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On paths of love for freedom.
Let us walk in peace.
Tag Archives: MAGA
NO KINGS DAY
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.
YOUNG AND OLD
The young ones seem to know
that our world is threatened
is ways we not fully know
but fear all the same.
With each sunrise
another un-nerving surprise
until we are afraid to awaken,
afraid to open our eyes.
Not so, the young
for whom time moves slow
and each change is noted
and each move forward
is celebrated, not feared.
But, we, the old
whose breath is slowed
while time speeds away
know life becomes shorter
day by day;
even if the earth
should pass away.
It will not be without us long.
We are growing weaker
as the young grow strong.
So, we must listen
to their protest and shouts.
They understand better
what each bully tactic is about.
We pretend it is only intimidation.
In reality, it is annihilation;
the end of freedoms seldom known
in ages past. As time has flown
we old ones forgot to pay attention.
Now, the young, whom we also ignored
beg for our attention.
We are never too old to mother the young.
We are never too old to stop what has begun.
We may not be able to march so far as they.
But we can shout from each of our front doors.
We can organize, assist and earnestly pray.
We can honk as we pass the marchers on parade.
We can give courage to those who are afraid.
We can write and call those in charge of our fate.
Time passes quickly for us, but it is not too late.
WHAT WE’VE GOT
Kent State taught us that white deaths matter more
than Black students shot at Jackson State the week before.
Will protests-to-come under attack by armed and masked militia
teach us that Brown and Black people under attack is indicia,
within the borders of a nation dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal to the oppression,
of rich men of ill will in hiding from congressional oversight
and protected by the US Supreme Court’s judicial might?
I see the writing on the wall, not graffiti, after all,
but executive orders illegal and ill-tended to destroy
the hoped-for dreams of every American girl and boy
not born into wealth, in no need of human labor
to offer enough cash to create a way to savor
all that life could offer a middle-class caste
now turned in serfdom, as in decades long past.
We are not in a culture war.
We are in a class war.
We are in war we thought civil war had ended.
Yet, we continue to watch the republic untended
by leaders who did not see the need to fight
and believed compromise with bullies was right.
Workers sold out over and over again.
Blocked in every effort to build strong unions.
Students sold out over and over again.
Blocked in every effort to get a sound education.
Children sold out over and over again.
Blocked in every effort to find safe protection.
None of us now treated with human affection.
None of us now safe in our streets or our beds.
None of able to take a breath without dread.
Whether you voted for this, or not.
This is what you wrought.
Now, this is what we’ve got.
AMERICA DANCING TO MAGA-TIME
The ballerina pirouettes.
Round and round she goes.
Her satin slippers turn endlessly
as she balances on her toes.
Dizzying it would certainly be
to spin so unnecessarily.
But, she uses a trick she very well knows.
She picks a single point in sight
and holds her focus on that point, so tight.
She keeps her balance and dances on,
steady as the graceful dancer we all know.
And when the music ends
as every song must
she takes her bow and we all cheer.
America is well and still on her feet,
avoiding the fall we all feared.
America shall dance again
as soon as the new song begins.
Voters shall pick a tune they enjoy,
one that cares for every girl and boy,
for every color, race and creed,
for laborers and workers, rather than greed.
The Land of the free.The home of the brave.
The audience of those who refused to cave.
Ballerinas keep their eyes on the prize.
Focus and keep dancing: a word to the wise.
Keep dancing to your own true beat.
Stay focused and stay on your feet.
KEEP LAUGHING
Earth is laughing so hard
she is holding her sides.
Her laughter has not died.
She holds it inside.
Too often, there is not a smile to be seen.
Comedians and laughter are under attack;
sad attempt to kill laughter, it is true.
But, let me tell you
I awake every day with a smile on my face
and my mind full of plans and laughter as I cope;
planning strategies to keep us all woke
enough to strategize and energize
enough to keep Earth and our freedom alive.
