"legislators" poems
I wrote a poem against gun violence because students should not have to go to school aching in fear of not making it home alive.
I wrote a poem against gun violence because so many people are going to take their own lives today.
I wrote a poem against gun violence because it targets women, minorities, to the point where they cannot be outside of their homes in the evenings.
I wrote a poem against gun violence because too many veterans are at risk of dying by their own hands
I wrote a poem against gun violence because mental health is SERIOUS
I wrote a poem against gun violence because I am an aunt of two and I want my nephews to live full, happy lives
I want to ask my legislators what they’re going to do when they come for their
children
Their spouses
Nieces, and nephews
Grandchildren
Friends
Call me a snowflake, if you will
If that’s what standing for what’s right makes me, then I’m proud of it
I’m the snowflake that wants you all to stay alive
That stands for what’s right when they don’t have the guts to
And sweetheart, this snowflake doesn’t melt
Mar 27, 2019
Mar 27, 2019 at 8:14 PM UTC
The young poet Evmenis
complained one day to Theocritus:
"I've been writing for two years now
and I've composed only one idyll.
It's my single completed work.
I see, sadly, that the ladder
of Poetry is tall, extremely tall;
and from this first step I'm standing on now
I'll never climb any higher."
Theocritus retorted: "Words like that
are improper, blasphemous.
Just to be on the first step
should make you happy and proud.
To have reached this point is no small achievement:
what you've done already is a wonderful thing.
Even this first step
is a long way above the ordinary world.
To stand on this step
you must be in your own right
a member of the city of ideas.
And it's a hard, unusual thing
to be enrolled as a citizen of that city.
Its councils are full of Legislators
no charlatan can fool.
To have reached this point is no small achievement:
what you've done already is a wonderful thing."
4.2k
they've been involving themselves
in all sorts of corrupt deals
and the ICAC
is calling them in
to give accounts
of their underhanded deals
many Labor politicians
have fronted to tell their tales
so have ****** figures
who've left not so tidy trails
the head of the commission
is apprising himself
with the corruption stealth
the shady deals
the money exchanges
those fine upstanding
legislators
caught in the net
rife these practices
have been...
and in time
they've been seen to be
not so clean
dossiers on those
who've had their hands
in the defrauding game
shall have them
well cuffed
and they'll only
have themselves to blame
Dec 31, 2013
Dec 31, 2013 at 4:59 AM UTC
1. The Race Card: Whether it be in suggesting that anyone who doesn’t vote for him because he is black is probably a republican, or in blaming Bush administration racism on a slow response to Hurricane Katrina, Obama is quite comfortable playing the race card.
2. Anti-Indian: After the Obama campaign released a paper disparaging other candidates for their ties to the Indian-American community, the chairman of the bipartisan US India Political Action Committee, Sanjay Puri, stated that the Obama Campaign was “engaging in the worst kind of anti-Indian American stereotyping.” Of course, Obama denied any hand in the racist document put out by his campaign.
3. Corrupt Buddies: Tony Rezko, a long time friend and fund-raiser for Obama, was indicted last fall on federal charges that accuse him of demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state business. When asked about his friend, Obama said, “I’ve never done any favors for him.” This turned out to be a lie, as evidence turned up proving that Obama had written letters to city and state officials praising Rezko’s business practices.
4. Wal-Mart Ties: While bashing of Wal-Mart’s labor practices in public, Obama has been profiting from their business through the money his wife made as a member of the board of directors for a company that produces food for the mega-corporation.
5. Religious Ties: Is Obama a Muslim? Is he a Christian? Nobody is 100% sure, but it is true that Obama was raised in a Muslim family and at one time attended an Islamic school. He currently claims to be a convert to Christianity, but some are concerned about his Muslim upbringing.
6. Anti-Second Amendment: Obama is one of the most anti-Second Amendment legislators in the country. He supports a ban the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.
7. Gas-guzzler: Obama might attack American automakers for not making enough environmental friendly automobiles, but when he goes home he drives a gas-guzzling V-8 hemi-powered Chrysler 300.
