Some Political poetry, and short sketches

Sometimes you come across events, their accounts, or their pictures, that are so horrific or tragic, that there really is no way to vocalize emotions in a way to release them----except through art, such as poetry. Some of these are based on horrific events that I heard about, saw gory pictures of, or were just in the news. Sometimes it is just an understanding of what can happen.

This first case was inspired by something witnessed, video taped, and shared with me by a Palestinian friend. He disappeared shortly after---I can't help but wonder if it had something to do with his sharing this with me. His wife had already been killed. He has two kids, I don't know what happened to them after he disappeared, or if they are gone too.


She Was A Hamas Terrorist



She was a Hamas Terrorist
Her remaining eye
Was still open
There was ¾’s of a nose
Half a mouth
A bloodied strip of skin
To a shoulderless arm
And a hand.
That’s all


The IDF soldiers had stood
Four feet away
Aimed and fired
Kill shots each one
There was no return fire
No weapons
Just bodies
Falling to the ground
A quiet thud


Only an hour earlier
She had suckled
Her mother’s breasts
Her mother that now lay
In a growing red puddle
Of blood
Also her brother and sister
And two cousins
Aged 2 to 5


Shortly later the IDF soldier
Brags how
They killed 6 Hamas Terrorists
Meanwhile the IDF spokesman
Tells to the world
Through a BBC interview
”There is no genocide
we are only defending
ourselves.”


She was a Hamas Terrorist
Three months old.

 

This was based on a photo that had been shared with me.

A Splattered Clump of Tofu on the Sidewalk



There is a splattered clump of tofu on the sidewalk
Outside a Texas H & M
Clumped across a thin strand of tomato sauce
Splattered outside the H & M
The container nearby has thick clumpy strings of tofu
Hanging from the edges of the shattered hole
Gooey sticky soft white


A sunny Saturday afternoon in the warmth of May
Outside a Texas H & M
What a day to shop with family and friends
Gather outside the H & M
The Lone Star State where guns are in holsters and cars
And purses and on hips and carried in stores
Cold metallic hard gray


Panicked shoppers walk in single file on the sidewalk
Outside a Texas H & M
Shaken and dazed, the shooting has stopped
Outside the H & M
They walk past a little girl and strangers by a tree
They are very careful not to step on the tofu
Soft and white, because…


There is a splattered clump of brains on the sidewalk
Outside a Texas H & M
A little girl on her back arms outstretched
Murdered outside the H & M
Randomly targeted, the back of her head
Shattered by an assault rifle bullet splattering
Gooey sticky soft white.




This was a shooting that happened several years ago----a shooter targeting Hispanics likely because of the hateful racist rhetoric that politicians were spreading. As soon as I had seen the photo, I knew immediately what I was looking at----because years of living in Japan, where suicide by jumping off of buildings is, unfortunately, a little too common, and when a head hits the pavement after 10 - 50 floors or more, it tends to splatter its contents.

 

Pro-Life

(A Short Play in Three Acts)


Characters:

Victim: Young female
Back Alley Doctors: 4 males dressed in white smocks stained and splattered in red, and red stained gloves.
9-11 Operator: Female with a telephone head set
Shadow Figure: male or female dressed in all black (think: Ninja)
Mom: Female dressed as a mom
Dad: Male dressed as a dad



Props:

In addition to clothing, the following props are needed. 1 cell phone. 1 Newspaper. 1 Bible. 2 living room chairs. 1 hanger, the sides bent into a handle and the hook covered in red paint. Copious amounts of red paper—red confetti, rolls of red crepe paper, red wadded up paper, red scraps of paper, red construction paper, red typing paper. Black construction paper.




Act 1

Stage Left: (The Back Alley Doctors are standing around the Victim who lays unconscious on the floor. One of the doctors holds the folded hangar under his arm. The Shadow Man throws red confetti and occasionally drops a piece of red paper around and on the victim. Sometimes a crumpled up pieces of red paper.)

Off Stage or Stage Right (911 Operator waits to take a call).

(The sound of a telephone ringing.)

911 Operator: 911. What is your emergency?

Back Alley Doctor 1: (Speaking on a cell phone) I have a 21 year old Jane Doe who won’t stop bleeding.

911 Operator: Ok, where is she bleeding from?

Back Alley Doctor 1: Her vagina.

911 Operator: Is it a lot of blood? Was she injured?

Back Alley Doctor 1: Yes, there is a large amount. She has already lost a fair amount of blood. She sustained some kind of internal injury.

Victim (gains temporary consciousness. Speaks sleepily, but almost in tears): I want my mom.

Doctor 3: Shhhhhhh, You rest.

