Tag Archives: Republican Party

DANCE IN THE RAIN

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If not too early, perhaps too late

rain falls through parched skies,

in drizzles and drips only;

clouds’ moist linings absorbed

by dried out cells

of the hydrogen and oxygen

we need to survive.

The train’s whistle blows

in drowned out gasps.

Wet skies hold back

the usual click and clack

of dry wheels over steel track.

Iron wheels now slip and slide,

a smoother if more uneven ride.

Wet nights lead to wet mornings

drowning our the train whistle’s warning

of all that is to arrive

during this election drive.

Tom-toms beat quieter drums

to speed up hearts 

and slow down minds

as the train approaches

the nations’s destination.

AI interrupts nature’s offer

to set things straight

without a factual bother,

as facts fall beneath

the slippery wheels,

and we are easily thrown off-track

unsure now what is fiction or fact.

We will all soon be mad as hatters.

Too soon, we wonder if anything matters.

After drought, roots unfold  soundlessly

and it is hard to hear the truth’s refrain.

Our senses our dulled by falling rain.

Our restless sleep disrupts our days.

We are lulled by quieter chants,

but nothing has changed.

Courage now, lads and lasses.

The polls await the arriving train.

We must vote, in sunshine or rain.

Open sad and tired eyes.

Listen with too-numbed ears.

The sounds may be different,

but not the refrain.

Time to vote the danger away.

Time to learn to dance in the rain.

Vote!

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DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

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Best to keep parched lips closed in the midst of drought.

When the rain comes, as it surely must, lips open wide,

with head tilted back, in a tumultuous shout.

Filling up with rain, one wet swallow can seem enough.

Memory quickly returns of a mouth full of dry dust,

reminding one a single swallow is not enough.

After thirsting so long words have grown tough

to swallow, feel bitter, feel wounded, feel flushed

where they would be drowned 

if only rain would fall down.

Still, the short rain is enough to stir us to our feet,

on the forward march to greener pastures,

cool beneath our bare feet,

taking their fill of all the rains 

that have gone before to make this place

one where one may stay to laugh and play.

We will not go back.

Tears of joy rain down now.

We swallow them whole, 

filled with power so bold

we believe we control

the weather.

We don’t, we know.

But, we can vote.

And our vote grows in volume

as word drops form streams

and create new rivers of dreams

that flow within oceans so strong

their freedom carries us along

to new and better shores 

where right overcomes wrongs.

Words fall like rain, again and again.

Dance in the rain and play

on the way to election day.

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POLITICAL PARTIES

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Notes do not always ascend

in a crescendo of delight

They also bend low 

beyond the heart’s swift beat

until we feel breath stop

fearing heart’s defeat.

Notes ebb and flow

in patterns we do not anticipate.

Yet the music goes on

in beauteous escapade

across unlit rooms,

across shady glens, 

across sunlit fields

and parking lots awash

in un-natural lights aglow

above harsh surfaces of worry

where we park to listen.

Music soothes as often as it pushes

heart rates into overdrive.

We rise on dancing feet

or subside to slumberous ease.

One orchestra makes sense

of the notes unfolding

up and down,

racing and slowing

until the music transcends

the past and brings us up fast

to the climax at the end.

Two orchestras cannot play together

unless they play the same notes

at the same pace to the same place

in time and space.

Each must follow the same rules

and read the same music sheet.

Without such agreement

there is a cacophony of sound.

No matter how well one orchestra 

plays by the rules, its uplifting

music becomes mere sound,

its rhythm unable to be discerned

by the racket from the second

orchestra who has turned

from reading the music sheet

and playing by the rules.

We cannot stand the dissonance

and turn the music off.

We mistakenly believe

both orchestras at fault.

It is time to call a halt

to the orchestra of whining instruments

which refuse to abide by music’s rules

and continue to play us false.

I yearn for the sweet sounds of truth.

November cannot come too soon.

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ASSASSINATION OF A NATION’S SOUL

Assassination of a Nation’s Soul

What violence and threat to our democracy 

has done to me

cannot be undone, it seems.

I watch the source of so much pain

fall to ground, his right ear maimed.

I wonder at the loss of feeling at such sight.

I try to feel something, anything, even fright.

Instead numbness overtakes my soul.

This does not seem the same to me

as the grief I felt for the John or Bobby Kennedy,

for Martin Luther King, Jr. or Medgar Evers;

Cheney, Schwermer and Goodman;

For Malcom X and Viola Luizzo.

Where did my compassion go?

I wish I could say I know.

Suffering is all the same.

Every human being feels its shame.

Even that I cannot feel

as layer by layer the Constitution unravels, 

and freedom’s bell no longer peals.

