New Poem: IT’S RAINING RAZOR BLADES

 and the TV news local or national 

 feature the same tired old excuse

 whenever protests happen and/or people are murdered

 if ICE agents don’t wear masks

 then they and their families are in danger 

 >

 domestic government terrorists wearing masks

 not all that different from KKK citizen terrorists

New Poem: SPIN THE DEPORTATION BOTTLE

 herded into a vast circle

 here comes the ICE agent with a gun

 watch the bottle rotate around 

 hope for your citizen status to be spared

 the bottle lands on someone without crimes

 ICE says isn’t that just too bad

 we have to send you away right now 

 mister president cannot lose face

 nor can the leader of wherever you’re going to 

 

Revised: THE COWARDICE POEM

here’s to the people who look the other way

when someone is encouraging the crowd

to close their eyes to simple decency

and support wholesale deportation

plus persecution of children and teens

over which gender they identify as

and what bathrooms they use

>

here’s to the television news channels

on the left and the right

who look at neo-fascist “campaign rallies”

as ratings opportunities--

waiting until old-fashioned newspapers

do actual reporting

before asking questions--

but not saying “fascism” or “lies”

because it displays a lack of “balance”

>

here’s to the people on social networks

who “don’t want to get political”

when friends and family

post ugly remarks and bigoted jokes

in loud support of their favorite prejudices

>

how will you cope with

the future you helped create

by doing the same old things

in the same old ways?