911 Operator: Do you know what kind of injury? Was she in an accident?

Back Alley Doctor 1: No, ummm, it was some kind of internal injury.

911 Operator: Did you see what happened?

Back Alley Doctor 1: No. But it’s serious.

911 Operator: What is your location?

Back Alley Doctor 1: Ummm… She is on the sidewalk on Colfax Boulevard and Kingston Street.

911 Operator: OK, help is on the way, now can you stop the bleeding?

Back Alley Doctor 1: No. We’ve tried, I mean, I’ve tried to stop it and it… it won’t stop.

911 Operator: Is she conscious?

Back Alley Doctor 1: Wait… (Doctor 1 looks over Victim) No, but I detected a pulse. Just a minute… (Doctor 1 motions to one of the other doctors to check her pulse. Doctor 4 gets down and checks and then nods yes.) …She still has a pulse, I checked it again.

911 Operator: Ok, help is on the way. Do you know her name?

Back Alley Doctor 1: No, I don’t.

911 Operator: But you know her age.

Back Alley Doctor 1: Well, no, I assume 21, she looks to be anywhere from 16 to maybe… 23, or so.

Back Alley Doctor 2: (to Back Alley Doctor 3) This is why you need a license to do this. (Back Alley Doctor 1 angrily waves his hand at Doctor 2 to shut him up.)

911 Operator: Is someone there with you? Does anyone there no what happened to her?

Back Alley Doctor 1: No, there is no one else here… That--was someone on the street.

911 Operator: Ok, I’m going to walk you through how we can try to get the bleeding stopped until help arrives. Can I have your name?

Back Alley Doctor 1: Ummm… (The sound of a click as Doctor 1 hangs up on the call. He wipes the cell phone with a rag stuffs it into the victim’s pocket.) Ok guys; let’s move her to the sidewalk.

(The Back Alley Doctors carry her by her arms and legs to Stage Center, followed by the shadow man who throws the rest of the red confetti behind them. At Stage Center they leave her on the floor and the Doctor holding the hangar drops it next to her. The Shadow Man continues throwing red paper and the rest of the crumpled red paper on the victim and the stage around her for the rest of the scene.)

Back Alley Doctor 1: Is everything packed up?

Back Alley Doctor 2: Yes.

(The phone starts ringing.)

Back Alley Doctor 1: Ok let’s get out of here.

(The Back Alley Doctors run, exiting stage. After about a minute, the doctor that dropped the hangar runs back and grabs the hanger, holding it up, and then runs back offstage. In the meantime, the phone stops ringing and after a moment starts ringing again. The shadow man continues dropping paper for a few more minutes, as the phone stops ringing again, and continues till the curtain drops a while later.)



Act 2

Stage Center: (The victim continues to lay still; unconscious. Shadow figure continues to spread red paper around the stage and on the victim.)

Stage Right: (Light shines on mom and dad, who are sitting comfortably in their living room chairs. Dad is reading a newspaper, while mom reads a Bible.)

Dad: What’s this?! Those liberals are trying to legalize abortion again!

Mom: Oh my! Those liberals are literally the spawn of Satan. Think of all the poor babies that would die.

Dad: Yes, It’s horrible. (Goes back to reading his paper for a few moments.) Well, those liberals just don’t have the same Christian values as the rest of us.

Mom: Your right. Anyway, abortion and that kind of bad stuff doesn’t happen in a good Christian family like ours.

Dad: Thank God. (Dad reads a little more of the paper.) Get this—it says that studies show that making abortion illegal does not stop abortions, it only stops safe legal abortions. What a bunch of liberal propaganda!

Mom: Well, premarital sex is a sin, and if families would pray, and keep God and the Bible in their lives, they wouldn’t do such sinful things.

Dad: (Clears his throat) Yep.

(Dad returns to reading the paper and mom to reading her Bible for a few more moments.)

Mom: I wonder where Jane is. I haven’t seen or heard from her all day. Have you?

Dad: No I haven’t. I wonder where she could be. (Lighting goes off of mom and dad.)

Stage Center: (Shadow man continues to drop red paper in silence for several minutes until curtain falls.)




Act 3

Stage Center: (Shadow man drops sheets of black paper on the victim until she is covered and then exits. Victim is left in silence for some time till the curtain falls.)


Fin

 

I didn't think I could find this one. Dr. Slepian was a doctor who worked at an abortion clinic, and was killed for it.

Doctor Slepian


Making soup in his kitchen,
I think I’ve been shot he said.
Don’t be silly said his wife
But the bullet, for Jesus
Ricocheted across the kitchen
Past his son’s head
The bullet for Jesus
Our savior Jesus
He was murdered for Jesus.

