by Carey Lenehan
Well, Hell, America!
What did you expect?
Did you really think things would be any different,
just because,
you backed a horse of a different colour,
because it said it would change,
the Unchangeable,
because you were promised, a status flux,
because it said, we can,
when it really meant to leave
the rest of you at the door?
What did you expect?
That prejudice would disappear
and find unity stabled in its place?
Really?
Did you think that the truth would out,
that the power-mongers would relinquish
their uranium grasp
and give the world back to you
on the heels of a fresh contender?
Did you?
No, I don’t think you did.
I think you all knew that,
what was started
could not be stopped by a change of bloodline,
that the greedy
had already stripped the meat off the bones
leaving a clacking, skeletal America
dancing frenzied,
all the way to the banks.
I think you saw
that relentless corruption
had murdered the American Dream
and become an irrevocable torrent
that would only overwhelm and submerge your lives
in an ocean of indebtedness
for a hundred years.
Not even Man O’ War could’ve beaten those odds
or overcome that handicap.
Here you are, America,
at the end of the road of opportunity
and self-fulfilment,
brought down by the rapacious appetite
of uncontrollable capitalism.
So tell me, how’d that work out for you?
And when you vote for the next horse,
don’t expect earnest promises
to change much about your falling society
because,
Only YOU can do that.
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February 22, 2012. Tags: american dream, Barack Obama, breakdown of capitalism, corruption, economy, equality, George Bush, government, greed, homeless in america, homelessness, news, NWO, politicians, politics, poverty, us election 2012. current events, economy, news, poetry, political poetry, political writing, politics, US Election 2012, writing. .
Oh Bama baby, oh drama maybe
You’ve lost your way, dropped the ball
Mislaid your marbles, hit your wall.
You over-estimate our surprise
At your recent admissions of political demise
For we remember all your previous positions
Your frank and honest new conditions
We remember you said that power wouldn’t change you
That the dreams we all shared
You promised to force through
That you pledged to keep faith with the grassiest roots
Not be corrupted by schemers in suits
Guantanamo Bay? Remember that pledge?
How did that priority get pushed off the ledge?
And what about an end to those unjust wars
To the broken boys and unsettled scores?
Don’t you remember that you promised us more?
That we will not forget the lies you ignore
Or the twisted words of those we deplore
Want my support for the next time round?
Yeah, right.
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April 18, 2011. Tags: Afghanistan, anti-war, Barack Obama, corruption, election, government, news, politicians, politics. current events, poetry, political poetry, political writing, politics. .
and a poem, of course…
Okay, well whilst I’m in no way advocating the actions of Joe Stack in Austin, Texas recently, I did take the time to read his ‘manifesto’ (suicide note) which you can find widely on line.
It made me wonder, what it really takes for an ordinary guy to lose it so completely? His letter, if you believe any of it, clearly shows you why. Of course he will now be vilified by the media and deemed a terrorist by society, but I challenge you to find five things in his reasoning that you disagree with. Everything he wrote I’m hearing said a lot by Americans these days. He reached the point where his life was not worth continuing and seems to have been attempting to do something to make change happen. So what does it take to step over the line, and how many more Joe Stacks are we going to see over the months to come?
Is he a martyr for the dying American dream, or a nutjob with a grudge?
You tell me.
Rolling ‘Isms by Carey Lenehan
Inspiration, expressionism,
as slippery as an oiled rope
or an iced eel,
as elusive as an alien encounter
and
equally inexplicable,
febrile and fluctuating,
so that every attempt
to clutch and secure it for nourishment,
admonition,
or rescue
is nullified
and fluttering fingertips,
stroke only the merest hint of creativity
before encountering,
empty space…
Idealism, as ephemeral as a notion
held in the head of an opium poppy,
or couched in the eye
of an insurgent child,
paraded in the hopes and dreams
of proud patriots,
trampled beneath burgeoning immorality,
no more now,
than a momentary glimmer
of human possibility,
eroded by reality
and the benefit of experience,
clouded by daily misery
or a sense that
no one is listening any more,
any effort to bring it into the light
fracturing the fragile fabric of conviction
before converting it to doubt.
Socialism, a downtrodden concept
of community,
embracing consideration and communal responsibilty,
derided and long undervalued
by a first world that refuses to diet
even though it is dying of obesity.
Sullying a sytem of sharing
egalitarian values,
demonised for suggesting,
that what’s yours,
might also be mine…and everyone elses.
