Debaser in Chief
at a time this country needs
men who lay down arms
take a knee
and march with us
he stands scolding
arms folded shaking his head
then wagging his finger
just like my father
standing over my little bawling son
ordering
you –
cut that out
they never learned
the fastest way to end tears
is with with an understanding
hug
something in this breathless time
we all ache for
other people’s problems
how am I harmed
by caged children
sleeping on floors?
how am I affected
by coal miners
ordered to dig more
while koalas burn?
how am I bothered
by the mother detained
at the airport
once the rules changed?
how am I inconvenienced
by the grandmother
cast off the voter rolls?
how am I troubled
by the appointed agency head
whose goal is
to dismantle the agency?
how am I damaged
by a man who grabs women
and gets elected
then appoints men who grab women
to be judges in the courts
where men who grab women
get off?
how am I diminished
when one boss
earns in one minute
more than three times
what a worker makes in a year?
and now that boss will keep more
while the workers keep less?
these are other people’s problems
not mine
my only worry is
I’m losing my humanity
Limbaugh
O, America
how you reward
the most vile of men
and how I want
to finally quit you
all us women
battered by the words
of these irredeemable
powerful men –
we must leave
if you think
it can’t get worse, it will
it’s time to find a place
where people are calm and kind
we must up and go now
and take all our sisters
(and, yes, the moral men, too)
with us
we’ll just walk out
and leave the dishes in the sink –
leave them the mess of
guns and banks and greed –
until they’ve stolen it all from each other
and shot every living thing dead
then someday
when the coasts are finally clear
if the land calls loud enough
we may return
