Freedom for All… Well, Some… a Few… Maybe

Day 21 of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) 

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt:

write a poem in which something that normally unfolds in a set and well understood way  — like a baseball game or dance recital – goes haywire, but is described as if it is all very normal.

Something gone haywire? I give you:

The Constitution

There are three branches of government.
No, wait… two. No… just one now. Well, that’s hardly a branch.
We’ll just call it a stump.

There’s a president who executes the will of the people.
No… they're a dictator. No… merely a puppet.
We’ll just call them a toad. On the stump.

There are regular free elections.
No, not free. Stolen. No… sold. To the highest bidder,
who becomes the puppeteer of the toad on the stump.

There are governmental agencies meant to help the citizens.
No, they’re for collecting data on the citizens, to be monetized
by the puppies of the puppeteer who controls the toad on the stump.

There are citizens who are free and can pursue happiness.
No, wait… freedom depends on the whims of the dictator, and happiness
is crushed – like the spines of those who once served the people.

The people have a voice that cannot be silenced by the puppeteer or the oligarchs or the dictator or the slime that surrounds
the toad on the stump.

Let’s use that voice to call back our liberty and freedom.
Let’s remember we have “unalienable rights endowed by the Creator.”
Let’s uproot the stump and cooperate to build back our nation.

As citizens of this country, it's our duty.

on wings

chicken

Scissors in one hand, hen in the other, a couple of quick snips and the wing tips swirl to the ground. Keeps ‘em from ‘flying the coop’, the farmer says. He releases the hen. She takes a moment to regain her balance, then runs to the opposite side of the pen where she flaps and clucks her objections. Isn’t it rather cruel to clip their wings, I wonder? Nah, the farmer says. It doesn’t hurt them, and ‘sides, if they don’t like it, they can leave. The farmer chuckles at the irony of his own joke and reaches for another hen.

boundless sky beckons
anticipation takes flight
gravity prevails


dVerse Haibun Monday — Complexity of Freedom

If Only They Could Tweet

eagle

George Washington, 1st US president
@realGeorgeWashington
“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” #FreedomTrumpsSheep

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Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president
@HonestAbe
“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.” #UGottaReadIt

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Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US president
@TeddyR
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president… is morally treasonable to the American public.” #SNL #MerylStreep

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd US president
@FDR
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” #EleanorActuallySaidThat #FLOTUS_Rocks

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Calvin Coolidge, 30th US president
@SilentCal
“The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of…”

Calvin Coolidge, 30th US president
@SilentCal
“all privileged classes.” #HashtagsAreSilly

eagle

Dwight D Eisenhower, 34th US president
@Ike
“In most communities it is illegal to cry ‘fire’ in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to…”

Dwight D Eisenhower, 34th US president
@Ike
“manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?”
#thebuckstopshere #bargainingchips

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Harry S Truman, 33rd US president
@GiveEmHellHarry
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” #YouCanQuoteMe #ButGiveMetheCredit

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James Madison, 4th US president
@DollysHusband
“Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.” #WhatsAHashtagAnyway

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Warren G. Harding, 29th US president
@WobblyWarren
“America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.” #IHateMyNickname

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William Howard Taft, 27th US president
@OldBIll
“We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their…”

William Howard Taft, 27th US president
@OldBIll
“enforcement.” #LegislateFirstAskQuestionsLater #SAD

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Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president
@TheSchoolmaster
“America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal – to discover and maintain liberty among men.”