10th Annual Independence Day Poem
Screed
keep your self-deprecating angst
your exhibitionistic schtick
your easy anger, your sleazy pandering
America has always been about seeing
how far one can go with a desire
(usually called “dream”) and a gun
we feel without training
it is better to be a terror
than a nuisance
hobidy-boobies
trying to scare one another
and scaring themselves
and now for our next entertainment
a long-popular farce recently out of fashion—
CIVIL WAR!
the Party of God vs the Party of Man
vs the Party of Wealth vs the Party of Hope
vs the Party of Science vs the Party of Sense
how foolish, the one who consents
to engage with a foolish society
on its own terms!
every day I celebrate the liberty
to decline
by doing so
we are untruly represented
in government and in religion
and in the opinion of those who know us
democracy makes
a better seedbed
than guardian
Labels: poetry