write poetry and get paid for it

“All around…
the arms of man
are tearing down
the arms of our land”

At an alarming rate, corporate America is continuously making new spaces for these retail shops that we can’t afford to even shop at. I wonder what our cities and towns will look like ten or twenty years from now if our economy continues on this downhill slope. I know; Ghost towns!
Big empty malls, shopping centers, plaza’s….empty parking lots all across our country are being seen more and more everywhere you turn.
Everywhere you go, there’s already that one, and in many cases even more, run-down shopping centers that use to be a thriving force in our local economies. And it seems like every time you turn around, “Corporate America” is in a continuous race to “stamp” every All- American town with its vast varieties of food and clothing chains.
But, with gas at an all time high, milk at a ridiculous five dollars a gallon, taxes on a continuous rise, and pretty much everything you can imagine has taken a ride on the inflation rollercoaster, with no signs of coming back down. It makes you wonder; how are we even able to keep these businesses open and thriving to the point they need to build more and more?!
I wish we could go back to the days when our “mom and pop shops”, as I like to call them, got all of our business. Remember when “real people” from our own communities handled everyone’s needs; from the local pharmacies to gas stations and restaurants. Now though, every city and town across America looks the same. We’ve all got at least one Wal-Mart and we all have the same restaurants and fast food chains. It seems though that food is the only thing we are buying anymore, which has led to us being the most obese country in the nation. But we can’t help it…it’s all we can afford. People don’t go on vacations and Sunday drives like they did when I was growing up. You just simply can’t afford to. Sadly enough, it seems like this has been part of the whole “plan”…whether it be by our own government or Corporate America, which honestly in my eyes are one in the same! With the value of the American dollar at an all time low, and everything else at all time high’s, it’s no wonder people are hit with the reality of poverty and even to the point of homelessness and higher crime rates. It use to be that some families would buy their groceries for the month and be done… now, it’s all you can do to make it week to week, or in some cases… day to day!
We have some major changes here at home that is going to have to be made… and fast! Our future and our children’s future are at stake. And I honestly don’t believe that we can trust or rely on our government to make the necessary changes to improve the lives of our people here in America. Unfortunately Corporate America and our government’s are running this great nation and in my opinion as long as they are… they’re going to continue running us in the ground!

It’s time…
Listen to the chimes;
The end is near…no rewind.
A new generation is on the rise.
From flower power, the falling Twin Towers,
Bullets raining…
April showers…
Global warming our final hours.
The Devils’ here, to devour…
Our souls;
God keep us whole.
Continue to grow, teach me so I know,
Help me when I am low.
Let the words flow…
Ever so free; like a weeping willow tree.
See…I believe I can achieve
To relieve the pain that deceives;
All that is true.
How much longer?
This I wonder…
Seems our troops are all goners’ way off, way yonder.
To Bush I’ve grown no fonder,
Of these radical theories that he ponders.
You made a mistake…
How many lives are you willing to take?
At this rate, what is our fate?
Checkmate…we took the bait…
Wake up America, this world is fake.
Before it’s too late,
We have a choice to make…
To face, to embrace, to join the race…
The time is here, take your place!

What kind of world do we live in?
A world full of darkness, a world full of sin.
More people vote for American Idol…these terrorists, they’re suicidal
Don’t think twice, they’ll kill us all
We rose as a nation…and as a nation we’ll fall.
Don’t you see, we’re losing the ability;
To live free with liberty and prosperity.
Our lives are a gamble, we don’t have a handle
Losing air…we’re being strangled.
Suffering to breath in a nation in need…
How many of our soldiers have to bleed?
Bush has deceived, continues to mislead and proceed at full speed.
There’s no turning back from the attack, the hi-jacks… we fell off track.
Our president is whack, not the sharpest thumbtack.
Clinton comeback, pick up the slack, our world is pitch-black.
Memories of good times are only flashbacks.
Global warming’s got us driving hatchbacks
Our jobs are being cutback, mail is full of anthrax
People living in shacks, our country now lacks
Since Bush reacts and hacks, raises the tax, we begin to sidetrack…
Fallback, from the life that we know…
We’re losing airflow, running outta ammo,
We’re a hundred feet below what he wants us to know
He’s livin’ in the shadow, a graucho, a psycho…so shallow and yellow.
So many wives are widows
Looking out the windows as her only child grows.
So many sorrows that only she knows.
So much he owes for the lies exposed.
Our lives are now froze…fear only shows, glows like rainbows.
We feel every blow that our president throws.
Bruised and confused is how we remain…
We refrain and contain the thoughts in our brain.
As we feel the pain and try to regain…
Explain to our children all the bloodstains;
The grief, no relief from our Commander in Chief
Takin’ all he wants, the world’s biggest thief.
But I have the belief…we’ll turn over a new leaf..
We’ve risen and we’ve fallen,
Our God will come callin’ and save us all from the fall
He will cure-all…
Bush ain’t got the gaul to play hardball,
He’ll land in a pitfall
And we will only recall this one hell of a very long haul!

