New Poem: TEXAS LET DOWN RAMBLE

 hear the cartoon voice from what Molly Ivins used to call the Texas Lege and that voice says if we let them vote they’ll vote wrong so my former home state which used to acknowledge the existence of Democrats now dyes the state some hue of salamander red and applies the branding iron hoping for air conditioned passivity unquestioning faith state sponsored narrow version of Jesus Christ in the school system 

and here’s Beto O’Rourke fund raising and that’s not much of a bulwark against chicken fried fascism

New Poem THE WAY YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE

 For people I know from Texas

 retired from work

 children are hard working adults

 living with grandchildren in another state

 chose not to move from hometown 

 visit nephews and nieces

 don’t talk politics with siblings

 go along get along over and over

 not ready for a future when

 a niece is impregnated by rape

 for now, homey Facebook posts

 with friends from college

 and comments ending with lol

Poetry Video: TEXAS, THEIR TEXAS PARTS ONE AND TWO

 Assembling a portion of an earlier poem with a recently written one about Texas’s horrible anti-abortion legislation.  Aware that the state I grew up in has a very imperfect history, but I never expected this kind of  demagoguery.

https://youtu.be/ZQ3i5G0BEfA

New Poem: TEXAS, THEIR TEXAS PART TWO

 busybodies now busy policing women’s bodies

 when they’re not celebrating shooting without a license

 >

 pendulum swing could be foretold in 1982

 when middle of the road Governor Mark White

 had the absolute nerve to enact No Pass, No Play

 intended to make high school athletes get passing grades

 before they could play the Holy Game of Football on Fridays

 there was a rebellion and a stunted notion of freedom even then 

 and Mark White was defeated for re-election 

 >

 the sidewinder snake with an appetite for Lone Star Beer

 and a SECEDE bumper sticker on the back of his pickup

 became hungry to enforce simple values on everyone 

 and, later, simpleton governors like GWB and Rick Perry

 plus Greg Abbott acting the role of fiddle-playing Covid patient 

 had no trouble offering laws and protections for the snake to excrete 

 >

 kids get sick, teachers die, a school closes

 but that doesn’t matter to the angry freedom bludgeoning people

 making it harder to vote, impossible to think for yourself 

 >

 this is what you get when you wrap bloody meat selfishness 

 inside the tamale husk of performative righteousness 

 allegedly in Jesus’ name

New Poem: TEXAS, THEIR TEXAS

 Keep Texan children from thinking

 For themselves to make it easy for

 Parents to not explain sins of the past

 Or teachers too, for that matter

 >

 Deny non affluent women the right of choice

 Restage The Handmaid’s Tale as modern-day Western

 >

 Unemployment checks to feed families during pandemic?

 Utter waste of money and time

 Make them Beat The Clock to avoid starvation 

 >

 Unthinking children grow to subservient adulthood 

 The eyes of a chosen few Texans are upon them

 Making sure they stay peasants

 Waving the state flag

 Hating taxes 

 And whoever else they’re told to hate

 

THE REOPEN THE ECONOMY COVID CIRCLE GAME

 Inspired by the Joni Mitchell song:

 Today the governors and the mayors sing open up fast

 Masks peel off in Texas, indoor restaurant service in NY and CA

 No longer fearful of potential spread and variants

 Looking the other way from falling stars

 >

 And the coronavirus still goes round and round

 No way to keep it curbed will be found

 When White Republicans won’t bare their arms

 And we enter a second year with potential for great harm