circus – Every Breath Poetic

the barkers are the loudest medias

Come on, come all! To the oldest charade in America!

The trickster poet-all, the slightest-of-hand politician,
sharing the same secrets behind the curtains,
knowing the same shortcuts behind a mark’s eyes..
for pulling the heart and purse strings of billions of marionettes.[…]

The Barkers are the Loudest Medias 
&
The Stage is painted with Reds and Blues


Come on, come all! To the oldest charade in America!
 
The trickster poet-all, the slightest-of-hand politician,
sharing the same secrets behind the curtains,
knowing the same shortcuts behind a mark’s eyes..
for pulling the heart and purse strings of billions of marionettes.
 
The bleeding speech writer, the alligator-eyed orator;
The donkey debater, and the elephant enunciator,
are in a symbiotic shout-off...turning the noise of irony into sound-byte harmony-
that is nothing more than the braying at microphones over the fumbling economy,
or the stampeding clouds of rolling thunder-
that is the misdirection away from our, ideal, jolie, Lady.
 
---
 
See this as a coin – distinctly symbolic – of one of our oldest and most insidious shows,
that only becomes more brass with every travel it tumbles through the air,
from the thumbs of Americans, shouting: Donkey "Heads!", or Elephant "Tails!"…
who, for variables of reasons, are blind from the fact -- it's no matter who called it.
It’s still the same, corrosive, coin that falls on the land...
It’s still the same, corrupt, circus that fools the ticket holder's hand..


07/09/11/
M. L. Michael

About…

For Delacroix

Lo, America!

You are not the proud, idyllic, Goddess from my youth,
you are not the one my elders spoke of, or what the history books taught,
no, you are no longer that idealized version of the Leading Lady Liberty –
charging the field, and fighting tyranny in all her unabashed beauty.

Let it be known, I have wiped the newborn sleep from my eyes
to see so clearly the America crumbling all around me… […]

...For Delacroix... 
 
Lo, America!
 
            You are not the proud, idyllic, Goddess from my youth,
            you are not the one my elders spoke of, or what the history books taught,
            no, you are no longer that idealized version of the Leading Lady Liberty –
            charging the field, and fighting tyranny in all her unabashed beauty. 
 
            Let it be known, I have wiped the newborn sleep from my eyes
            to see so clearly the America crumbling all around me…
            I’ve discovered my Freedoms becoming less and less substantial…
	    These freedoms our Forefathers believed are unalienable rights.
                         
            …America, consider this tough love…
 
            You are quickly becoming a hypocrite and a mockery
            of what our Fathers had thoughtfully penned,
            and although you have made everyone so proud before,
            you’re now lazy and complacent from all that glory.
 
            America, I have to ask, have you lost your mind already?
            Not even two and a half centuries have passed
            and you’ve become so absentminded of your history
            that you cannot even recognize your past in a painting.
 
            This deviation of your character – it needs to stop.
            We need the old America back – the striking femme Freedom,
            fighting for those threatened lost, she’s half nude, but not at all ashamed,
            for she is the embodiment of strength, she is the essence of life…
 
            Viva La Liberty … Viva La America …
 
 
M. L. Michael 
-09-28-10-

About…

in favor of freedom

There is a feeling in breathing
that we, as adults, have long forgotten;
that we, as babes born screaming and writhing,
declared our first breaths as acts of defying.

Freedom! Freedom! cried those infant lungs.
a positive cry, for a posited life,
a great, big, infant roar in favor of Freedom.[…]

‘in favor of Freedom’ 

There is a feeling in breathing
that we, as adults, have long forgotten; 
that we, as babes born screaming and writhing,
declared our first breaths as acts of defying.

Freedom! Freedom! cried those infant lungs.
a positive cry, for a posited life,
a great, big, infant roar in favor of Freedom.

…

And there is a feeling in living,
that we, as Americans, have long forgotten;
that we, as citizens conceived bloodied and shocked,
declared our first breaths as acts of defying.

Freedom! Freedom! cried those American lungs.
a positive cry, for a posited reality,
a great, big, American roar in favor of Freedom.

M. L. Michael 
08/08/10

About…

the titanic generation

With streamers, noise-makers, confetti, and champagne,
We imply the integrity of our combined technological efforts;
A sound ship to cross the Cold, Frozen, Wasteland Waters,
And arrive with fanfare in a Melting-Pot-City-of-Ideas.

So full of ourselves, we Worship our Progress
only to fall victim to Hubris, our Devil-By-Creation.[…]

The Titanic Generation

With streamers, noise-makers, confetti, and champagne, 
We imply the integrity of our combined technological efforts;
A sound ship to cross the Cold, Frozen, Wasteland Waters, 
And arrive with fanfare in a Melting-Pot-City-of-Ideas.

So full of ourselves, we Worship our Progress
only to fall victim to Hubris, our Devil-By-Creation.
Too Proud were we, to see the Arctic for the Icebergs,
or the Structural Integrity for the Lapses in Judgment. 

