Tag Archives: democracy

DANCE IN THE RAIN

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If not too early, perhaps too late

rain falls through parched skies,

in drizzles and drips only;

clouds’ moist linings absorbed

by dried out cells

of the hydrogen and oxygen

we need to survive.

The train’s whistle blows

in drowned out gasps.

Wet skies hold back

the usual click and clack

of dry wheels over steel track.

Iron wheels now slip and slide,

a smoother if more uneven ride.

Wet nights lead to wet mornings

drowning our the train whistle’s warning

of all that is to arrive

during this election drive.

Tom-toms beat quieter drums

to speed up hearts 

and slow down minds

as the train approaches

the nations’s destination.

AI interrupts nature’s offer

to set things straight

without a factual bother,

as facts fall beneath

the slippery wheels,

and we are easily thrown off-track

unsure now what is fiction or fact.

We will all soon be mad as hatters.

Too soon, we wonder if anything matters.

After drought, roots unfold  soundlessly

and it is hard to hear the truth’s refrain.

Our senses our dulled by falling rain.

Our restless sleep disrupts our days.

We are lulled by quieter chants,

but nothing has changed.

Courage now, lads and lasses.

The polls await the arriving train.

We must vote, in sunshine or rain.

Open sad and tired eyes.

Listen with too-numbed ears.

The sounds may be different,

but not the refrain.

Time to vote the danger away.

Time to learn to dance in the rain.

Vote!

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DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

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Best to keep parched lips closed in the midst of drought.

When the rain comes, as it surely must, lips open wide,

with head tilted back, in a tumultuous shout.

Filling up with rain, one wet swallow can seem enough.

Memory quickly returns of a mouth full of dry dust,

reminding one a single swallow is not enough.

After thirsting so long words have grown tough

to swallow, feel bitter, feel wounded, feel flushed

where they would be drowned 

if only rain would fall down.

Still, the short rain is enough to stir us to our feet,

on the forward march to greener pastures,

cool beneath our bare feet,

taking their fill of all the rains 

that have gone before to make this place

one where one may stay to laugh and play.

We will not go back.

Tears of joy rain down now.

We swallow them whole, 

filled with power so bold

we believe we control

the weather.

We don’t, we know.

But, we can vote.

And our vote grows in volume

as word drops form streams

and create new rivers of dreams

that flow within oceans so strong

their freedom carries us along

to new and better shores 

where right overcomes wrongs.

Words fall like rain, again and again.

Dance in the rain and play

on the way to election day.

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Think

“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” – Voltaire

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HAIKU FUNDAMENTALLY TRUE

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No confessional

can hold the sins of men done

in God’s Holy Name.

Right-wing Pharisees

roam the halls of governments

exercising hate.

They lie to themselves

stealing freedom’s greatest truths

to lie to us, too.

Money flows and fills

pockets-to-let to control

greed’s supremacy.

Unregulated

democracy fails to be

free for you and me.

Fascism now reigns

in God’s name, on lips profane

from pulpits and schools.

Separation fails

to protect laws, or faiths,

when religion rules.

Time to drive out the

money-changers from temples

of government, now.

We cannot allow

such hate and such harm to be

offered in our name.

Such Offertory 

should be left at the altar,

not legislatures.

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NATIONAL MORAL DEGRADATION

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Politics is not the key.

The question is morality.

Where moral degradation reigns

the reins of democracy are strained.

When power cedes

to an ever-increasing greed,

and truth becomes a mere toy.

Politics becomes the ploy

to undermine a constitution

and bind in chains of dissolution

the foundation of a nation’s greatness,

the threat of loss of the basis

for a nation where freedom praises

each individual’s human right

to find her truth in her own light,

and raises fear

that the end is near.

Retribution and retaliation

are not the signs of a strong nation.

Apology for wrongs committed

create a place where forgiveness is permitted.

When morality takes center stage

we more clearly see the hateful rage

that undermines persons and institutions,

and can better resist their dissolution.

No debate, nor speech, nor hearing can rectify

the hypocritical pack of Republican MAGA lies

made with hands on bibles and said with smiles

as the autocrats seek power all the while.

Vote your conscience, not your fear-based preference.

Vote as if your lives and freedoms depended,

against those who would see democracy upended.

Bring back the supporters of a constitution

that promises stability, and seeks solution

instead of a cult of personality

created to destroy morality;

to place in power the greediest among us

with promises of white supremacist

in control, as they have ever been before,

quite willing to leave democracy behind, evermore.

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RINGSIDE

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We are all in the ring

or sitting ring-side

ready to bet, cheering and loud.

Our faces are flushed

with the lust to succeed.

It has become every nation’s creed.

The struggle brings 

too much sorrow to contain

in the single, small vessels

that we be.

