Freedom’s Wring
_When God seems to fail
_The world starts to wail,
And saints go marching home
Like Sprites on ocean foam.
_When children die
_And none know why,
They blame a chromosome,
Or cite a dusty tome.
_And folks accept.
_The most inept
Enablers of them all
Are eager to stand tall
_And tell the throng
_They can’t go wrong
By eating Quaker Oats
And giving them their votes.
_The Earth demands
_What sweaty hands
Impart: their share of toil
In shops, on native soil
_Or at a school.
_This is a rule
That everyone should know,
Above as here below.
_Plan well, forgive
_All those who live
As if the land owed them.
Prepare a requiem,
_And now and then
_Remove these men;
Extract them root and stem,
Consider Bethlehem
_And let them start,
_From brain to heart,
Anew. Then we shall see
How Yahweh’s charity
_Allows a fool
_A quick renewal,
By which his past mistakes
Are drowned in Heaven’s lakes.
C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden. Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India. His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.
Thank you, Kip. This reminds me of the corruption of our democracy something always on my mind when I teach Julius Caesar.