Tag Archives: oligarchs

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

YOUNG AND OLD

Photo by Alena Darmel on Pexels.com

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.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

IT IS ALL TRANSACTIONAL

Photo by Guilherme Rossi on Pexels.com

I lifted the blind, closed against the heavy weight of darkness.

But, the darkness lingers still in a world where the ability to see

has become transactional instead of factual.

It is all about the money, we now see.

Truth is no longer able to set us free.

The heavy weight of lies shackles and chains us

and keeps us in our place, where lack of opportunity

now extends beyond those once enslaved.

Too many blindly bow to the oligarchs who stole a nation’s wealth

and put the blame not on themselves, but on everyone else.

It is the people of color, women and homosexuals;

the immigrant and refugee, asylum seekers, librarians,

historians, veterans, unions and universities…

the truth-tellers the upper 1 percent would hide

to save their greedy selves, and tame their shame

behind a white Christian nationalism’s false pride.

Resentment has been nurtured over decades of time,

hardened into stone and fossilized, with guns loaded and primed.

Do not shoot the messengers who only try to lift the blind

and tell the truth you need to hear, about those who put you in this bind.

The sun shouts in voices of students and grandmothers,

unionists and progressives who only want to remind

the leaders still in place, but powerless as institutions crumble,

that we the people will never give up the freedoms  so hard-won.

We will not allow the tyranny of the greedy few to rule 

over  the nation and world we love, never over me and you.

Have we become what we fear most ? A nation of cowards and bullies?

Are we strong enough to lift the blinds and see the truth, finally?

Are we asleep at the post, we guardians of freedom’s hope?

Has greed brought us all to our knees before those who wield wealth

as a cudgel, a chain saw and a weed whacker 

to root out those who seek equal opportunity to build wealth, and be free?

Are we willing to worship the new gods of control, corruption and greed?

It is always about the money; transactional, not factual; selfish, not loving.

Has our beloved community and country been brought to its knees?

Is our ability to love now simply and blindly transactional?

Is no one left to hear our heartfelt, truthful pleas?

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

NOT QUITE SILENT

Photo by Karl Byron on Pexels.com

I listened for the voice today.

This is all it had to say. 

My teacup is filled only 1/3 of the way.

Too little water to boil in the pot.

I shall brew my tea and keep it very hot. 

Then add cooler water to the cup.

No harbor will see tea fill it up.

Not exactly as I had willed.

Seeing my beloved democracy killed.

But who am I your will to sway.

My cup does not “filleth over” this cold day.

The half-empty cup seems a blatant warning.

I refuse to name and bring to life

fearfully expected wounds and strife.

The sun blares and cuts the cold air,

melting frost gathered everywhere.

It lies on every surface it seems.

In schoolrooms, libraries, museums,

in corporation and university board rooms. Next,

on airwaves  and in chat rooms and texts. 

In law firms hallowed conference rooms,

and in SCOTUS decisions which seal our doom.

Hard to find a place where the cruelty of iced hearts 

has not settled in, stopping hopefulness at its start.

Hard to know how this day should begin.

Hard to see how we might win.

No birds gather in the yard to eat, drink and sing.

Worms like words stretch frozen on cement pathways.

Hard to stand and walk boldly, or to see our way.

May will bring flowers in graceful bouquets.

But, June, I think, will have the final say.

May summer be full of grace, I pray.

I listened longingly for the hopeful voice today.

But, this…this is all it had to say,

as I watch sunshine melt the frost away.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

WAGING WAR

Making public servants an enemy

to be destroyed and removed

from the field of battle against 

ignorance,

poverty,

disease,

and injustice

is 

making

war 

against the Republic

itself.

This is not a restructuring.

This is not a reduction of cost.

This is not quality control.

This 

is

making 

war

against the republic 

itself.

We are not facing a possible 

Civil War.

We are in one.

We are not on the precipice of losing

the Rule of Law

and thus, our government

of the people

by the people 

and for the people.

We, the people

are being usurped

by technocrats and billionaires

protecting their plantations of wealth

built on greed and false grace

and manacled religions

and on the backs 

of what was once

a middle class

unionized and organized

and ready to defend

the American Dream.

Now, we hear their screams

on the battlefield.

And those waging war

in a place where 

true leaders once stood

make us beg for terms

of surrender

already written by Putin

and other war lords

against democracies.

We are the first to fall for lies

in submissive position

to the beast

within us all.

We are

making war

against our republic,

against

ourselves.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

LIGHT CANDLES

Photo by Nadin Sh on Pexels.com

Altars of sacrifice are all around.

Candles of prayer light the ground.

Darkness recedes under great duress.

Lawyers are in full-court press.

Evil lurks and lunges until we despair;

its laughter and cheers rend the air.

Turbulent times make us all too aware

how humans carry a heavy load of fear,

how ready we are to disappear

before we lose heart 

and break apart.

We are tempted to remain abed

and close our eyes against  the dread

of monsters who long played dead

and hid under rocks, yet lived in our heads.

We live lives of useless malcontent

ready to blame the innocent

for acts of contrition that belong

not to the weak, but, to the strong.

Unable to admit we could be wrong,

we allow the liars to string us along.

We vote them in to replace our lost pride.

We set all reason and facts aside.

We wear red hats with slogans to hide

a weakness too fearful to abide.

When will such depravity end?

What harm done in the interim?

Soft exhales out in metered prose.

Screams trapped within a calm pose.

This is how every morning begins.

Candles relit on altars within.

Resistance alights again and again.

Another hour, another day, and then?

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

POST-ELECTION 2024

Photo by Scott Platt on Pexels.com

My sorrow does not come

from the loss of an election.

Sorrow bubbles up and pulls down

faith and hope and trust in

legal and constitutional protection

for the progressive direction

we moved, pushing hate aside,

within the blue bubble 

where I reside, 

within a gerrymandered state

full of Christo-fascist pride.

Court protection is now

too often set aside.

Criminal leaders with immunity

can now act with impunity

to destroy an entire nation,

indeed a  free world.

Greed acts with such speed

to push grace and care aside.

And truth is destroyed

by incessantly repeated lies.

My sorrow does not come

from watching my nation die.

It comes from watching

fellow citizens kill my beloved nation

Right before my eyes.

And the worst part of it all is,

that it is not a surprise.

I have watched a predator party

stalk us creatures of democracy

my whole life.

The day I most feared 

is no longer just a nightmare.

It is the reality of imminent strife.

I cannot simply smile and reach out,

asked to shake hands with voters

with blood on their hands,

when I want to shout “traitors!”

I think of all who died to protect

and defend my country, my best friend,

I cannot stand to watch cruelty up-end

a nation now at-sea, afloat on lies

that all is at is has always been

after an election.

The desperation of a nation

tears at the soul within.

The soul of each and every American,

until America is dead and buried,

so that rich oligarchs can feed 

their need for power and control.

Citizens United has long been on a roll

to knock down all opposition,

and watch weak Americans fold

their cards and lose their last hand.

Such sorrow, I fully understand.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

The Coward

I hide behind

the oligarchs

who hold

true power.

And, thus, I cower.

I hide behind

Their super PACs

where they hold

their true power.

And thus, I cower.

I hide behind

their media outlets

whose talent lies

In the glower of power.

And thus, I cower.

I hide behind

their channeled wealth

washed through the fortress

of my tower.

And thus, I cower.

Coward that I am.

Coward that I.

Coward that.

Coward.

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