i’ve long dreamt
of black flags in the streets
tonight i marched beneath
the shadow of their wings

shoulder-to-shoulder
in hope and solidarity
an anarchist professor
with a climate change activist
an independent journalist
and one of my students

as mid-November winds tugged
at her pink-and-brunette hair
she lifted a hand-drawn sign
of a gigantic sneaker
smashing a ****
and i felt
for not the first time
an enormous sense of pride

how humbling to at once
inspire and be inspired by
an eighteen-year-old
punk and artist
who asked to borrow
The Moral Imperative of Revolt
two scant months ago
then took to the streets
to oppose and depose
a twisted fascist virtuoso

for two whole hours
we hundreds owned the streets
we marched down Rosalind
Central and Orange Avenue
as protest slogans rang angelic
we raised hell and found heaven
in liberty equality and solidarity

but then the pigs closed in
cordoned to Lake Eola
to scream acquiescent rhetoric
at the fish sleeping
blissful in their innocence
beneath the jet black surface

a half-dozen cops in riot gear
astride horses loomed
ominous before us
backlit by the headlights
of the aggravated motorists
our march had forestalled

as the people abandoned the streets
we’d won so easily
i felt my chest wilt beneath
the weight of forsaken opportunity
my eyes scanned the remaining crowd

four stood strong
rooted to the concrete
by the world's weight
anchored by conviction
an anarchist professor
an independent journalist
a climate change activist
and a freshman college student

i heard the professor whisper to his student
i heard him say she'd put herself in harm’s way
that they'd lost the day when the marchers
turned their backs and walked away
but she didn’t flinch or move an inch
she stood silent and vigilant
shoulder-to-shoulder
chin held almost as high
as her ****-smashing protest sign
and her matching *******

and in that moment
i could’ve died
smiling

It's not necessarily dangerous,
to pour gasoline,
on top of me,
I like the smell,
as I rub it in,
I rub my arms,
& gas my soaked skin,

It's only dangerous,
when you keep pouring it on me,
pouring it on me,
until I'm drenched
soaked in it,
you're poking & poking & poking,
you poke around to much,
till the fire is way too hot to touch,

Scorched hair just reaks,
in an unpleasant vaporous,
& dangerous
plume,
in such awaiting & toxic
stench filled fumes,
you never know when enough is enough,
when you get way too close,
because that gas is like my perfume,

You get too close for my comfort,
or yours,
& boy people just never learn,
by fire we will always burn,
& unafraid in ash,
again, return, return,

And as you take out,
that tempting lighter,

    Flick A Bick

I'm not going to be ashes just yet,
because you see,
I'm a fighter,

Listen,
step back,
behind the rope,
you are very near,
an extremely,
flammable accelerant,

Coming so close,
you are igniting,
certain buried,
& long forgotten fears,
bones I didn't want to dig up,

Engaging in,
a war within,
you are inciting,
me to burn,
& like you,
I too,
I never learn,
to me a burn,
might be exciting,

As I am burning,
& returning
in this old anger,
because I let it go already,
it's been gone for years an years,

Nobody likes to be to disturbed
from the stillness of a grave,
this would never be tolerated,
my soul you need to save,
would not be tolerated anywhere,
not anywhere else,
by anyone else,

Just leave me be,
I'm a smoldering coal
& a truly gentle
kind & beautiful soul,

Undisturbed I eventually,
turn into diamonds,

Until,
& unless,
that is,
until,
petrified wood finally burns,

As I'm raging out of control,
because you are a terrible arsonist,
a terrorist who stalks women,

I said,
don't stand so close to me,
I warned & warned you,
you just don't head or hear,
those warnings,

Too busy dragging,
those neanderthal knuckles,
to my door,
that's the place you cannot go,
don't set this old page ablaze,

Because I am,
my own justice system,
creating a devastating path,
that I never wanted to even take,
an enormous path
of destruction,
I will leave there,
in my wake
so for your sake,
our sake,
& everyone else's sake
for the love of God,
I don't want to destroy you,
back off from the intensity of my fire.

Hard for me to reconcile
my back woods raisin'
way down on the farm,
our simple livin'
treatin' others right
fair & square,
blue collar days,
as Merle Haggard,
is playin' in the living room,
I wish I could go back
to just yesterday,
when I BELIEVED in my President,

When the future,
President elect,
didn't say,

"Just grab'em by the *****".

