Tag Archives: politics

February 6, 2022 · 4:39 pm

REMEMBER THOU ARE DUST

Call the sun names.

Carry buckets of coal.

Bring shovels to bury the dead.

Careful, now, how you tread

on the burnt offerings

of now fallow fields 

and forests turned desserts.

Take to the sea.

In sheltered ports linger

to avoid the worst storms.

Set sail in steaming waters

which no longer cool

temperatures nor tempers,

and boil over onto shores

of discontent.

Remember thou are dust

and to dust thou shall return.

We are over-heated earth.

We are worsening storms,

more violent, 

making everlasting wars

within ourselves

and our false borders.

We are both victimizer and victim

of global warming.

We cannot escape

ourselves.

We are dust

and to dust

we shall return.

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February 5, 2022 · 1:23 am

Legitimate Political Discourse

The Party has fallen beyond the pale of course

Cheering on legitimate political discourse

Beating defenders with steel pipes

Bashing skulls of Capitol police

Stabbing their chests with flag pole spears

Screaming curses and threats

Of violence and death

Defecating on walls and monuments

Building scaffolds to hang vice-presidents

Seeking majority leaders to rape and kill

Stealing podiums and laptops

And making Giuliani war in the streets

Expecting their president to join the fray

But he watched and waited

Gleeful and pleased

That his party sees insurrection

As legitimate political discourse

Of fascists and autocrats

Bullies and cheats

Day after day for months

The strength of such

Political discourse

Which of course is not discourse at all

grows stronger

The longer we wait

To stop it.

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January 30, 2022 · 3:29 pm

WE FORGET WE ARE ANIMALS

We forget we are animals

defined by our biology,

determined in our theology

to become gods.

We claim supremacy

in our ability to reason.

Thus, science is treason

to our basest animality.

There is no true supremacy

in puppies seeking comfort in the pack,

but a leader holding back

its basest urges so they thrive.

Their is no supremacy among ants

plundering crumbs left behind

by birds with greater speed

after picnickers have had their feed.

Like puppies, birds and ants

we seek opportunity

and shared camaraderie

in order to survive.

Supremacy would deplete our strength,

interrupt the flow of shared effort,

deprive us of the joy of joint accomplishment.

It would make us less and steal our comfort.

Science steps in to stop such a fray

using reason to light our way.

Science untended 

leaves a world upended.

Viral storms circle the globe

behind fires and drought,

rain and flood,

leaving illness and death.

Economies fall before we do

onto bended knees of recovery.

Myths replace stories

as reason loses glory.

We forget we are animals at our own peril. 

We must forgo supremacy

to sustain democracy.

We must remember who we are.

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January 24, 2022 · 4:33 pm

Sowing Chaos


Chaos is sown


when history is disowned.

Hiding past hurts


may reduce pain


but allows confusion to reign.


Disinformation presses lies

against the closed eyes.


Tit for tat news myths


play fast and loose games


for ratings and sponsor’s gains.


Hold tight to truth


and the lessons of history.


In chaos, our story will end


unless we know and defend


all we have been

and could become

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January 22, 2022 · 3:38 pm

Thieves

The night is a thief

In broad daylight.

Forget the truth is a lie

When stated outright

In broad daylight.

Forget the con is a blight

When played out

In plain sight.

Moving the thimbles

Hiding the blight

Is thievery.

Then, change the rules

To make it all right.

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January 21, 2022 · 3:13 pm

City on a Hill Of Death

How many deaths lie at the feet

Of a man of complete

lies and depravity?

Can any human conceive

men who lack all humanity?

The Emperor Wore No Clothes

but, only the child could see

through the pomposity

to the naked truth

that we cannot trust

ourselves.

If we cannot trust ourselves,

then whom can we trust?

This is the basis of democracy.

Every vote must count.

The young ones shout it out

above the crowd of those who doubt

and wither, while justice dithers.

Have we forgotten the lessons

if middle class construction

which formed the base

of The City On The Hill,

under which the bones of slaves

are buried?

Time to Build Back Better

and bury the depraved instead.

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January 20, 2022 · 11:19 am

NO REST in a NIGHTMARE

The dream that is America

died during the night.

The right to vote

and have that vote count

was gone with the dawn.

While I was sleeping

Lady Liberty lay weeping

at the second insurrection

which eroded the protection

of the democracy

we rely upon.

Democracy was killed in dark of night,

the moon’s reflected light

not strong enough 

to stop the rape

of her freedoms.

We awaken worn and weary

from brittle dreams

to a new reality

forged in heated nightmares.

Dreams fade over time.

Nightmares hang on.

How long before we forget

the dream that was America?

Rest In Peace, Lady Liberty.

I cannot.

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January 19, 2022 · 11:56 pm

Lift Every Voice and Sing,by Louise Annarino,3-2-2013

Lift Every Voice and Sing,by Louise Annarino,3-2-2013

Lift Every Voice and Sing,by Louise Annarino,3-2-2013


— Read on annarinowrites.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/lift-every-voice-and-singby-louise-annarino3-2-2013/

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January 16, 2022 · 3:16 pm

Weak Cores

Saving face

By creating truth

Is the only means of escape

From harsh reality

For those whose core

Is thinned and weak

By lack of moral exercise.

Bread and circuse

Did Rome in.

History ignored

Is repeated evermore.

Distraction through attraction

Diverts the gaze, the ear, the tongue.

This is who we live among.

Doing what is correct

Does not reflect the Right

Constantly claiming false

It’s moral might

Over those whose outrage

Threatens their control,

Their wealth, their privilege.

New faces in new places

Where they were not allowed before

Distort the world view

Of the autocratic few.

It takes strong core

Muscles to stand tall

Before the attack of falsehood

Destroys us all.

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January 15, 2022 · 6:13 pm

GRIEF LINES ABOUT THE BROW

GRIEF LINES ABOUT THE BROW

1-15-2022

I held grief at bay

in tightened fists

determined not to allow

its escape, until I lay

it down upon the page,

Where it sapped my strength.

Taking up the pen

is little help today

when the nib etches lines

of grief about my brow,

too close to allow the flow

of ink upon the page.

Democracy means more to those

More recently saved upon its shores.

The lands of autocrats and hypocrites,

we thought, had been left

behind, beyond our pained sight;

now resurrected by the Republican right.

A Right reinforced by clerics bent

on reasserting ties long rent

between church and state,

Now reinstated by the Court

and pro-life misogynist dictum

making women victims.

The Right backlash to Obama

is a fierce and hateful trauma

which dares to take away

our diversity and our vote,

our personhood and culture,

our history and democracy.

Grief is still heavy today

but less than yesterday.

Today ink flows steadily,

freely, hopefully daring leaders

to find the courage to save the vote,

and this beloved country.

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