No More

 NO MORE

The end of my life

Came with the end of her life.

No more need be said.

The Marcher

 THE MARCHER

She began marching as a girl.

            There was so much to march for or against.

There was nuclear weapons testing,

            There was the Vietnam War.

There were women's rights, gay rights,

            Native American rights, animal rights.

As she got older there was the fight the for ERA

            And a woman's right to an abortion.

There was the fight against nuclear power plants,

            Against fracking and oil pipe lines.

There was the fight against climate change.

            There was the fight for health care.

There was the fight against plant shutdowns,

            And the fight for a higher minimum wage.

Now she is an old woman,

            And she still marches,

Against Nazis, against ICE, against a power-mad

            Dictator determined to destroy democracy.

She has marched all her life,

            Because there is so much to march for,

                        Or against.

There has always been.

            And so she keeps marching.

Original Sin

 ORIGINAL SIN

Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth,

            African slaves landed at Jamestown.

After Columbus destroyed the Caribbean,

            African slaves replaced the natives.

After America abolished slavery,

            Slavery went on,

                        Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico.

Slavery is as old as Rome,

            Which felt Slavs

                        Made good slaves.

The Japanese Army

            Believed Korean women

                        Made good sex slaves.

In Africa, captured children

            Make good boy soldiers.

The powerful will always find someone,

            Weaker, smaller, younger,

                        To use and abuse.

            It is our Original Sin.

The Plague

 THE PLAGUE

There is a plague upon the land.

            It infects far and near.

It ravages the people.

            It empties the cities.

Fields ripe for the harvest groan,

            But no harvester comes.

Factories stand empty.

            Homes are abandoned.

Schools are silent.

            No one knows its source.

No one knows its cure.

            No one knows its duration.

The people cry for salvation.

            But there is no salvation.

There is only the plague upon the land.

Vernal Equinox

 VERNAL EQUINOX

The sun stands poised equally

            Between day and night.

Dark night has ruled faint day

            For many long months.

Now, for this one moment,

            The sun is in the balance.

And then the sun moves.

            Tomorrow belongs to the light,

And day will rule fading night.

                        The world rejoices.

Blood on the Snow

 BLOOD ON THE SNOW

Blood on the snow.

            The war goes on.

It doesn't matter which war.

            There are so many wars.

            ***************

Blood on the green grass.

            The war goes on.

It doesn't matter which war.

            ***************

Blood on the dry leaves.

            The war goes on.

            ***************

Blood on the snow.

St. Patrick's Day Lament

 ST. PATRICK'S DAY LAMENT

There is the promise of spring,

            But winter has not yet released

                        Its cold hand from the land.

                        **********

The daffodils were fooled.

            They lifted their yellow heads,

                        Thinking spring was here.

They were wrong.

            Now snow shrouds them

                        As it shrouds the land.

                        **********

But it is winter's last cold grasp upon the land.

            As St. Patrick drove the snakes

                        From the Emerald Isle,

So spring will soon drive winter

            From the shrouded land

And release us from its

            Last, cold, dying hand.