8. Obama Ringtones: The most annoying campaign tool ever.
9. Obama Girl: I take back what I said about the ringtones. This girl is far more annoying.
10. His Unelectable Name: Barack Hussein Obama, ’nuff said.
Jul 15, 2014
Jul 15, 2014 at 10:05 PM UTC
There exists a mystical and quadruple representation of words, which is likened to a dictatorial Superstate, where translation is subject to that which is spoken, heard, written and read within the context of trans-national capitalism.
As we gaze from beyond the glow of the pulsating circumference, we can humbly acknowledge the ludicrous predicament of the many who are ruled by the few.
The parameters of this earthen citizenship may be somewhat characterized by embracing the perceived benefits of the system and a state of financially intoxicated anosognosia. However, as we traverse this metaphysical cataclysm where the majority votes of public arrangement diametrically oppose absolute law and that which is deemed to be reasonable; our compulsory co-operation self-regulates with a cardiovascular beat of semantic propaganda and monopolized dissention, where the relinquished rights of our revered forefathers have been re-written by coercive legislators in the name of socio-political equality.
The philosophy of meaning and political expression both buries into and removes her gorgeous face from the cuniform textures of Sahara catacombs, where we ****** relate and disengage from the **** with tyranny.
Sep 4, 2015
Sep 4, 2015 at 12:43 AM UTC
LONELY TELEPHONE
September 20, 1989 – London
City teenagers hurling about within their lives
Absurd places to live in, I feel
Consequences never being understood
And so, mindless action and devastating hurt ensues again
And times are uncaring
Didn’t you know?
Walls bare, barren and sweating frightening you
But why?
Pay shall be low!
So it was decreed
By legislators light years
Away from us
So bleed on;
Your brain is unaware
Friends fade soon
Opportunities sinister and momentary wanted you
Lonely telephone
That you gaze at
In your gloomy, wet room
Irrelevant information piles up within
Recognizable faces mean little to you
Glamorous personalities all conform
Times are repetitive and cliché-like
Humans!
Growing older so soon?
Days monotone continue passing by
And so your life styles remain intact.
----
Dec 23, 2009
Dec 23, 2009 at 6:51 AM UTC
Legislators of social stigmatization
hand out identity before child birth,
reluctantly judged by your pigmentation,
you're given a name
and a pew in a church,
assigned to a gender with implications,
while ATM balance determines your worth
Bugs will certainly inherit the Earth
Disguised as your neighborhood
privacy invaders,
cops kick in the door
at your mother's front porch,
enforcing law written by legislators
for a routine seizure and search
Police brutality couldn't mask the depravity
of their warrants nomenclature
Capitalist crusaders terrorize Americans,
but can't keep the bugs
from their Earth inheritance
Men will shroud their evil nature
Malicious intent hides below the glacier
Camouflaged vindictive behavior
is electing dictators across the equator
Truth serenaders lobby for
congressional persuaders
to pardon these murderous
capitalist crusaders,
fitting agendas with tailor made suits,
who infect Mother Earth deep in her roots
Antibiotics couldn't heal or stop this
infection these players gave her
Pray for fire and fury
to burn away worry
when bugs surely crawl from the dirt
to inherit what's left of our Mother Earth
May 8, 2020
May 8, 2020 at 6:30 AM UTC
Parliament's headquarters--Back alley for smokes n' such.
Politicians deliberating on the bread and the butter
While the starving go hungry and the Truth begins to suffer.
Never point to the signs on the wall
12 steps, Denial before the fall.
Consumerist, zombie shuffle back to the car, the market's full up.
Look for the polyethylene creamer. Metallic coated groceries
For the plastic (PORTIS issued) consumer.
"Coke is it" they would say as they take the morning grind (black/two sugar.)
Racists make the sea of Policy makers and warmongers,
Bathing in other's poverty, hunger and pain;
Fearing death before the climb, G-d before the fall
Slashing at the necks of basilisks until they turn to stone.
Blind and petrified to the core,
I swear God, Parliament will smoke no more.
Comes along the Harbinger, you've got one new message.
Message one, There is no god, only me. I'm your Hypocrisy.
Cry to an empty thought, kid the kidders, sin among sinners.
Shamble back to Parliament's sanctuary, the legislators are in,
Let Smokes n' Such begin.