Cherie Nolan © 2016

God please help us all,
our future president says,

"I will build a Great Wall,
and nobody builds walls,
better than me,
believe me-
and I'll build them very inexpensively,
I will build a great, great wall,
on our Southern border,
I will make Mexico pay for that wall
-mark my words."
                  - Donald Trump

If you look on the internet
is literally loaded
with stuff that he has said,
documented proof,
unbelievable FACTS
undisputed ones,

Let's examine this statement,
just for a second,

Is HE going to build a Great Wall?
I personally doubt it,
I doubt he's going to be building anything
since he refuses to even pay painters
their due wages,
for work they did on the Trump Towers,
why? Some AD-HOMINEM,
argument no doubt,

And what is going to make this
WALL great?
that's going to make our country great again?
more walls?
Rebuild the ones we tore down for  good reason?
Take us back to the dark ages?
Because we will no longer
accept the tired
the weak and the huddled masses,
because,
he wants us to live in a state of fear?

And nobody builds walls better than me? He really slaughters the King's English,
that aside, me?
Me, me, me, me, me-
personally speaking,
I wish people understood his
Misogynistic, egotistical, narcissistic behavior better,
I have studied behavior,
unfortunately,
and I find so many things he says,
so deeply troubling,
at a cellular level,
like a psychic attack,

He says inexpensively?
Who is he kidding?
What kind of costs are we talkin'?
from whom "The" Donald?
Even the fact that he calls himself-
"The Donald" is pretty telling, no?

Why on our Southern border?
This is the only point that we're,
weak?
If you think race was an issue,
well it really is now,
& those undocumented Mexicans,
here in Vermont,
who live close by,
maybe I should warn them?

As Canadian immigration sites crash,
as people riot in the streets,

No, it's definately personal.
I'm not leaving,
I'm not giving up,
I'm not giving up my right to bear arms
either, as folks here in my
neck of the woods,
brace themselves ,
literally and figuratively,
for Civil unrest
& war even,

Muslims are shocked,
just keep reading,

And he leaves that opening
where he says wall(s),
being plural,
speaking for one,
going all the way around
the United States,
maybe,
obstructionist politics,
Republican EVERYTHING
Senate & Congress,
equals no balance of power,

And it's really scary,
how angry he is,
and how is he exactly going to make,
the Mexicans pay?

By making us all pay.

Sorry, but I can't accept this
it goes against everything I believe in,
that WE stand for,
I am not giving up on that vision,
I may accept the outcome
for now,
but I refuse to be defeated,
this is NOT defeat,

No,
I fight on,
for everyone,
I rail against the tide turning,
we should REFUSE to drown,
to be kept behind a great wall,
as he said he would NOT
be willing to accept defeat either.

Cherie Nolan © 2016

Death comes in as such a grateful
& wanting thief,
as I stare at him,
in such complete wonder
& in my utter disbelief,
my heart is hanging low,
& so heavy,
weighted,
in it's endless
& painful grief,

Deep I am,
deep out in the melancholic blue
thoughts roll in again,
thoughts roll in,
as it's raining pain outside,
those thoughts roll in like thunder,
as I again,
I think of you,
a noble soul who loved us all so true,

I know you're where you need to be
out beyond the places I can see,
where you can run & play so free,

To do the things you could not do here
in fields of wheat to run with deer,
letting go,
... all earthly fears,

There's so much more that I
want to say
now that you have gone,
now that you've gone,
gone, gone,
away ,
& here on this very saddened day,

Please find peace in your brand new house,
with no more games to play
of cat and mouse,
a flickering light they came to douse,

As I try & try,
not to cry,
because it is never really is goodbye,
as again your legs can run so spry,

I know I'll see you again ,
my sweet, sweet,
sweetest friend,
this is not the beginning
& certainly not the end,
this message of prayer in folded hands,
to you, right now, I send,

As our heart you would always defend
now our hearts again must mend,

Thank you for the saving of our dear lives
& always quieting the tears that we cried
From our hands, an angel was just pried,
a tree fell silent in the forest
it fell to the floor as you died ,

I've prepared for you a mossy & earthy bed
for your eternal sleep please rest your sweet & weary head,
as living is a state of mind
and so is being dead,

As I fold my hands,
in a silent vigil & prayer,
I will always remember you,
this I can swear,
It'd be impossible to forget
a love
that was quite so rare
as your love is.

Cherie Nolan© 2016