Turn on the news and see what we see…
Headline after headline, the mood bothers me.
Nation against Nation, crime upon crime…
When will it be over, this fight in our time?
For the next generation, sort this we must,
in our lifetimes restore find faith and trust.

Choice in our leaders, united we stand,
we need to work hard to protect this land.
Lay down our arms, nuclear and all,
the one that moves first, is bound to stand tall.

History repeated, year after year,
all this poison, polluting our air.
Nothing is gained from turmoil and woe,
there’s nowhere to hide, where would we go?

Technology advancing on the human brain,
not moving forward when it causes such pain.
Use all the gadgets to learn and to teach,
without any brooding or a long drawn out speech.

Help is needed for the human race.
Let’s all act as one, with dignity and grace!
If we all fight together then the battle we will win…
The knowledge is there, just find it within.

Dear World,
I just need to say I’m sorry
I don’t know why I’m the only one apologizing
It’s not like I run this nation or world
or ever could
You see, I’m strong, but weak
A woman with an open heart and open mind
I could never be the leader
‘cause I don’t even fit in…
with the people who surround me,
but I digress
World, I am so sorry that
We, the human race,
Are truly fucking up…
Killing each other over lies,
over money, over oil, over religions,
over skin color
I know we’ve been doing it forever,
But I think after some dozen and a half centuries
We should grow up, mature a bit
And come to see that putting holes
in you
And in each other
may be hurting you…
Which is really hurting ourselves,
but we’re naïve.
World,
Some of us know how grand
and beautiful you could be…
but we’ve never known you that way.
So we don’t know how to change it.
Could you try to hold off any natural disasters
or catastrophic events for a little while?
This ruling generation is almost over
and my generation will be coming up soon…
and I know it seems like forever
but I promise, we’ll try hard
We’ll find some way to fix it
so just hold on world…
Please,
We’re not ready to lose you this way!

What ever happened to the majority voice?
The ‘Patriot Act’ is not our choice.
What has this time come to be?
Let’s go back in history…

Feudal times came about
Over taxation, lands confiscated
That’s when serfdom came about
Work the land for the other man
Eating tidbits from his hand

Passing bills against our will
Call it what you may
We are entering a dark day
The inquisition of the thirteenth century
Proven to be an act against humanity
Is what the ’Patriot Act’ is meant to be
Replayed again in this country
Roman slaughter, Hitler too
Is this what we are leading to?

Acts and laws like this corrupt our land
Misconstrued in the wrong hands
Without a voice you have no choice
All at stake, much to lose
If you should be the one they choose!

A world in which half have no food,
Crying in starvation, fear of being viewed.
A life in which nothing is taken for granted,
Every drop of water, every seed planted.

Developed countries reach out their helping hands,
Yet the people are only looking for someone who understands…
Their position, their suffering, their struggle to exist,
instead of being names, on a shriveled up list.

Living on the many scraps that can be found in the land…
After a while
Even crushed grain becomes bland.
Endeavoring to live on what the world has dealt them,
Asking the question, why are we so condemned?

Their poor condition doesn’t have to be,
Living in a country that a quarter of the world can feed.
The food does not go to the poor or the needy,
But more to us, the wanting and the greedy.

Taking the food out of their mouth,
Putting it in a boat, and sending it south.
If the food was kept, inside their nation,
They would now live and avoid starvation.

My dreams are of feeding these lonely and deprived.
The thousands who starve everyday,
Unable to survive,
Not to hand out food, or start a disruption
No, but to defeat the monstrous enemy,
That of corruption.

If we have a social structure that supports every person.
Then why should we sit back while their conditions only worsen.
We give the occasional dollar,
We might do the 40 hour famine,
Yet when we finish those 40 hours,
We sit and eat their salmon.

