Dying for Democracy (Wisconsin)

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Dying for Democracy (Wisconsin)

Determined people stand in line

Six feet apart hours on hours

Wearing masks and gloves

In rain and wind and cold

To cast their votes and

Speak their rightful minds

What price democracy? 

The highest law in the land

The justices supreme decree

Anyone who votes this day

Must gamble with their lives

What do you say?

Do you want to die today?

How much does it mean to you?

One last vote for a dying democracy

One last stand before the end

One last salute to duty

Honor and the American way

South Dakota

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South Dakota

Centuries ago invading armies threatened

Their existence with poisoned blankets

Smallpox infested gifts of the civilized tribe

The Lakota survived

In the great westward expansion

Blue coats fought native warriors

Outgunned and outnumbered

To a standstill dividing the tribes

Forced them to live on reservations

Sent them to Indian schools where

They cut out your tongues

And buried them in history books

The Lakota survived

They massacred the buffalo

To the edge of extinction

Destroyed the Lakota way of life

In every way they could

The Lakota survived

Now the white man’s government

Threatens the tribes once again

With their determined ignorance

Discarding science and medicine

Condemning all to suffer the ravages

Of a deadly pandemic

The Lakota will survive

But at what cost?

How many lives will be lost

To the white man’s folly?

Bury the Dead

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Bury the Dead

Mass graves in Central Park

Cremated remains in Lake Pontchartrain

A tribute to the heroes the survivors

And the families of the dead

The dead themselves no longer care

Pray they have passed to a better place

Though in truth we know not where

How many died in vain?

How many deaths ordained?

We must all wonder though

Few will voice the words

We let it rest

Leave it for another day

We cry we mourn we pray

But we will not ask

How many died in vain

Until the dead are put away

Until the day after we ask

Where do we bury the dead?

