An imperfect union
2020 has been a summer unlike any other,
tougher for all of our sisters and brothers,
both white, and of all beautiful colors.
Far too many full of heartache and pain,
far too many friends unlawfully slain.
Bigotry and hate, protests, and riots,
Spouting from anger and uprises
caused by leadership leading fleetingly,
only when it’s far too late.
So here are some words, a first attempt at prose,
from a soon-to-be, obviously, poet-non-pro,
deeply concerned, cis-male,
who’s hetero.
Here to tell a tale already often told.
I’m the very face of those,
from whom oppression so often flows.
So, here’s one of my humble goals:
to apply pressure,
not leisure,
to the powers of those,
blessed with privilege,
long-saved from the spotlight’s visage,
cloaked in the robes of our legislative “pros”
working to subvert so many of the hopes,
found in our nation’s very mission.
I seek only to serve, to proclaim,
the words of so many others,
frustrated just the same,
as you and me.
I seek no fame,
won’t offer my name,
for this isn’t for me, or just mine.
Still I’ll use my mind and some rhymes to give voice,
to those empowered with a civic choice,
to vote out Trump and let liberty rejoice.
As we tear down these macabre monuments,
to the very evil men and their emoluments,
of a nation born from slavery and unjust bondage.
We must not fail, this fall,
to oust those who respond to change’s call,
with anger, those not seeking to progress,
who would rather just build a wall,
a wall which actually, in this pandemic,
imprisons us all.
My voice is not unique,
my arguments unoriginal,
but my brothers’ voices have been treated
as though their message of equality is subliminal,
or worse yet, even treated as criminal.
I offer these words,
sharpened as swords,
thrust to the hearts of those,
who would see our nation boarded,
closing our borders out of ignorance and fear.
If this white guy writes it,
more ears may hear,
that it’s high time,
for Trump’s crimes,
to be jeered,
not revered.
May his terror come to an end this year.
What happened to this country,
this often proclaimed, sacred place?
Such a fast descent,
by a nation once famous,
for being the epitome of decent!
I was graced to be a
person to loudly praise,
a flag we once proudly raised.
Yet I find my ability to feel pride these days,
lost in the crazed haze of an unending maze,
I’m amazed!
That one administration could annihilate,
wipe clean, what once was etched-in-slate,
opposed to bigotry and the idiocy of hate.
A nation once held as the world’s standard,
our idiotic elected grandstander,
feigns to be patriotic,
now pleased to see our good name slandered.
He’s idiotic.
Yet he’s allowed to keep pandering,
with his ill-informed clamoring,
words fired through twitter rants,
like munitions, his answers,
shot from poorly-aimed panzers,
always missing the mark,
with his every childish remark.
How is a narcissistic man,
with toxic insecurity,
somehow in charge,
of our national security?
He’s best friends with our enemies,
insulting foreign dignitaries,
unhidden, unmitigated glee,
In his unceasing, dictator-loving tweets.
Can we survive a longer regime?
Sorry, candidacy,
excuse me.
The thought of four more years?
Insane. Lunacy.
His qualities elude me.
Let’s vote as though,
we know,
it’s life and death,
not right and left,
Come from high,
with pride,
to legally, loudly reply,
NO.
To this despot wannabe,
And all his policies.
Let’s delight in,
and ignite this,
fight for the right,
of minorities and whites,
to sleep safely at night,
without the fear to die,
by the guns of guys,
with flashlights,
silhouetted by blue, red, and white,
flashing lights.
Our founders,
flawed as they were,
fought to write, in our laws,
to create and ensure
the right of a free press,
free people, from censure.
Let’s venture,
to make sure Trump,
sees due process.
For crimes,
of which he and his crew are fraught with.
When justice finds just causes,
May they rot quick.
We’ve got this!
Imperfect is our history.
Slavery.
Misery.
Idylatry.
All sins sold under the guises,
of promises of free commerce.
of equality, and progress.
For a party whose,
platform swears,
they’re rooted in “family values,”
there’s sure a lot of jack-booted,
attacks “reforming” a family’s value...
What child thrives,
where friends’ lost lives,
remain on their minds,
more than nine times nine?
What test can measure,
the propensity for infants,
who grow up bearing witness,
to a nation still plagued by instants,
where the dispensation of value,
to the lives of its very own citizens,
is called into question,
subservient to what’s best for businesses?
Do all lives truly matter to all you guys,
if the words “Black Lives Matter,”
is still treated as idle chatter,
by the privileged whites,
with sharpened knives to grow fatter,
off foods they serve from shiny silver platters?
Not sure about you,
but I’d certainly rather,
reexamine the sadder,
realities of this ideal world,
we’re all supposedly after.
If all lives matter,
why is it so often that,
the lives of non-whites are stolen,
by preventable, tragic blood splatter?
If all lives matter,
where are our
Make America Safe Again
face masks?
We should act fast!
So why no calls to wear them?
How can protecting others scare them?
What about healthcare as a right
for all, not just those with the right
combination of employment rights?
How can you find enjoyment in spite?
How is it some Americans
don’t want to help you,
only them, only me?
If we are all healthy,
wouldn’t that make us all more wealthy?
The benefits are obvious, not stealthy.
Too expensive they interjected?
