Tag Archives: FIGHT

IN THE RING

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Simply waiting will not do at all.

When did simply waiting

accomplish anything at all?

Yogis pose in silent waiting,

fingers touching in connection.

While we who simply wait

have no connection at all,

and lose ourselves 

in self-destruction when we fall

within the ring where the fight is set

by the one percent and big tech bros

placing their weight and cash

heavily upon our backs

until the fight is so unfair

we realize we have not a prayer.

Church pews sit empty.

The fight is on every screen.

We fail to realize we are in the ring.

We cannot simply watch the fight.

Simply waiting cannot make all right.

We will go down with the count

toppled by high winds, fire, and flood.

The severe cold will freeze life’s blood.

Recognize we are in the fight.

We have always been in, to our chagrin,

fighting for our very lives;

while being entertained to silence

and static acceptance of violence.

Simply waiting did not stop slavery,

Jim Crow, voter suppression, child abuse,

sexual harassment and women’s subjugation.

This has always been the fight of our nation.

This is not a new fight we watch as battles

in the ring to see which latest victim falls.

We cannot simply watch from the sidelines

because it is us inside the ring.

It is we who shall fall.

We the people shall participate.

We the people shall win or lose.

Do not sit in your corner. 

Don’t throw in the towel.

Get up and fight. It is not too late.

Then get to the polls and vote to win.

All bets are on you. Gloves at the ready, and grin!

Then prepare for the backlash, 

one worse than the one before.

Get in the fight again.Knock your opponent to the floor

with such a strong vote he cannot rise.

Put him down for the count forevermore.

Then raise your gloves high and stand tall.

Simply waiting will not do at all.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

MAKE THE BULLIES FLY

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In my childhood neighborhood

the most frequent phrase in use was this:

“Pick on someone your own size.”

Bullies ruled the playground

at the public elementary school around

the corner from our house

Munching through gardens 

along our alleyways, 

grapes the finest prize;

trees along the river inviting us to climb,

the railroad tracks we ran beside

to catch a three block ride 

to the railway station nearby

required forethought and planning

to avoid chiding voices and threats

to make us fly back home,

imprisoned in a tiny yard.

But, I refused to run and hide.

My mouth became a weapon

to make up for my small size.

I had such foolish pride.

I could outrun nearly everyone.

I had feet that could fly

beyond the reach of baseball bats,

grasping arms and kicks gone wide.

But, projectiles I had not foreseen

the day I took my toddler brother

to swing on swings. I pushed him, oh so high.

The rocks hit us both as I held him close

and sheltered his tiny body with my own.

Then, I flew at the bullies as they laughed

and pushed them to the ground.

“Pick on someone your own size!

have you no honor nor pride?”

They stopped, then shrugged,

went on their way, no laughter, just a sigh.

That was the last day they picked on me.

A glare alone was all I needed

to put them in their place and keep them there,

forcing them to snivel, drop their eyes, and hide.

Whenever they saw me coming

it was they who would fly.

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Filed under FAMILY STORIES, POETRY

VOTING FOR THE CHILDREN

“Stop, dear. You are frightening the children.”

is a line written into the family script

of every sit-com ever writ.

Bullies have been ever near creating fear

over those who power they sense may be

greater than their single autocracy;

built into the democracy of the family.

Fear does not subside once children leave the nest.

It persists and blankets adult nakedness.

The brain is an amazing protector

storing fear in a separate chamber outside reason’s own.

Reaching the age of reason is not enough alone

to overcome the constancy of threats that cut to bone.

in family sit-coms Dad was chided, even derided

when his supremacy and autocracy was on display.

Mother and children were filled with dismay

which they treated with complacency

and placated with plots created in funny ways.

Mother tried to soothe the savage beast who though it great fun

to keep his wife and children under the gun.

Week after week, the same battle waged

to bring family under his  control.

Week after week, mother and children placated the fool

who tried to instill autocratic rule against the family

whose adhesion to democratic rule, guided by equity,

acknowledged “one for all and all for one” the glue

that held family together against mob rule.

The Republican Party learned a different lesson than I

sitting wide-eyed as a child watching sit-coms.

The Republican Party delights in bullies’ power 

to create fear hour-after-hour in the political sit-com

“now daily at a”  FOX  “news station near you.”

They found it great fun to run games on the wife,

the children, neighbors they despised;

even, neighborhoods and entire nations;

making citizens cry as they watch democracy die.

The vote is going by the way unless we stay the hand

threatening us with Republican absolute rule

Life is not a sit-com. The vote is our greatest tool

to fight the autocratic fool whose fear weighs so heavily

upon those watching freedom-lovers placate the man

who would deny the vote in any way he can.

Even when reason returns, the fear remains locked in place

in a brain which keeps it safe for future use.

The only safe response can be 

to stop those frightening the children.

Fear only ends when we stand and fight,

defeat it and subdue it; and thus, destroy what causes fright 

so it cannot linger in a safe place.

We must lock away the fear-mongerers instead.

We are losing our children; and, too many can find no safe space.

“Dear Republicans, you are frightening the children.”

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

HAIKU

Playground turf or nation

must always be defended.

Best always to win.

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Filed under POETRY