…looking back, such a disaster appears inevitable.


/05/26/09
M. L. Michael

About…

a penny saved is a penny wasting.

You don’t have to go far in America
to find a penny discarded on the ground,
even heads up it’s still stepped upon,
this penny makes me ponder, is this America?

Citizens argue that the penny is waste,
7 billion pennies produced a year […]

A Penny Saved Is A Penny Wasting.

You don’t have to go far in America
to find a penny discarded on the ground,
even heads up it’s still stepped upon,
this penny makes me ponder, is this America?

Citizens argue that the penny is waste,
7 billion pennies produced a year
at the cost of nearly 100 million.
100 million broken dollars, 
littered all across the country. 
.
Yet still the penny is spared,
because still the penny has fans,
and the penny has fathers fat off zinc…
These fans that would rather cling to nostalgia
than acknowledge sense and end the charade,
and these fathers that would rather sully the streets 
than accept their ride for its final worth.

No, the penny meant something once,
but unlike America,
it can never return to that meaningful place.

03-12-09
M. L. Michael

About…

i cannot turn on the tv

I cannot turn on the TV,
I cannot open my web browser,
I cannot pick up a newspaper or a magazine,
and I cannot go out into public,
without hearing some form of Fear being spread. […]

I cannot turn on the TV,
I cannot open my web browser,
I cannot pick up a newspaper or a magazine, 
and I cannot go out into public, 
without hearing some form of Fear being spread.

Fear is a virus, 
and everyone that is infected feels this inherent urge to share and propagate.
Although everyone may differ on exact ideology
they all maintain the principle of Fear,
Fear of the Unknown, 
or Fear of what’s Different. 

I don’t have to go far to find one afraid.
Even the broadest shouldered man 
could shiver my bones with tales of conspiracies.. 
and even the shiniest aura’d man 
could shiver my spirit with prophecies of the armageddon…

*

Give me the company of those joyous,
and fearful only when 
fear becomes the only thing left…

03/09/09
M. L. Michael

About…

hyperbole owns all

America’s the biggest fan of hyperbole
Because there’s no greater figure of speech
or greater poetic device for today’s poetry,
that mirrors the rhetoric of those that preach.[…]

Hyperbole Owns All.
(The Greatest Sonnet Ever!) 

America’s the biggest fan of hyperbole
Because there’s no greater figure of speech
or greater poetic device for today’s poetry,
that mirrors the rhetoric of those that preach.

Hyperbole can solve all the world’s woes
better than any sort of euphemisms,
Hyperbole will rock you from your head to your toes,
by being that ism to end all isms.

So listen up and listen well,
Hyperbole can and will save us all from destruction
With the gilded promise of a solid sell
Hyperbole can and will obliterate any form of obstruction. 

Until you stop, and you think, and you look it up in the dictionary,
and there you discovery that hyperbole is really quite silly.  


M. L. Michael 
[9-15-08 –– 10-30-08]

About…

pledge of allegiance. two point oh.

pledge of allegiance. two point oh.

i pledge allegiance to the Flag
of a country i no longer understand,
and to the Republic that barely stands,
one Nation, divided by god, ironically
promising Liberty and Justice for all.
[…]

pledge of allegiance. two point oh.

i pledge allegiance to the Flag
of a country i no longer understand,
and to the Republic that barely stands,
one Nation, divided by god, ironically
promising Liberty and Justice for all.

i pledge allegiance to the Idea,
of a country founded with the blood of patriots,
and to the Constitution by which it stands,
our Nation, under Us alone, indivisible,
when we have Liberty and Justice for all.
 

6-11-08
M. L. Michael

About…

hark…

Hark! the periled youth sing-
Regret over our elected King…
War on earth and mercy lost-
King and sinners reap the cost.
Joyless, all ye nations fall-
Isolated from the denizen’s call.
And when the evangelical proclaim-
Christ reborn in our King by name,[…]

Hark… 
(a backhanded anthem)

Hark! the periled youth sing-
Regret over our elected King…
War on earth and mercy lost-
King and sinners reap the cost.
Joyless, all ye nations fall-
Isolated from the denizen’s call.
And when the evangelical proclaim-
Christ reborn in our King by name,
Hark! the periled youth sing-
Regret over our elected King…

America, arose to be adored-
Now’s become worldly abhorred.
Long ago she lost her way-
When man’s greed came into play.
Veiled in politics for all to see-
Too long we’ve accepted this reality.
Now our hearts and minds must clear-
To live a life without fear.
Hark! the periled youth sing-
Regret over our elected King…

Remember the spirit of the Prince of Peace-
Remember piety doesn’t promise righteousness.
Light is the life for all that know-
A life of greed takes a world of toll.
And if we cherish the universe
Might we cherish the all-in-us.
So grab your good neighbor’s hand-
And shout out across the land:
Hark! the periled youth sing-
Regret over our elected King…

1/12/08
M. L. Michael