Jun 13, 2013
Jun 13, 2013 at 11:53 PM UTC
You have your demagogic president-elect,
Dreaming in shades of Mussolini
And will sit in his downtown skyscraper and laugh that all the populists
Were not in on the joke,
And thus could not be in on the punchline.
The progressives hotboxed the shower the night we handed the country to Trump.
Pennsylvania, the center of the cataclysm.
The vortex has opened and engulfed all the steel,
All of the illegal immigrants have been scooped up and swallowed,
Reproductive rights will be voided in a stacked Supreme Court validating the opinions of white male legislators.
Tensions twisting to contort and ignore the onset realization
That all progress is halted to return the country to the era of segregation,
Deportation Gestapo formed with the lone intent to displace the children of those who dared to dream of a brighter life.
America, look what you've done and face yourself with your objections.
Look dead in your eyes and see all the minorities, tears in the diaries of closeted teenagers,
And the judicial dread of the gentleman who only wants to live comfortably with his husband.
You've made stepping stones of the counterculture, all crying in dorm rooms or next to their gardens,
All together in sorrow.
Underground America has been sold out,
We're a social experiment for what can happen when sulfuric acid is poured upon the voiceless.
The silent majority has shut us up.
We've been yelling to change history and now are tracking back.
Bigotry is back in style and I'm terrified.
Nov 9, 2016
Nov 9, 2016 at 12:22 PM UTC
By: Cedric McClester
Just another day
Of gun violence and fear
In the United States
So by now it should be clear
That our legislators
Must not even care
They haven’t taken action
Since they’ve been in there
Just another day
Of gun violence and fear
Permeating acrid smoke
In the atmosphere
Bodies lying motionless
After the smoke clears
And it’s happening so frequently
We’ve run out of tears
Just another day
Of gun violence and fear
But we’re not talking Middle East
It’s happening right here
Every week we seem to have
Another cross to bare
But the NRA will usually say
That we shouldn’t despair
Just another day
Of gun violence and fear
The question is how do we
Make it disappear
Before we meet our Armageddon
In a clearing near
If you have a good answer
Would you care to share?
Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved.
Dec 3, 2015
Dec 3, 2015 at 10:23 AM UTC
Dear White Male Legislators,
I had no idea you all have vaginas!
It seems like you can all take them on and off
At exactly the instances in which it benefits you politically.
Perry, ******** Bright
You all seem pretty concerned with making reproductive rights for women
Fairly obsolete.
Dear White Male Legislators,
You see, we, as females, do not have the option
Of running the other way if our partner gets pregnant
Leaving her in the dust of our mistakes
Being able to pay a fee every month
Not because we care about our children
But because it will keep our deadbeat ***** from seeing the inside of a jail cell
No, we as women do not have those choices
Men do.
And our bodies are not made for your
Political platform or religious debate
No, our figures exist because we exist
And we are people, too.
Dear White Male Legislators,
Our bodies are ours
And they do not belong to a male-dominated government
That seeks to attack them and by doing so
Deems **** culture socially acceptable
Without uttering a word about it.
Dear White Male Legislators,
Have you experienced the shame or stigma
That comes along with even just visiting an abortion clinic's website?
Clearly, if you are ***** and your abuser is not kind enough to use a ******
Not having your body shut down as you say and I quote happens during
"Legitimate ****
Putting yourself and your unborn descendent at risk if you deliver
Having *** and being unable to deal with the unintended consequences
Makes you a ***** a **** or a *****
While the man who put you in this position
Cannot control his urges to knock up the first woman he finds even moderately attractive.
Dear White Male Legislators,
You must be pretty important
If you can play God and judge all of these helpless women
Call what they are doing a sin
And **** them to Hell both
In death and in life.
Dear White Male Legislators,
I hope you never get any woman pregnant
Who hopes to be even slightly independent
Or make any decisions on her own
Especially if they involve the rights to her body.
With you,
She will be a byproduct of sexism
And so will your offspring.
Dear certain White Male Legislators,
In closing,
If you truly care about the good of our country and its people
Never procreate.
Oct 22, 2014
Oct 22, 2014 at 11:30 PM UTC
A distrust of details…
Ample amounts of reporting,
And eroding authority;
More freeze-thaw cycles,
Upswells, dead zones. Early signs
Wash up onto the shore, as the
Earth’s core continues to warm.
