Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers (Crys Matthews)

Happy New Year!  

Forgive me, friends... for my lost concentration; it has been three months since my last blog post (channeling my inner rebellious Catholic schoolgirl).  No excuses, but valid reasons.  

At the one-year mark of Eric's passing, the tree dedication… part of me thought it would be tied up neatly with a bow, as we had cycled through all the Firsts (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Eric’s birthday, etc.).  Silly Me.  The holidays rolled around… again… and I realized the Seconds were just as hard.  I learned that, if decorating evokes pain, a holiday wreath and doormat will do (they did).  Maybe even a holiday mug.  Or not.  If traditions are triggering, I can make new ones.  Or not.  There is a fine line between remembering and suffering… and there is no timeline on healing.  Trying to (continue to) be gentle with myself.

I still have days when the thought of him makes my heart literally ache… when I can’t manage to get a deep breath… when I refuse to leave the comfort of my home.  I worry that I am developing a severe case of Agoraphobia, yet a few things motivate me:  Garden Day, dinner with a dear friend, a library run (ha!)... and others have me seriously weighing the options of many events which, in the past, would have me jumping at the opportunity.  sigh...

One tradition I hope to always follow through on (my first being January 2008):

Inspired by Beth Weaver-Kreider's poem below, as well as the powerful song by Crys Matthews, my Word(s) of the Year are (Love) Revolution, on a political level as well as in my personal interactions... 💥✌💜

We have less than a week until Inauguration Day (Monday January 20, 2025), and I am taking advantage of the calm before the storm, not naive enough to think there aren't many proposed changes on the horizon, most of them for the worst.  It is horrifying the nation chose Trump as our next/new leader (and when are we going to fix that broken Electoral College process?!?).

I am not one to finger-point nor name-call nor disparage, I very much subscribe to Lincoln's 1860 philosophy of “have faith that right makes might.", and I am fully prepared to do whatever it takes to fight back from a place of peaceful protest/non-violent demonstrations.  My days of standing on street corners and marching through the public streets are not over.  I even gave my daughter Sarah her own pussy hat for Christmas.  Love Revolution.  Both/And.  Just. Do. It... 💘

From Crys:

This was created from six very specific muses -- my mom, Michelle Obama, Nelson Mandela, Rita Mae Brown, Julia Ward Howe, and Eva Cassidy (via Curtis Mayfield.)

After the outcome of the 2016 election, I was floored. I am an out, black, lesbian woman living in the south (although, thankfully not in the 'deep' south). I was terrified, which made me angry. My mom reminded me that she has seen many presidents come and go in her lifetime and is still standing. Love and faith guide her and that, she reminded me, should guide me. 

"An army of lovers shall not fail" is a Rita Mae Brown quote that has come to mean a great deal to me. It's really just an amazingly beautiful sentiment that doesn't really need much context beyond that. 

"When they go low, we go high" as famously spoken by Michelle Obama has become my mantra going in to 2017 and will be something I will try every day to embody during the next four years. 

Nelson Mandela very eloquently said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” 

The song People Get Ready was written by Curtis Mayfield. Released in 1965, the song's meaning was amplified by the climate in America during the civil rights movement. Eva Cassidy's cover of it has always resonated with me. 

And last, but not least, which leads me to the title of the song... Julia Ward Howe is the woman who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic (aka Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory). Later she was a suffragette. She wrote, "let us live to make men free". 

I thought, if these few principles could guide our government and our citizens we might all make it to 2020 in one piece (and maybe even in peace). And so, I give you my Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers... 

v1. Change is coming once again,

except this time it feels like the world's about to end.

White-robed devil's in plain sight,

angry protests in the streets night after night,

and it weighs heavy on my mind.

Why are we so quick to run backwards after all this time?

But I won't let it change my heart.

I was born full of love and hope and, when I die, that's how I'll depart.

Ch. And when you find yourself 

incapable of seeing eye to eye

Remember: when they go low, 

we go high.

v2. Change is coming — that's for sure.

We gave a madman all the keys and let him walk right in the door. 

And I don't think he'll see the light,

until the whole world is on fire, but that's alright.

We will still be here when he's gone,

and if it doesn't kill us all, well it sure will make us strong.

Don't let four years change your heart!

We are not born hating each other -- now is not the time to start.

