This is my most recent project. I hope it soothes your soul and cheers your heart during these stressful days.
Tag Archives: politics
SELF SOOTHE
This is my most recent project. I hope it soothes your soul and cheers your heart during these stressful days.
WITHIN
I thought I could not write because of my pain.
Not, so.
I hesitate to write because of my disdain.
You know.
I think you have may felt it before.
It rises not from my within.
It rises from your within. It is your most-feared sin.
It sleeps in the place your secrets are kept
of all the times you felt inept.
While I simply raced along your side,
trying to match all the runners with pride.
But, you did not want me there.
That is your eternal prayer.
You thought I should stay in my place.
You feared I could actually win the race.
You deep-down know how weak that feels.
You deep-down know how foul the appeal
to those who would embrace
every runner in the race.
So, you create fake news and tell stories
that cause the runners and watchers to worry
that the race is fixed, corrupt and costly.
You can only lose if there is nothing left to gain.
You prefer full destruction than your personal pain.
You care not the cost.
You cannot handle a loss.
It is you I disdain.
You, I hear explain in rambling detail the goodness,
rightness, advancement of hate.
You who shuts doors and padlocks the gates.
You, I watch burn books and erase history.
You, who imagines a world draped in mystery
where no scientific fact
can remain intact.
My words cannot be allowed to create
more fear, more sense of loss, more hate.
My words could darken the stars.
My words could start wars.
That I cannot allow and must abate.
I cannot add one ounce to your tons of hate.
If you think these words apply to one man,
you sadly misunderstand.
They apply to all of us, to me and to you.
We created the world we try to eschew.
In our deep spaces are we mere bagatelle?
Are we a nation without a story to tell?
We need not seek nor accept our ruination.
We have a Constitution, amended to perfect our nation.
We race not to win a trophy nor prize.
The race does not rely on crowd size.
We run to show how races can be won
when runners align and voters cheer on
every runner who flies by.
By my definition
the greatest competition lies within.
Racism is our Original Sin.
TRY TO DREAM
I try to keep dreaming.
But, nightmares interrupt
and catch the seam of hope
and fray the edges
of the dream.
The night unravels hopes.
Morning brings new light,
but very little, if any, insight
as I try to piece together
a new garment to weather
the storms brewing overhead.
Nothing makes sense.
Every hand is out for cash
to fight the good fight
already lost, and still fraught
with the need to try
to stand,
to grasp hands,
to still the fright.
Yet, dreams turn to nightmares
day after day and
night after night.
Joy can only bend so far
and grace hold up heads and hearts
only so long before the silent song
erupts in outrage and disgust.
We do what we must.
But, dream ? I am no longer sure
that dreams will endure.
All I can promise is
I shall try to keep dreaming
forevermore.
Filed under POETRY
IF ONLY
If only I were a bird
Fluffing feathers to increase my girth
And insulate my true worth
Staying warm this way instead,
Despite the bitter cold and dread.
But I am no bird. I am but a girl
Old enough to know better
On such bitterly cold days,
Watching my freedoms iced over,
Under Nazi salutes
And executive dis-orders.
Instead of fluffing feathers
I reach for carbs to increase warmth
And fill a need birds too feel
When cold grips the air we breathe
And hot words blow smokily
To cover the lies and foolery
Meant to limit our ability to fly.
We have a lot in common, the birds and I.
We are both on endangered species lists,
Fearing our days of flying free are numbered.
We both try to increase in size
That we may create warmth and strength inside,
And fool bullies not so wise,
Who would block our way
On freedom’s journey to better days.
If I were a bird, could I simply fly away?
Instead, I wait and fuel my body.
I wait in trust for better days.
BREATHLESS WORDS
I am out of breath and words.
The hill ahead we must climb
seems much too high
and tightens the core
in bands of steel
that limit flexible movement.
How can we climb under such duress?
Any future hope must be a mere guess
that we can find a way
through the dark and fretful days ahead.
Fatalism blocks the intake of air.
Fear locks an exhale all too aware
of obstacles placed along the path.
Few sherpas remain to assist,
compromised by willingness to desist
the smug faces of so many now in charge.
Human compassion is suppressed.
Freedom is kept at-large.
The goal remains the same.
The path is now littered in shame.
I am out of breath and words.
Filed under POETRY
THE AGE OF HUMANS
I have lived through the Stone Age, the Bronze Age,
the Iron Age, the Middle Age, the Industrial Age,
the Space Age, the Communication Age.
I am human, so it seems,
and able to look back as well as forward;
a mere mammal trying
to become part of that thing
we like to call humanity.
How do we know who we are
when we do not know the neighbor next door?
How much effort does it take to explore
each member of a community?
We do not even truly know our family.
Strangers pose a serious threat
that we have not learned to handle yet.
We play with religion and philosophy
to understand what humans are meant to be.
We have become the source of inhumanity
around the globe we once thought flat.
The more we learn, the more we fear.
The less we know even where we are at.
We who do not know ourselves, can
never feel safe.
Without self we are never in a truly safe space.
Democracy is as fragile as we.
If we cannot trust ourselves, whom can we trust?
In a democratic republic, trust we must.
Demagogues know this is so.
Wealth and power are hard to let go.
To seize power from “no-nothings” comes easily.
Divide and conquer rallies laughingly.
It has become a right-wing norm
used by our nation’s enemies
who need never use their armies
to cross our borders, when we are so willing
to allow them to sway and inform us who we are
day after day after day after day after day.
Only because we do not know who we are, anyway.
Or, in any way useful to ruling ourselves.
Like human children, human adults vote to play.
Humans are entering a new age every day.
A I will now become the new me,
a me I never expected to see.
One I never knew, it is true.
A I will know me much better than I do.
It will write and speak and act for me.
Deep inside what I once felt was free
will wither and wonder if I could have become
the real human, the real man or woman
the real me.
LADY JUSTICE AND HUNTER BIDEN
Lady Justice is blindfolded
that she may not see
who stands before her
and makes a plea
to hear a case on its merits
that justice may be served
under the law, and in equity.
Both matter, you see.
You wear no blindfold.
You simply read
what others have printed,
others, like me.
Prosecution is discretionary
under the theory of equity,
where harm is measured
against circumstances and intent,
and restitution is made with consent.
Except, for those with big names,
when a message is meant to be sent,
Lady Liberty sometimes removes her mask
before the process is commenced.
When process becomes excess to prove a point,
or destroy a wrongdoer to punish someone else,
equity steps in to correct the abuse,
and set free one who was meant to be
as all others would be in the same boat.
This is done to keep justice afloat.
Once her mask is removed it is too late
to argue she must not take it off.
It was already off, right out of the gate.
Curing abuse is not itself abuse.
Do not be so obtuse.
Curing abuse is mercy.
Curing abuse is equity.
Curing abuse is absolutely,
irrevocably, undeniably necessary.
Precedent has been set, it is true.
That courts may show mercy
to me and to you.
CRIMINALITY PLUS
Those who voted “Trump”
are jail-breakers, criminals
in their sad way, too.
EVERYTHING IS TOO SWEET
The tongue becomes numb
to raw truth’s reality
in America.
Filed under POETRY