God Forbid!
From this we scatter fearful,
and all the useful definitions in between
become blurred to insignificance
as we sink into a sea of greed,
or an ocean of self servingness
in its abject rejection
Capitalism, an ever turning wheel of torturous dispossession
carving a rut
through the fettered fabric of humanity
disavowing our intent
to do good
leading us astray with devilish temptations
Promises of endless richesse
beyond our wildest dreams
yet,
with surgical precision,
whilst we look the other way,
slicing and dicing the herd
determining who floats and who falls
by counting the zeros on a ledger
and saying
not only
that Greed is Good
but
that Greed is All
Nihilism, a moment of insanity,
a seismic fracture, sinking through mental structure
and a need to be noticed,
no matter what
because all that might once have been of value
has become meaningless,
and democracy
has failed.
The cost?
Broken dreams and shattered expectations
flying into the sun,
blinked out in a blaze of inglory,
rolling a fiery ‘Ism through the clouds,
towards the source of a pain that will never end,
sinking angry teeth into a world
that does not care
Desperate to be heard,
dying silenced.
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February 19, 2010. Tags: austin, bank bailout, Barack Obama, Big Brother, bilderbergers, brotherhood, conflict, corruption, dictatorship, domestic terrorism, economy, equality, George Bush, government, greed, insurgency, joe stack, mind control, plane crash, politics, poverty, terrorism, terrorists. current events, economy, news, poetry, political poetry, political writing, politics, writing. .
Did you know that…
Intelligence is imperfect…
but
plastic surgery will fix the flaws
so glaring to the eye,
which I will now hide.
Watch me tape some silicone
into the hollowed out remains
of a shaken morality
and call it knowledge.
Perhaps I can sculpt my kind of peace,
from the scarred battlegrounds of faith
and failed diplomacy,
with the tapered blade of a surgeon’s scalpel
and call it necessity?
All I need,
is to apply a little liposuction
upon those irritating facts
and
Hey Presto!
We have a whole new set of meanings,
adapted interpretations
on the definition
of political protest
with which we may now design our world
the way I like it
so that no one really knows any longer
what is real and what is fake
or if there is any difference
between the two.
Score.
Did you know that…
I will hunt down and kill every terrorist…
just
to make the world a safer place
for my girls… and the dog,
hypoallergenically of course.
Now you will find me,
pulling the curtains around my recovery bed,
body-scanning every mortal
or non-conformist
who dares to bring sulphurised pants
across my borders.
In future,
dissenters must be laser epilated,
teeth-whitened
and grafted with skin from the contented
who are already many and ample.
In this way,
the savage ugliness of rationality
will be entirely exfoliated
before anyone sees the beauty of truth
and realises that the Constitution
has had the mother of all facelifts
and will never look the same again.
Did you know that…
My cause is just… my resolve unwavering
because
those whom I must appease
have set me on the path
to physical enlightenment
with the possibility of becoming
exactly like them in every way
so now,
all the imperfect thoughts I had
before I was elected
have been colonically irrigated,
flushed, filtered and purified
until little remains
but unidentifiable sludge.
Now with the channels cleared
and the toxins expunged,
bullshit passes uninterrupted
into the ready plumbing of trusting ears.
- It’s like a miracle -
and all the things I was before
I am no longer.
This is a process I am anxious to share
with each and every American.
And some foreigners too…
If I can catch them.
Did you know that…
Yes we can!
But I didn’t.
I wore a different hat
and pretended
it was the same one I had been sporting all along.
But you see,
this disguise has allowed me to redefine the world
to my own unique design,
which is much the same as the old design,
in fact,
I used it as a template,
but it has been tweaked and tucked
until I like the way it looks.
Of course the post-op will be bloody and
for a while,
quite painful
for those who suffer from the infection of diversity
but antibiotics
will soon clear that up.
And let it be seen
that I have changed the CIA to Xe
and made them beautiful,
interchangeable on all levels,
a delicious, hybrid, concoction of hate
for which I can never be blamed.
But I cannot rest
until all the ugliness that we do not wish to see
– because it offends who we think we are -
is gone,
plumped with botox,
so that the wrinkles
will never show…
Did you know that…
..When this war began, we were united
and I refuse to accept the notion
that we cannot summon that unity again
Because
I know better than anyone else,
how easy it is to persuade the insecure
that acid throwers lurk
on every corner,
whilst underwear bombers flock,
through passportless controls
waiting to cause third degree burns,
of a disfiguring nature,
to aircraft seats.
