Ten Years

  No more shining city on the hill It’s been replaced by a golden tower It looks shiny and tall and majestic But it’s only golden not gold It’s tall but thin as a playing card And not majestic but more Like the long, endless hallway In a horror movie. No more shining city on the hill No more beacon to the world “Come, come, all are welcome” Now all are welcome is outlawed A beacon doesn’t call to us As Lady Liberty lays down her torch Replaced by tiny beams of light that Only reach an elite few

  So sad for our country  So sad for us all Those whose eyes have been glued shut And those who see past the walls So sad for tomorrow  And tomorrows that will be Those who would harm us with words and bad laws And those who refuse to bend the knee  A mad king among us Madder still those who bow Those who see the past reanimated And peek behind masks and see the monsters there now So sad for the people Who look on with chagrin The barbarians were at the gate But we let them in. 

  The Terrible Ones Are Back What will you do when the terrible ones come Rounding up people in the dark of night The woman who brings your coffee each day Wondering, waiting, living in fright. Young children open the doors to their homes Only to find they’re alone and afraid. Train cars and buses filled to the brim Off to camps about which we’d only read What will you do when the terrible ones come Rounding up neighbors, classmates, and friends Snatching workers from factory and field Crashing America so your hate can be fed

  I’ll weep with you I’ll shed a tear For this world we’ve created  Full of hate and fear Murdering children  For gods and guns Killing a brother, A father, a son. Heartbreaker  On the street, in the park. Heartbroken  In the rubble, in the dark. Massacred in the classroom Shot on the street Bombed in their beds Where angelic they sleep. Buildings razed, Cities destroyed, A hospital, a house A shop with toys. I’ll weep with you Paradise you created I’ll shed a tear for the world We’ve decimated.

  Heartbreak My heart breaks For my country Full of division and hate The propaganda machine Grinds away our shared values The cogs squeal and screech Until they break and break us My heart breaks For this world That we have created Full of fear and dispair The war machine Rockets into action The artillery bursts and blasts It destroys our towns and our hope. My heart breaks My heart bleeds For humanity The ruling class Rallies us against each other Soon forgetting why we hate each other Dehumanizing the other To justify the murder

  You think it’s politics as you sit in white suburbia and pretend there is no privilege. But while you paid to get your kids out of trouble my kids can’t afford the high falutin lawyer -- they won’t get community service or an expungement. They will become part of the system that never worked for them. You think it’s politics as you claim “blue lives matter” and pretend you respect law enforcement. But it was your friends who harassed the cops every night to the point that they came to your house and told your mom that if your brother didn’t turn himself in they wouldn’t be responsible for what happened next. Could you imagine George Floyd getting this courtesy? You think it’s politics as you profess there were “fine people on both sides.” But Nazis are not fine people and marching through a town with torches to protect the statue of a traitor . . . seriously! No participation trophies for the five year old soccer players but a participation monument to the losers of a civil war t...