Tag Archives: autocracy

THANKS GIVING

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It is good to be thankful.

It is good to be free.

It is good to hope 

and dance so merrily.

It is good to be thankful.

It is good if we can see

it is good to keep trying

to save our beloved country.

It is good to be thankful.

It is good for more than me.

It is good for every “other”

who turns I into we.

It is good to be thankful.

But I want so much more.

I want each of us to lift 

the light beside an open door.

I want each of us to hold and defend

our sacred declared text and constitution.

I want each of us to pledge

we will begin again

and set aside fearful pride

alongside those who deny

the Rule of Law and all it means,

as it loss threatens the safety

of ourselves, and every sister and brother.

I want each of us to vote the bums out.

I want each of us to cry freedom and shout

“We ain’t buying it !” 

to all those who sold us out

so they alone can dance merrily in a ballroom

built on East Wing destruction,

giving in to autocrats’ seduction.

It is good to be thankful.

It is good to be free.

But, only if we all can be

and only if we all 

can dance so merrily.

Too many did not think this is how it would be.

They ignored the liberal thinkers they deplore,

and wholeheartedly ignored

the warnings and pleas to face reality.

Instead, they refused to see,

they refused to look into the mirror

of their own racist, sexist depravity.

It was easier to look away.

They knew they would not like

what they would see.

They felt affirmed and at their ease.

But only for a moment.

Now, this is where we are, but need not be.

It is good to be thankful.

It is good to stay free.

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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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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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AUTUMN IS IN THE AIR

Acrylic on canvass, self-portrait, louise Annarino

Cold air is heavier.

Its density 

has a propensity

to hold us in place,

inside,

asleep.

It is enough

to make one weep

who loves the heat.

I welcome it

for its cooling property, 

its innate ability

to calm and soothe

the painful reality

of an overheated,

seemingly defeated,

world once at peace.

Oh, it was but a brief

moment in time

when hope was alive

and the country thrived,

and nations strived

to help democracy

overcome autocracy.

But, I digress

under great stress.

Cold air is weighted

with shards of ice

torn loose from northern fields,

with such power to wield

that it weighs down sunrise,

to no one’s surprise.

It puts the worker bees to sleep.

They awaken inside flowers

lacking the power

to find their way to their hives.

Cold air makes dreams

more difficult to bear,

their messages too heavily aware

of all the world’s problems

fair and unfair.

Autumn is here

and the world bows down

under the new weight.

Winter is not far away.

I cannot wait!

As sun rises the only sound

is the song of geese southward bound.

I place the heating pad round

a sore back from bending down

to plant bulbs squirrels have already found.

Soon, snow will coat the frozen ground.

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SMALL SPACES SMALL MINDS

AI GENERATED image of Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg

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.

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FREEDOM HAIKU

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A collective grief

has settled over the land.

Only time can heal.

We  may never know

nor fully understand why

our freedom must go.

We must be the heart

of miracles yet to be.

And bring freedom back.

It is ours to seize

from its darkest journey and

bring it back to light.

Courage is our friend.

Struggles are not the end, but

A new beginning.

And just like that, friends,

the weight of grief rises up.

Grief comes to an end.

I yearn to see you

happily and truly free,

breathing liberty.

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THIRTY-FOUR

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More reasons to reach 

for the alarm clock.

Defendant is in the dock.

Blaring guilt says the jury.

Still, reason to worry.

The only reason is written

on the forms, not by the fox

who has destroyed all norms.

No reason spoken

by the House Speaker,

who seeks to make law weaker.

The alarm keeps ringing

to wake us up,

beyond the nightmare

of so many corrupt.

Shut off the alarm.

Time to get up.

Time to reason and face the day

and stop the bullies 

who dream of getting their way.

Thirty-four reasons

will not go away.

Thirty-four reasons

to wake up smiling today.

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STAND TALL

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Where will be on Tuesday ?

How can we stand to see

the end of democracy’s vote

shredded by violent rhetoric

crushed like a skull

by hammers of deceit

and lies meant to overrule rules

putting power into the hands of monsters ?

Our Republic is being brought to its knees.

How will it stand strong 

under such assaults as these

threats to voters and election workers

and candidates and incumbents

whose only purpose is to bring peace

through ballot boxes instead of swords

wielded long ago, before our day,

to put in power those who would control

every hour of every day of every year.

If democracy falls to its knees

how will we, its greatest fans, continue to stand ?

We will stand, resolute and firm in our resolve

to stay standing through it all,

to never bend a knee to autocracy,

to never fall below the standards we have set

to remain civil and unbent

to prevent the loss of liberty

for people of color, LGBTQ, 

women, refugees, immigrants, and Jews.

Where will we be?

Standing tall, 

like the Madame Speaker’s husband Paul,

refusing to allow democracy’s fall.

Grab onto freedom and hold tight.

Tuesday will be a very long night.

“Look for the helpers”.

They are standing alongside us all.

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TOWERS OF BABEL

There were rivers to cross,

then oceans;

and hills to climb,

then mountains.

Common language was lost

in failed use.

New languages grew

in its place.

The Tower of Babel could not be built,

but lay waiting, 

for the day

boundaries could be crossed

minute by minute.

Applications translate

while we communicate.

Photos bound oceans.

News climbs mountains.

We build a common language

internetted, and interconnected.

No more need for State’s Rights when we

can all see a shared reality.

A united people is difficult to control

so Republicans lose their party

to the control of the trolls

who lay waiting under the bridges

we cross to meet one another.

And Right where we cross

they argue State’s Rights

to obfuscate and create

The United States of Babel,

making it impossible

to Build Back Better,

or vote.

And they do not stop at our borders.

Right wing trolls mine under the bridges

which unite the world’s democracies,

creating Towers of Babel

across the earth.

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Pretense

A life of pretense

may be the only defense

against our greatest fears.

Truth lies undercover

lest we discover

we may not survive.

Committees and newsrooms hold tight

to the knowledge

which would allow us to acknowledge

the big spenders and pretenders

of climate and democracy,

the hidden autocracy.

Pretense is a fist clutched tight

by the side

ready to fight

once fear takes flight.

Do not be fooled.

Hang tight.

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