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Barry Levy Poem
There is never an ending
to the spending
a world of paper
and plastic to collect
and horde
clothes
and cars
and homes
and jewelry
and fine wine
and paintings
stocks and bonds
vacations
and expectations
entire vocations
devoted to
disguising the numbers
the Caribbean masquerade
to volumes of recorded
purchases and voices
of invoices
making
discreet
choices
all
to extend
the accumulation
of dates
and names
places and faces
communications
and connections
at breakneck
speed
must fill the need
must fill the need
a shouting browbeating
broadband
handing over
fistfuls of cash
to make sure
make certain
only the best
the finest
the rarest
of air is not available
for
the underwater martyrs
the silent box dwellers
the empty bottle collectors
the wheelchair drifters
the SRO limbo sellers
the workers at
the bottom
of the
fast
food
chain
and the indigent gamblers
who line the halls
to knock on doors
of government departments
crippled by reckless
and corrupt state
administrations
choking the dwindling
sources
and resources
that have
nothing to do
but
count the days
and ways
to disappoint
disarm dismay
dispute the reputations
and applications
held in sweaty palms
eager
to begin living
to end the doubt
to end the not having
the counting of pennies
the slow heroin erosion
the unbroken hollowness
the whiskey-soaked
ravages of vacant histories
better-forgotten memories
of cold emergency rooms
to end being
in a world
apart
a world
of resentment
of fear and hate and anger
of dark empty streets
empty recriminations
empty promises
made to themselves
by themselves
harming themselves
or
arming themselves
to rob to steal
to maim
to take whatever they can
for as long as they can
to approximate
the wonder and magic
of having what you need
when you need it or want it
to not have to beg
to not have to humiliate
or be humiliated
to not have to watch
the ease of others
who have a casual
contempt for misfortune
and respect for nothing
but their own wealth
of deception
to breeze through
tall golden doors
to an unbroken string
of shiny bright todays
and tomorrows
to not have to
lunge for hope
and
never grasp it
in all ways
and forever
just out of
reach
Copyright © Barry Levy | Year Posted 2016
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Barry Levy Poem
water falls up
in a world out
of balance
gravity fades
Copyright © Barry Levy | Year Posted 2017
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Barry Levy Poem
Gunshots and tasers aimed at the back
tracking the movements and memories
of unsuspecting dark-skinned citizens
marked by the scars of a history denied
For Rumain Brisbon, 34
it was crime to be black in Arizona
For Tamir Rice, 12
it was crime to be black in Ohio
For Alonzo Ashley, 29
it was crime to be black in Colorado
The Federal Bureau of Investigation
say young black men are 21 times as likely
as their white peers to be killed by police
who use deadly force first with impunity
For Kajieme Powell, 25
it was a crime to be black in Missouri
For Ezell Ford, 25
it was a crime to be black in California
For Trayvon Martin, 17
it was a crime to be black in Florida
Predators in blue or green or grey
are looking for you if your skin is black
brown or beige ever eager to escalate
minor infractions into family tragedies
For Tyree Woodson, 38
it was a crime to be black in Maryland
For Victor White III, 22
it was a crime to be black in Louisiana
For Yvette Smith, 47
it was a crime to be black in Texas
This is not new or shocking to those
who live with this in their daily lives
but a revelation to the feckless peers
wearing the white cape of entitlement
For McKenzie Cochran, 25
it was a crime to be black in Michigan
For Miriam Carey, 34
it was a crime to be black in Washington, D.C.
