Tag Archives: Politics

THE BEER PARLOR

Nostalgia / tagged , , / / by

THE BEER PARLOR

Politics and weather

Little round seated chairs
no-one could have sat on
ten minutes completely sober

Little round tables
completely covered at last call
fluted glasses perfectly filled
to the well marked tide line
(no charging for foam here)

Smell of well aged
beer, barf and barn boots
but no matter, it was men only
and they didn’t seem to care

In the service of progress I guess
it was decided by the province
that each town could vote
on women being allowed
to enter these sacred halls

George, the owner,
a man of steady habits
and unshakable prejudices
thinly disguised as principles
said “If you vote for this I close the place”
They did, and he did

THE BALLAD OF BARRY BARACK

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THE BALLAD OF BARRY BARACK

There once was a Halfro-American boy
his Kenyan father’s glancing blow
and his Mid-West mother’s pride and joy
how diddee how diddee how diddee how do

Raised where two directions are all you can see
toward the mountains and towards the sea
How diddee how diddee how do

And Barry was the white side
and Barack was the black
as handsome as a Tiger
and sharp as a tack
how diddee how diddee
how diddee how do

Went off to Harvard to run the review
and streets of Chicago some real good to do
How diddee how diddee how do

A wise young man with a funny old name
America you’ll never be the same
America you’ll never be the same
How diddee how diddee how do

He didn’t change all prejudice
but he sure did make a dent
and that is how he got to be
the U.S. President

sing

how diddee how diddee
how did he how did he
how do

THE WINGS BENEATH HIS WIN

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THE WINGS BENEATH HIS WIN

Ask not who should Obama thank
but who we should thank for Obama

There are a million threads that make up
the quilt of America’s growing up

You could follow one
back to a university
in Tuskegee Alabama in 1881
to its first teacher Booker T. Washington
who hired George Washington Carver,
who lived to see it become
the home of the Tuskegee airmen
who fought with equal skill
and double courage on
two fronts at once

Their performance and sacrifice
inspiring Harry Truman
on July 26th, 1948 to issue executive
order 9981 directing
equality of treatment and opportunity
in the armed forces

And if those weren’t threads enough
The Tuskegee Song was written in 1902
by Paul Laurence Dundar, classmate
and friend of Orville Wright and
set to the tune of Fair Harvard

We thank thee, we bless thee, we pray for thee years
Imploring with grateful accord
Full fruit for thy striving, time longer to strive
Sweet love and true labor’s reward

Yes indeed Tuskegee, we all thank thee

REPUBLICAN ROULETTE

Audio Recordings / tagged / / by

REPUBLICAN ROULETTE

If you’ve already won the lottery
you might just be tempted to vote
for the ones that will let you keep it

Maybe all the democrats
should vote republican too
just in case their ship comes in
just in case they happen to win

The chances may be getting slimmer
but the rewards are getting bigger

And it would be a shame
if all the advantages of the rich
were not there when they arrived

ODE TO NERUDA

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged , , , , / / by

ODE TO NERUDA

You have gifted the world with your being
and your words the fruits of your being

You have seen the mother and the lover
in the sea tides rocking rhyme

In the flowers of her hair
in your politics of care

You remind us of the role of all poets
to open and meet the world naked

To perceive the world naked
to receive the world naked

To sing the world naked
naked as your hand