Ch. And when you find yourself 

incapable of seeing eye to eye

Remember: when they go low, 

we go high.

Bridge: There's a song penned for soldiers --

it says, "let us live to make men free."

We're all sisters.

We're all brothers.

Standing on each others' shoulders

there's no wall we cannot scale.

We are an army of lovers,

and we shall not fail.

Ch. So when you find yourself 

incapable of seeing eye to eye

Remember: when they go low, 

we go high.

SONG:  Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers by Crys Matthews

BOOK:  See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur

POEM(S):  Walking Through the Gateway of Another Year by Beth Weaver-Kreider

Let’s call them New Year’s Revolutions

or Re-Solutions

or Revelations

or Re-evaluations.

Change. Progress.

Uncovering. Assessing.

In the coming year, I resolve to re-solve

my problems and issues every day,

not just on this morning.

For every morning is the morning

of a whole new year,

a bright blank page

in which any thing

can be a new thing.

Let every moment be a moment like now,

when the newborn sun shines

over the ridge

onto the scarlet breast

of a cardinal,

and the eye

for a moment sees nothing

but sparkling red.

The Alternative New Year List by Dr. Lynne Sedgmore

Here Now

As you begin another year 

Pause

Remember 

Who it is your heart beats wildly for, and why

How lightness and joy fill every fibre of your being

How to laugh with no restraint 

How to serve those less fortunate

How to care for Mother Earth 

Here Now

As you begin another year 

Act

Tell everyone you love how beautiful they are 

Dance with bare feet and feel the wind upon your face

Find a friend and giggle together until it hurts

Give a random act of kindness to someone in struggle or loss

Find another way to combat climate change

Here Now

As you begin another year 

Self-care

See your own beauty and celebrate yourself 

Speak your gratitude for all the blessings you receive

Laugh out loud into a genuine belly laugh

Treat your body to a massage, tend to your own needs

Walk barefoot on the land feeling nature’s nourishment 

Here Now

As you begin another year 

Be 

Stop and stare, be still and listen every day

Enact an enlivening body prayer with gratitude and grace

Begin laugh yoga

Pray and light a candle for anyone in need

Live more in tune with nature’s beauty and Her beating heart

QUOTE(S):  "Most optimists are not born that way. They are created. When the world asked them to harden, they softened. When they experienced pain, they vowed not to give that pain to others. When they understood the lineage of trauma, they healed instead of continuing the pattern. Optimists are not people who have never had a hard day or a hard season or a collection of hard years. Optimists are those that have walked through the fire and decided that love, hope, resiliency, and compassion are lighter to carry. For most people, their optimism is hard-won. Fought for. An act of brave resistance in a harsh, demanding, chaotic world." ~ Jamie Varon

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” ~ Desmond Tutu

"Love is the most powerful force in the world. If people tell you that the opposite of love is fear, it is not so. Love just is. Love has no opposite. Remember that, dear one. Love has no opposite. Love just is. It is the answer to everything. Everything." ~ Dolores Cannon

"Truth and love have been smacked down, so many more times in history before today. Truth, because it’s often inconvenient, and love because it is vulnerable.

But truth is like gravity, and carbon, and the sun behind an eclipse: it’s still there. And love stays alive if you tend it like a flame. If you feel crushed by unkindness today, it’s a time for grieving, reaching out to loved ones, noticing one bright color somewhere in the day. Remembering what there is to love. Starting with the immediate, the place and people we can tend ourselves, and make safe. We can’t save everything all at once, but it’s still worth saving something. Because there are so many of us to do it.

And we are all still here today, exactly as we were yesterday. Like gravity, and carbon, and the sun behind an eclipse." ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers (Crys Matthews)

Demonstrators Hold Reproductive Rights Rallies in South Florida Saturday:  The protests come after a controversial new bill was filed in the Florida state legislature that would make it illegal for a doctor to perform an abortion if there’s a detectable heartbeat

This past Saturday (October 2), Nancy and I attended the March for Reproductive Freedom in Ft. Lauderdale (one of over 600 around the country!); I dumped out my Jar o' Buttons, collected over the last four decades, and affixed the Choice ones to my backpack (photo above), and I posted the following to their Facebook page:

Kudos to Jasmen and Emma, and everyone who volunteered, organized, and showed up! I am 67 years old, in the I Can't Believe I'm Still Protesting This Sh*t demographic. I have attended many local marches over the last four decades, as well as crossed state lines (Washington DC in April 2004!), and I was delightfully impressed yesterday, not only with the turn-out but also the number of *young* women, and many men. This *is* what democracy looks like... ✌

The speakers were motivational (Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Nikki Fried, among many others), the signs creative (Pumpkin and Spice and Reproductive Rights!), and there were even female internal organs crafted from pool noodles (which I called The Sisterhood of the Traveling Uterus!).