For Jonathon Ferrell, 24
it was a crime to be black in North Carolina
To protect and serve themselves
to serve superiors who lie and obfuscate
to hide behind denials and fabrications
nurturing the shield of the thick blue wall
For Johnnie Kamal Warren, 43
it was a crime to be black in Alabama
For Ervin Jefferson, 18
it was a crime to be black in Georgia
For Chavis Carter, 21
it was a crime to be black in Arkansas
This is the bloody trail left behind
from the Original Sin the pain and horror
in the bottom of boats and later in chains
on plantations and now in private prisons
For Eric Garner, 43
it was crime to be black in New York
For Sandra Bland, 28
it was a crime to be black in Texas
For Samuel Dubose, 23
it was a crime to be black in Ohio
Newspaper headlines scream and shout
officers go free as gullible grand juries
are misled by dissembling prosecutors
proud to defend craven uniformed killers
For Eric Harris, 44
it was crime to be black in Oklahoma
For Walter Scott, 50
it was a crime to be black in South Carolina
For Freddie Gray, 25
it was a crime to be black in Maryland
Not all of them are like this
but there have been
too many times
too many dead and
too many watching
Copyright © Barry Levy | Year Posted 2016
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Barry Levy Poem
A listing of the fires
and all the survivors
will be provided
Names of the dead
are written on broken cobblestones
at the bottom of the river
The sheet music
is in the morgue - reconstruction
of the falafel carts will commence at dawn
The Liability Brigade
will hunt down the marauding gang of investors
and bring them before a Grand Jury
Bones of smoke will be
lined up for identification by family members
directly after the Eulogy of the Clouds
The Commissioner will be
available on Facebook from noon until
dinner time - food and clothing for orphans,
The infirm, and the elderly
will be top priority - memories will be given
temporary shelter - forensic echoes and screams
Will not be available for questioning
information packets will be redacted and distributed
by EOB today - a sweet and savage grace
Will be bestowed upon us all -
alternate sides of the street parking rules are in effect
and once the Mayor has given his statement
The sewers of the city
will open and the charred remains of the bodies
will rise - catered lunches will be delayed indefinitely
Any miracles to be performed
must register with the Comptroller’s Office
no later than 5:00 pm Tuesday
Racist, bigots, misogynists, stuttering
CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, CTOs, fund managers
and all the pin-striped pimps on Wall Street
Will be summarily disgorged before
the first Hour of Amazement begins
quarantined on the peaks of the highest mountains
If you have signs or symptoms of any of the following:
low blood pressure
high blood pressure
dizziness
nausea
palm sweats
seizures
lesions
nightmares of crossed and bloodied bayonets
basal cell carcinomas
panic attacks
dry or itchy skin
nose sores
reverberating vibrations of V-2 rockets
tinnitus
oozing pustules
non-oozing pustules
bleeding gums
visions of bodies floating in Mekong rice paddies
irregular heartbeat
aphids in the ears
shortness of breath
memories of IEDs on the sweaty road to Kabul
spider veins
clogged arteries
or the realization more and more as time
goes by that Reason and Logic no longer exist
please see a physician or magician at once
There will be a brief Q&A
with the Kings County ADA regarding
the NYPD SOP for officers shooting unarmed civilians
Any rumor or report or
any anecdote suggesting self-preservation
over citizen protection will be ridiculed accordingly
All heroin and meth addicts
will report to the New York Times for assignments
and the taking of identification photographs
Lastly please remember
to keep an open heart and mind
when the winter solstice hits the heavens
The warmth you create will flood
the inviolable void behind the sun -
where a New Enlightenment is being born
Thank you.
Copyright © Barry Levy | Year Posted 2016
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Barry Levy Poem
What goes into
caucus and committee
and what comes out
of caucus and committee
what dialogue travels
the halls of Congress
and what dialogue is absent
from those consecrated halls
what is debated on
the floor stays on the floor
and what rises to the ceiling
stays on the ceiling
a high wire act in a circus of clowns and puppets
trip over each other to raise money for themselves
what elevates the heavy
gavel of procedure
and what brings that mighty
wooden gavel down
who is written out of trade
partnership agreements
and who is written into trade
partnership agreements
what is left out of
national security legislation
and what is written
into security legislation
it has the shape and style and sound and appearance
of democracy but some fingers and toes are missing
cloaked in rhetoric
and petulant rant representatives
buzz from one special interest
flower to the other
pushing debased agendas
and empty proposals with impunity
unaware that every single meeting
and motion and voice
is attached to the life of
a determined and diligent citizen
dependent upon their
conscientiousness and empathy
clichés and bromides shift fast between nattering teeth
ranks close in and capacity for clear hearing thins out
tabloids and blogs are
the prime sources of knowledge
and gravitas is a slow steamboat
on the Mississippi
commentators and pundits
flap thick wicked tongues
giving lip service to Constitutional
principles and purpose
all thriving in a happy
broadband land where drones
drop bombs far away as
we sleep in peace and comfort
turn up the Wi-Fi
have another pitcher of brew
no need to ponder the wretched
who make it possible
for all of us
to live
Copyright © Barry Levy | Year Posted 2016
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Barry Levy Poem
