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Immolation

Immolation

This is a poem I never wanted to write.
Idiocy on display forces my hand.

This is how great nations die
Self-absorbed citizenry believing the hype
That their own person desires are more important than
The good of the nation as a whole
A failure of education
And of civility
The stupidity of wanting
Life without consequence
Talking heads spewing
And the gullible rolled up as fodder
by those taking and faking sides
The people act without knowing
Thermador, the Bonfire of the Vanities

Pray for a Phoenix rebirth

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For Them

soldiers

For those who died in muddy fields
or pressed on through the jungle
or those that fought up rocky hills
and found eternal slumber

They served, some died
they knew the deal
that blood secures our time
that freedom’s bells will peal

But now we cannot stand alone
apart from one another
we have to help each other up
as sisters and as brothers

A house divided cannot stand
a lesson paid in blood
we’ll have to learn another time
if we betray their trust

For those who served and only wept
instead of being buried
Who wait and wonder if
we forgot why they stood for us

We need to pay them back in coin
that only patriots earn
with unity and loyalty
to the Union that they served

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Moral Combat

Gate to Seoul

Watching it all play out
On national television,
All that I could think
Was that we really could do better
In the choosing of our champions
And the resolution of the combat.

In the back of my mind
I thought of Alice, Texas
In the fall of 1948
And the mysterious miracle of Ballot Box 13.
Yet there is quite a difference
Between knowing a bit of history
And actually making accusations
From the Whitehouse bully pulpit.

On this one thing I am certain,
That no matter who wins this battle
The process has weakened their position
And the standing of this nation.
There will be no mandate for action —
Only more cries from the sidelines
That a duly elected person
Cannot possibly be “my president”.

The process tears at our fabric
Reopens the old wounds
In our national psyche
Refusing to allow them to heal.
We should be saddened that the runup
To the 2024 election
Starts in earnest today.

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Drumbeat

drumbeat

It’s in your head
the endless thrum
So many dead
and more to come

Jobs have left
and jobs returned
The poor look up
entreaties spurned

Stuff in the street
from jobless folks
To make an omelet
you break some yolks

The beat goes on
there is no end
Hope flees the scene
and madness trends

We blame each other
and people dance
To see the split
between our brothers

So turn it off
and lift your head
Work for the good
and mourn the dead

Pick up the pieces
and heal yourself
Give in to your
much better self

Time to reach out
to the other side
We already know
too many died

Sweep up the ruins
without a fuss
Build it back
for all of us

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Different types of Boom

Fireworks

There are deflagration and detonation

which differ in how they shock

That’s pedantic, if not too frantic

and I do not mean to mock

Incendiary times need cooling down

with caution and celebration

To avoid a sad conflagration

have your fireworks out of town