the greedy bully
too many ride.
I know not what today will bring.
I pray it brings victory and pride
that our Republic has not yet died.
Filed under POETRY
LAMENTATION
Little girl, bambina,
treasure of daddy’s heart.
A girl-child set gracefully apart
from the boys running free beyond the yard.
Little girl, bambina,
kneeling in the pew.
A girl-child quietly humming the chorus
while the boys sing free up in the choir loft.
Little girl, bambina
patiently waiting for adulthood
a girl-child home obeying family rules
while the boys explore the world.
Little girl, bambina
now grown and flown from home
no longer a mere girl-child
but an America woman fully grown.
How blessed to be an American woman;
Though Italian, and Catholic grown.
Now free to run alongside the boys.
The world is yours to own.
Little girl, bambina
delighted to be free
and equal to any boy or man.
That is what it means to be an American.
Little girl, bambina,
no treasure now are you aware.
A woman without freedom nor equality,
is your burden, once more, to bear.
Filed under POETRY
WOMEN AND CHILDREN
The child belongs to the parent.
The child’s thoughts are subject to approval,
The child’s actions under authoritarian rule.
Bedtime, mealtime, doctor’s visits, school,
playmates, inside or outside, work time or playtime;
all regulated by others.
Discipline applied with no guaranteed appeal.
Childhood is a time of fierce lack of control.
No freedom even to choose to speak or stay silent.
No choices at all until the child grows tall.
Each birthday a gift in itself that freedom is coming.
Children count the days in years.
We all remember those days.
Those days have returned for women.
Their lives are no longer their own.
Their choices are not free.
Their silence is demanded and enforced by law.
Their privacy is invaded by others’ will.
Their paths are reduced to only those others allow.
Women are now punishable by law.
Women are not children.
Women do not play at life.
Women are life, and that life is their own.
No legal argument can change that truth.
No man can return us to his control.
Filed under POETRY
HAIKU
Passion breaks apart
fired in ovens too hot.
Cool love lasts longer.
Filed under POETRY
LADY RUBY
Lady Ruby walks with the Ancestors
on paths treacherous and costly;
on paths where the honorable and heroic
stay focused and resolute.
Truth lights her path amidst the darkness
of hate and fear, and the lies and threats
of political bullies and white supremacists.
Her faithfulness is a shield.
Her resoluteness is a sword
which pierces the veil of dangerous actors
in conspiracies of hot, decaying breath
constricting her strength but never defeating it.
Lady Ruby walks with the Ancestors.
They lift her up and show us the story long hidden,
and now threatened to be forbidden,
lest we learn what we need to know
to perfect our union and ring the freedom bell
for all Americans. This is the story Lady Ruby tells.
Lady Ruby walks with the Ancestors.
Let us walk beside her.
Filed under POETRY
THE GLEN
The geese know the way
beyond the pond’s gaze
onto paths which cannot contain them
to stay within its bounds.
In formation they travel
stopping traffic in their wake;
Mom in front, goslings next,
and dad takes up the rear.
We all wait.
Then, wait longer.
No horns blare.
We have learned to live in peace
at the speed of geese,
patient with one another
in this small space,
in this neighborhood of grace.
Filed under POETRY
State’s Rights and Fascist Court ?
I just ate an entire bag of Milano double dark chocolate cookies. Better that than crying in outrage that separation of church and state has overcome our constitutional rights as white politicians within the Republican Party exploit the personal faith of voters to retain their control of government. Why? Because of their racism and sexism, and gender fears. And, to allow corporate and private wealth to stay in power through them, personally rewarding them financially and supporting filling their campaign chests.
These protagonists blocked the Equal Rights Amendment for women in my youth. Women finally got the right to vote but it and other civil rights have never explicitly been assured. This is one reason the privacy rights under the constitution was used to explain why women have a legal civil right to decide their health care rights and family planning rights.
This same reasoning was used to protect a couple’s right to use birth control. That right is now also facing elimination according to Justice Thomas’ dissent.
The Supreme Court is our greatest and final protector of our freedoms and civil rights. Today, the court threw women to the wolves. They invaded the privacy right of a woman to her own body. They destroyed a woman’s right to safeguard her mental and physical health. Her rights no longer belong to her. They belong to state legislatures. women no longer have rights equal to men in this nation.
We have been here before. Despite the end of enslavement of African-Americans recognition of their civil rights took another 100 years to secure. And, those rights, including the right to vote are again, still, under siege. The Voting Rights Act has been eviscerated. Will the supreme Court’s States Rights Rule now be applied to any individual’s right to equality and freedoms? This case opens that door. The decision today directs us through that door.
The violence and intimidation against women is now supported by our Supreme Court, using its judicial powers. I fear it will soon be the same for people of color, LGBTQT community … indeed any group the white supremacist leaders supported by our churches think they have a right to control.
Today’s decision is far worse than overturning abortion rights. It overturns equal rights. I fear it is not only women who are under threat. Our very identity as a free society , as an American society, was destroyed today.
I am out of cookies. Out of words. Only tears remain. Fascist Court? Not usually 2 words that go together. They do now!
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Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS
Tagged as abortion, campaigns, contraception, Dobbs v. Jackson, Equal rights, ERA, fascism, politics, racism, Republican Party, ROE V. WADE, voting rights