Tag Archives: greed

RESPECTFULLY, I DISSENT

United States Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. Original image from Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress collection. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. by Carol M Highsmith is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Nine to three line pockets

of those whose greed

suppresses votes,

suppresses women,

suppresses refugees,

suppresses America’s survival

suppresses Earth’s survival. 

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DESSERT LINES TAX DEMOCRACY

There were too many choices on the dessert tray.

“Each one take one” deserted us in the fray

to take more than our neighbor day after day.

Only those who had already eaten their full

were allowed into the dessert line’s pull.

They soon fearfully learned to guard their place,

that their rights to the line were not earned, but disgrace 

to those deprived of sweet-takings

engaged in new nation-making;

not filled with days of Turkish delights,

but with hungry days turned into endless nights.

Where dreams dashed middle-class hope, 

which died on buffet lines, the poor man’s trope.

The anger is real, if misdirected

believing The Big Lie that goes un-dissected

lest truth arise before their eyes

explaining they face their country’s demise.

We are the source of our own destruction

electing leaders who lie without compunction

and promise to allow us into the buffet line

where dessert is denied time after time.

Democracy dies with the death of the middle-class.

Without “each-one take one” our democracy cannot last.

The buffet lines of life are heavily taxed

while the dessert line where few stand tight go un-taxed.

They are bloated and full of themselves, supremacists all,

while the rest of us watch democracy fall

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RESURRECTION

Whom shall rise from the dead this day ?

The victims of gunfire in American alleys and streets?

Children caught in the crossfire?

Black men shot in the head for license tag violations?

Ukrainians tortured in basements by Russian troops?

Somalis, Ethiopians, and  Sudanese starving to death?

On this day when Christians celebrate Christ’s Resurrection

I pray for a resurrection of insurrection 

against greed and usurped people’s power

that breeds gunplay and famine,

rape and suppression of women,

redistricting and election misdirection,

racism and gender disaffection

of human rights.

I celebrate resurrection and contemplate

what still needs our attention.

I hope for more in my Easter basket

than bodies dumped in caskets.

I search for more answers to hatred

while children search for more eggs.

Like the children, I hope to find 

what I am looking for;

peace and equity, life and security, 

a sacred response to all in need, 

an Amen.

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