It’s time, by now, we did away with nations.
I tell you, hand on heart beneath the flag,
This jingo jag has now become a drag.
Those puerile patriotic palpitations
had meaning only when we lived in tribes.
Today our people mix and mingle freely –
so can’t we now dispense with Horace Greeley,
and wetbacks, wops and wogs, and all those jibes?
Since nations never have a sense of humour,
it’s little wonder why we have these wars.
We need a change of heart. Embrace the cause:
don’t split us into gooks or spooks or squaws,
or hicks or micks or spicks, or baby-boomers.
One nation under God, we’re all consumers.
Unum Carmen
Too many good thoughts
so many bad poems
The bridge to forever
exacting its toll
Too many to count
just one to remember
As beauty releases
—redeeming the soul
(The New Room: June, 2023)
The past and the future
fold into the present
Conceptually vacant
twice empty refrains
No before and no after
perpetually frozen
The ice of indenture
—this moment contains
(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)
INTO AN ENDLESS AND SINGLE DAY
Uninterrupted torment,
for the unfortunate ones,
like me,
to suffer as always,
the craving is so strong,
consistently,
trying to find us an explainable excuse to submit,
constantly giving us shakes and stress,
continually without giving up,
makes us sweat,
cause we are eternally addicted.
forever.
An everlasting torment,
for all time to come,
invariably,
we succumb to it,
as usual, we go into perpetual oblivion,
we keep repeating the same mistake,
over and over again,
because we are weak,
we are human beings,
unceasing our addiction,
which we acquired innocently or purposely,
without exception,
the power of the craving stays with us.
Carrying worn suitcases packed tightly
with meager possessions, lofty dreams,
bringing hearts filled
with longings
for the familiarity of homelands
and family left behind,
they came to America.
Schowengerdt, Rabun, Mazzei,
Erickson, Keeton and Rausch.
RaGusa, Martin, Devries,
Kaplan, Renfro, Czypryzs,
Morrissey, Hartpence, Colbert,
Collier, Roth, Proia and Ward.
They came to America.
Shining through immigrant tears,
Lady Liberty’s freedom torch
beaconed the way to portals of hope.
Beyond ... the future’s golden glow
beckoned the brave to create a new America
molded out of the melting pot of diversity.
They came to America.
Standing hand in hand at Ellis’s shore,
in reverent silence,
hearts bursting with pride,
a hundred mother tongues
with single voice proclaimed
in perfect harmony,
“We are America!”
Forced by angry Esau to leave home
Jacob had no choice, so he ran
To his mother's brother in Haran
The sun set quickly that afternoon
So Jacob set twelve stones by his head
And lay down to sleep, the ground as his bed
In the morn, twelve stones had turned into one
Momentarily perplexed and stunned
Jacob sought meaning in what had been done...
Twelve sons would he sire in Haran
Each one a gem on his own
Together, they'd form a happy home
It is a free country as long as you have money. ha! ha!
"50 Words for Poe: cor unum"
"cor unum"
cor ad cor loquitur
confessio
crescente luce
de profundis
lux vitae lux
et lux in tenebris lucet
de nobis fabula narratur
fons vitae caritas
lux vitae lux
(LadyLabyrinth/2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8k9f88gEbE
et super omnia
ad te ipso sit tru
et deo
It’s time, by now, we did away with nations.
I tell you, hand on heart beneath the flag,
This jingo jag has now become a drag.
Those puerile patriotic palpitations
had meaning only when we lived in tribes.
Today our people mix and mingle freely –
so can’t we now dispense with Horace Greeley,
and wetbacks, wops and wogs, and all those jibes?
Since nations never have a sense of humour,
it’s little wonder why we have these wars.
We need a change of heart. Embrace the cause:
don’t split us into gooks or spooks or squaws,
or hicks or micks or spicks, or baby-boomers.
One nation under God, we’re all consumers.
...inspired by 'To The President-Elect' by Joseph Brodsky
You've reached the pinnacle of fame
where double-speak's a daily game,
so many words, so little meaning,
popinjay, so skilled at preening.
Posing for a photo-op
your perfect hair a puissant crop,
your perfect smile, a frozen glare
which fools the foolish everywhere.
Demagoguery designed
to derogate the keener mind,
a smile may hide what lies behind
and mark the downfall of your kind.
...inspired by 'To The President-Elect' by Joseph Brodsky
You've reached the pinnacle of fame
where double-speak's a daily game,
so many words, so little meaning,
popinjay, so skilled at preening.
Posing for a photo-op
your perfect hair a puissant crop,
your perfect smile, a frozen glare
which fools the foolish everywhere.
Demagoguery designed
to derogate the keener mind,
a smile may hide what lies behind
but mark the downfall of your kind.
Youa tells me a story over the hot hibachi:
How she went to Laos
To see her lucky sisters
For the first time in two decades,
Since the country has loosened up enough
To let tourists like us in.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” she asks me,
Then says she gave her sister Mayli $50
To help her family.
When Youa returned to the Twin Cities,
She learned her sister had been murdered
For the money
By Mayli’s ex-husband, who’d heard
Of their family reunion
And thought the cash rightfully belonged to him.
“Did you give your relatives anything?”
She asks.
“Yes,” I reply. “$500. But they say they need more
To get to America.”
...inspired by 'To The President-Elect' by Joseph Brodsky
You've reached the pinnacle of fame
where double-speak's a daily game,
so many words, so little meaning,
popinjay, so skilled at preening.
Posing for a photo-op
your perfect hair a puissant crop,
your perfect smile, a frozen glare
which fools the foolish everywhere.
Demagoguery designed
to derogate the keener mind,
a smile may hide what lies behind
but mark the downfall of your kind.
...inspired by 'To The President-Elect' by Joseph Brodsky
You've reached the pinnacle of fame
where double-speak's the daily game,
so many words, so little meaning,
popinjay, so skilled at preening.
Posing for a photo-op
your perfect hair a puissant crop,
your perfect smile, a frozen glare
which fools the foolish everywhere.
Demagoguery designed
to derogate the keener mind,
a bush will hide what lies behind
and mark the downfall of your kind.
One nation under GOD indivisible--
it's synergy--part of the system--
part of the whole.
Even though, ignorance still exist
--it doesn't matter because it's just an element.
Ultimately, it doesn't prevail.
What prevails is HE WHO CREATES REALMS.
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