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The Seal and the Motto

The Seal and the Motto

The Great Seal
E Pluribus Unum
Out of many, one

The National Motto
In God We Trust
In Deo Speramus Nobis

It is a new age
With fewer than half of Americans
Participating in organized religion

It is a new age
When polarity in our politics
Is the highest since our Civil War

If we only write the motto
On our money, and not our hearts
We easily become bankrupt

If we only seek unity
Without compromise
The only thing sealed is our fate

We live in an age
That revels in self
At the cost of unity

We live in an age
That revels in wealth
At the cost of faith

Poverty of Spirit and
Self-centered divisiveness
Are only symptoms of what plagues us

The lights are slowly dimming
From our city on a hill
And the eyes of the world are upon us

While a single candle glows faintly
Millions flickering together rival the sun
E Pluribus Unum

In times of troubles
Prepare against the worst by living for the best
In God we trust

In the reign of those who divide us
Focus on those that join us
Trust the greater good to unify us in spite of ourselves

In God We Trust
Out of the many, one

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Cause and Effect

Cannon

No single drop of rain

Flooded out the dam,

Nor solitary driver

Created the traffic jam.

No weightless mountain snowflake,

Drifting on the breeze,

Caused the massive avalanche

That buried buildings and trees.

The stinging of a single fire ant

Though painful, heals quite fast,

But if a couple hundred sting you

You’ll likely breathe your last.

So it is in all endeavors

Both extraordinary and mundane

Moderation in our actions

Saves us suffering and pain.

And yet in the world of politics

It seems that time and again

Nations swing from left to right

Because someone has to win.

To capture minds and funding

Politicians talk in extremes,

When an introspective milk-toast moderation

Would be the governance of dreams.

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A Pale Horse

Dystopia

They dance with the idea
it consumes them wholly
wrought from ancient fear
of what they thought was holy

The rich move them like pawns
and laugh at their red deeds
then a fearsome day soon dawns
and their anger makes us bleed

Lies and hunger and a sense
of loss and falling down
the talking heads talk nonsense
about their stolen crown

They follow blindly and with glee
they chant and curse and sing
they smash and kill and plea
for praise from a would-be king

The center holds for one last stand
the guardians beat back the horde
they will return as they had planned
to commit what some abhorred

Some bolder hand will hold their reins
the broken veil falls from our face
the death’s head move for sordid gains
a triumph of a darker grace

So thus our city on a hill
shining for those with lifted eyes
crumbles into rubble still
just a shambles in disguise

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Political Skepticism

Gate to Seoul

Here we are in cold of midwinter
An election has passed
With misery and fanfare
A new government is sworn in
And we will joyously revel
That the State has come back from the brink
Yet the same crew
That have been running the fetid swamp
Continue to muck their way through
And the people of the “United” States
Wallowing in their misery
Hoping to see change
While keeping the same corrupted people in charge
Who have perpetuated the problems
The nation experienced for decades
There were lessons learned and missed
From the last four-year experiment in collective rule
A Republic cannot stand
If its leadership is dysfunctional
You cannot unify a nation
Through bully and insult
You do not build liberty
By silencing voices
Even those that make you uncomfortable
There is no wise demagogue
That can pull us all through
The real strength of governance is
When We the People make ourselves heard
The allegiance should not be to party or person
But to ideals- the ones from our founding
Even when we have struggled to execute them as intended
It is a pity that we continue to accept
A system with only two options
Making it so much easier to keep us divided
The people suffer for lack of options
And the same old networks
Ensure the game never changes
The United States is so much more varied
So much more diverse
Than the continual representation
By a handful who consider themselves elite
We deserve governance that reflects us-
The variated many
With all the chaos and conglomeration required
For multi-party rule
Without change we will continue
To toss back and forth in a bi-polar bipartisanship
As the pendulum swings
And we the fickled masses dance

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Convictions

chilling

I collect, the withered soul-husk said,
my grievances, peeves, and spleen.
Some people yet live, others are dead,
but my dislikes are evergreen.

Are you never wrong, I asked hollow-eyes
for their mood I could not understand.
It is simple, they said, there is never surprise
for I make up my mind beforehand.

My collection of foes and adversaries
the dark-shadowed speaker opined,
is in lists and logs and cemetaries,
newer members are easy to find.

But what of your friends and relations,
I questioned the hard-hearted shell.
They said that folk’s feeble narrations
contradicted all they knew so so well.

There’s no need to excuse any whinery
from people or even hear them out.
If you have beliefs fully binary,
said the wraith-head, it removes any doubt.

I was going to ask about love,
and sympathy seasoned with trust.
To my horror, their eyes turned above,
and they thereupon fell into dust.