Poem: Ballade of Liberty

She holds her torch up high
shining it where everyone can see
the blazing herald in the sky
burning torch of Lady Liberty
lighting the land of the free
where she still stands tall

Poem: American Hieroglyphics

I was alone driving on I-40
When I encountered the Smokies
Deep forest moisture becoming fog
Giving their watery offerings to the sky
To birth to the clouds carried on the wind

From the pavement in valleys it looked
As if the mountains were smoldering
Slow burning fires that fit my mood perfectly

Poem: No More Trains That Go Nowhere

There was a time when you could escape
On trains headed west as far as the rails could go
Dropping you at the edge of western civilization
Now all the rails end at metropolis bright and buzzing
Full of all the colorful people that populate this world
End to end to end with all of their full color lives
When sometimes all you want is the black and white

Poem: Three Boxes

When a box of bullets is cheaper than food
The lines between a good and evil blur
Through hungry eyes that starve for justice
My people clamor for succor at the well

Poem: Howl for Alan Ginsberg

I have seen my countrymen draped in flags howling in screeching voices echoing talking heads
without a shadow of original thought
holding with arms their arms that have no arms to hold them back rolling in surplus ammo and
decommissioned military gear for their childhood cosplay fantasies
screams about the disenfranchisement of the hetero white male oppressed my women with dicks
wrapped in a rainbow of skin colors protesting about lives that matter

Poem: Route 66

There is peace on these American roads
Stretches of no man’s land
Where there used to be family farms
Before the banks foreclosed
And the family moved to California
To join the Joads in chasing the dream

Poem: Journey in Haiku

Pointing to the East
Cascading mountains behind
Towards new places

Passing the black hills
And monuments built in stone
Into the green plains