How far my hope has traveled

beyond court decisions and hateful words

meant to appeal to nameless hordes

by those who speak only for themselves, 

cheered by those who fill their empty chords.

Surrounded by narcissistic churls

whose images and taunts unfurl

across media’s many avenues,

such violence seemed inevitable.

And, all he cared about was finding his shoes

as others tried to protect his life,

he struggled against their efforts

exposing them to more danger

so he could rise within their safe embrace

and raise a fist in everyone’s face.

Still, I feel nothing.

Neither sorrow nor joy.

Neither faith nor fear.

Neither love  or hate.

Neither hope nor mistrust.

Look at what this man and his supporters

have done to us!

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THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Wizard of Oz: Discovering the man behind the curtains a con man and entertainer.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Only one thing is certain.

In your heart, you know it to be true.

The only person who matters is you.

That is the core of democracy,

a republic which is not a theocracy,

nor a monarchy, nor autocracy.

No man or woman will come to save your nation.

Now, pay attention

to school boards and zoning boards,

and definitely boards of election

where you will find your greatest protection.

Watch the mayors, governors and secretaries of state.

Do they make decisions with love or hate?

Vote out those who help keep his curtain closed

before it is too late.

The man behind the curtain is a wizard and a clown

who loves the limelight and will never fight

to keep the nation safe, nor guarantee your rights.

The man behind the curtain entertains himself

by entertaining fear in everyone else.

Those who serve him bow down in disgrace

and forfeit the security of any safe space

to exercise their freedom of ideas.

They can no longer listen to you.

They must do what he says they must do.

He looks for a way to escape.

Leave him to stew.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Only one thing is certain.

That is you.

VOTE!

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SATURDAY MORNING ON TRIAL

KRONOS/SATURN by Peter Paul Rubens , Public Domain

Saturday  morning;

dawn rises on a new day.

Saturn’s history at play

beyond ancient Rome’s sway.

We wonder if he will be made to pay

for destroying Saturnalia’s gifts.

This is no  Christian’s Christmas Day

created to hide his pagan ways.

This Saturnus is defective ,made of clay

which changes shape day after day.

Inside the gas giant on display

in the heavens worlds away

raging storms churn and flay

rallying followers 

drawn by his magnetic field

into icy rings that circle and shield

this Titan who seeks to wield

total power over the field;

not of wheat and grass and grain,

but of institutions threatened again

by fear and hate and retribution.

That is this Titan’s contribution.

He threatens every man, woman and child.

He devours even his infant son

held in his own arms but seen as a threat

to his control and power

which he worries over hour after hour.

This defective Saturn’s trials have just begun.

We wonder if courts will justice deal

before the Titan destroys all we love

because he cannot love, but only fear.

November votes bring new beginnings.

We can choose decency with heart;

choose freedom and love, or our end is near.

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FASCISM COURTS the USA

Criminal free space?

Oval Office is the place.

SCOTUS nazis say.

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THROUGH-LINES

Supreme Court Building 1 First by Carol M Highsmith is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Before amendments,

only white men could vote

under a constitution meant

to protect white male power

and their wealth to control the hour.

The hours of Women’s Labor.

The hours of Black Labor.

The hours of Asian Labor

on railroads crossing the nation

with white men’s wealth protected

in box cars, from southern fields

and northern industries.

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Oh, we can easily see

why Originalist judges seek

to turn back time and make weak

the power gained by women’s suffrage,

African-American civil rights fights,

and Japanese reparation gains.

Each accomplishment a refrain

against white male supremacy.

There is a through-line of meritocracy

from serfdom and caste

until at last

white men must choose 

which they love more;

their country or their power,

their countrymen or their wealth.

There is no stealth 

as they seek to regain

what they once owned.

The rest of us!

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Think

“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” – Voltaire

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HOLY SATURDAY

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Time hangs suspended in the tomb,

rolled back behind a solid stone

chasing thoughts away

of what occurred yesterday.

Shrouded in a mystery

foretold by history

evil reaches across the space

where fearing loss of power

the great losers rage by the hour.

We helped create our own purgatory,

where all we do is worry

rather than embrace the true reality

we not so suddenly face.

We must roll away the stone

and bring truth home;

look at what we have done

and what we have failed to do.

The stillness of this day must renew

a strength we once embraced with pride.

Now we cower and we hide.

Are we so fearful and so weak

we dare not take a peak

into our shaking souls to see

the selves we have come to be?

Only we. Only we. Only we

becomes our litany.

Only we can stop the hate

that acts upon the institutions

we must rely upon

to uphold law and seek justice

to protect all of us

and this country we proclaim to be

the seat of freedom and democracy.

We must open up our eyes

and roll away the lies

that block this holy space

where salvation will arise.

Vote away the hate.

it is not too late.

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