Blessings, Damnations, and Woes

Blessed are the protesters
In peaceful assembly
Demanding justice and equality
For yours is The Dream made real
Mahatmas one and all
Standing before Nirvana
On the Road to Shambhala
Yet You lack one thing to enter
You must shed your violent alter-self
You can not harbor violent souls
And cross the gates to the peaceful happy land
Though the price of peace may be your life
Unyielding while bearing your cross
As all the martyrs that came before you

Blessed are the peace officers
When they live up to the term
Protecting and serving the people
For yours is the Badge of Honor
When you protect the people
Nurturing them under your shield
Of peace, and prosperity, and equality before the law
Yet one thing you lack to stand before The Judge
You must purge yourself of the wolves
Hiding themselves in your ranks
You must cast aside their violence
Before it destroys your flock
Or they drive you into the wilderness

Damned are the troublemakers
Hurling insults and bricks
Setting fires and looting
Your anarchism nullifies the voice of the people
You doom the saints that are actually bringing change
To another round of violence
Your bile drowns the discussion
And poisons the fields before they ripen
Your harvest is nothing but ashes
Repent before you are consumed
Broken shards of glass and flames
Become your funeral pyre

Damned are the cowardly bullies
Who instigate events
Demanding people respect their authority
And choking out innocent life
Simply because they can
Using guardian positions to prey upon innocents
Your black-hearted hypocrisy dooms you to failure
As the people rebel against your evil empire
Your anger and cowardice besmirches your profession
Repent or suffer the fate of the wolf and rabid dog
That must be put down
In order to save the flock

Woe to those in authority
Who abuse their power
Making themselves and their friends rich
On the backs of the people
Using crony capitalism and politics
To keep the people divided and
Inflamed with daily tragedies
To distract the people from the fact
That you are robbing them of their future
By poisoning their present
You do whatever is necessary
To hold on to your positions
And enjoy the succulent feast
While the people languish in misery
Repent and turn from evil
Before the greed in your calloused heart
Fans the flames of street protest
Into your Thermidor

Woe to the Cassandra prophet poet
Who sees the present in the past
Augers the future through discernment
And knows that the voice crying out from the wilderness
Is seldom heard and understood
Because the heart of the people
Is based in primordial violence
And even in an advanced state
Relies upon tribal fealty
Like troops of monkeys
Fighting over the best fruit trees
To clearly see the pathway forward
Knowing it won’t be taken
Is perhaps the worst punishment of all.

Speaking to Zombies

Gate to Seoul

Today I heard a politician
Speak remarkably plain,
The wars of my lifetime
He said we’ve fought in vain.
Perhaps he is correct
And the time has come to vent,
Yet this same politician
Voted to send us where we went;
And he kept the funding flowing
Through the victories and the strife.
The contractors made a fortune,
On a bill that soldiers paid with life.
America, largely oblivious
To what goes on “over there”,
Argues over the frivolous
And spends without a care.
Poor fiscal policy and hubris,
The people fail to see,
Is the historical highway that
Brings great nations to their knees.

Philosophy More than Poetry

Gate to Seoul
This is not a poem to glorify war
Though it may seem that way
To those who do not know
What we know
(Oh, what we know!)

This is not a poem to praise America
Though it celebrates an idea
That once was
And can be again
(Liberty Enlightening the World!)

This is not a poem to castigate anyone
Though it may burn
And stick in the craw
Of many who read it
(Ruminant fiber for our system!)

This is a poem about the lethargy of excess
And the revolution it spawns
In the belly of the hungry
Because inequality breeds contempt
(Desperate people doing desperate things!)

This is a poem asking people to wake up
And understand what is happening
As binary politics and policies
Rip us apart as a people
(Divided electorates are divided and conquered)

This is a notice that we are in a psychological war
For the soul of what it means
To be a People, United
Americans
(The City on a Hill!)

We the people have been sold
As an offering
Fattened Cattle
On the altar of prosperity
(Lambs to the slaughter!)

In our national capital and statehouses
They gerrymander away
Our Freedom, our Voice, our Future
For profit and power
(Litigious society in chains!)

On the newsroom floor they package infotainment
Having nothing to do with keeping the people informed
Better to keep them enflamed
So that money keeps pouring in
(Ignorance makes the chains feel lighter!)

On their “smart phones”, the people play games
Content in complete ignorance
Watching gladiators in the arena
As Rome burns around them
(The Republic becomes an Empire)

Barbarians at the gate, look on in approval
As the empire consumes itself
Rome’s “Crisis of the Third Century”
Alive and well today
(Where is Marcus Aurelius, our philosopher? Vegetius our reformer?)

Army marching victoriously to battle to battle
Winning with great violence
Unchallenged at sea or in air
Yet losing war after war
(Strategy that can’t survive an election cycle is no strategy at all!)

Trapped by Thucidydes against all comers
Active foreign policy everywhere
Stretched beyond our means
Undermined by friend and foe
(The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must!)

And so it comes full circle back to We the People,
Who revel in our ignorance
And allow our politicians to poison us with bad policy
Putrid meat flavored to tastes like honey
(Buying up our favor with scraps of cake)

Unless we awaken from our slumber
And take back our birthright
First will come the Revolution
Then the Thermidor
(Our vanity a bonfire, Liberty Enlightening the World)

Swimmer on the Sea

Swimmer on the sea
Bobbing on the surface
Straining to see beyond the billowing waves
The ups and downs of life.

Cutting through the water
Currents push and pull
Far stronger than muscle, bone and tendon
Yet the swimmer struggles on.

This is the life of mankind
Struggling to make progress
Between the expanse above and the depth below
Unable to peer far into either.

Prejudice and politics spin us
Like the maelstrom and the eddies
Sweeping us away from logic and the course we set to travel
Fearing imagined monsters from the deep.

While Leviathan circles!

Election Jazz: The Reds and the Blues

Who is to blame for the mess we are in?
Hatred, Strife, Economics, Spin.
Maybe we ourselves hold blame!
Closed-mindedness, zero-sum games.
Perhaps the issue should instead be,
“What does it take to set us free
From fear and doubt and dishonesty?”

Once again America Plebiscites-
In folksy language, we fuss and fight.
Back and forth the political tug-of-war,
No one really wins when everyone is sore.
For “election have consequences” still holds true-
Though political spoils of war make us raw and bruised,
And to our chagrin no election is ever through!

The loser gets ready for shifting political winds,
And the strategy for the next election already begins.
Though the winner seems happy, on closer inspection,
They are already fundraising for their re-election.
The electorate only has itself to blame,
Selecting the same old people for the same old game,
This outcome has become the object of shame.

With empty promises that we continue to buy,
Politicians are incentivized to lie.
We the people keep stuffing the box
For the candidate promising us the fattest ox
With voters on the take, bad fiscal policy begins
As democracy’s life approaches its ends
Didn’t we ramble, with the Saints Marching in?