The Great Disconnect

Down in de hood dhey don't get it what honky be doin' 
out in de wide lands where cream 'o de crop be acruin',
while out dhere where dhe green grass meet dhe smooth curb
dhey don't get it what dem po'boys be doin' to disturb
dhe status quo and de way t'ings are
cuz dhey don't get the gravy but only smell it from afar.
You know the state of the country it aint right;
I say you too tight;
You say me too loose.
You act like engine, make me de caboose?
You even got a clue, man?
We gotta make a new plan if we can;
R u hearin' me,
or r u fearin' me?
Shit! now h'yah come do po'. 
Even if I be friend, dey see me foe.

 
Peace and safety be upon them that work hard and do the drill
is what they say out in the wide lands filled with froth and frill,
while in the hood where the stoop step meet the street curb
hoods don't get what honkys skim out suburb.
Out here they're okay with the way things are;
they get the gravy; they drive the car.
They see the way things are as being all right,
and they're comfy being a little uptight.
They don't get loose,
aspiring to drive the engine, not ride caboose.
They have no clue, my friend,
preferring the same old plan, than to begin again.
They're not hearing dhem,
but they are fearing "them."
They say let the Po go--
let them search and seize the po'.
 
Now over in the Beltway everything is fine,
though talking heads strive to make events rhyme
by pontificating waltz in five-four times,
perpetually towing both Party lines,
keeping Libs on Left and Cons on Right:
maintaining constant Left-Right Fight.
Thou shalt not offend me! saith the Lib on the Entitled floor.
Thou shalt not tax me! saith the Con at Liberty's door.
Occupy, Occupy! rings out the Activist refrain.
Fortify, Fortify! cries the Reactionary in our never-ending game.
Don't destroy the middle class! and let them toke on grass!
You rob the middle class with tax! so Elites can sit on their ass!
Out! damned corporate ogres! the Left exhorts.
Oh quit your pouting! the 1% retorts, from their resorts.
Congress gets nothing done, because of you!
Government is the problem! Tippecanoe and TeaParty too.
 
Meanwhile all the masses come and go;
they twitter with glitter of the latest show.
 
Glass half-Full

Angela and David: Tale of Two Citizens

I was reading David's book on

why he switched sides in

the war between Left and Right,

and I was very moved by his life-changing event,

when the Panthers killed his coworker

in Oakland in 1974.

But then I took a Netflix break like

so many citizens do these days and so there was I

hearing Angela's soulful lament to a Swedish reporter

about growing up in

violence

in Birmingham, contending with KKK and Bull Connor

and for me it was like tale of two cities:

Brooklyn and Birmingham.

David grew up communist household in Brooklyn;

Angela grew up black neighborhood in Birmingham.

But then in their diverging odysseys

they both gravitated to other far-ranging places like

(tale of two cities) San Francisco and Oakland,

left and right, black and white, male and female,

gut and theory, feel and think, stare and blink.

One switched sides and the other

didn't.

Now I'm a white guy in sixties who grew up in the sixties and

I can understand why David switched from radical left to

conservative right

cuz I be little bit like that myself but not nearly as extreme as

his sitiation,

since i grew up in baton rouge, upriver from n'orleans.

That be the deep south you know where magnolias grow

and de moss hang low and de thinkin is slow

lit bit like over in Birmingham where Angela was raised up

'xcept she be black and i be white so I don't know

bout her sitiation, but she did get to study in Paris

at the Sorbonne so what does that tell you bout black folks in

Birmingham or Oakland?

Tale of two cities I guess:

theory and gut

heal and cut

oh shut

my mouth.

Glass half-Full

Left Right might fight

Right will fight,
while Left is deft
with dialectic theory;
But Left is bereft
of any reasonable query
when theoretical might
turns to gulag fright.
 
Left is cleft,
when Right makes Might
with military surging;
but Right is quite
insensitive to diplomatic urging
when armed might
explodes in war-torn blight.
 
Fascist pigs will fly
when Communist hogs do die;
Lefty cadres then wail
as Right-wing gangs prevail.
But Fascist hogs do die
when Commie pigs espy 
Right-wingers as they fail.
Collateral damages turn pale as hail.  
 
Meanwhile back at the tranche:
 
Jihadi cells collaborate
while Western minds elaborate
on Left, on Right, what's wrong, what's right,
and what will happen with the terror'd fright
when keffiyah'd thugs find Might:
Probably a fight.

Smoke