RHETORICAL VERSE /
EIGHT (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU
{ACS.105_01} I WOULD NOT WEAR MY FLAG SHIRT on my trips
{ACS.105_02} outside the U.S.A. -- it would now mark
{ACS.105_03} me "target." Thanks to Dubya's bullshit-lips
{ACS.105_04} the picture of our nation's now too dark.
{ACS.105_05} Ask red-state bullshit-eaters who deny
{ACS.105_06} that anything is wrong if they would wear
{ACS.105_07} my flag shirt 'round the world. I don't mean fly
{ACS.105_08} a safety-zone-to-safety-zone affair ...
{ACS.105_09} But really walk about in place to place.
{ACS.105_10} How long before you think you'd lose your head?
{ACS.105_11} Before that, could you take each scowling face
{ACS.105_12} of men and women who wish you were dead?
{ACS.105_13} Yes you had better hide in your red state
{ACS.105_14} when you vote for a land that's good to hate.
{ACS.106_01} NO, blue-state bullshit-eaters won't redeem
{ACS.106_02} America by voting for a man
{ACS.106_03} who had the medals to block Dubya's scheme
{ACS.106_04} if he was not a coward. But his plan ...
{ACS.106_05} ... to get elected president required
{ACS.106_06} he go along with Bush insanity
{ACS.106_07} which cannot be undone. No, we are mired:
{ACS.106_08} Iraq. "We broke it ... fix it." Edward's plea.
{ACS.106_09} But neither of those numbskulls has the skill
{ACS.106_10} to "fix it" -- these blue cowards were afraid
{ACS.106_11} to stand up to the Prince of bullshit's will
{ACS.106_12} which all the moron media OK'd.
{ACS.106_13} And bullshit-eating citizens agreed
{ACS.106_14} to follow where the bullshit-spreaders lead.
{ACS.107_01} "TWIN TOWERS FALLING" is the only show
{ACS.107_02} on television ev'ryone has seen
{ACS.107_03} a hundred times (at least). From high to low
{ACS.107_04} we watched -- consumed the jet fuel kerosene ...
{ACS.107_05} ... into our nation's soul. Already primed
{ACS.107_06} by having let George Dubya Bush defile
{ACS.107_07} democracy. The crashes were well timed
{ACS.107_08} to turn America into a pile ...
{ACS.107_09} ... of dust -- in terms of what our nation means.
{ACS.107_10} Just read the polls outside the U.S.A.
{ACS.107_11} in (all but Murdoch's) papers, magazines.
{ACS.107_12} Yes, listen to what others have to say ...
{ACS.107_13} ... about a nation that has gone to hell.
{ACS.107_14} My gorgeous flag shirt now has bullshit smell.
{ACS.108_01} HOW MANY DECADES will it take before
{ACS.108_02} I can wear my flag shirt again with pride?
{ACS.108_03} How far past year 2000 when Al Gore
{ACS.108_04} incompetently let us tip and slide ...
{ACS.108_05} ... with help from moron media, of course,
{ACS.108_06} and treasonous Republicans who yelled
{ACS.108_07} (much angrier than Dean with stronger force),
{ACS.108_08} who did not stop until their bullshit gelled ...
{ACS.108_09} ... into reality BECAUSE NO ONE
{ACS.108_10} WHO SHOULD HAVE STOPPED IT had the skill to turn
{ACS.108_11} the light on when the bullshit blocked the sun.
{ACS.108_12} The New York Times told Gore to "Lose a Turn."
{ACS.108_13} They figured, "How much damage could Bush do?"
{ACS.108_14} Just let it slide. Let Dubya have his coup.
{ACS.109_01} DEMOCRACY's a bullshit word for "us."
{ACS.109_02} All educated people know you can't
{ACS.109_03} have real Democracy. Why make a fuss
{ACS.109_04} about vote totals. "We know" it's just cant.
{ACS.109_05} DIRECT DEMOCRACY could never work.
{ACS.109_06} REPUBLIC is the form our nation takes.
{ACS.109_07} It doesn't pay too much to clear the murk
{ACS.109_08} on matters where most must admire the fakes ...
{ACS.109_09} ... in our society. "The real" too rare
{ACS.109_10} to wait for in the games that we must keep
{ACS.109_11} in motion -- "even if it is not fair."
{ACS.109_12} Perhaps if we had faith. Can't take that leap.
{ACS.109_13} If we could have IMAGINED half this mess
{ACS.109_14} we would have stopped the bullshit, we confess.
{ACS.110_01} I WONDER IF they could? Press folks were schooled
{ACS.110_02} as badly as the rest of us endured.
{ACS.110_03} The ivy league may have the nation fooled,
{ACS.110_04} but all their PhDs could not have cured ...
{ACS.110_05} ... the fundamental problem at the heart
{ACS.110_06} of why I cannot wear my flag shirt now.
{ACS.110_07} How our red/blue toned nation fell apart.
{ACS.110_08} An overstatement? Yes. That I'll allow.
{ACS.110_09} My walls are filled by books by college profs.
{ACS.110_10} And some of them from Princeton, Harvard, Yale.
{ACS.110_11} But what "the best" get right, the press corp scoffs
{ACS.110_12} or cannot understand. AT least they fail ...
{ACS.110_13} ... to show it if they do. You'll never hear
{ACS.110_14} about the best ideas. Just more fear.
{ACS.111_01} BARD COLLEGE PRESIDENT in his bow tie
{ACS.111_02} and rough tweed jacket stares out from his book
{ACS.111_03} on education. Round-rimmed eagle-eyed,
{ACS.111_04} arms folded and legs crossed. His thought I took ...
{ACS.111_05} ... on "fear" as inspiration for this bunch
{ACS.111_06} of Friday morning sonnets 'round two-thirds
{ACS.111_07} along the way to last. These seven crunch
{ACS.111_08} along through frozen solid AmCan ... curds.
{ACS.111_09} I almost wrote "turds" there, but angels frown
{ACS.111_10} if I exceed my quota of "profane" --
{ACS.111_11} especially for phrases colored brown.
{ACS.111_12} But when your last ball's headed down the lane ...
{ACS.111_13} ... and you're not near 300, you might sling
{ACS.111_14} that last frame 'cross the ocean to Beijing. {smile}
{ACS.112_01} P.S. OK, there was a point I meant
{ACS.112_02} to get to, but got tired and sorta sighed.
{ACS.112_03} It isn't hopeless that our nation's rent.
{ACS.112_04} There's many good ideas that can guide ...
{ACS.112_05} ... us from the cliched darkness of our time
{ACS.112_06} that I sometimes give up on for awhile.
{ACS.112_07} But even then, I still crank out this rhyme
{ACS.112_08} as I reread the fragments that I file ...
{ACS.112_09} ... from books that I have spent a life to find.
{ACS.112_10} Those books are full of questions no one asks
{ACS.112_11} on television. Maybe why we're blind
{ACS.112_12} to possibilities our culture masks ...
{ACS.112_13} ... unthoughtedly. "They know not what they do,"
{ACS.112_14} said Jesus. And of course I add: we, too.
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