"pushing forward back"

One of my dearest friends is a self-described/proclaimed "hippie" complete with the natural deodorant, non shaving, bra-less, happy go luck attitude. So when she gets angry it feels like someone has cast a huge shadow on the earth. I've always envied her lightheartedness. I'm not too good at being lighthearted, in fact I'm way too damn serious. So when we met for coffee recently and she sat crying about the current and future incumbent, this crazy little poem began in my head and I like to think it followed me home and said, write me damn it. OK that sounds nuts but oh well. The poem that follows was written in part for her, in part for my friends and finally, dedicated to the proud leftists who risk much to try and fight the propaganda.

Please check out the latest article on PTSD and the returning vets at: http://www.truthout.org and for a nice critique of fundamentalism check out:http://www.sickamongthepure.com/ and check out the article on the lack of separation of church and state. Also for grins, check out the Green Day song "American idiot." I haven't heard their entire c.d. but that song is cool. Surround yourself with love. Don't let them profit any further from hate. peace!




Politis

Where are the roots,
I am supposed to cut
If I am to bleed his rotted heart
From him?
I would prefer to stuff it in his mouth
Silence his too eager tongue
Leave him with the discomfort of all he is
Every lie pursed between smirking lips
And every stupid silence that betrays
An entire nation.

REFLECTION!
You want reflection?
Don't look for it from him
For his dull eyes are affixed
Asphyxiated
With dollar signs
I suppose he really is your reflection
Your FOX NEWS/700CLUB/CNN/Reality T.V.
Post-apocalyptic Would you like some fries with that crucifixion?
We've come so far in History
Can't you see?
We base our hate in sexuality
Because blatant racism is not so easy anymore.
They used to send postcards of lynchings through the mail
When it was perfectly acceptable
That a child should stand
With a chicken wing in hand
Eating and laughing along the swinging man's feet
As the first word from newborn lips
Is formed in hatred
That old language, is it really older than time?
I can give you mine
I can give you mine
You want this womb
I'll give it to you
A woman's body and gay sex
These are the oldest monsters in the closeted mind
Of the fundamentalist fascism
You call leadership
Don't
Mistake these words
For pettiness
Or bitterness
Or even bitchiness
For they are tired glimpses from eyes forced open
Forced to function in your torture happy world
Where war is peace
And rape is peace
And death is eternally driving the market up
Up and up
My fault
Is that I am TOO American
In this
Impoliteness
Too vulgar and impatient
Too mistrusting
Of authority
Tell me
Where are the roots of all this fear and wickedness?
Do they grow from the eyes of the dead corpse?
Or are they the twist ending in
Your slain and bloated tale
That you sell
As democracy:
A vision of a collective that eats its own
And denies the word "evil" and the word "responsibility"
For these do not apply to the victors in ANY war
Especially not the war for souls. No law but God's can judge
the perpetrators/crusaders and Saints ministering
to those too busy sinning to think
These are merely watchwords
In the latest gallop poll
That compares biblical pornography
and war to see
which is "quality entertainment."
To a nation of sheep
Killing for "Freedom"
And the right to rule the world
According to the Gospel
Of the one true majority.



"So when it's my time to throw the next stone
I'll call you beautiful, if I call at all."
--"Call me a dog" (Temple of the Dog)

"Fear is your only God on the radio"
--Rage (who else?) Against the Machine --"Vietnow"

"One man to five. A million men to one.
And still they die. And still the war goes on."
James Fenton (From his poem, "Cambodia")

"We lie down in the fields and leave behind
the corpses of angels."
Carolyn Forche (From her poem "Selective Service")

"But if somebody left you out on a ledge
if somebody pushed you over the edge
if somebody loved you and left you for dead
you've gotta hold on to your time and break through these times of
trouble" (Temple of the Dog "Times of Trouble")

"Coat hanger halos that don't come cheap
from television shepherds with living room sheep
and I pray, Can I be saved?
I spent all my money on a future grave
Wooden Jesus, I'll cut you in, on twenty percent of my future sin"
(Temple of the Dog "Wooden Jesus")


"I am not anti-Christian, I am anti-hypocrisy. I am anti-war. I am pro-freedom when it values every life not just those on the winning side of the war." (my friend)