I cannot await the flood
of explosive breast implants
and incendiary hair extensions
lighting up the skies over America
as the imperfect hordes invade,
which is why I must act now,
no matter how wrong I might be in the future.
All errors can be redesigned
to resemble intent,
so be assured,
that even if my Intelligence is Imperfect
I
am not.
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January 6, 2010. Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Iraq conflict, politics, terrorism, underwear bomber, US foreign policy, war, war against terror. Uncategorized. .
America Gets Crazy Flu
by Carey Lenehan
When did America lose its mind?
I’m sorry, I must have missed it.
Somewhere between the triumph of Omaha Beach
and the disaster of Beverley Hills 90210
Somewhere between Steve McQueen’s Great Escape
and OJ Simpson’s fall from grace,
juxtaposed between John Wayne’s True Grit
and Arnie’s inconstant Terminator,
the great US of A,
caught the Crazy Flu,
and like any virus
it’s spreading…
When did balance and intelligence flee US shores,
like rats of reason leaving behind
proud H.A.T.R.I.O.T.S and R.A.C.I.S.T.S,
who would rather see the suffering masses
dying unfed, labelling them wasters and parasites
than pay a penny of their hard won dollars
to care for them,
yet still have the balls
to call themselves civilised ‘Christians’?
Somewhere between Hiroshima and Hurricane Katrina,
y’all became,
fearful children clinging to the skirts of sanity
comforted only
by exponentially corruptive politics of spin
and sucky beliefs.
When did common sense escape American minds
and run screaming for cover?
Somewhere between Vietnam and 9/11 perhaps,
all good reason set sail on its Mayflower
in search of greener pastures and purpler mountains
leaving in its place, a sacriligeous vacuum filled
with bigotry, selfishness and senseless anger.
Where once was a shining light,
now there exists a morass of fevered minds
fuelled, mostly, by the desire for revenge
at any cost….
offering the world little more to see
than a million incompatible viewpoints,
each more bonkers
than the last.
I must have looked away just a little too long
for when I looked back across the pond
that Land of the Free I was raised to respect,
because, you know, you helped us win the War…
had become chained and bound,
in the name of Liberty, and the pursuit
of a bogus War on Terror.
Now it is you who are imprisoned by radicalism
trapped in a cage of greed and selfish ignorance,
too long indoctrinated by wackos,
swaying political fashion, religious fanaticism and
the unwitting desire to idolise the famous
no matter how foolish or frivolous
Paris Hilton might be…
Where did my America go?
That one which once fought for freedom
and now fights wars for greed and tyranny,
killing women and children for being un-American,
bringing with brutality,
their strange democracy
to a world that doesn’t really want
or (quite honestly) need what you have to offer,
where US troops, piss on prisoners of war
and deny them
basic human rights,
considering them ‘less than human’.
Tell me, what is less human
than that?
How did the Yanks, with their big ol’ Chieftan tanks
get so lost in the wilderness,
out there in the sand storms of other deserts?
Trading oil and poppies
that don’t belong to them,
telling everyone they know best
when they no longer seem to know,
anything much at all,
least of all
which side is right or wrong,
or even understand
that Evolution is not a dirty word
because their own D-Evolution has been
too long allowed?
What happened to the Home of the Brave
because, Say, all I see
are frightened sheeple of low esteem
always looking for the quick fix,
like plastic surgery for the personality
not realising, that the world does not
trust them to be in charge,
anymore?
Now the rational voices of the sane and reasoned
are drowned by the banshee wail
of 100 million crazies, all with a platform
to stand on,
and I can only ask
what the hell are they teaching them
in school?
Paranoia, fear, anger, jealousy and hatred,
these are the things I see when I look
at the land where free speech became
a club to batter your enemies
and a reason to get you locked up
without charge,
indefinitely…
where human rights are less important
than lawyers,
where surveillance means
the eradication of trust…
Yup, American Crazy Flu. It’s a killer…
and like any virus,
it’s spreading….
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September 11, 2009. Tags: Barack Obama, corruption, economy, Education, Flu, government, Healthcare, news, Obama, politics, President, Speech, Swine Flu, USA, writing. children, current events, economy, news, political poetry, political writing, politics, Uncategorized, writing. .