I smile when I find new ways
to resist, persist and overcome
those who strive so hard to make us glum.
Where they see threat, I see possibility.
Where they feel fear, I feel connected community.
When they shout their pain, I shout my glee.
Earth trembles to keep her laughter inside
at the foolish ego-maniacal MAGA leaders’ pride.
Earth continues to teach us her lessons
with a smile on her face from sunrise to sunset.
Giving us the means to keep us alive, and all our needs met.
Balance and connection are what we need
to continue on the path to wealth without greed.
Intersected boundaries are what we need
to continue on the path to true peace.
This is Earth’s greatest gift: her instinctive ability
to make us laugh as we grow in humility,
knowing we cannot berate nor control
Earth’s power to grow, to heal and renew
the damage men and women unintentionally do.
I laugh aloud with Earth today.
Our guffaws and chuckles thrown out wide.
Come laugh with us, then; and hold your heaving sides.
Try to unbend and dry your eyes so you can see.
That laughter has not died, nor ever must.
Constant negativity has nowhere to go
except “dust to dust” buried below,
in the space laughter has made deep within Earth.
And once this doom and gloom comes to an end
the entire world united in mirth
shall laugh once again.
WHERE HAS LOVE GONE?
I do not know where love has gone.
Into hiding, I believe, free from harm.
So much anger clothed in love’s costume,
hate hidden from view so I am not consumed
by the true nature of what the costume hides;
all except the hands fisted by my side,
which velvet-suaded gloves still reveal
all the angry violence I could wield,
if I were not so terrified of the pain
I could visit upon others. I refrain.
I refuse to become just like those
who name-call with fake smiles and pose
under crosses, and above crowds,
saying the the ugly hate-filled truth out loud.
I desperately try to maintain my balance.
I believe compassion bears no allowance
to strike back when under attack.
But, turning the other cheek is a trait I truly lack.
Never take a punch and not fight back, I heard dad say.
But, never start the fight, if you can safely walk away.
Is this where we are now, afraid to put up the fists
when the attack is scheduled on government lists?
How long do we wait for the blows to fall?
How far before we are imprisoned inside the wall
of government ordnance and secret police?
How will we ever know any peace?
I do not know where love has gone.
I search and I search for however long
it will take me to find it and hold it tight
while I build strength for the coming fight.
THE DAWN OF DISCONTENT
Darkness has not yet lifted
from the night of a waning moon.
This is the time of discontent
when one feels most alone, but soon,
the sun shall rise.
Others choose to sleep through darkness.
I cannot. Like a lone wolf,
I choose to stay awake, woke to wonder
hidden in all I yet may discover
in people and places I have never known.
I plant seeds of yearning in my soul
that love may take root and grow
beyond my own cultural limits,
beyond the bounds of all I know.
I try to stay awake, though weary,
to watch the new day dawn.
As it surely will.
As it surely will.
As it surely will.
Turn three times and make a wish.
I wish to fearlessly face the heat of these days
with cool calm and laughter so strong
it awakens the entire world.
Will the new dawn reveal
that which was destroyed
while an entire nation slept?
This question is what makes some people
sleep the whole day long.
Their eyes appear open, but they sleepwalk;
perhaps hoping they are dreaming
and the day is a mere nightmare
from which they will soon awake.
I cannot pretend. Not I.
Even in the dark my eyes open wide.
I must see what darkness has wrought.
I tend to the garden I have created,
to the life of growth I have sought,
as the sun rises over roots sorely stressed.
I cannot allow the plants, nor my self, to die
even though they can no longer thrive.
I am awake in the dark, but not alone.
So long as I see clearly, if not cheerily,
the life of other living things all around me
resisting the threat in the day ahead and hanging on.
Sensing our togetherness is what makes us strong.
I watch the discontented dawn.
The sun continues to rise.
As will you. As shall I.
NO CELEBRATION
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.
Filed under POETRY
DECONSTRUCTION
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.
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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