… Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.
Abraham Lincoln
January 27, 1837
every day
he burns my heart
with the droolings
of his mouth
as he thumps my head
from the inside
with his brutality
all that is sacred
in the heaven of
my mind lies
desecrated
by his breath.
where is
the broad–shouldered brawn
of our democracy?
our vision of humans
embracing humans?
our freedom to grow
into whomever we are?
how did our democracy
manage to elect
the most narcissistically
insecure demagogue
in history?
how can such a man stand
on the plinth of government
of, by & for The People
with washington, jefferson,
madison, franklin, lincoln, f.d.r.
& kennedy?
what does the death
of enlightenment look
like?
i am so ashamed?
it’s true,
the market of, by & for the wealthy is
very up––
they are devouring great chunks
of the common future & basking
in amnesty.
it’s a banquet for
the very rich
where the lesser classes
are serving as the table
cloth.
our nation has survived
a year of devolution––
of smashing order for
anarchy––
of dismembering science & government––
of the reckless endangerment
of our children’s children’s future.
our ethics & our virtues are melting
like chunks of butter on a hot grill––
yet our young are rising
from a grieving place
of deepest pain––
not from reality tv
but from reality––
like sunbeams
of wild inspiration––
like an American flag
of true colors––
like a taste of the holy water
of the ohio.