Strike Up The Band
Strike! Strike!
Strike up the Band!
If you're brown
please beware
If you’re black
watch your back
If you’re yellow
dive for cover
If you’re red
you’re already dead
Strike! Strike!
Strike up the Band!
They’re coming to take us away!
They’re coming to take us away!
Raise high the flag
Raise high those stars and stripes
We’re Christians and Hindus
Muslims and Jews
We work, we sing, we dance
We play in parks
On Sundays after church
We’re neighbors
We’re lovers
We’re builders, cowboys
waiters, and cooks
We’re hot dog vendors
and ice cream peddlers
We hoe your fields
and pick your fruit.
We drive your trucks
and plow your fields
We cut your meat
and herd your cows
You wonder the price
You wonder the vice
It’s time to De-Ice
Rid us of these lice?
Strike! Strike!
Strike up the Band!
They came and took us away
away
away
away to Guantanamo
I have this urge to sway
on street corners in a derelict way,
disheveled - a little drunk,
with an impulse to praise Mary,
not the virgin, but her
less immaculate namesake.
Perhaps the sound of my prayers
will de-ice parked cars, straighten
shopping cartwheels, save a kid's
balloon from escaping?
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
The fruit of your womb goes downtown.
A truck narrowly misses a cat.
A door is held open for an expectant mother.
A smile from a mean looking youth.
It begins to rain. Snow turns to slush.
The winter evening slaps our cheeks.
Pray for us sinners.
A handcuffed Magdalene
steps into a cruiser.
The cops are smiling; she is smiling
they have done this before.
An old man in a thin jacket
huddles cold bones
against a wolfish wind.
He will survive its killing teeth.
Look!
It is Happy Hour.
the Magdalene will be serving,
tending to both good company
and bad.
“Now and at the hour of our death".
"Let us share one last
imperfect breath.”
Declares a racoon
from its holy dumpster.
Those darn ICE agents in Minnesota!
They don't have a clue! Not one iota!
For once, just take some advice:
the U.S. needs to de-ICE
and please drop your deportation quota!
An advent of raptors loiters over mall roofs.
hooded eyes scope the neon-lit spaces,
the concreted waste lands.
We wake to their screams as if this were High Sierra,
not Ohio where parent’s try-out or manage children,
open party stores, hunker through the coming
and going of baby Jesus; de-ice puffer jackets.
Gloom is plowed behind snow dunes.
The red-tails roam in loose federations,
their young, mob-handed and loutish,
the mature work alone,
scything through small birds,
the weakened and walking.
The hawks wing-dance proclaiming their time,
a time of frost-bitten electric barricades,
of bobble hats and mittens,
while unseen, a wind-rattled thorny brier,
recites its litany of seasonal prayers.
I have this urge to sway
on street corners in a derelict way,
disheveled, a little drunk,
an impulse to praise Mary,
not the Virgin, but her
less immaculate namesake.
'Hail Mary, full of grace,
Our Lord is with you.'
Perhaps the sound of my voice
will de-ice parked cars, straighten
shopping cartwheels, save a kid's
balloon from escaping?
'Blessed are you among women,
And blessed the fruit of your womb.'
The fruit of your womb goes downtown.
A truck narrowly misses a cat.
A door is held open for an expectant mother.
A smile from a mean looking youth.
It begins to rain. Snow turns to slush.
The winter evening slaps our cheeks.
'Pray for us sinners.'
A handcuffed Magdalene steps into a
police cruiser.
The cops are smiling. She is smiling.
They have done this before.
'Now and at the hour of our death.'
An old man in a thin jacket
huddles cold bones against a wolfish wind.
He will arrive, survive these killing teeth.
It is Happy Hour.
The Magdalene will be serving,
tending in her own way,
to good company and bad.
'Our Lord is with you'.
~~
BLEEDIN RADIATOR!
Snow falling caused our flight delay
We arrived home from holiday
Radiator’s been leaking
A new carpet I’m seeking
I’m hoping insurers will pay!
2/1/19
Unfortunately it’s a true story ... after a fabulous holiday in Cyprus we had a 6 hour delay at the airport, our flight plan then had to be re routed to Milan so they could change crew and de ice the plane. When we eventually arrived in the UK we had 2 /12 hours sleep in the hotel before we had to be up for our flight back home. Got home and found a radiator has been leaking and had to spend 3 hours removing a sodden moldy carpet. Despite all the drama I was still able to write with humour and posted my Regina limerick which, from all the comments, has made many people smile!
And anger
Is a friend
That the oppressed
Must seize;
A purgative drug
To cleanse and preserve
The knowledge
And indignation
With which they affront
Agglutinated
The excesses of apartheid!
Come! Behold the scars
That those who angered
Seized- arms outstretched
Their spears flaming!
And you who dither
De-ice your souls
With flames of anger;
And un-reason
Will succumb
To reason!
Hail vanguard
Of our freedom! Hail!
(Poem written for that dark era, happily, now past!)
An advent of raptors haunts the scant gray woods
or loiters over mall roofs.
We wake to their screams as if this were high sierra,
not Ohio where parents try-out or manage children,
open party stores, hunker through the coming
and going of baby Jesus; de-ice puffer jackets,
tend to flocks.
Gloom is plowed behind snow dunes.
The red-tails roam in loose federations.
Their young, mob-handed and loutish,
the mature work in pairs
scything small birds, ripping through
the thinning, the hold-outs,
the weakened and walking.
And the first born listen with the last of us
while the hawks dance proclaiming their time.
A time of fervid litany and electric barricades,
of bobble hats and mittens,
while a black brier
raises bloody thorns in chary praise.
~~
What does it take
To De-ice a heart
In a passionate man
In need of a new start
Cobwebbed and lost
In declining beat
Not only bleeds
But occasionally weeps
Then out of the blue
A maiden so fair
Literal goddess
With care and flair
Her warmth with words
Has restarted my heart
Ignited my wants
And poetic parts
One day
I will make a new start
To meet this fair maiden
To touch her heart
http://www.thehighlanderspoems.com/love4.php
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