Silence

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Silence

Broadway at midnight in the midst

Of the great pandemic

New Orleans’ French Quarter to Jackson Square

Columbus Avenue in San Francisco

Grant Park Chicago on a Sunday afternoon

There is a silence that bears the weight

Of a planet’s worried souls

There is a sorrow deeper than the depths

Of the human heart

From stadiums in the great cities

To small town bars and restaurants

A silence descends like a curtain on

The darkest night

None dare speak its name

None dare summon its power

Take cover and hide

Quiet do not breathe

We know its name

But we will not speak it aloud

Not now

Not ever

The Great Cleansing

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The Great Cleansing

The heavens opened up her gates

And down poured the rains of Eden

To wash away all our depravities

And clean our very souls

A hundred million voices sang as one

Forgive us our misdeeds and let us live again

For we have learned our lessons and

We have paid a price in sorrow far

Greater than the seven salted seas

And the rains came down and thunder

Cracked the eternal sky

Until alas there were no more tears to cry

And every mother’s son and daughter

Knew we would survive

To breathe in joy and sorrow one more time

And everyone alive swore

On all that is sacred and pure

This time we will do it right

This time we will care for the poor

This time we will lift humanity over wealth

This time we will embrace our role

As caretakers of the earth

This time we swear

One

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One

One world one planet one path

To survive the great pandemic

And resume the human race

We’ve lived through a Great Depression

Pestilence famine plague recessions

We’ll live through this and more

And rise in a state of grace

The lesson of this tragic tale

Is simple as true things are

We are not alone on this journey

We are one of infinite stars

The Lakota in their wisdom say

We are all of us related

We share the same ancestry

And to the same end we’re fated

The motto of this nation is

From the many we are one

If we fail to heed this message

As a species we are done

The Missing Moments

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The Missing Moments

Life is a series of moments

Moments we embrace and treasure

Moments that give us pleasure

Like a precious stone to a jeweler

An image to a photographer

A revelation to the faithful

We gather our moments together

Store them in the attics of our brains

Sort them out and gaze at them

When times get rough or

We get sentimental

We like to think our moments

Belong to us like photos in a box

That can never be taken away

But time and circumstance

Like thieves in the night

Can strip them from us

Bury them or twist them till

We no longer recognize

Time and circumstance are stealing

Moments now that never happened

Welcoming a newborn babe

Into a bright and loving world

Catching a foul ball with a bare hand

Sharing a sunset in the sunset of our lives

Finding comfort in a crowd of friends

Witnessing nature in her naked glory

Basking in the warmth of family

Communing with precious friends

All the moments that might have been

Vanish with the poisoned wind

May we all create new moments

But we cannot have them back again

Normalizing the Abnormal

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Normalizing the Abnormal

Total transformation

In the flicker of flight

A dance in the darkness

With the shadows of doom

Flames jumping in glimmering light

Horrors receding on a fiendish night

A new way of living our daily lives

No bars no pubs no congregations

We exist now in isolation

A nation of loners is not a nation

We live in perpetual segregation

We walk our chosen paths alone

Observe from a distance

Converse on the phone

Interact on social media

Forever at home

We cease to be what we’ve always been

This new normal is foreign and strange

Without impulse or freedom of being

Like a marriage that’s been arranged

Six Feet Under

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Six Feet Under

By order of the government

We live in a world where

Handshakes are forbidden

Where breath can kill

Where standing too close

Could be your last act

Of defiance

No hugs no kisses

No bump of the fist

No slap on the back

No whispers in the ear

No one wants to follow the rules

But defiance now is a game of fools

Don’t get too close

Don’t huddle together

No sharing space

No matter the weather

Do not falter and do not wonder

Six feet apart or six feet under

Destination Destiny

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Destination Destiny

During the nation’s bicentennial

I lived on Manhattan Island

Busted my ass to make it there

Had my moment on the stage

Saw my name in the Village Voice

If not on the marquee lights

I wanted to make New York my home

My base of operations

A place to lay my head and toil

The center of the creative universe

The cradle of art and imagination

I remember landing in Grand Central Station

Alone with my thoughts my destination

A script in my bag dreams in my head

I wanted to belong be found be read

In the end the great metropolis refused

To share my welcome

Tossed me out like an old pair of boots

To live with the masses was not my destiny

Or was it random chance

I always wondered what might have been

What could have would have happened

Would I have thrived?

Would I be dead?

More than ever I wonder now

Where my first love might have led

The Cleansing

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The Cleansing

Toxins spread across the land

Poison seeping from poisoned minds

Wretched souls and misery

Suffering the terror of need

By the hands of greed

And the waters come down

Like a rumbling train

From a broken sky springs

A cleansing rain

A thundering storm like the gods of war

Batten down the hatches

Bar the doors

Put our hands together and pray

Wash away the tears

Wash away the rage

Wash away the horror

Wash away the waste

Let us be whole again

Give us good health

Let us have joy again

Let us feel well

When the whole world is in such sorrow

Let it rain today until tomorrow

The Chase

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The Chase

No more dawdling

No more spinning the top

No more jogging around the bend

This is where it stops

This is where the bullshit ends

You’ve been yanking my chain too long

Even when you’re right you’re wrong

People are sick and tired and dying

While you’re still singing the same old song

Now you want a war with Iran

Now you want a new war on drugs

Go home to your beloved Mar a Lago

Go bury your head in the Florida sand

Play a round of golf and make your stand

Spend time tweeting on your mobile phone

Just go your way and leave us all alone

Coronavirus Miracles

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Coronavirus Miracles

A decline in violent crimes

A spirit of giving spreads

People rally to desperate needs

Masks from upholstery

Hospitals in city centers

Hotels for the homeless

Debt forgiveness

Prepared meals

Tent cities

A million acts of generosity

For every brutal tragic death

Ordinary people understand

We’re all in this together

So why not lend a hand

The miracles of kindness

born of deadly despair

Give testament to all

who came before us

all who come after

and all who care

Humanity will endure

Humanity will survive

Humanity will prevail

In these dark and trying times

Fools Parade

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Fools Parade

A congregation in Louisiana

Praise the lord and pass the pestilence

Pandemic parties in Miami

Dancing to the edge of time

A Christian university in Georgia

Class in session stand in line

The fools parade is never canceled

The celebration must go on

Drink and dance the night away

Party to the break of dawn

Bars and taverns business booming

What could possibly go wrong?

They’ll have a thousand poor excuses

When the hammer comes down strong

Incompetence Kills

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Incompetence Kills

People were fed up I understand

Throw out the old try a new brand

They’re all the same the old folks said

Now the old folks are sick in bed

You delivered a message loud and clear

They played to your hopes

He played to your fear

Now what do you think

When you’re calm and still?

