Tag Archives: gun regulation

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

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

NO KINGS DAY

Acrylic on canvass by Louise Annarino

The day begins with signs

Of all that any patriot finds

In need of expression

To resist oppression.

We line the streets

Feet deep

Only to meet

Aggression

From those who seek

Our suppression.

Gerrymandered districts

Are incomplete,

Unable to meet

Fair representation,

Denying the nation

one person one vote,

Intimidation afloat

In every state.

We pray it is not too late.

We pray our efforts matter.

We pray our mad-as-hatter

Administration

Stops destroying our beloved nation.

We sing. We dance. We shout.

This is what democracy is about.

No kings today.

No kings in any way.

No kings over courts’ justice.

No kings over any of us.

Every king eventually falls.

We do not want a king at all.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

NO CELEBRATION

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

I celebrate every child’s birth.

I celebrate no man’s death.

I smile at every child’s birth.

I cry at every man’s death.

I do, however, celebrate, or not, the in-between

where a man’s lived-life is truly seen.

I celebrate a man of compassion,

whose common goals derive from a passion

to welcome diversity and inclusion,

where women are equals with no confusion,

where equal rights is not an illusion,

where religion is not a quote but an action,

where selflessness helps everyone gain satisfaction.

I do not celebrate those whose false ego and pride

make money a god of hate and division.

I can mourn such a death, and not celebrate it.

I can  mourn such a life, and not celebrate it.

Death closed a door that no one should open.

No celebration of life nor death can erase truth as we know it.

Find reasons to love those hurting and sorrowful.

But, make no excuses for what was so horrible. 

Speak not evil of the dead.

Nothing more to be said.

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Filed under POETRY

ASSASSINATION OF A NATION’S SOUL

Assassination of a Nation’s Soul

What violence and threat to our democracy 

has done to me

cannot be undone, it seems.

I watch the source of so much pain

fall to ground, his right ear maimed.

I wonder at the loss of feeling at such sight.

I try to feel something, anything, even fright.

Instead numbness overtakes my soul.

This does not seem the same to me

as the grief I felt for the John or Bobby Kennedy,

for Martin Luther King, Jr. or Medgar Evers;

Cheney, Schwermer and Goodman;

For Malcom X and Viola Luizzo.

Where did my compassion go?

I wish I could say I know.

Suffering is all the same.

Every human being feels its shame.

Even that I cannot feel

as layer by layer the Constitution unravels, 

and freedom’s bell no longer peals.

How far my hope has traveled

beyond court decisions and hateful words

meant to appeal to nameless hordes

by those who speak only for themselves, 

cheered by those who fill their empty chords.

Surrounded by narcissistic churls

whose images and taunts unfurl

across media’s many avenues,

such violence seemed inevitable.

And, all he cared about was finding his shoes

as others tried to protect his life,

he struggled against their efforts

exposing them to more danger

so he could rise within their safe embrace

and raise a fist in everyone’s face.

Still, I feel nothing.

Neither sorrow nor joy.

Neither faith nor fear.

Neither love  or hate.

Neither hope nor mistrust.

Look at what this man and his supporters

have done to us!

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Filed under POETRY

Flowers not Bullets

Even the flowers wear armor.

They hide their sweetest nectar

deep inside the keep

of their castle,

Behind high walls

surrounded by moats

of thorns and ramparts

of bristles and thistles.

Tender they appear.

But tough they are.

Bending in fierce winds

they survive.

Pass the flowers not bullets.

Flowers are stronger.

They hurt no one.

Their scent perfumes a planet.

Their tender gift of beauty

stirs love and forgiveness.

Even flowers wear armor

to protect themselves.

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Filed under POETRY

TWO YEAR OLD’S LAMENT

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“Shot.”

“Mom shot.”

“Dad shot.”

Dad lying atop

my tiny body.

Dad blocked

the shot

and the new word

death taught.

The new word

killed Mom.

Killed Dad.

Killed Family.

Killed us all.

Shot,shot,shot,shot!

Shot,shot,shot,shot!

Shot,shot,shot,shot!

Repeat it with me

over and over and over.

Mom shot.

Dad shot.

Shot,shot,shot,shot!

words no two year old

should know.

Shot,shot,shot,shot!

Shot,shot,shot,shot!

Shot.

Shot.

Shot.

Shot.

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Filed under POETRY

HAIKU

No compromise enough

when guns survive a delay

to kill tomorrow

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Filed under POETRY

RIGHT TO LIFE

There is nothing to negotiate.

There is no need for compromise.

Either Americans deserve safety.

Or their lives are an easy forfeit

for gun manufacturers to “make a killing”

and pay off with campaign funds

those who use delay to deny

the basic right to Life, Liberty

and the Pursuit of Happiness.

No one is free if unrestrained guns 

deny safety. No happiness ensues

from mass killings, suicides

or neighborhoods riddled with bullets

on the nightly news.

Life itself is not something 

to be debated nor negotiated.

Pass the laws needed to save lives.

A living death from fear of guns

kills more than us.

It kills any chance for democracy

itself to survive.

It kills our hope and faith in one another.

More guns. More killing. 

Who can deny such basic logic

and expect us not to say “idiots”?

There is no compromise with idiots.

The only thing more idiotic

is to vote for those idiots.

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Filed under POETRY

MEMORIAL DAY

Another morn to mourn,

turned celebration.

Will we one day celebrate

School Shooting Day ?

Or maybe NRA Day?

How can we play 

on such a solemn day?

Shared memory is great

but a hot dog on a paper plate

should not take precedence

over remembrance

of what this day is for.

A day to study war no more

thanks to soldiers who gave

their all to their graves,

to save us from more days like this.

Today’s war goes unannounced

by fearful citizens who hate 

the way they feel, 

intimidated by the success 

of those they thought to best.

So they don a Kevlar vest

and in camouflage dress

tote weapons of war

inside the door

of churches, synagogues, mosques,

schools, businesses, and grocery stores.

Name-calling as in any war

has become de riguer.

So-called Libtard Nazis who see no threat

in people of color, women and gender choice

are the latest gooks and towel heads.

War leaves a nasty taste in place

of citizenry and mutual respect.

So-called patriots ignorant of our history

ignore the blood of our honored dead

buried in poppied fields or unknown tombs.

They fight for white supremacy instead

of a country dedicated to the proposition

all men are created equal 

as its starting position. 

They seek to stop the race

to a more perfect union

by destroying the communion

of patriots future and past.

How long will such travesty last?

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Filed under POETRY