Tortured Ideals

Misinterpreted

Mislead

Perverted words

And tortured ideals

But who to trust

When they all disagree

On what’s a must

Some say “More freedom!”

Unless you are gay

Or a woman

Or black

Or brown

Others say

“Get out of the Middle East!”

“It’s not our fight!”

But what about that

Disastrous plane flight

And the towers ablaze

Am I in a dream

Or do we really have two sides

With no in between?

That’s my future your playing with,

By the way

My voice is drowned

In the volatile crowd

I don’t have money for a Super PAC

How are those legal anyway?

The concept is simply whack

I’m too young to vote

But old enough to know

This is a bad direction to go

Why don’t you all shut up

And look around

Before this all-out boxing match

Starts another round

 

Stupid Heart of Mine

Oh heart of mine you leave me but a vine

On which to swing and softly sing

A hopeful dream that my love is what I deem

It’s harsh and rough and not enough

To support me, it’s coming apart ever so slowly

Oh stupid heart your falling apart

It’s time to grow up, stop waiting for a dash of luck

Get out of bed or I’ll find some other organ in your stead

I’ll ask my mind though it’ll probably decline

It’s overworked and underpaid but you have got it made

You truly do you stupid thing you have no clue

Oh beating thing don’t get me into another fling

 

Sides

I tried to find the most unbiased article I could for the Trayvon Martin case. Much harder than expected. I searched Trayvon Martin on the Miami Herald‘s and had to go page 34 before I found an article describing more or less the facts of the case, not the racist aspects of it. I wrote this poem more as a response to the reactions of Americans than as a response to the case itself. I don’t know if George Zimmerman is racist or not because I was not there when the shooting happened. This case has changed from one about seeking the truth to one about racial injustices in America. Perhaps this is therapeutic, but we must not forget what this case is really about, the unbiased version of it, and hope that justice is reached, whatever the side.

One side is white

And the other black

In the middle huddles red

Red is what happens

When black and white mix

Red is dreams lost

Red is lives whisked away

Red is the tears of yesterday

You’d think it’d be gray

That mixed stain of colors

Gray is what they should make

Black and White

White and Black

It makes sense

But humanity never has

So the red is still there

A stark reminder of prejudice

The blemish of a failed mass wish

A wall for those

Too something to mix

White and Black

Black and White

Both are colors

But not really

Both do exist

Fact acknowledged or not

Black and White

White and Black

Have much in common

More than they realize

It’s time for them to start

Relying on more than just their eyes

Revolution of Justice

I wrote this after watching the KONY 2012 video.

                     Voices, voices to be heard

                     Listener, listener spread the word

Raise, raise, raise your hands

Today, today we the lambs

Bare our teeth and shake the land

Growing, growing are the small

Tremble, tremble if you are tall

Brick by brick and stone by stone

We tear down a wall so overgrown

Oh hear it, hear it creak and moan

As it tumbles to the ground

Resonating with freedom’s sound

Together we all can surpass

The few who hold the cards

They have power but we have voices

Voices loud and not ashamed

Voices speaking of those to blame

Voices so many they have no name

Too long we stood aside

Til’ hope had all but died

Today is the day fate is defied

With joined hands

And a billion footfalls

We answer the desperate calls

Of the oppressed and the ignored

We’re shaking the world straight to its core

Today, today and forever more

We take our stand

Because justice is worth fighting for

Shards of Glass

It was a delicate sculpture of glass

Balanced precariously on a mountain top

Winds were soft

Barely keeping clouds aloft

And then one day

The sky turned gray

And wept out all the rain

A physical release of hidden pain

The torrent grew worse as the deadly hail came

And turned that delicate sculpture of glass

Into a million scintillating shards

That skidded of the mountainside

To lay upon the ground and bide

The chance to regain a love’s fragile pride

Midnight Murder

Five gunshots resonated in the night

Waking me up in a startling fright

I brushed it off, nothing could be wrong

But then I heard the ambulance’s song

And quickly proceeded to bite my nails

Thoughts of  a murder and all it entails

I made up a thousand stories in my head

Though nothing could mask the worry and dread

Not a mile from my home a soul just went dead

The ambulance resumed its death-tolling cry

As it lit up my neighborhood and charged right on by

Eventually I fell into a stiff-no good sleep

So scared was I to make a peep

The next morn I studied the news

But failed to find any useful clues

To a murder that last night had happened

Surely a disaster not deliriously imagined

More Haiku? Sure…..

Facing all my fears

Rising above scared secrets

Setting myself free

Words that sweetly kiss

Caresses that send shivers

Is it love or lust

Dreams fly to the sky

They make it change its color

Watch out for red days