The march, under blue South Florida skies, was powerful as well as joyful; I forgot how good it felt to stop traffic! And those chants: "hey, hey ho ho, Ron DeSantis has to go" and "What do we want? CHOICE! When do we want it? NOW!"

What a fabulous day of empowerment and inspiration. I *am* tired of fighting, but I will continue to until we have Justice and Peace. "Ain’t no power like the power of the people cuz the power of the people don’t stop (Say what!)" indeed... ❤

SONG:  Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers by Crys Matthews

BOOK:  The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy

POEM:  Sticky by Kaitlin Shetler

give me the faith 

of a child

where i question everything

and take no shit 

give me the heart 

of a child 

where my passions 

keep me up talking 

way past my bedtime 

i want to be 

earnest 

eager

and electric

exhausting my detractors 

exploding expectations in favor

of my imagination 

i want to be 

brutally honest

and sticky 

unashamed of 

my hobbies

and my body 

let the little children

come with

candor 

and challenge 

and let me follow 

them

give me the faith 

of a child

where if it doesn’t 

make sense

i can just walk away 

and mud doesn’t scare

me

and perfection 

doesn’t chase me

and dreams don’t

defy me

give me the faith

of a child

and let me fight 

monsters 

with just the power

of being 

me

QUOTE:  “And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.” ~ Libba Bray

Talkin' Bout a Revolution (Tracy Chapman)

[thanks to Judi for this amazing graphic!]

Today is Tuesday, November 3:  Election Day!  I was awakened this morning at 7 a.m. by a series of enthusiastic dings from a political text thread my daughter created, so I just got out of bed, poured a cup of coffee, and joined in the fun... 😍

I managed not to post at all last week... mostly due to stress and anxiety about today's results.  I've not been able to watch much news during this Trump administration.  Just hearing his voice and/or his lies throw me into an emotional tailspin.  Tuned into MSNBC for ten minutes the other night, Steve Kornacki was walking through a What If of what it would take for Trump to get to 270, and my stomach began roiling, and hasn't stopped since.  I am trying so hard to visualize an election where the people have spoken resoundingly on the side of Justice and Equality.  Optimism is my default mechanism.

Even if we win the election (and I firmly believe we will!), there will be repercussions and the potential for violence.  When even Walmart stops selling guns and ammunition for a few weeks, you know there is a problem.  And the incident with the Biden-Harris tour bus in Texas is horrifying.  These people (and you know how I mean that) will stop at nothing over the next few months to continue their agenda of hate and deception, which will lead to more deaths, coronavirus and otherwise.  I ask myself:  "why aren't they looking out for their own children's and grandchildren's futures?".  I love that Obama is out there stumping for Biden; I truly think it will help, but it does make me melancholy for what we had and what we lost.  

Things You Never Thought You'd See in Your Own Country for $500 please, Alex.  So many improprieties (bots and hacking and gerrymandering) in 2016, and we acceded and regrouped and tried to move forward, and it's only gotten worse.  I believe in Fairness, and I have been consistently proven wrong these last four years.  Hey, I know it can't be Camelot, but I am weary of Hadestown.

Hitting Publish, going out walking, attending my weekly Tuesday 11 a.m. Zoom call with Nancy and Judi, then headed to vote (actually here in my own condo complex).  As the old protest song goes:  "one and one and fifty make a million".  There *will* be cause for celebration tonight.  May it be so.  Ooooommmm... ॐ

Penzeys Spices does it again... 

What if Today's the Day You Admitted to Yourself You're No Longer a Republican

 

It’s been four years now. You know this is not going to get any better. Last election you could still believe the Republican Party was your father’s Republican Party. A party of financial responsibility, small government, defending democracy, supporting our troops, respecting others, family values and even telling the truth. You now know these values are long gone. Up until now there’s been nothing you could do about it. Today that changes.

