Wolves in Elephants’ Clothing
Somewhat sheepishly
She whispered
Beware of wolves in elephants’ clothing
Lurking about
Only looking
Like they want
To kick some ass
Though you can skulk in style
If you have
A grand
Old party
Securing your plush seat
At the table
Loaded
With elephant guise
Rather incestual sycophants
At their I’m potentate parties
And if you are well, off
They will take you
To a tee
Spouting about
King George I and King George II
And unjust taxes
More dear than all the tea in England
And buy George, they’re not satisfied with a billion
Let alone a third
Perhaps some fresh prince all over
A newly-minted crime scene
Unseemly blind to any lackey of evolution
Yet there is no ruler
To measure their monkey business
Their trinity
Cheering with pomposity
Throwing monologues on the fire
And stalling
Having perfected the nationwide holdup
A three wring circus
And we are left
With what’s in the stall
The elephant dropping
All that is fertile
For phony fossils
Making evolution impossible
A lessen they never forget
With a mellifluousness Abel
To capture the common man
A cleanliness next to godlessness
Their hoods white
For shadowing their golden daze
In an urbane jungle
Leaving behind poor gramma
Spelling her downfall
GOP opposed to GOD
Having fallen
Down
And can’t get up
Leaving students
With nothing but a prayer
Leaving workers
With a free market they can’t afford
Leaving US
With life after death
And perhaps before birth
Still
All the wile between
Sent to our gloom
To be
Or not to be
Borne again
That is the quest in
Whether it is know buller
For in the mine to suffer
The blings
And ere rows
Of outrageous fortunes
Oar to take alms
Against a see of troubles
And by opposing thumb end
Overcoming any
Hitch
Hiking what’s left
As necessary
Sew much more than
Evolution
One of the scarce things
They can’t seem to buy
Their con science
Of what
They know longer nose
Inescapably figuring
Somehow elect by birth
Perpetual SNOBS
Where the N is usually silent
In their civil war
Inevitably impaled by their mortal compass
Spinning north and south
Feigning uprightness
Disavowing any revolution present
Captivated by fanciful futures
And realities passed
And still
What goes around
Comes around
A choice truth
Either buy
Ballads or bullets
We all have the write to choose
To ward off electioneer death
This poem is a thinly veiled anti-Republican party exposition. Profoundly ironic, Republicans are as sure proof as you are going to find that evolution doesn’t exist, and, as Gandhi never said, “Be the lack of change you want to see in the world.” The Republican party appears quite comfortable with greed as the primary human motivation. Perhaps worse yet, and even more disingenuous, is the ease at which Republicans embrace anti-science views, of which anti-evolution and climate change skepticism are its hallmarks. For the so-called religious expertise that Republicans claim, they certainly manage to brand religion as anti-science, which it need not be. Even within the hallowed halls of religious territory, Republicans manage to bring hypocrisy to ever-new heights. With their specialty Christianity, Republicans paint a picture of Jesus as if he were a white, suburban-living, English-speaking American, preaching some prosperity gospel. For God’s sake, Jesus wasn’t even a Christian, he was a Jew, and a Palestinian Jew at that! If such a poor, dark-skinned, Middle-eastern, non-English-speaking, peace-loving, giver of free health care showed up in America, the Republicans would have reserved seating at his crucifixion. Of course, they would contract out the actual killing, though a carpenter driving in those nails would not likely be a member of the carpenters’ union. Plus, the Republicans definitely wouldn’t bother paying a “living” wage for such low skilled tasks, however unpleasant.
The larger theme in this poem is about the tension between electoral and non-electoral politics. The two-party duopoly of Republocrats offers only a narrow range of possibilities deemed politically feasible. This leaves the electorate, barely even a majority of eligible voters in many elections, to ratify the predetermined candidates from a relatively narrow ideological pool. In my view, this electoral desert leaves little room for the kind of robust responses that the current world begs. Our slow and limited responses to climate change and energy use demonstrate this best. Even a well-managed end of civilization as we know it is a poor substitute for saving humanity. Of course, the “ballads or bullets” dichotomy is somewhat hyperbolic for effect. Nonetheless, without nonviolent revolution, or much-speeded evolution, our current body politic will experience a much more violent demise. I am rooting and working for a nonviolent revolution. The driving force of this revolution will almost certainly originate outside formal electoral politics. As history teaches us, such robust change does not come without personal sacrifice, and it demands courage. The Republicans would be well-advised to learn from Jesus, who showed us a different way. And who better than Jesus would know that just because you are a carpenter doesn’t mean that you have to see everything as a nail!
