POETRY : True Homeland

Welcome to the USA Patriarch Act
with its spying and break-ins
up its sleeve behind your back
with eavesdropping that’s a crackdown
with character attacks and panic attacks
Oh damn I’m indicted with fiction
though my sentence in fact
can be death or internment
in my homeland

does your brain contain
some interesting thought
from a book you checked out
maybe read or bought
or from some nice tune
you were humming or sought
that’s the heinous crime
that’ll get you caught in the web
of the worldwide homeland

well your mind is free
but what a twist
it lands you smack
on that guest list
now rest assured
you will be missed
when you get out of line
in the homeland

is speaking up
a mortal crime
say the thought
and do hard time
then parables and verse
and rhyme
pardon my grammar
and my paradigm

please just threaten me with jail
or make me watch you hurt a whale
so that I’ll let you read
my personal mail
it’s the law going postal
yet the law’s for sale

better keep your faith
cause you’ll lose your trust
think how you’ll feel
right during your bust
you’ll swear the law’s moved
beyond normal disgust
as it reads you its rights
and insists on your trust

who might it be
who turns you in
your neighbor
mother or best friend
is paranoia
now a sin
the paranoids are
still after me again

the love of truth
it is your code
until persuaded
to implode
your confession due
to electrode ooooh
that’ll be quite the shock
to the homeland

what is the thing
you don’t want to hear
on that midnight ride
we’re conditioned to fear
that you’re being denounced
for being, say, queer
to our butch police
in their bondage gear

are you perplexed
this very night
deciding between
flee and flight
methinks the emperor’s
wound too tight
a drunk with power
and dynamite

in ancient Rome
when it started a war
dictators were chosen
for what was in store
our chosen dictator
has chosen more gore
and has frozen free choice
and then comes back for more

are our laws meant
to constrict and besiege us
with crude ultimatums
both vague and egregious
what’s this lesson someone’s
so desperate to teach us
that freedom’s a threat
and a reason to seize us

my nation has
those recurring dreams
where it divides
into two teams
a moment of silence
and then the screams
it’s winner take all
in freedom’s purges and schemes

then the winners buy states
with their pocket change
while poverty’s strangled
and memory rearranged
with royal dynasties
still becoming deranged
and the headlines still shouting
there’s nothing at all here strange

well in the interest of
my liberal press
I’d like to clear up
this news media mess
by begging someone
to please confess
that rich conservatives own
all the networks, good guess

so you’d better make
that living will
and polish up
your survival skill
the reverends say
there’s a time to kill
oh the thrills and the chill
and watch out for the big spill

the preaching of hate
sanctimonious blather
is working the gullible
into a lather
they think they’re The Beav
when they’re more Cotton Mather
and lust when the
Jackson family gathers
then blow off some steam
while they’re screwing Dan Rather

so work on your
table manners bub
you’re invited to
the big country club
exclusive rights
to that big hot tub
for the boiling in oil
a la homeland

oh say can you see the petroleum
and the rockets red glare crematorium
can you hear it above the delirium
how so proudly we hail
how advanced we’ve become
advanced like dementia
what homeland!?

is this nation in the process
of losing its mind
in compassion and sense
is it lost years behind
does it yearn for respect
only to find
instead the responses
are given in kind

the patriaddict
aren’t like me
they wave the flag
it proves they’re free
they think that the color
of patriarch pee
is red white and blue
then it’s 1-2-3 Go homeland

still the army’s exported
all loaded and locked
as marines and sailors
wave bye to the dock
while the next of kin
are still buying that stock
get your corporate coffins
be the next on your block
no matter how deeply
you and the homeland are in hock

though I try to ignore
all the militarist posers
it’s getting much harder
to keep my composure
Blood Sacrifice it is
of civilians and soldiers
by these leaders who send out
the planes ships tanks and subs
these Predators Cobras Raptors
Tomahawks Hellfires Harpoons
and those Caterpillar bulldozers

their language is smooth
clever verbs suppositions
propagandize at will
but avoid depositions
fight them there freedom’s march
sloganeering addictions
as they crave martial law
to shut down opposition

if you truly believe
in fair or free trade
the flow of ideas
and the progress we’ve made
then tell me why all
this bullshit blockade
of justice and peace
with this homeland charade

if you truly believe
in a spiritual love
as on high so below
not the pushing and shove
then why not remove
your fist from your glove
extending your palm
as below so above

let’s settle now this whole debate
don’t tell me who to love or hate
quit living to discriminate
it’s our tolerance keeping us
hopeful and great

so let’s lift up high
our frosted mugs
our pharmaceuticals
whiskey jugs
and toast the victorious
war against drugs
Oh the euphoria
have another slug

let’s have our real party
on the White House lawn
and celebrate each
liberating dawn
all equal and free
with no class lines drawn
no king and no queen
no rook and no pawn
won’t keep us in check
and we’ll sure give hell heck

now we flow into one
through times hard and fun
with no injustice undone
and our work just begun
under one common sun
all living things run
in the one common band
in our hearts through the land
our promise our stand
for our new homeland
for our true homeland

True Homeland

Larry Piltz
July 4, 2008
Indian Cove / Austin, Texas

The Rag Blog / Posted July 13, 2008