Casualties

I feel like trailer trash
in spite of my Ph.D.
and 28 years
of honorable service
because
when asked to resign
or be fired
by a jumped up jerk
like you, with your little
smirk upon your face
reminiscent
of the Supreme Leader

I am reminded
of poor Rommel
the professional soldier
who provided
his Supreme Leader
with astounding
victories
and, consequently
had to choose
between suicide
and the utter destruction
of his family.

Your power,
your abuse of power
fails to impress me, does not
intimidate.
I may be thrown away
like a used Kleenex: so be it.
But I have my
memories
of older and better beliefs:
I have more in common
with the abandoned poor
of New Orleans
than ever I had with you.

You think
a career is all that matters?
In your enclosed world
of power and money
and sycophancy
and servility
you recreate the worst
features
of the cruel heartless
world of privilege
that has aroused
every single
human revolution.

We are not
inconsequential people;
and we are not so easily
set aside.
You may possess
the temporal reins of power
for now
but your lies and your mistakes
and, above all
your ignorance
will bring you down in the end.
Fireworks. Jubilation.
Dancing in the streets.

The world will take no lasting pleasure
in the downfall of the USA.

Well, you don’t believe in listening

You are behaving
like fools, like arrogant fools.
No free nation
born out of sacrifice
established in law
indivisible
clutching at certain
self-evident truths
(a sturdy but unsteady
beacon to the world)
can long survive
with ‘hubris’, the power-driven
will to Empire.