United Nations Shame
Lying bully Vlad
shines Russia’s crown
with the blood
of innocents
who cry out for protection
from an organization
which allows him Security
instead of obstruction
of his deadly disaffection
from truth and discretion.
ON THE FRONT LINES
How does one prepare
for cyber warfare?
There are no longer fronts
where soldiers block the way
onto civilian grounds of safety.
We are all on the front;
dependent upon technology
for gas and electricity,
for information and news
which could keep us safe
to stay in place.
How do we connect
with family, friends, police,
fire houses, doctors and EMTs,
and get help in an emergency ?
How do we get food on shelves
when distribution channels
get entangled with cyber bullets?
How do we bring water out of taps
when treatment plants are trapped
by foreign intervention
of service connection?
Cyber warfare is a world war.
It has already begun.
Prepare for it to get worse.
There is nowhere to run.
Cyber bullets do not replace
bullets made of lead,
nor rockets, missiles and tanks.
Cyber bullets are simply new
ways to injure, maim and kill.
We are all on the front lines.
The cyber siege has begun.
There is nowhere to run.
We are all on the front.
Worse, the enemy is also within
our congress, state legislatures and courts,
the propaganda machine
of the right-wing Republican Party
funded by American oligarchs,
media-blitzed krieged by FOX
and other talking point right-wingers,
with fingers in the pie
of democratic institutions.
Such patriots of greed hide
in plain sight
cheered with delight
by MAGA white male supremacists
who use Trump as their poster boy,
inciting and inviting
secession from democracy
in favor of autocracy.
We are all on the front.
TAX SEASON
I love paying taxes. I do.
They help me connect to you.
and you, and you, and you.
I pay my share and trust my taxes
will outlast the needs we share.
They show how much I care
about city, county, country.
Taxes build strong community.
The shining necklace
that connects us
is only so strong
as its strongest link.
so, I do not shrink
from my duty to pay my taxes.
They are never late.
It is the forms I hate,
pages of numbers
that destroy my slumber.
Is it too early to rise?
Can the day not wait
until my words can untangle,
by numbers strangled,
inside my dreams
where truths scream
to be lightly told
as dawn unfolds?
My dreams try to pass on
objects long gone
from emptied drawers:
wooden spaghetti fork,
aluminum sieve,
cotton cheesecloth.
All items one needs
to stir the pot as tangled food heats;
as tangled words strive to unfold
the stories hidden and untold.
And tools one needs to sift through
lies and deceits to give you truth.
Reading tax instructions in my sleep
makes me weep
at the destruction of poetry.
There is no tax symmetry.
Words flee the grasp of Publication 17.
Line by line of form 1040
blocks all ability and creativity,
destroying poems before they are born.
Tax season is the theft; not of cash,
but of dreams. Words are torn.
Tax season is a thief in the night
Tax season continues to steal even in daylight.
Filed under POETRY
Three Bows to Untie
There are three bows to be untied
if peace is to abide.
Untie the bow of fear
and open the package of hope.
Untie the bow of greed
and open the package of faith.
Untie the bow of hate
and open the package of love.
Pretend it is Christmas Day
and celebrate
Peace to all of good will,
If you will.
Pretend it is your birthday
and free yourself
Of the past.
When all the bows are untied
Peace will abide.
Filed under POETRY
The Trees and Me
I walked among the trees today.
Warm winds melted icy walkways .
Thus I could go again to see
Entire families of trees.
I must look quickly now
To know each trees unique bow
As Xylem floods from root to tip
as each sun beam nips and glows
And begins the nest where buds will grow.
I look now while I can still see
The naked truth that is each tree.
For once the leaves begin to grow
It’s truth is hidden far below.
I return home in reverie.
It is time to acknowledge the mystery
that has been my life before I go
beyond this forest of humanity.
I look at my mirrored image
As naked as the trees.
I see the creases and lines
Define the life I’ll leave behind.
Despite some days of bleakest sorrow
I yearn for many more tomorrows.
I will not easily decline any day
that fate decrees will come my way.
Like trees I bend rather than break.
I welcome the flood of xylem and phloem.
