This is my most recent project. I hope it soothes your soul and cheers your heart during these stressful days.
Tag Archives: Putin
SELF SOOTHE
This is my most recent project. I hope it soothes your soul and cheers your heart during these stressful days.
POST-ELECTION 2024
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.
PAIN
Pain changes all.
It puckers lips which can no longer speak.
It furrows brows and narrows the view.
It buckles the knees, threatens our fall.
There is so much pain everywhere,
enough to spare, too much to bear.
Pain always wants out,
it erupts in a shout,
“Make it stop!”
“Stop!”
“Just stop!”
Does anyone hear?
Too many continue
to pour salt in the wound.
Too few seem to care.
Too many press fingers on spots
that pulse too hot
until pain explodes and we drop
to our knees as we plead,
“Make it stop!”
“Stop!”
“Just stop!”
Human angels run by
and try not to cry
as they sound the alarm
and beg to succeed
in stopping the harm.
U.N. food trucks are bombed.
Opposition leaders are killed.
Weather tells stories
to gain our attention.
The earth pleads as do we,
“Make it stop!”
“Stop!”
“Just stop!”
Filed under POETRY
PUTIN REPUBLICANS
If Republicans take control of the House.
McCarthy promises Putin wins.
Not just in Ukraine,
to whom McCarthy says he will refuse aid
which we now give to fight off blood and bone Russians
using real Iranian drones and North Korean missiles.
Worse or not, McCarthy also refuses
to fight Russians within,
hidden behind the faces of Republicans
who spout Russian lies
while taking Russian cash
to increase adds to propagandize
and fill their pockets.
“Oh! What tangled web we weave
when first we practice to deceive.”
A refrain that never ends;
not with Trump, nor Guiliani, nor Rubio,
nor Lindsey, nor Dewine, nor La Rose, nor Yost,
nor so many others, too numerous to list
who would sell their souls
for a dollar or a ruble…
or simply….re-election.
Such a defection to the other side
is not partisan politics.
That died long ago.
The defection is to Russia
and autocrats who control
all the wealth and power
they can lay hands on,
as if blessed by the hands of Christian nationalists
such as Flynn, and preachers like him,
who protests women’s control in privacy
which expands to every human right
which threatens us with autocrats’ control.
Go vote, for Putin. Vote Republican!
And soon, you will need to hide
not just your money and your pride
but your women and your children;
you know, those you think you own.
You don’t and never have.
They are not yours to give away.
But, they are yours to protect.
But, it seems I forget
you stopped that long ago.
Filed under POETRY
CLOUDS
Clouds drape like a shroud
across my visage, arms and legs.
Walking on this windy day is hard
and drags me to the ground
as step by step I pray
for those who hunker down
in homes where danger lays
like hot honey burning the skin,
unable to get away
from the flow of screaming
bullets, bombs, and storms
with names like
warlord, Putin and Ian.
Each step I safely take
is heavy, carrying the pain
of others whom I cannot save.
Simply continuing onward
is all I can handle today,
under the shroud,
too slow and weighted down
to make a difference
or even a smile.
How does one lift up others
when lifting a foot
to go one more step
seems impossible?
Even words are weighted
with unspoken thoughts
too heavy to lift
above the shroud
of a world encased in cloud.
Filed under POETRY
UKRAINE
Each day I awake seeking news
of Ukraine’s fight to survive.
Happy I survived another night
to greet a new day
in a place that is safe
from falling bombs
and chemical weapon threats
that blow into my mind
from Syria.
Nuclear threats reach farther,
threatening us all.
Each morning I hope to hear
that Putin has fallen to such disrepute
that he and his type,
his cronies all,
have been put in their place
by their own disgrace.
I awaken seeking peace
among the ruins of Ukraine
whose people could never
be ruined or displaced;
but strengthened and graced
by their courage
and love of country
and one another.
A lesson for us all.
Filed under POETRY
WORLD WAR AGAINST DEMOCRACY
Putin is winning his war against America
even as he loses in Ukraine.
Tucker Carlson, FOX News
and the Freedom Caucus
of The US Congress
plight their troth to Putin’s cause
while their citizen supporters
cheer Putin on to defeat
not only Democrats and the Democratic Party
but democracy itself.
Americans focus on the war abroad
where Ukrainians who refuse to be conned
by Trump and his MAGA cons
fight for their freedom.
The war here at home rages on.
Putin wins without a shot,
funding the NRA and lobbyists instead,
for guns to wage war on our children
gunned down in city streets.
Drugs fund his efforts and continue
the blight of Putin’s fight
in every city in every neighborhood.
The World War is hidden behind
institutions meant to guard freedom.
But when they do, Putin’s army
of the American right takes flight
and drops word bombs
to destroy the weapons reason wields.
Americans must take to the fields
to defend SCOTUS appointments,
election officials and elections themselves.
the Republican Freedom Congress raises funds
and pledges support to candidates
who will tunnel inside the only defenses we still have
to defeat the enemies of our democracy.
The Russian War in Ukraine is one of many fronts.
The war is worldwide. It has already begun.
Filed under POETRY
MAMA, I AM AFRAID
It started with the words, “…Mama, I am afraid.
Words any soldier facing an enemy would say.
The phrase that cause my tears to bank
before overflowing down my face were these,
“They throw their bodies under the wheels,”
under armored vehicles and tanks
meant to protect or attack,
depending upon one’s side.
“They told us we would be welcomed.”
With open arms, “They hate us.”
Was he dismayed before he died;
before those tanks and vehicles
carried death to those unarmed?
Soldiers die, their innocence intact;
their innocence dead, if they survive.
And all I can do from afar
is cry, and cry, and cry.
For soldiers on both sides
of Putin’s lies.
ANGELS OF DEMOCRACY
The foreign life of angels
is to earth brought down
to fight the good fight
for freedom to abound.
Zelensky leads his people.
The whole earth gathers round,
defended by angels
on Ukraine’s sacred ground.
Putin’s fallen countrymen
attack with cunning and deceit
to undermine democracy
and its mission creep.
Tyrants fear their citizenry
exposed to the fruits
of democracy.
Putin fears the loss of power
as Ukrainians move west,
and Ukrainians fight valiantly,
stand and give their best.
Zelensky needs more than angels
to keep the Ukrainian people free.
One thing is certain
even if cities fall and people flee.
No people is more free
than those who stand and fight
for freedom and democracy.
Such people live among angels
no matter where they be.
Filed under POETRY