Hurricanes play mercilessly with
Uninsured lives, and earthquakes
Evolve from tickles to fissures.
Snow disappears from
Whole mountainsides.
The floodgates HAVE opened, temperatures ARE
Rising; Perception is always partial
but there’s plenty of evidence, regardless -
When we start to question the record-keepers
And legislators, those omitting parts of history;
People who willingly walk into the sun, selfishly
Sidestep the natural order and equilibrium of all things,
Exactly where does that journey end?
I think, somewhere around the place
Where we start to forge our own histories,
Or indifference begins.
Aug 31, 2011
Aug 31, 2011 at 1:37 AM UTC
I spoke with two people at the party Saturday.
A young police officer, short-haired, fit,
chiseled face who had two young children.
He felt constrained by the law, without discretion
to question mopes (perps) aggressively
or to let go those who were obviously no threat.
Even at a family function he seemed straight-backed, correct,
devoted to his role as our protector (and his children’s)
yet I thought perhaps too deeply in debt, indentured
to the rules and laws of legislators and destined
to be disappointed (or worse). I thought his courage
and devotion (to whom or what?) would surely
be poorly repaid and that this lesson
was necessary to ready him with wisdom
for death or further living. I worried like a brother
about the unpredictable dangers, even terrors,
he must daily face, and the pleasure he takes in facing them.
How will he return to the fragility of family,
of the soul alone, after wielding the force
of the state, the blind, combined will of us all?
Next a business exec, retired from a well known
global investment firm. At first we talked about
the lush beauty of the northeast compared to the arid west
(although he loves every inch of the west, too).
Then somehow we got beyond light conversation
when he complained about the perceived decline in values
for instance how the Ten Commandments can’t be publicly
displayed. He said we can all agree on God
but I said I have a mechanistic view of the universe
(although the unknowable always sits just out of reach
of the known). I told him my dad’s theory of reincarnation,
a good man and a corporate seeker of God also, whose shoes
I could never fill unless I swore belief in a supreme being.
No hard feelings. Then he told me the story
of his dying friend, an atheist, not even a deist
like the founding fathers, who opened his eyes for the last time
to correct the exec’s misperception that now he’d meet his maker.
Having exceeded the bounds of acceptable conversation
I went looking for my children. Nothing more to question.
Oct 11, 2022
Oct 11, 2022 at 7:27 AM UTC
I dont know if it was because of the book you were reading
Or if it was because the curvature of your sloped spine
insinuated you were tired
Or maybe it was because you just looked lonely
But, you looked like you could write poetry
it could’ve been the pen marks on your fingers
Or the tan lines across your neck
But eyes like that don’t just sit down
Eyes like that start fires in my cheeks
And picket signs in my chest
And **** off legislators
But more importantly they make me want to write
I don’t know if it was the way your jaw clenched you
Or the way your tongue bit your teeth
But you looked like you could recite poetry
And even worse, I wanted to listen
I wanted to be your commitee, outreach, moral support
I wanted to be your pen, paper, microphone, clothes on your back
I wanted to be anything that touched your skin, touching me
You’re least favorite feeling is when your holding back tears and your face is about to explode
There’s reasons why the clouds look so heavy before falling
God can hold so much in
You said you don’t believe in luck, but you’re a firm believer in hope
That three leaf clovers weren’t done growing when they were plucked
That when a lady bug didn’t land on your hand,
A premature baby somewhere is using his grasp his mother’s finger
For the first time
I want to hear the poetry that you’ll write about the
spaces between your fingers
It will be the closest i’ll ever get to holding them
you were born an angry baby.
with tears in your eyes
But i use to poetry to say they weren’t angry.
just eyes dancing.
Feb 27, 2014
Feb 27, 2014 at 3:17 PM UTC
I dreamed the day finally arrived
When ALL people realized
And understood why Donald Trump
Deserved to be so despised.
People everywhere saw through
His empty words, his lies, his act,
His bigoted, odious promises,
His thought process so inexact.
No one acknowledged his asinine tweets
Or listened to his divisive rants.
No one went to his vacuous rallies
And started shouting racist chants.
