Nero: A Rap For Republicans

Nero, at the apex of all roads,
on the moral scale, a zero,
loved to drink and diddle
the ladies. Loved the glitter,
loved composing odes,
loved the feeling of his fingers on his fiddle
(back then there was no Twitter or nuclear codes.)
Caught up in the middle,
too timid, for too long,
Senators felt the cold breeze,
too late, they sank to their knees, shivered and wheezed,
'cause if the emperor wasn't pleased,
if his arrogance wasn't appeased,
they were going to get squeezed, put in the deep freeze.

How do we pinpoint the crucial hour
when the sweetness of liberty starts turning sour,
when Justice and Integrity yield to greed and raw power,
when we raise our right arms to the top of the tower?
How much fawning and deference
Before morality trumps economic preference?
Now the rubber meets the road. Now civility corrodes.
Now the Human Family meets Racial Purity.
Now compassion meets "National Security".
Can you really mold an authoritarian barbarian, into a humanitarian?
'Cause if not, what you got - is a totalitarian.
Call him on propping up Nazis and Aryans,
Call him on his juvenile rages, putting kids in cages.
Put aside your Party, your pockets, your grudges.
Protect the planet. Stop ripping at the robes of our judges.
Speak truth instead of alternative fudges.
And don't let any would-be-emperor demean whatever he touches.

New Poems

• "Battle Hymn of the Republic, Indeed"
• "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"