I choose more buds ready to grow
and more leaves to unfurl
before I go,
I may look old but am still a young girl.
Where I shall go
I do not know.
It is another mystery
contemplated in pews on bended knee,
or on stools in pubs with glasses raised.
Or while I walk among the trees.
Birds in Flight
Filed under art work
BEFORE NATO THERE WAS EUROPE
Before Nato there was Europe.
Borders set by mountains and rivers
protected by castles and keeps not often breached.
We remember the elephants.
We remember the trenches filled with gas.
We remember the tanks rolling through the streets.
Appeasement and neglect underestimates
the threat of world wars
and megalomaniacal bullies fueled by
money launderers and banks
claiming a percentage of the take
from gun running and drug sales.
We remember the victory.
We forget the defeat
for Europe’s brothers and sisters
left behind Soviet walls,
left under the gun,
left under the KGB
left out of NATO.
Some did the unthinkable,
the seemingly impossible.
They tore down walls,
They marched freely in the streets.
They finally claimed victory,
a victory hard to keep.
NATO weeps for these
brothers and sisters long denied
their freedom barely won
before They find themselves
once again, under the gun.
Remember NATO,
before there was NATO there was Europe.
It has not gone away by treaty.
Those left behind by NATO
have not gone away.
Nor have the bullies who wage war on innocents,
our brothers and sisters claiming democracy,
strong enough to claim freedom long denied.
These should be NATOs pride.
These should be the pride
of everyone who claims freedom and democracy.
They are our brothers and sisters.
Do not watch them die.
SAFE SPACE
Just when it seemed Spring
would warm and soothe Winter
the rains came and the swing
of changing weather washed clean the filter
of our misconception
that there was a space for protection.
The world is not safe.
There is no safe space.
It rained all day as rivers built
along property lines
where soil declines to wet silt.
Ice followed falling temperatures.
It coats every surface and aperture.
The birds decry as they fly by
“The world is not safe.
There is no safe space.”
Now the snow falls fine
in gentle winds snow twines
over every branch and roof,
upsetting every wing and hoof.
Birds flit from bare-limbed trees to pines
whose tighter shelter blocks cold’s threat.
Only to be blocked by other birds afret
their space has been invaded
by birds outside their flock.
Back and forth they flit as steady as a clock,
trying to find a safe space.
The world is not a safe place.
The birds never give up trying.
Neither should we.
Filed under POETRY
Z’kye Husain
Some days the shame and disappointment
strangles words ready
to erupt and disrupt all sensibility.
I am without tranquility.
In the Sixties racial stereotypes
hung heavy from the tree
of white supremacy.
The weight of reality
hung heavy on the children of Africa,
torn from loving arms and proud history.
The little ones feared my touch
on nappy-haired heads
I clasped with love until they trusted
my joy in the texture of their lives.
“I am Black and I am proud!”,
I taught them to say.
And teaching hope along the way
offered the chance to redraw destinies
and reclaim equal possibilities.
These children reclaimed rights,
led the good fight,
worked hard for their rights
and mine.
Yours, too, women and LGBTQ.
But, white backlash has been fierce
at every step of the way.
And when it seemed victory grew near
hatred and stereotypes born in fear
and insecure ego led by id unleashed
terror, once held in check
but never defeated;
allowed to fester and grow more intense.
Where did hope go?
To video recordings on cell phones
disclosing what had been hidden from sight
that white supremacy maintained tight
control of its wealth and power with stealth.
Police treating white children with dignity
As they attacked a Black children with immunity.
The mall was crowded. People filmed it all.
It went viral.
And still, there are those who see justice
instead of racism.
Who argue they acted according to normal protocol
instead of racial stereotypes.
Sixty years from the sixties
and I still rejoice in the phrase
“ I am Black and I am proud!”.