No one let him- or herself
Be duped by the man's endless stream
Of worthless gibberish and hateful talk
That once made non-supporters scream.
Our country had respect again
From countries worthy of respect.
Foreign relations were also mended
After having suffered neglect.
No longer did we admire
Autocrats and dictators.
We looked up to our allies and praised
Diplomatic negotiators.
The voices of white supremacy
Were drowned by voices of love and inclusion.
Voting rights would be protected.
That became a foregone conclusion.
Russia and other countries couldn't
Interfere with our elections.
All people living in
The U.S. had equal protections.
Religious freedom meant that people
Could practice beliefs across the nation
And NOT use religion as
A handy excuse for discrimination.
Clean air and clean water
Became a focus, AND what's more,
Climate change wasn't considered
A silly hoax that we should ignore.
Children were not separated
From parents at our border gate.
People weren't dehumanized
And made to feel second rate.
The taxation system was fair
And benefited not only the wealthy.
Everyone had health insurance
With emphasis on being healthy.
To presidential abuse of power
Legislators said farewell.
And egomaniacal Donald Trump
Languished in a prison cell.
What a dream--what a vision--
Where joyous hopes began anew!
If only it could come to fruition!
It would be a dream come true.
-by Bob B (7-19-19)
Jul 19, 2019
Jul 19, 2019 at 8:20 AM UTC
What are we doing right now to save our teenage girls and boys
Out on city streets selling their bodies and being treated like
Throwaway toys. We need to raise protesting voices to our legislators
And really make some voting noise in an effort to save
The unprotected children every girl and boy. This is a daily problem in
Our country. We see with open eyes our children hurting and dying
And far to wise. We owe it to all of our children in Philadelphia
And around the world a clean and loving childhood every boy and girl
Human life people, should not be viewed as cheap
Far to many are dying away from home on the mean and ***** streets
And before you lay a tired head down to sleep tonight
In your warm and clean bed, what about the children?
Dec 1, 2015
Dec 1, 2015 at 10:20 AM UTC
By: Cedric McClester
The profit motive inspires our lust
Money is the god in which we trust
And justice hasn’t ever been for us
Seems like all the breaks
Go to the upper crust
Those on Wall Street love to speculate
On the backs of the middle class
Who must carry the freight
Prisons now are being run for profit
State legislatures casually adopt it
Increasingly more states are tryin’ to cop it
Is there anyone, anywhere to stop it
Neo-slavery has become big business
Avarice and greed caused them to rig this
And none among us can afford to ig’ this
Is it necessary for me to go down the pig list
As legislators continue to shoot the breeze
Like an orange Puerto Rico has been squeezed
And Islanders are forced to beg the US please
They’d just like a chance to get up off their knees
Prisons now are being run for profit
State legislatures casually adopt it
Increasingly more states are tryin’ to cop it
Is there anyone, anywhere to stop it
Some clearly might question
Has the deck been stacked
Against a certain class of people
Who have been attacked
And if they had the resources
They seem to lack
They might be better equipped
To fight back
There are certain facts here
I’ve tried to expose
That have been camouflaged
For how long God only knows
It’s high time they’re revealed
I would suppose
And that’s the role here
That I must have chose
Prisons now are being run for profit
State legislatures casually adopt it
Increasingly more states are tryin’ to cop it
Is there anyone, anywhere to stop it
The profit motive inspires our lust
Money is the god in which we trust
And justice hasn’t ever been for us
Seems like all the breaks
Go to the upper crust
Those on Wall Street love to speculate
On the backs of the middle class
Who must carry the freight
Cedric McClester Copyright © 2016. All rights reserved.
Mar 31, 2016
Mar 31, 2016 at 8:48 AM UTC
If in the basket of deplorables must I be,
To quote a term most used by sweetest Hilary,
Then let me state this best I can,
I'm voting for our country, not the man.
A country where race and gender aren't the bait,
But where everyone is open to debate,
United by a sense of common pride
Holding back divisions’ surging tide.
Where knowledge of our strength is used for good,
And our intent for peace is not misunderstood;
Making clear to tyrants our firm resolve,
So that by dialogue not war may they
squabbles solve.