No time to call 911
He fell to the floor and bled
So much blood now on the floor,
His 7 year old and 15 year old
And his loving wife, Jesus
Watched him bleed and gasp and die
Horror and pain
Murdered for Jesus Christ
He was murdered for Jesus.

Now they have no father
Now she has no husband
Their life forever shattered.
By Jesus’ high-powered rifle
Beyond the kitchen window
Maybe Jesus will fix it all
Maybe God will make them feel good
No, they won’t
He was murdered for Jesus.

He was a doctor helping young women
Doing what someone had to do
Removing a clump of cells
Without a brain, the size of a grain of rice
A life for a life the bible says
But not for an unborn baby
But kill him for Jesus
Our savior Jesus
He was murdered for Jesus

Jesus loves us this we know
For the Bible tells us so
So lets set that bomb in the women’s clinic
So much blood now everywhere
Severed arms, severed heads, a bloody foot
A burned purse, a shredded torso
For a clump of cells
Kill them for Jesus
Our Savior Jesus
They are murdered for Jesus.

In so many families they won’t come home today
A mother, a father, a sister or brother
A daughter or son
Families forever shattered
For a clump of cells the size of a rice grain
Maybe Jesus will fix it all
Maybe God will make them feel good
No, they won’t
They were murdered for Jesus.

God is good God is love
Turn the other cheek and spread the love
Pro-life, for life, a Christian life
With the bullet for Jesus
With the bomb for Jesus
For the love of god
In Jesus name destroy many lives
Kill them for Jesus
They are murdered for Jesus


Holy holy holy
Our father who art in heaven
Destroy the lives for jesus
Kill them for Jesus
Our savior jesus
Kill them for jesus
He was murdered for Jesus
They were murdered for Jesus
Jesus, Jesus!

 

Here is my Christmas Message for 2024

According to the Christmas tradition, about 2,024 years ago a brown-skinned Middle Eastern child was born that would bring a message of peace and love to the world. He did not preach that one should love a holy book or love the scriptures. He did not teach that one should love a church (in fact he said that his church is not made of sticks and stones (or wood and bricks)). What he said is that we should LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Love your brother and your neighbor. Love your enemy. He said that you should take care of foreigners as if they were your own brothers. He said if someone hurts you on the cheek, you should turn the other cheek. He spoke out against material wealth, and called the poor blessed, and time and time again preached about giving to the poor and needy.

This brown-skinned Middle Eastern man, turned over tables and chased moneychangers out of the temple, he was a dissident, and a liberal, as he turned against the status quo. He was the first hippie. He even spoke Aramaic, the language of the Palestinians and Jews at that time. And according to the story, he was born in Bethlehem, which was then Judea, but later became Palestine in the early 1st century.

2024 years later, people invoke his name to empower some kind of moral argument of how people should act—what would Jesus do? Yet these same people in his name, embrace hate, and scorn the foreigner and the poor and needy. They elected a hateful bully, and cheer this sophomoric bully and his wealthy friends on as they cut benefits and support to the poor and needy. They hope their bully, who they call God-chosen, will round up and lock up the foreigner. They applaud as this bully works to slice out of our society those who are different from them, whether physically, mentally, or spiritually. Finally, if that is not enough of a tarnishing of the old teachings, they applaud a genocide of the Palestinian people in today’s Israel.

And on this Christmas, with their cold and hateful hearts, they cry out Merry Christmas! (And they will say this even louder if they dare hear a, ‘Happy Holidays,’ which they assume can only be to acknowledge that everyone should be included in this season, even those who have a different belief or tradition.) What if this brown-skinned Middle Eastern baby was born to a wandering couple that couldn’t find a place to stay the night in today’s America? How would he be treated then?

It seems to me that when a nation of his followers collectively choose hate, vengeance, and the trappings of wealth (most of them ignorantly against their own self-interest), that ‘Merry Christmas’ becomes a joke. For what can be merry even in this season for someone who is different, marginalized, disenfranchised, or even a foreigner. And for their love of scripture, revered as the word of God, why do they not see the evil and hate they embrace, which he taught us against in those very scriptures! Instead they mock his teachings, by turning against them, even as we all wish each other a Merry Christmas…

Seriously, what would Jesus do? What. Would. He. Do?

 

And some Political Satire from the Pandemic:


The Cogs in the Machine

A Speech by the 1% to the Rest of America


Ok everyone, its time to go back to work now. This is very important for our economy. Let me explain, the economy is like a big giant machine. Now, the machine needs several things for it to work. It needs cogs working within it in order to move. The cogs are essential. It also needs an owner that runs the machine. The owner is also essential because how can any machine exist without an owner---that’s just silly. Let’s say that this machine makes cakes. The best cakes in the world, because, after all, it represents America.