It’s been said elections have their consequences. A big part of this is who gets elected, but with each vote we also define who we are and what we stand for. Are you a serial liar? Are you a cheat? Do you really want gay friends and family members to fear for their marriages? Are you a racist? I’m pretty sure you want the answer to all of these to be a resounding no, but when your votes inflict all those things on your fellow Americans your actions speak louder than your denials. Why not have your actions match your actual values?

And it’s not just the president, it’s the party. Seriously, who's worse, the out of control leader or those elective legislators who took an oath to the Constitution and then broke it out of fear, corruption, or possibly both? At least Utah has Mitt Romney they can re-elect without shame, the rest not so much.

What to do? If you are in a spot where you feel safe to do it, I hear from customers, making the leap and telling the world the Republican Party is no longer for you can be quite exhilarating. But for those of you living more complex lives, I can see where that might be hard. If need be, maybe borrowing a page from the gay rural teen handbook and living a double life for a while is your best bet. In many ways this election is about your soul. Today who you vote for is far more important than who people think you voted for.

As of today we’ve needlessly lost over two hundred thousand Americans to the failed Republican handling of the Coronavirus. Without a change in leadership in both the White House and the Senate that number will be more than a million by this time next year. Today your vote can actually save lives. Please use it wisely.

Once we get past today’s vote, going forward your spirit is needed every bit as much as your vote. America and the world have serious issues to deal with and for many of these issues time is of the essence. You being among kindred spirits where you no longer have to hide your empathy and compassion just to fit in could lead to real difference. Come join in. Being on the good guys' side is a whole lot more fun.

NR:  The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

SONG:  Talkin' Bout a Revolution by Tracy Chapman

BOOK:  Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution by Mark Eisner and Tina Escaja (Editors), Julia Alvarez (Introduction)

POEM:  Kindness by Nikita Gill

And maybe this is how we learn the value of kindness.

When the whole world is like a small child with a fever,

trying her very best to make herself feel better.

Maybe we find our unity in the near-losing of everything.

Where we have no choice but to depend upon each other.

This is what it takes to realize we are in this together.

A man helps someone he dislikes because they are in danger.

A neighbor delivers groceries to everyone ill on her street.

Old friends forgive each other, stop acting like they are strangers.

Maybe this time, the revolution arrives dressed as kindness.

People helping each other despite their differences.

Understanding truly, that without the aid of others,

we would be all alone in this.

QUOTE:  “The best way to describe how I’m feeling right now — it’s somewhere between Christmas Eve and the night before a liver transplant.” ~ Jimmy Kimmel

It's a New Day (will.i.am)

will.i.am debuted his new song and video on the election of Barack Obama on Oprah yesterday afternoon - goosebump city... :-)

An open letter to Barack Obama from African-American writer Alice Walker:

Nov. 5, 2008

Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

I would further advise you not to take on other people’s enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, “hate the sin, but love the sinner.” There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people’s spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

A good model of how to “work with the enemy” internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Peace and Joy,
Alice Walker

P.S. Another Star Maker Machine post... :-)

SONG: It's a New Day by will.i.am

BOOK: New Day Revolution: How to Save the World in 24 Hours by Sam Davidson, Stephen Moseley

POEM: Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson

Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

QUOTE: " Sam: It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for." ~ Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

June, 1989 (Nick Annis)

From today's Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1989 that the Chinese troops stormed Beijing's Tiananmen Square to crack down on students conducting pro-democracy demonstrations. The demonstrations had begun months earlier, after the government accused them of planning a coup d'etat. They drew thousands of supporters from three dozen universities and staged hunger strikes and sit-ins. The Chinese government declared martial law, and troops approached the square with tanks in the late evening of June 3.

Ordinary workers had gathered along the nearby roads. They had been demonstrating in support of the students for weeks, and they crowded into the streets to block the advance of the tanks toward the square. Though the event would come to be called the Tianamen Square massacre, almost all the people killed were the ordinary people in the streets outside the square. Violence broke out around midnight on this day in 1989, with some people throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the troops, and the troops responding with gunfire.

