Flag Waving

O’er the land of the free
And the home of the brave
Fly the stars and stripes we love
Long may she wave in the blue skies above
Flying free, fluttering with ease,
Billowing red and blue and white
Rippling in the gentle breeze
Proud and free as an eagle in flight ..........

But out of the blue – a great black cloud,
Like a vulture, like a shroud
The winds pick up. The trees are bowed.
From zephyr to breeze to wind to gale
To hurricane to typhoon wail
From ripples and billows, to whipping and slapping,
To furious flapping, fraying while snapping
Glare of rockets or just lightning?
Bombs bursting or just thunder?
Howling winds, loud and frightening
Its very fabric torn asunder
Stripes and stars scattered
Crumpled, drenched, bedraggled, tattered
Cloth of white and blue and red
Ripped to rags, torn to shreds .......

A wide winged eagle high in the blue
Spiraling, riding a gentle breeze
Searches for prey, but what she sees
Are colored clumps of cotton thread
Muddy strands of white and red
Bits of stars that barely show
Half buried in the road below -
Now trod upon by refugees

New Poems

• "Flag Waving"
• "Trumpian Limericks"
• "Ode to a Banana"
• "Moving on After 1/6"
• "Hug"
• "Map-less Monarchs"
• "I am Such a Rich Man"
• "Beatitude with Attitude"
• "The Cross and the Lynching Tree Rap"
• "The Nudist Nun"
• "Sonnet 19"
• "Reparations Now"
• "Hoping I'm Wrong"
• "Bird Feeder"
• "Pete and Henry"
• "Nero: A Rap for Republicans"
• "Croissant"
• "Mandela"
• "The New Jim Crow"
• "The Wire"
• "Why Socialism?"

From By Heart

• "Ahiti"
• "As Some Fertile Seed"
• "Greed Screed"
• "I Sing the Ass"
• "Lying Lost Among Your Arms"
• "Now Thou Art Two and Twenty"
• "Sweet Smellin Woman"
• "This World"
• "Train Wreck"
• "Truth and Parable"
• "Why This Itch This Yen"
• "You"

Some Earlier Poems

• "Al and Bob"
• "The Lonely Puddle"
• "Ode to a Bagel"
• "The Rose"
• "Sardinia"
• "When Love's Liqueur"

Audio Recordings

• "Abu Ghraib"
• "Things About Kings"