Imagine the extent of all our successes,
when even our very poorest are healthy, fed, protected.
Imagine taxing to heal wounds,
and cure diseases,
not just bombing homes of anyone our nation pleases.
Think of the incentive
to return to being inventive
and progressive,
instead of racially regressive,
and factually repressive.
An “us” led by intellect,
and mutual respect,
not a nation poorly led by a rapist,
with low intellect,
obsessively bent on committing incest?
Change is uncomfortable, I’ll admit it,
but only when it’s not
by all of us, sought.
How can you not be committed?
Our destiny lies not in honoring our past atrocities,
but in supporting the youth, the futures of
our inner cities.
Red lines drawn on white papers,
by white banks,
defunding peoples’ dreams,
with perpetuities?
No thanks.
Stealing fathers from families,
for minor transactions,
in a war on drugs
with no clear factions,
I wonder who I would be,
if this government and its agencies,
not my mother and father, raised me?
So in the votes we make this fall;
if we survive this pandemic,
will we lead a globally resurgent economy,
or just build a wall?
Our destiny calls.
Do we fight for our values,
stand tall, return impressive,
or bend to the whims,
of Russia’s favorite operative/submissive?
Tired of negative press?
Same.
Tired of old arguments
screamed by new generations?
Same.
Solution?
It goes by many names.
A Congress,
non-factioned,
ran by compromise and compassion,
lost in translation, this nation
has lost sight of a government led in this fashion.
It is now our choice whether to embrace the pace
of this status quo approach
or to eradicate those,
who would choose to placate
the fragile ego
of a twitter-happy child of a man
from an old, failed TV show.
All it takes is casting a vote against bigotry.
False Christianity.
Unfairly privileged diplomatic immunity
for criminality that’s lasted too long
in too many communities.
Dump Trump. Please.
Enjoy the release
that can only come
when all, not some
can freely breathe with ease,
not fearing the hate-filled knees
too often pressed into their necks
while all the world sees.
A world which so far, has failed to cease
the president’s support of mentalities
that feed into these
constant acts of depravity.
Trump misleads the masses,
every time he holds a mass
on the altar of a mass grave
of our continent’s natives.
Justice for them, too long belated.
Change a racist football team’s name?
This argument is so insane,
it shouldn’t have to even be made,
yet the value of a change
eludes Trump’s brain.
Let’s find solutions and climb higher.
We can inspire
generations mired
in mediocrity,
to return the USA to a state of global veneration.
Flawed as our founding fathers were,
they wrote down an adequate foundation,
solid enough to create a united, brave nation
that was wise enough to never be satisfied,
with the laws which it originally,
never perpetually,
ratified.
Black lives matter doesn’t mean white lives don’t.
Our history is more than slavery and oppressions,
But in unintentionally erasing
or maliciously misplacing
all our hard-learned lessons,
we have forgotten to fear the transgressions
of those who might
wear all white,
hidden faces under hoods,
proclaiming their might
in the night
to bomb churches of those who don’t look exactly like
“their” like.
Regression is infectious
to a foolish populace.
We can be better together,
now more than ever.
Policies to the contrary
cannot return us
to being seen as visionary,
exemplary or just.
Progress may cost us,
but it’s worth every cent,
to end the recent trend
of descending towards idiocracy.
When there’s hope, we should freely offer it,
while Trump would just seek to profit off of it.
His coffers?
They’re coffins
full of debts delayed,
or outright unpaid.
So wholly is he depraved!
A bankrupt conscience is becoming of him,
just as our nation of many languages
languishes with poisoned veins,
direct injections of the insane,
coming from his MAGA hatted-campaigns.
We live in unprecedented times,
led by a man guilty of unpresidential crimes,
over multiple times.
Still some wonder why our response to COVID has been
so criminally negligent at every non-step by this has-been?
We will only find
the answers we seek
in the eyes,
hearts and minds
of each other,
not in the lines
in the tomes from guys,
famous for supporting
the enslaved lives of
who they saw as “others.”
We cannot be scared to find
within ourselves the immense potential in all of us.
For it is this fear that would blind
our minds with small distractions.
We can no longer accept these small retractions
by weak politicians who lie in speeches,
to justify Trump’s evils
when he preaches
to the far right,
their tiki torches alight in moonlight.
He slanders simple truths,
for this we should force him to retire
this very hour of our nation’s need, most dire.
In spite of the lies from the right
of the “might”
of our healthcare system,
we should rise and despise
this common enemy,
slaughtering our sons and daughters
indiscriminately.
Where’s coronavirus’ vaccine?
Or will we sink to and accept
our fragility
under the Nazi war eagle-like wings
of Trump and his cabinet of imbecility?
Will we support science’s progress,
doctors, masks, common sense,
cleanliness and unbiased reason?
Or will you continue to be party to a misinformed,
incoherent man’s opinion,
and help him to keep carrying out his treason?
Will we succumb to those abhorrent qualities
of the absolute worst of our nation’s presidency?
Or will we give the world a memorable November,
a turning point in history that will forever be remembered?
Will we grow stronger and come together,
or stand ignorantly apart?
Will you vote for a failed party,
or vote to save this nation’s heart?
Sincerely signed,
The troubled mind of a severely concerned, deeply privileged citizen of a red state in our nation.