It is not for me alone that I mourn;

but, for all facing hardships and doubts

only they can know and feel

like blows to the ribs, upper cuts to the jaw,

bruised to the bone,

forlorn and alone.

Have we forgotten how to be

part of a peaceful community,

of teachers and students,

of priests and congregations,

of parents and children,

of even two lovers such as we?

Or, is the struggle meant to be

single combat waged separately?

Every direction I glance I see

a fight-ring where combatants dance.

I take no comfort, feel no glee

in fisted gloves or bare-knuckled fights.

I feel every blow on my own body.

Stop building such rings

and dismantle those we see.

Or, is the betting too lucrative

and are con-men too attractive

to bring to an end

their fronting the purse

we all think we can win,

while they abscond with millions

and tell us great lies?

How could we not have learned

playing chance with fire 

means we all will get burned.

While we fight,

they win.

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RACISM IS THE POINT

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Missing the point is the point

when racism dodges and ducks

to avoid the naming of the shrew

which lurks amidst us.

She used to hang out in back alleys

where garbage was tossed away

until collected on trash day.

We set aside days to collect trash

but we allow Racism to stay.

We used to encourage her to hide.

We used to pretend we did not see.

Now, she proudly raises her head

and we simply turn away.

We now allow her to roam the streets,

invite her to give a speech,

welcome her to boardrooms

and classrooms and banks.

In-bed her in textbooks and blogs.

Elevate her upon congressional seats.

She has been the mistress home alone

who now insists on ascending the throne.

She usefully changes the subject

and beguiles all who question

those who embrace her in darkness.

She hides their other secrets,

their lust for power and wealth.

She emboldens their lust

and steals democracy from us

as a means of slaking her the need

for her own power and greed.

Racism is the point man

in the class war being waged.

Racism leads the oligarchic troop,

slakes its thirst to be first into the fray,

Racism guides their way and ours.

Racism entices us and breaks us apart.

Racism is the point.

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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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COMPANION POEMS

POET’S LAMENT

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I do not wish to get stuck

in the MAGA yuck and muck.

I wonder if those Germans

who watched fascism unfold

believed the stories they were told

by their brownshirt supported bully;

as the MAGA-hatted crowds

 who cheer our own

American grown version

of violent political rhetoric

mant to intimidate and eradicate

those whose power they fear,

and propelled by a sense 

of victimhood raised to an art

they plot and plan and strive

to drive Americans apart. 

A nation may not survive at all. 

Or, if it can survive it may not be intact.

And freedom may be forestalled

until the danger stops casting its pall

on its very survival.

So, instead of love and flowers,

sunny skies and dreamy hours

I write of dangers big and small.

I write of questions which call

for prompt response.

I note with dismay the loss of time to play.

I wish for earlier days

when citizens felt a duty to stand and say

democracy is under threat this day.

DREAMS OF HYPOCRISY

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The dream stayed with me through the night.

Over and over the image repeated despite

frequent awakenings disturbed by the sight

of four babies with open staples in their eyes.

No matter other images crossing left to right

in dreams arranging matters as they might,

allowing mind to gain much-needed insight.

Those babies needed someone to make right

harms foreseen if removal was not done right.

I struggled with ideas of how to help all night.

Finally, firmly grip with tiny tools and pull tight

became the answer as I awoke at first daylight.

Then a new thought occurred and set truth alight,

“…first, remove the beam out of thine own eye.”

But, then a new thought came to light.

The staples were open to grab whatever came in sight

and make it their own view, with new and greater insight.

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MAGA World

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Most only look for the exits

when the are ready to leave the store.

Those more anxious and insecure

look for the exits as soon as they arrive.

Others block the exits to keep shoppers inside.

The most hateful stand in the way

intimidating and bullying shoppers to stay.

The media reports no progress is being made;

shoppers are worried, stagnant and afraid.

It reports the bullies’ lies and stance

as if justified and true, asking trapped shoppers

to reply as if such obstruction is the rule.

Do those who own the store, own the media, too?

Some shoppers try to reason with those blocking the door.

Most, see what happens to those who seek egress

and stand silent, waiting, hoping for any progress.

Shoppers thought they were free within the store

to buy what they want and need, and then leave

to find a better  store where new and better goods

were finding their way to shelves,

at prices more shoppers could afford.

Silently, too many acquiesce to the bondage

they now face, hunkering down in the aisles

hoping they can outlast doorways to a future

blocked to keep them in the past.

What happens when the stock becomes too low

to sustain the people waiting in the aisles?

Will silence fill their bellies and their souls?

How can any business survive

such a cowardly enterprise?

How do we reach those trapped inside?

How do we help move shoppers into the future?

By opening barred doors wide

and pushing MAGA blockers aside.

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