Tuesday, August 28, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and EIGHTY SIX

american groupthink and apple pie

it happened
at school pep rallies mostly
or on the school bus
going to the football game

the dozens
or the hundreds of them breaking into
school chants
or battle cries
then usa! usa! usa!

sounding like ravenous nazis on the prowl

you could only look around
in fear and wonder

at their red faces
the spittle coming out of their mouths
their fists moving like hammers

the blind capitulation
to conformity

american groupthink and apple pie

as they chanted the same doggerel
over and over again
like it was coming from their hearts

so it is no wonder
to see them all now as adults

pasty-faced and flabby
fat from the heartland

the mendacity of exceptionalism on stolen land

still chanting
but this time for crooked politicians

still caught up
in the same stupid orthodoxy

that has kept them
shackled to the many

the very blood and soil
that has been strangling
the essence of their humanity

since birth.

--John Grochalski

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