Lady Liberty

 LADY LIBERTY

We're dismantling Lady Liberty today.

            We're shipping her back to France.

She's just too much in our way,

            And we can't take a chance.

                        **********

Look at those pages in her hand.

            The date is that of the Declaration.

It proclaims equality in this land

            For all, throughout the nation.

                        **********

Can't have any of that.

            Not in this land of the free.

No real American proclaims that as fact.

            The real truth is plain to see.

                        **********

Some are more equal than others.

            Some are born to run this country.

Some are born from the right mothers.

            Some rule in this land of the free.

                        **********

She welcomes people of all classes.

            And that poem at her base?

"Give me your huddles masses,"

            No matter the race.

                        **********

We want none of that here.

            No welcoming the tired and the poor,

No welcoming riffraff from far and near,

            No welcoming just anyone in the door.

                        **********

And she's standing on broken chains,

            Standing on shattered shackles.

That really gives us pains,

            That raises our hackles.

                        **********

Those chains keep people in their places.

            Shackles are useful tools.

They keep down those unwelcome races,

            They keep down all those fools.

                        **********

So, she's just too much trouble.

            No more of this "Mother of Exiles."

We were going to reduce her to rubble,

            Then those weeping Francophiles

                        **********

Said, "Ship her back to France."

            So we're dismantling her today.

We just can't take the chance

            That she'd get in our way.

Teach the People

 TEACH THE PEOPLE

Teach the people and you'll never get rich;

            You'll live like a beggar

                        And die in a ditch.

                        **********

For the rich flourish like weeds in the Spring,

            And all your knowledge

                        Don't mean a thing.

The Last Leaf

 THE LAST LEAF

"No Italians now out in our park,"

            Tony said to me slowly and sadly.

"It's not like the old days, now it's all dark,

            Dark days ahead, as far as I see."

                        **********

I nodded and I had to agree.

            I remembered it was such a lark,

Old days when our park was the place to be.

            Now our park, our park was all dark.

                        **********

In the old days we'd sit with Bruno and Ida,

            They'd tell tall tales of Old Country,

Of bountiful orchards in their Ateleta,

            Of vineyards as far as eyes could see.

                        **********

"Remember when Bruno drove his full van

            Way into our park?" said Tony.

"He took out his grill and then had to stand

            Grilling for the whole family?

                        **********

And Maria sang an Italian song

            That day in our park?

And we all joined in and we all sang along,

            And we all danced until it was dark?

                        **********

Those days are long gone," Tony then sighed.

            "Nobody's left but me, and now you."

Tony fell silent and he almost cried.

            I wondered what I should say or do.

                        **********

"But we're still here," I said hopefully.

            "We remember the days in our park."

"Yes," said Tony, a bit wistfully,

            "But no Italians now out in our park."

Passing By

PASSING BY

In Ancient Greece one day

            A young swain happened to spy

His lover, where she lay

            In the hot embrace of another guy.

                        **********

He later confronted his errant lover,

            Saying, "I saw him lay you on the sod

And ravish you there in the clover!"

            "Yes," she said, "He was just a passing god."

Instagram Blues

 INSTAGRAM BLUES

Instagram, everyone said,

            Was what you need

If you want to get ahead,

            If you want to succeed.

            **********

So I created an Instagram account,

            Sure I'd get ahead,

Of that there was no doubt,

            That's what the people said.

            **********

But before I could post

            A single word on my account,

Instagram told me I was toast,

            Told me I was out.

            **********

"Community standards," Instagram said,

            I had violated them in some bad way.

I had to scratch my head,

            I wasn't even gay!

            **********

So my account it suspended,

            Of that there was no doubt,

And my great career ended.

            The day I started, I was out.

Singular or Plural?

 SINGULAR OR PLURAL?

"The United States of America."

Is that singular or plural?

The United States "is,"

Or the United States "are"?

E Pluribus Unum.

Out of many, one.

Really?

We fought a revolution

For the freedom of some

In a land that denied freedom for others.

We are a nation of immigrants

That hates immigrants.

We herd the "huddled masses

Yearning to breathe free"

Into an Alligator Alcatraz,

The American Dream

Become the American Nightmare.

Out of many, one?

Really?

When it's

South against North,

Whites against Blacks,

Bosses against unions,

Heartland against the Coasts,

Red states against Blue states,

Us against Them?

Is it singular,

Or is it plural?

I want to know.

Ghosts in the Machine

 GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE

I am surrounded by ghosts.

            Old friends,

                        Old comrades,

                                    Old lovers.

Once they posted daily about

            Their lives,

                        Their loves,

                                    Their sufferings.

But years ago

            They crossed over the rainbow.

Yet, they are still here,

            Living their life beyond life

                        In the world wide web.

They cannot be exorcised.

            Once in the web,

                        Always in the web.

How long will they continue

            As ghosts in the machine,

                        Haunting the web,

                                    Haunting me?

They keep multiplying,

            Crowding around.

They are waiting for me to join them.