Sixty years from the sixties
and I still feel shame and disappointment
in my whiteness, and that of my country
Filed under POETRY
annarino writes 
Fearful little men
I cannot capitalize the word “ men” in the title. I do not refer to honorable and secure men; but only to insecure little men who must bully others and prey on the weak to prove they are bigger than they are. What they fear is our seeing the truth of who they are, our recognizing their cowardice. At heart they are frauds, con men. It does not matter, in the end, what condition led them to conclude they must cover up fear. Brave men act honorably despite fear. That is called courage: admitting fear, facing it, overcoming it. Refusing to admit fear, conning others to believe they fear nothing, succumbing to fear is called cowardice.
What we see happening on every front around the world is a fraud by cowardly and fearful bullies, supported by dishonorable men who have found fraud a cover for hanging onto great wealth. Dishonorable men hide behind bullies. Honorable men call them out.
Much of the fear of bullies is fear of being seen. White men( and women) know to fear the knowledge held by people of color who have been denied access to wealth and power by dishonorable white people. People who face the threat of harm pay more attention to those threatening their well-being. abused children and women, for example, have a heightened sense and are poised for defense in a way those privileged to have led safe lives need not.
The world has been awakening to past threats which denied human rights to too many since the Declaration of Human Rights, the creation of the United Nations,; and, the example of human rights leaders such as Ghandi, Mandela, and Rev. Martin Luther King, jr.. the feminist and gay rights movements have also posed a threat to white male bullies and misogynists. The Holocaust awakened western democracies to the dangers of anti-semitism. These waves of awakening threaten the hold of the wealthy and empowered, who may not themselves be bullies. But, those among this group who are dishonorable support the bullies without acknowledging their responsibility to those threatened with harm.
The first group of bullies includes persons such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, “ strongmen” on every continent. They are weak and fearful men who cannot accept responsibility for their self-perceived weakness which they hide through braggadocio, fraud and deception. The second group includes persons who push bullies to the front as “ leaders” to hide their own weaknesses and fears, and maintain their hold on wealth and power.
What we are watching in Ukraine is an example of a bully without honor committing a fraud, rewriting history, pretending to be a strong man by preying on others he can subjugate for his and others’ benefit. He is allowed to do this because of that second group, the dishonorable holders of wealth and power: banks, financial institutions, Swift, nations run by strongmen, Right wing media talking heads, heads of state, legislators.
It takes honor and courage to be a democratic republic, the strength to believe in yourself and fellow citizens despite your fears and theirs. Cowards prefer autocracies, undemocratic institutions, and oppressive denial of human rights. It takes honor and courage to speak truth to power as a member of a political party or legislative body. It takes honor and courage to follow and enforce the rule of law. Too often, dishonorable cowards use police forces and judges to guard bullies from legal consequences, and to enforce subjugation of those they fear. We refer to these acts as “ abuse of power.” Those abused by the justice system see more clearly the truth behind the dishonorable seeking only power and wealth.
The same principles driving Putin to subjugate Ukraine are those which drive the Republican Party. This is not new. But, it has been in place for so many years that we who are privileged to avoid the bullies( no one can entirely)for most of our lives have been all too willing to ignore the abuse of others. Racism and sexism are not new. The honorable and courageous among us recognize and admit this despite our fear that we are complicit in the fraud of white supremacy.
I think the reason the invasion of Ukraine is so troubling is not only that Trump,Manafort, Flynn, the Devos family and other American oligarchs, the Republican Party, and FOX TV ( it is not a news station) supported, and continue to support Putin’s agenda in Ukraine. It is far worse. This is a world-wide agenda to undermine democratic institutions and human rights in every city in every country.
Those of us who value honor must oppose this fraud against humanity with courage and persistence. President Biden is right that this will not be easy, that it will take time. My heart aches for the pain, suffering and death being aggressively visited upon Ukraine which will occur in the meantime, the number of African-Americans and other persons of color who will be abused in the meantime, the number of young people who will feed the coffers of oligarchs by the sale of guns and drugs as they die from school shootings and overdoses.
Follow the money. Connect the dots. And for all of us, for every democracy stand together and speak out. Register and vote. Challenge every con and lie. Protect the electoral process. Do not stand silent before the bullies. Have courage! Hold honor dear.
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Tagged as bullies, courage, cowards, democracy, fear, human rights, racism, sexism, UKRAINE, USA, voting rights