Tag Archives: authoritarians

MY FELLOW AMERICANS

MY FELLOW AMERICANS

I hold my tongue.

It takes strength I do not have.

Whimpers escape

On shattered breaths,

In silent screams.

The fight worries my soul,

Battle weary and choking,

On words held tight inside.

Once the scream begins

I doubt I could stop.

I wait for your speech.

I yearn for your promise

To stop the authoritarian

Who has taken over our house,

Emptied its vaults,

Stolen its wealth,

Sold its power

To the highest bidders.

So, I write. That I can do

While I wait for you.

To me, this nothing new.

Do you believe me now?

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

WE THE PEOPLE

The people’s house is no more.

Oh, the structure still stands,

It’s East Wing destroyed.

It rose garden paved over.

Its grounds defaced.

It is no longer democracy’s safe space.

No woman, nor child yet protected.

Hidden files of pedophilia and rape

Keep Republican representatives

Of the people away.

No chance to obstruct

as we fearfully watch all we love destruct.

Money directed from its appropriated place

Into the pockets of the man in disgrace,

Who crowns himself king,

And demands all kiss his ring.

Our right to rule ourselves now firmly displaced

By cruelty and hate,

absent a single moment of grace.

There are no longer two sides.

None of us are left with any pride.

We the people now have no place.

Unless we stand together to fight

The destruction of freedoms that are our constitutional right.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

DECONSTRUCTION

Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025

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.

Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025

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.

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Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY, POLITICS

SHOUTING OUT IN THE HALL

The voices are too loud out in the hall.

No one sitting solemnly inside 

can understand the meaning of it all.

No matter how close one tries to listen

the cacophony distorts all meaning

of words angrily shouted, until tears glisten

feeling the hatred and monstrosity

which keeps all ears and hearts enthralled.

Thrills and chills sell as well as bloody gore.

“If it bleeds it leads” is a phenomenon 

we know too well. 

Shouters point a finger and shout some more.

Such behavior always draws a crowd.

Once they have your attention

the “soft-sell” begins the con in whispers.

And while they have your keen  attention,

hanging on every word they mention

in the twisted story, repeated over and over,

using religion and love as a cover

to bring us to our knees to beg forgiveness,

they try to manacle our minds and tongues

if successful. If not, our hands and feet

in courtrooms, jail cells and on the streets.

Once all this is done, the coup is complete.

The Bill of Rights becomes an empty promise,

a useless piece of paper torn asunder,

while disingenuous voices thunder

in all the halls, in every building, across the nation.

It is when the voices stop we shall finally hear

that democracy has been lost, as we all feared.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

NOT A LOOKING GLASS, NOR WINDOW

Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com

I see you looking through the glass

aghast.

As Alice in Wonderland you fear

falling down rabbit holes.

We all do.

You think the glass is a window.

It is a door.

You seem not to know

it can open for you.

A small push against the lash

can open the way

to a world where anything

is possible.

Everything is now in play.

The old ways are falling away

pushed aside by fearful elements

with false ego and too much pride.

They lie to create a place to hide.

No door is too strong to block you.

You are an American voter.

Your vote holds sway.

Yes, I see the barricades

being put in place, more every day.

Your strength, dear voter, 

comes in numbers so strong

they cannot hold the door closed too long.

Once through the door

we clean the debris away.

Americans living in the light of truth;

we light our own way.

American voters will have their say.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

SHARED SHAME

Do you see the military

roaming city streets?

It is not my imagination

we are a threatened nation

about to lose our liberty.

The military which was once

our department of defense

against outside enemies

has turned its face within.

Now, it is the department of war

against those it would once defend.

We saw this coming.

We raised the alarm.

You answered with smarmy charm

that both sides do it.

What “it”? I ask. 

I do not make war against you.

I build no fence to enclose you

in concentration camps 

and jail cells with no chance of bond,

nor due process, nor rule of law.

You do all this and more.

You call me names to intimidate

and threaten my peace, my livelihood.

You take away my safety net, my health,

my happiness, my freedom to speak

and resist you. You call me your enemy

to justify your willingness

to let the constitution be tossed aside.

you no longer have integrity nor pride.

You can only feel shame if you have pride.

And you have no shame.

But, I…

I have enough pride for two;

enough to be ashamed of you.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

SILENCE

Photo by PUSCAU DANIEL FLORIN on Pexels.com

The walk around the neighborhood is strangely silent.

Cicadas have ceased their songs of warning.

Birds flock south on gentle winds 

leaving the yard yearning for music.

Butterflies still sing with quiet wings 

few can hear.

Gnats and flies loosely lie low 

as caterpillars hold on tight

to leaves of flowers seeding through colder nights.

The angle of the sun has moved us

as we turn around a sun now calmed.

Its bright displays over too-hot days are over-done.

The silence grows as the cold days come on.

Longer shadows of neglect disclose

the weeds who hid in too-bright light.

We now face ever-longer nights.

Is this the calm before winter’s storms?

Are we watching the loss of every norm?

Or have we become so compliant

we fail to even notice the silence?

The neighborhood is strangely silent

as I keep vigil, and hold fast against violence.

Silence, silence. So much uneasy silence

one wants to scream and shout so loud

windows open wide in surprise 

to see what all the fuss is about.

Footsteps march around the block.

Even they are too silent to unlock

the energy sapped by summer’s too-hot heat.

We are just too tired to compete

with the silence, silence. So much silence.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

NO!

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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.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

STORMY NIGHT

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Pexels.com

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.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS