Gaslit

("Snake II", 2015, original block print) Gaslit In these times of constant parading The emperor in his new gown Sets the fashion for the whole world Everywhere you look People blindly proclaiming the nakedly absurd With confidence born in numbers. Now basic biological facts of male and female Have morphed into a fluid nonbinary Mishmash of possibilities, where instead of in balance Nurture is stridently mightier than nature. Not withstanding, tropes of masculine violence somehow immune To this new social-science, People who’ve apparently never had house pets Postulate that in world without males there’d be no violence. What used to be common sense observation for even a child That racial differences are obvious, if not so easily defined, Have become the dogma; “Race is merely a social construct.” On the climate front all is hysteria As what used to be an essential sustainer of life Is rebranded a toxic gas Existentially threatening to end all life on Earth. And in politics, mild protest has become insurrection, Terrorist attacks embraced as the democratic process, And the sanctity and security of our vote Chewed up by a machine that knows no law or shame. Now the new Nazis call themselves the “Anti-Fascists” And of course brand all opponents “Nazis” As if name-calling makes something so In their make-believe post-modern world of subjective truth. Hate is love, war is peace Rigid conformity diversity, destruction creativity, Abortion the path to modern motherhood And enslavement to ideology somehow freedom. These are the times we live in When gaslighting has replaced the news, entertainment and education And objective truth driven underground or out into a desert Away from the masses Where it can be as it always has, untrodden and free Yet as deadly as ever to those who refuse to see. (12/2/23)