Onagrocracy (for John Grochalski)
christ, I’m discouraged
Jay, I know exactly how
you feel
we knew it wouldn’t be
four years of winning
maybe we thought shit
would get worse more
quickly
but the banana republic
still can’t tell their ass
form a hole in the ground
small consolation at least
I don’t know why worse
quickly
would have been better
though
maybe after the hell of
2016
we are up for a fight
our blood up after another
slash and burn election
instead its been a barrage
of ineptitude
things getting worse but
slowly
a barrage of policy
changes
some in secret some in the
open
some buried on Friday so
not to
ruffle the feathers of the
nightly news
its hard to keep the
outrage up
when everything is
outrageous
everything is this is not
my country
everything is hey America
you could have had a real
democracy
there is a term from
Fascist Italy
Onagrocracy, it loosely
translates
to a society run by asses
to say that one must
acknowledge
the tumble down to Fascism
America has become
maybe we’re too late
maybe we woke up too late
Christ, I’m discouraged
too
Impeachment dreams
and tax bill cons run
through me, and I wonder
why I care this much, a
country
is a social contract and a
country
is fiction, we all drank
the kool-aid
even as we learned to take
each
Horatio Alger American
Dream platitude
as they are, which are
lies
over the last years I’ve
been running
those classic American
narratives
through my head seeing how
fast
they get debunked, caught
in lies
it made me angry, but I
always knew they were lies
and I’ve always been angry
I’m still not angry enough
we’re still not angry
enough
christ I’m discouraged
I still got a bad case
of it can’t happen here
even as it happens here
jay, I know you’re
discouraged
goddamn, so am I
but we still need our
voices
we still got a fight
or try to fight the ways
we know how
we still have to believe
in the ballot, in change
if there was any mistake
it was
teaching us that was the
truth
not a lie, if we give up
then democracy
is rehearsing
for retirement
--Jason Baldinger
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