You could not have known

Incompetence kills

We slipped by for three long years

The market soared

The end drew near

When the pandemic came

We wrote our wills

We should have known

Incompetence kills

He saw it coming and turned away

He said don’t worry we’ll be okay

We won’t all survive but most of us will

How were we to know?

Incompetence kills

He fought for the rich

Spat on the poor

On the bright side

He never started a war

Just a miserable leader

Grist for the mill

But we never suspected

Incompetence kills

Social Order

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Social Order

Entropy by default

A thing in motion must stay in motion

Or disintegrate like scattered light

In a crystal prism

The question must be asked

How long can the social order last

Before entropy takes hold

A system fastened together

With chicken wire and good intentions

Cannot withstand a constant pounding

Of unforgiving pressure

Without beginning to bend

And bending till it snaps

The social order is a brittle bond

An agreement among civil society

Built on hope and ideology

Philanthropy and intellect

A free press and common assumptions

Concerning the nature of civilized

Existence

The social order is under attack

The assault did not begin

With the great pandemic

It began with an assault on reason

An attack on science

An undermining of truth

A demeaning of facts

But the great pandemic has

Magnified everything exponentially

Leaving the structure of government

The institutions of democracy

The foundations of society

In tatters

The question must be asked

How long can the social order last

Before we snap

The Oath

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The Oath

Ordinary people step forward

In extraordinary times

Volunteers in a time of need

Risking their own lives and families

To answer others’ desperate pleas

Some find it hard to stay home

To sacrifice their social lives

To forego their human contacts

Till a return to sanity arrives

Strike a vivid contrast

To retired nurses and doctors

Emergency medical technicians

Police firefighters pharmacists

Clerks cooks food providers

Volunteers in a time of need

Leaving their homes every morning

Laying it all on the line

They took an oath

They could take a pass

None would blame them

None would shame them

They took an oath

And they will honor it

Courage is as courage does

In the dark days of fear

The Crowd

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The Crowd

Jammed together five hundred strong

A humming energy loud and long

Sustain the force pass it around

Raise the rafters with the power of sound

Let it roar like a tractor pull

At the county fair

Like a dozen screaming Strat's

On a volume dare

There’s nothing like the roar of a crowd

Springs from the heart true and loud

Will we ever see that again?

We will never see that again

Gone with the dust gone like trust

Vanished forever like a deal gone bust

Will we ever hear that roar again?

We will never hear that roar again

Will we ever feel that force again?

We will never feel that force again

The crowd has gone home

Dried up like yesterday’s rain

The party’s over

A change has taken hold

Crazy has gone insane

Conspiracy Line

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Conspiracy Line

The Chinese invented it to keep their people in line

The Russians set it loose to unravel mankind

The elite know the cure but they won’t put it on the vine

It’s time to check in to the conspiracy line

Though we know where it started we don’t know where it ends

We’re taking care of our families and some of our friends

I hear Putin is laughing and Elvis is fine

And business is booming on the conspiracy line

It shot across the borders and swept around the earth

Now doctors pass judgement on what life is worth

The whole world is reeling and some are going blind

While they’re having a party on the conspiracy line

At first it took the old folks now it’s taking the young

Like a song that keeps singing that’s already been sung

Everybody is dying except me and mine

But the sun keeps shining on the conspiracy line

We are walking on thin ice in the survival mode

Retreating to our bunkers to protect our abode

The death toll keeps rising like an Everest climb

While everything thrives on the conspiracy line

When It's Over

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When It’s Over

When this is over we’ll get together

tip a few and toss our thoughts up

to see what comes back down

When this is over we’ll set a date

and place our hearts on the kitchen table

Speak our minds on every topic under

the sun beyond the sea within

the ever expanding universe

We’ll share our dreams our inner thoughts

We’ll speak aloud our true emotions

Lovers lost and tossed devotions

We’ll laugh until we cry and then

We’ll laugh some more

We’ll laugh again

We’ll remember every moment

that ever passed between us

like a fat joint from days gone by

We’ll laugh until we cry

I’ll stumble at the door

You’ll tell me be careful

I’ll ask you

What for?

(for Carlos)