The violence continued in and around the square for the rest of the day. The famous photograph of a student staring down a tank was taken by an American Associated Press photographer named Jeff Widener. He went to the top of a hotel near the square and began to take pictures of the tanks clearing the last remnants of people from the streets. Then he saw one man walk up to a tank and stand in its path, refusing to move. He took several photographs and then the man was grabbed by bystanders and pulled out of the tank's path. Widener asked another journalist to hide the film in his underwear to smuggle it out of the country.

The identity of the protester in the photograph is not known with any certainty, but he's been called one of the most influential revolutionaries of the twentieth century.

SONG: June, 1989 by Nick Annis (track 11)

BOOK: The Tiananmen Papers by Liang Zhang, Andrew J. Nathan, Perry Link, Orville Schell

POEM: Requiem (for victims of June Fourth) by Bei Dao (translated by Bonnie McDougall and Chen Maiping)

Not the living but the dead

under the doomsday-purple sky

go in groups

suffering guides forward suffering

at the end of hatred is hatred

the spring has run dry, the conflagration stretches unbroken

the road back is even further away

Not gods but the children

amid the clashing of helmets

say their prayers

mothers breed light

darkness breathes mothers

the stone rolls, the clock runs backwards

the eclipse of the sun has already taken place

Not your bodies but your souls

shall share a common birthday every year

you are all the same age

love has founded for the dead

an everlasting alliance

you embrace each other closely

in the massive register of deaths

QUOTE: "The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution in spirit, the forces which had produced inequities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance, and fear." ~ Aung San Suu Kyi

My Strange Nation (Susan Werner)

[ I was working on this blog post last night when a horrendous lightning/thunder/rain storm came through, knocking out my DSL/router - I've called my computer consultant but, since it's a holiday, told him tomorrow was fine to fix it. In the meantime, I'm up at Kinko's publishing this and the next entry - I'm going to cheat a bit and postdate this one for yesterday, since I hate to ruin my consecutive streak! ]

Given the upcoming Fourth of July holiday (and I promise to write about the "pretty" side of it tomorrow), I had a discussion the other day with some friends - the question at hand was... can change occur without a revolution? I tend to think not - I was raised to believe "if you don't fight for what you want, you deserve what you get". Civil rights and women's rights and human rights have never been handed over on a silver platter - they (continue to) take time to unfold... with reminders and demonstrations and legislation. The only people happy with the status quo are the status privileged - since the personal is the political, it's our duty to speak up and act out because, until all of us are free/equal, none of us are...

SONG: My Strange Nation by Susan Werner

BOOK: Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellion by Gloria Steinem

POEM: Patriotics by David Baker

Yesterday a little girl got slapped to death by her daddy,
out of work, alcoholic, and estranged two towns down river.
America, it's hard to get your attention politely.
America, the beautiful night is about to blow up

and the cop who brought the man down with a shot to the chops
is shaking hands, dribbling chaw across his sweaty shirt,
and pointing cars across the courthouse grass to park.
It's the Big One one more time, July the 4th,

our country's perfect holiday, so direct a metaphor for war,
we shoot off bombs, launch rockets from Drano cans,
spray the streets and neighbors' yards with the machine-gun crack
of fireworks, with rebel yells and beer. In short, we celebrate.

It's hard to believe. But so help the soul of Thomas Paine,
the entire county must be here--the acned faces of neglect,
the halter-tops and ties, the bellies, badges, beehives,
jacked-up cowboy boots, yes, the back-up singers of democracy

all gathered to brighten in unambiguous delight
when we attack the calm and pointless sky. With terrifying vigor
the whistle-stop across the river will lob its smaller arsenal
halfway back again. Some may be moved to tears.

We'll clean up fast, drive home slow, and tomorrow
get back to work, those of us with jobs, convicting the others
in the back rooms of our courts and malls--yet what
will be left of that one poor child, veteran of no war

but her family's own? The comfort of a welfare plot,
a stalk of wilting prayers? Our fathers' dreams come true as
nightmare.
So the first bomb blasts and echoes through the streets and shrubs:
red, white, and blue sparks shower down, a plague

of patriotic bugs. Our thousand eyeballs burn aglow like punks.
America, I'd swear I don't believe in you, but here I am,
and here you are, and here we stand again, agape.

QUOTE: "So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was." ~ Molly Ivins