The key to obliterate the intense poverty of these nations,
is not by feeding them, or handing out vaccinations.
The key is to get them
Looking after themselves,
For them to keep their produce in which we place on our shelves.

So HI- HO everyone to your stations,
Around the table and lets start negotiations,
Lets bring down the corruption that smothers these nations,
by encouraging these governments to lay down some foundations

For a better life for every single soul
That three times a day they could live and fill their bowl.
And maybe everyone here will agree,
there is plenty of salmon, in our own damn sea!

Is it for goodness that we act?
Have we been given all the facts?
Is there some payment we retract?
(A dark and dubious secret contract?)
Are we truly free in the U.S., Are we?
Is this democracy or oligarchy?
And is our Congress truly sorry?
For having created the first U.S. monarchy?
All the lies and secrets are sealed away,
by “executive privilege” from the light of day.
And while dissident voices are kept at bay,
do “We the People” really have a say?
Do hate and war really make peace?
Should our highways to private investors be leased?
Do we owe our bounty to terror’s increase?
Will this obsession with money ever cease?
Somewhere behind a roll-top desk
Sits the coterie I most detest;
The World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO
Sit back and laugh while they count their gold.
While the World sits poised at the end of their quill,
“Will it make us more money? No, then, KILL, KILL, KILL!”
They don’t care if an innocent dies,
They never hear the children’s cries.
They detonate their cluster bombs,
And disregard the bleeding throngs.
When will the U.S. ever see
that foreign policy doesn’t have to be
Real politic and hegemony; an “us” v. “them” mentality?
If We the People could have our say,
Then we could make war go away.
Then peace and “power of the people” could prevail,
and the whole damn world wouldn’t be for sale!
And if our crimes and extortion desist,
there’d be no reason for the world to resist:
Asia no longer a Petrie dish; where our sins incite the terrorist.
If war is over, no weapons would we need
GE & Westinghouse would lose all their feed.
But take heart, with all the money they’ve received,
They could spend more time on philanthropy
(Maybe even give us some GOOD TV).
So fellow citizens, read a book or two
And become informed- it’s a patriot’s due!
Then you may find what is really true:
That propaganda shames the “red, white, and blue!”

Who is the REAL terrorist here?
Who’s the person we should fear?
Who is taking away our rights,
Sending America into a dark night?
Who’s re-written our Constitution
So that he may have his Ultimate Solution?
Who pretends to hate terrorism,
When the biggest terrorist of all IS him?
I think I’m starting to get the picture;
To see:
That all of us citizens must agree
that we are not subject to his administration,
But it’s HE who is subject to US: the whole nation!
And the same goes for Congress as well,
Who have been too pusillanimous to tell
The President when he oversteps his bounds;
They vote in tow, and make no protest sounds.
It’s “We the People,” not “I the President,”
And Mr. Bush, it’s you resent!
You can be sure we will voice our dissent
of the dangerous precedents in which you have set.
Fellow Citizens;
It’s time to cry out!
To make our voices heard;
To yelp and shout!
We will not stand by and let a dictator’s fear
destroy the freedom that we hold so dear!

Don’t be so quick to blame the “terrorists,”
When our President is the one who persists
in scraping away at our Bill of Rights
while pretending that it’s terror that he fights.
If he really wanted to “keep us safe,”
He’d have more respect for the United States!
He’d protect our liberty
Instead of employing hegemony-
Creating many reasons for the world to hate us,
If only the world could only hear us patriots!
World, we want to say to you:
We seem to have no more power than you;
Right now we don’t have a democratic republic-
But a dictatorship- we are sick of it.
We have no voice or privacy,
And our Congress is yet more fearful than we,
So you see, even though they represent us
They lack the courage to uphold justice for us.
Again and again they pass these “laws.”
At the ankles of Freedom, these “laws,” they gnaw.
Until our rights as citizens are bloody and raw,
Leaving Lady Liberty in Shock and Awe.
Are we the terrorists, President Bush?
Why is it fear that you want to push?
Do you suppose that we all buy your sell:
That we are either “with you” or we can go to hell?
Well, Mr. Bush, you’re well on your way;
you’ve committed more crimes than a jury could say.
And when history looks back at your administration,
the reader will REJOICE at your defenestration.
How dare you take it upon yourself
to place our Constitution upon a shelf?
To give yourself power over justice,
When, in fact, all sovereignty rests with us?
(The People)