A nation where our people are first in line
And not succumb to disadvantages or imported crime,
From open borders with illegals pouring through,
With misguided politicians caring more for them than you.
Where doctrine is replaced by common sense,
From the fringes seeking dominance hell-bent.
Boys competing fully in girls sport,
No reasoned thought for when children to abort.
Politicians’ vanity projects not worth
Squandering our money with intent and
unrequited mirth;
While millions live in poverty and need,
Ignored by legislators craving fame and intellectual greed.
I want our leaders to respect our flag,
And not applaud when to the ground protestors stomp and drag;
And for why, but to score a series of cheap shots,
Empowering radicals to ferment those never ending plots.
So yes, my vote goes to just my country,
And if a name must I choose, I say this humbly,
My selection won't be for one that's woke,
Or that will seek to send our country broke.
Politicians convince themselves they're special,
They are in fact a wallowing empty vessel,
Using their guile and mimic to impress,
When truth be told, they almost invariably depress.
Oct 27, 2024
Oct 27, 2024 at 1:44 PM UTC
The White House game of musical chairs continues.
Trump has once again a change of taste.
Rex Tillerson, who has been serving as his
Secretary of State, is being replaced.
The new appointee will be Mike Pompeo--
A sycophantic yes-man through and through.
Trump will soon have the cabinet he wants,
He says--in short, his loyal retinue.
Why always this constant change of heart?
Why not pick the right ones from the start?
The personal assistant to the president
Was walked off White House grounds without his jacket.
He must have done something pretty outrageous.
Take THAT political nut and try to crack it!
Serious financial crimes appeared
To be the cause of McEntee's removal.
But he now has a job on Trump's campaign;
So much he has the president's approval!
Such a move: could you call it smart,
Knowing what we know from the start?
House Republicans investigating
The Russia connection say the case is closed
Without having conducted a thorough query.
Their true motivations have been exposed.
How sad when our legislators' desires
To seek out truth and clarity are sparse,
And favoring Party over the American people,
They turn an investigation into a farce!
Republicans on the committee did their part
To sabotage the process from the start.
-by Bob B (3-14-18)
Mar 14, 2018
Mar 14, 2018 at 10:12 AM UTC
He was, to be sure, very impressive indeed,
His bearing and carriage not of someone on his way
As much as one who had truly arrived:
Sleek, self-assured, possessing the calm of one
Who fully understands just how powerful he is,
One who has not embraced the company culture
As much as self-immersed in it,
To the point where it has so permeated his structure
That is hard to tell where he begins and it ends.
And yet, there is something unsettling there,
The odd non sequiturs, disturbing enough
In their utter and unconscious wrong-headedness,
But even more so
In the motorized, perfunctory method of their delivery,
As if it were obvious that it is we who are clearly incorrect.
Some three hours of drive time away,
Past any number of Holiday Inn Expresses,
Past numerous faded and shuttered Catskill resorts,
A handful of people carrying standard-issue banker’s boxes
Containing the detritus of twenty or thirty years of work
Exit the vestigial office the company maintains in its birthplace
(Only there as a nod to history, a sop to the locals and legislators.)
We hate to lose good people,
The HR person who drove up for the occasion
Intones solemnly to a handful of reporters
Who slouch nonchalantly in folding chairs
Scattered about a small, Seventies-wood-paneled conference room,
*But there are certain market inefficiencies at work,
International incidents, kinks in the supply chain,
Other anomalies the forecasting tools
And business models couldn’t have foreseen*.
And as he speaks, one of the newly superfluous
Wordlessly enters her car, pointing it homeward,
Across the sluggish, ice-clogged Susquehanna traversing a bridge Commemorating a giant of cash registers and calculators.
Sep 21, 2021
Sep 21, 2021 at 12:25 PM UTC
working at the bookstore,
searching for the words
though I’m 49
still at times a Theo-nerd
poetry beats prose
it’s a truth some cannot face
the unacknowledged legislators
of the human race
Shelley was quite right
a Pythagorean who could own it
the music is the mystery
from the sacred silence shown it
so write your verse quite carefully
and sing from your deep heart
future folk will listen
and live by your true art
Jan 14, 2019
Jan 14, 2019 at 10:29 PM UTC