Independence Day

 INDEPENDENCE DAY

A day to celebrate

            The Birth of a Nation.

Let us celebrate it with

            Fireworks,

                        Grilled hot dogs,

                                    And a day off work.

Aren't they the self-evident truths declared

            In the Declaration of Independence?

Oh, it did say "All men are created equal."

But even the man who wrote that

            Didn't believe that.

He was, after all, the owner of slaves.

            They kept him in comfort

                        Down at Monticello.

            One, at least, Sarah Hemmings,

                        Even gave him a few babies.

            Not that he acknowledged those

                        Dark-skinned offspring.

So, certainly the Declaration didn't declare

            That dark-skinned men were equal.

Nor, for that matter,

            Red men,

                        Chinamen,

Any men at all except white men.

            Who owned property,

                        Don't forget that.

And don't get me started about women.

            None of them thought women were

                        Created equal to men.

They meant it when they said

            "All men are created equal."

Nor, if they could have conceived of the idea,

            Were trans men,

                        Or trans women,

            Or women who liked women,

                        Or men who liked men

Created as their equals.

Come to think of it,

            God created very few as their equals.

Not the Mexican coming over the border.

            Not those dark-skinned ones

                        Out of the Caribbean.

Not those who didn't have the good sense

            To be born to wealth.

That's not what that phrase meant.

            That's not what those men meant.

And so, by God, under God, trusting in God,

            We will make sure

The Birth of a Nation

            We celebrate today

Remains a good ol' American holiday

For all honest-to-God real Americans

            Of the right color,

                        The right sex,

            And the right net worth.

Endless Summer

ENDLESS SUMMER

Summer -- erasing memories of winters past,

            Memories of ice, sleet, and snow.

Summer -- burning heat and vast

            Deserts no matter where you go.

            **********

Hot -- enough to burn your feet,

            Enough to burn your legs.

Hot -- enough on the street

            To scramble eggs.

            **********

Sun -- a blazing furnace in the sky,

            Fire without sound.

Sun -- turning the world dry,

            Burning the thirsty ground.

            **********

Thirst -- and dry lips, ragged breath,

            Parched throat, and bleary eyes.

Thirst -- and the fear of a heat death

            Under cloudless skies.

            **********

Mercy -- not from this fiery sun,

            Not this bummer.

Mercy -- there is none.

            There is only endless summer.

Whisper in My Ear

 WHISPER IN MY EAR

Come, Muse, and whisper in my ear.

Whisper of things I fear to hear.

Whisper of things I don't know I know,

Whisper of the unknown future,

Whisper of the ancient past,

Whisper of secret things lost and found,

Whisper of things that last.

            **********

I await you faithfully.

I believe you will come.

You are like Tinker Bell,

If I believe you will live,

You will live.

If I believe you will come,

You will come.

            **********

It is that leap of faith

Into the dark unknown

That I take,

Falling, falling, falling,

With the faith

That you will be there,

That you will catch me as I fall,

That you will whisper in my ear.

And my faith makes it so.

Ignorance is Strength

 IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

First, we corrupt the words.

No one knows what the words mean, anyway.

They think they do.

They laugh when Buzz Lightyear shouts

            That he wants to go beyond infinity.

As if were possible to go beyond what is

            Already unlimited and boundless.

But then they say "penultimate"

            When they want to go beyond

            What is already ultimate,

                    Final, uttermost,

                            Last in the sequence.

No one knows what the words mean, anyway.

"In one fell swoop," they say when they

            Leap instantly to victory and success,

                        Not knowing what they say,

Not knowing how cruel, awful,

            And destructive a "fell" swoop is.

But doesn't that "beg the question?"

            That question doesn't make sense,

                        But then,

No one knows what that means, anyway.

            They think they do,

                        But they don't.

                                    That's our secret.

So the phrases, the words, mean whatever

            We we want them to mean.

Didn't Humpty Dumpty say that?

Or was it the hookah-smoking caterpillar?

It doesn't matter.

It was whoever we say it was.

So we can say, "Hey, kids!

            Let's Make America Great Again!"

Meaning, "Hey, kids!

            Let's Make America Hate Again!"

But they won't know that because

No one knows what the words mean, anyway.

So let us say:

War is Peace.

Freedom is Slavery.

Ignorance is Strength.

It doesn't matter what we say, because

No one knows what the words mean, anyway.

Crossing The Border

 CROSSING THE BORDER

Once, it was their home.

Santa Cruz, their sacred cross.

Santa Fe, their sacred faith.

San Jose,

San Pedro,

San Diego,

San Antonio,

San Francisco

And Santa Ana,

            Their sacred saints.

El Centro and El Paso,

Las Vegas and Las Cruces,

            Los Alamos and Los Angeles,

                    Their city of the angels.

California, a far fabled land

            On their ancient maps.

Mesas, their tabletop buttes,

Sierras, their snow capped mountains,

Colorado, their red land,

            Colorado, their red river,

New Mexico, not Old Mexico.

Once, it was their home.

            **********

Now it is a foreign land.

Now they must cross the border

And leave their bones in the desert,

Their skulls under a blazing sun,

In their long trek to return home.

Still Life

 STILL LIFE

Still life on the lawn.

Ornamental brown bunny.

Fast fled as I neared.

The Scars They Kept

THE SCARS THEY KEPT

They followed him into Asia.

There he cut the Gordian Knot

And said he'd kill the King of Persia,

And so for that they fought.

            **********

They fought their way down the coast.

It took them a year to conquer Tyre,

But at last they could boast

They had won the land entire.

            **********

Next they took Egypt for him,

And they paused there for a time.

Then, on a whim,

He proclaimed himself divine.

            **********

But all of Persia still remained,

So they marched on to the Tygris.

There they hard campaigned

And there they beat King Darius.

            **********

They took his royal city,

They slaughtered all they found,

They looted without pity,

They burned it to the ground.

            **********

The King fled to the wilderness,

But they chased him without rest.

They were all relentless

In their royal quest.

            **********

They slew him in the heart of Asia,

Thinking that would end the war.

They had conquered all of Persia,

But Alexander wanted more.

            **********

So they conquered yet another land,

In yet another war.

Today it's Afghanistan.

But Alexander wanted more.

            **********

So they marched on to the Indus

In yet another war.

But, to satisfy his lust,

Alexander wanted more.

            **********

Alexander wanted India and yet another war.

He wanted all of China, all that he could see,

He wanted so much more,

Even, perhaps, the sea.

            **********

But they wanted no more war,

They wanted to go home.

They wanted nothing more,

He could fight the rest alone.

            **********

And as they turned and left for home,

With all the scars they kept,

Alexander stood alone,

And Alexander wept.