November 6, 2024

(After Francis Scott Key) 

o, say, can you see by this dawn's dreary light,
All the lawn signs and flags in their jaunty array?
Amid styrofoam headstones from Halloween night-
A true graveyard of hope, blithely voted away.

And the Proud Boys hold court, and the conmen consort
With the Felon-In-Chief in his gilded resort.
0, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er a land we called free, and a people, once brave?

Can the pundits allay all the fears of today
When self-evident truths were consigned to the pyre,
And the laws of the land all became so cliche
That our lives are now linked to a consummate liar?

In the. spotlight's bright glare, F-bombs burst in the air,
As the predator basks in the camera's harsh stare.
0, say, can true trumpets of liberty blare
O'er this land whose hypocrisies now are laid bare?

See, I think I can say where it all went astray-
When the pendulum swung, and compassion was lost,
When we bartered our souls for a glitzy display,
To be better than someone-no matter the cost.

It was wars wrongly fought; solemn truths badly taught,
And the working class folk woke professors forgot.
I still pray that the banners of justice may wave
Once again, o'er this land, wholly free-newly brave.