The cogs though are very essential, and so they represent you, the American people. This is something to be proud of, because you are not just any cogs, you are American cogs in the machine of America.

And as you work hard, everyone gets everything they want. The wealthy get cakes, and you get, you know, what cogs want---you get oiled.

Now if you think of the economy in these terms under the context of the current pandemic, there is only one question that obviously comes to mind; if we are not working, how in the world are the cakes going to be made?

I’m sure you are concerned, as we are, how will the wealthy get their cakes if the machine is not moving? Well, not to worry, we have come up with a temporary solution: The stimulus bill. Yes, we were able to get our cake in the form of billions of dollars paid to our corporations. And you got oil too. You got your stimulus check of $1,200. In fact you could say this oil is the paid sick leave you always wanted. But remember, the machine is not moving, you did nothing to get that money, so that is why it was calculated based on minimum wage.

Oh. Now I’m being told that some of you did not realize that the $1200 was based on minimum wage. But remember, you were able to stay at home and sit on your couch. So it is a justifiable value for your time, right? Besides, you really don’t want too much because it is just an advance on your future tax returns.

Oh. Apparently some of you didn’t know that either. Well, what did you think you were getting, Cake? Or do you think your oil comes from out of our cake? No. Cake and oil are two different things. The oil is made by the machine, which is another reason why you should be working; the machine should be moving. And after all, the government needs your oil for it to run too. So it makes sense that, while you are not working, you would get this oil from out of the oil the government collected from you. Don’t be silly here. The government does not run on cake. That would be ridiculous.

So I’m hearing that some of you are starting to argue about the cake. Yes, it is true, our cake that we received in the stimulus bill was made from your oil, but it still does not make the cake and the oil the same. Can you conceive of oil from cake? No, you can’t. So don’t even try.

But lets not worry about that. We need to focus on the main problem. The machine needs to move in order to make your oil and our cake. Now you might be thinking, I don’t want to get sick. But first of all, don’t you have friends and neighbors making face masks? Second of all, it’s a numbers game. Sure, many of you will get sick, but most of you will recover. Seriously, are you a glass half empty kind of people, or a glass half full kind of people? You don’t see us complaining about it---we are just happy eating our cake. Don’t you want to make your oil?

So what have you got to lose? If you don’t go back to work, the machine stops, and none of us wants that. I mean we just got the president to give us some good tax breaks. And it has taken us years to finally get that. Let me put that in terms of this cake machine analogy. The president has adjusted the machine so that it makes bigger cakes—very big cakes. So basically you have all the ingredients going into the machine to make the cakes, these ingredients are basically the assets, capital, and raw material used by industry. There is only so much of it, because we live in a world of limited resources. That’s a fact of life. Finally, through the president, we have fixed the machine to where almost all those ingredients are being used to make the cake. So now that the machine is finally fixed, we need to keep it moving.

Quiet now. Quiet down. Some of you are starting to argue that if the cakes are bigger then the oil must be smaller. But the oil is not important. The purpose of the machine is to make cakes, not oil. The oil is made from what is left after the cake is made, and you should be proud of these cakes because they are great cakes, and now they are much bigger. Take pride in your work. Everything should not be about how much oil you should get. Where would this world be if all the cogs worried only about how much oil they were getting.

Again, lets focus on the real problem: we need to get the machine working again. The cakes need to be made. And look, some of you are anxious to get back to work. Some of you have been complaining and protesting because you aren’t able to make the cakes. But the rest of you are not listening to them. They make a good point. They are saying that they have rights, and this is a free country, so they should be free to make cakes! They are good Americans. They are true patriots.

What are the rest of you? Look at all of you—complaining about oil, and cake. Saying, where is my stimulus check? It’s coming. But that’s why in the meantime you need to make cake. You need to be a patriot, like your friends who are happy to keep the machine moving! Listen to them, they are even telling you that this whole virus thing is a hoax. What great patriots.

But yes some of you will die. But why do you focus on the negative? Some of you die everyday. Everybody dies. But today, most of you will live. Just like most of you are alive right now. And you will live. You might get sick, take some days off, and then you can come right back and make more cakes. That is what is really important. Make our cakes! You are bored now. You have nothing to do at home. If you make enough cakes, then one day you will have enough oil that you can sit at home all day. But right now you are running out of oil. You know that when that stimulus check finally does come, it will be gone in a flash because you have bills to pay. So be a patriot and make our cakes!


Signed,

The 1%