In the desert
you make
your own shade
the heat of
the unflinching eye
high above is without
mercy or menace
there are
no
apologies
no running wild
in the casbahs
but praying
and walking
to find a cool
pitcher of liquid
or
something to release
the visions
dancing between
the velvet stars
far into the night
and further
into
the mathematics
of memory
where
dead scholars
pass judgement
discussing
and debating
historical
and scientific
transformations
the delayed
fate of nations
the relations
between tribes
and the scribes who
recollect and record
each luminous
syllable
sipping
their painted cups
of jasmine tea
nibbling on
the rinds of
desiccated oranges
plucked
from besotted
and iridescent
trees long
long
ago
Copyright © Barry Levy | Year Posted 2016
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Barry Levy Poem
Every 16 hours a woman is shot
by her husband or boyfriend
One American is killed with a gun
every 15 minutes
Over 80 Americans are shot and killed
every day
7 children are “unintentionally” shot
every day
33,000 Americans are killed by guns
every year
Every day 55 Americans kill themselves
with guns
There were 330 mass shootings
in America in 2015
This is a public health issue
This is a domestic security issue
This is an every-single-citizen-is-involved issue
You could be next
or your spouse or partner or child
or mother or father or sister or brother
74% of NRA members favor background checks
46% fewer women are shot to death by husbands
or boyfriends in states with background checks
48% fewer on-duty cops are shot in states with
background checks
51% of NRA members favor 5-day waiting periods
Most states have a 24-hour waiting period to get a tattoo
to buy a gun there is no waiting period required
States with waiting periods before gun purchases
have 51% fewer suicides
In Texas
no permit is required to own a handgun
no registration is required for owning long arms or handguns
no license is required to own firearms
there are no assault weapons laws
texans can carry concealed weapons if they have a permit
with no training or educational classes required
Most states are the same – trapped in oblivion
It takes 1,000 hours of training to be a yoga instructor
to buy a gun in most states no training is required
In most states there is a limit to the amount of Sudafed
you can purchase but no limit on guns and ammunition
The shooter in Aurora, Colorado was able to purchase
6,000 rounds of ammunition online without any question
The Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act of 2015
which required face to face purchases of ammunition,
licensing of ammunition dealers, and reporting regarding
bulk purchases of ammunition would have prevented this
purchase of 6,000 rounds but it was killed by Republicans,
the NRA, and its merry band of cynical lobbyist-whores
This is suicide on a national scale
Americans are killing themselves
with more and more frequency
Where is the unrelenting national outrage?
where are the pounding national protests?
Where are the demands for investigations into the profits
of the NRA and the gun and ammunition manufacturers
This is all BLOOD MONEY profits made on the corpses
of delusional and catastrophically misinformed Americans
What is more sacred the Second Amendment or human life
what does the meaning of freedom mean when you are dead
The statistics noted here were taken from the Brave New Films documentary, “MAKING A KILLING: Guns, Greed, and the NRA.”
To find out more, please visit www.bravenewfilms.org
Copyright © Barry Levy | Year Posted 2016
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Barry Levy Poem
ego go away
take a peach from the tree
and kneel beside me
Copyright © Barry Levy | Year Posted 2016
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Barry Levy Poem
Things confuse me easily these days
it might be age or some kind of rare
oncoming dementia preparing me for
a difficult but joyous passage of elder
time fulfilling my wildest dreams or perhaps
a period of prolonged revelation of prophecies
and keys that I alone will possess and heads
of State and ministers and elegant dignitaries
will stand in line to have an audience with me
just to have the good
fortune of hearing a
few pearls of wisdom
that will completely change
their perceptions and ways of thinking about
governing irritated populations that will make
them realize that harmony amongst all the peoples
of the world is a great and simple thing a kind of Babel in reverse and that the hunger for power for conquest and for control is a long and twisted journey over too many broken bodies of thought too many centuries down dark and lonely roads
with no demarcations or clues
no sacrificial boundaries and a
wasted expense of Capital on tanks and rockets and plutonium and the building up of armies instead of cultivating an educated and healthy populace capable of enjoying their lives and nature without destroying it and each other
and that pointing fingers
and screaming and filling valleys and neighborhoods with rivers of blood and lifeless bodies old and young is much less profitable and will prove over the long haul that the myriad unknowns and commonalities and fears we all share are far less destructive than the surface disparities that somehow always manage to turn into declarations of aggression and oppression and the bankrupting of moralities and policies and families…
or maybe it has to do with my
not getting enough sleep last night
or something to do with changes in my
eating habits or the climate or a reaction
to the round-the-clock radio waves
that surround us all
Copyright © Barry Levy | Year Posted 2016
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Barry Levy Poem
lazy sparrow
alone
with broken wing
why don't you sing?
Copyright © Barry Levy | Year Posted 2016
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