Idyllicism

I know we had an idyllic past

I’ve learned about it in the movies and on TV

Always Sunny days, and after church going home

Sit down family dinners everybody in their Sunday best

For ham with pineapple, and mashed potatoes with brown gravy

And green beans from the garden

And peach cobbler with handmade ice cream for dessert

Or maybe walk into town

to the town square

spreading our picnic blanket on the lawn

in front of the band-shell

waiting for John Philippe Sousa to arrive

stars and stripes forever

before the first war and maybe back further

but TV showed there were cars already

but medicines like vaccinations, and especially hospitals weren’t like today

death is not so idyllic when it comes at 45

when people died from diseases long gone now

and people went hungry

really only white people went to the park

to hear the volunteers play high school instruments

and have their Sunday picnic

the colored still had signs to tell them where to sit

where to stand, where to go

and after all they had their own part of  town

and those brown folks that worked in the fields

well they couldn’t come to town at all

nothing for them but hard work

no schools, no medicine, no anything

and especially nothing that the town had to pay for

Calvinism runs strong through idyllic America

When Cruzie or Rubiota, Randy, Walken Tall, Perry the killer of coyotes

or others of their ilk

want to take back America I’m afraid they believe in the TV illusions

idyllic-ism overly fond reverence for that which never was

in a time when the poor and the needy were scorned

By people talking about Jesus

do not help others they must help themselves

besides they cost money

acting as if Calvin himself was their minister/preacher

“Pull yourself out of sin

Suffer through hard work

hoard money don’t spend you will be rewarded

only if you qualify, only if you’re white, only if you control who votes

Control and domination will be your reward

But things changed

I use to vote because I was brought up believe voting was a right

a privilege, an obligation, a way to participate

when people voted for an certain political party or man in a party

they were supporting a political outlook , similar enough,

with some give and take, to their beliefs

about how they wanted the country to be run, how the country should be run

so therefore when a person voted they were showing faith

that politicians would abide by their word

do what they said they were going to do, implementing the will of the voters

if not zip- bang they were gone in heartbeat in the next election

you had to be 21 to vote or buy alcohol, an arbitrary number indicating adultness   

(but only 18 to buy cigarettes or go to Viet Nam)

All well and good for discourse in a political science class,

starting in grade school where we were taught to be good citizens,

or dinner table civics lessons, led by those who barely survived

the great depression and were determined to endow their children

with the social idea that politics was to provide for a more equal, the common good,

thus becoming a person’s public  social conscious

and in those days, those ideals became manifest

and people’s lives got better than they were during the great depression

people had jobs, schools had enough money, people could afford college

people could go to the doctor, save money, have a car, go on vacation,  

be a boy scout or campfire girl, and nobody dared call the president a liar,

(at least not in public)

Dystopian Present

Sacred islands ringed by rusted steel, barely covered by flaked disappearing painted

scaffolding, standing like a forest with barren limbs,

empty of leaves, fallen over time

blown into space, like people leaving, boarded windows, parking meters expired

find the airport, the train station, the greyhound station

go to Illinois. Indiana’s steel cities are empty-finished now

Small plies of coke and coal line the roads where services had storefronts

the barber shop is closed  , the windows at the dry cleaners  broken, medical care shuttered

50,000, 24/7, with its own fire department, trucks gone hoses rotting

Its bus system gone closed deserted

a ghost town with mill scale streets and heavy dust

obscuring the world that was

big steel is gone now and little steel struggles

but the children of the corn remain

steadfast in their beliefs of their own righteousness

and worthiness in eyes of their almighty

be like them or you must leave therefore suffer banishment

from the promised land for popcorn

of harsh winters and hot summers

and endless pollution left behind by the mills

but they are surprised, in this age of instant communication

to find  that others across the states don’t agree

that legislation protecting religious  freedom is at best

a painfully obvious attempt to roll back the clock

to our dystopian past

Dust and Ashes

You anger is so deep

You pretend its devotion

You must destroy all that isn’t you

You must burn the world so that all is dust and ashes, even sand

You must demolish all that offends thee,

You must demonstrate your resolve of purification

Statues offend thee, crush them, they are idols, avatars, evil

Dancers offend thee, you practice obedience not celebration, hang them if they don’t convert

Prayers offend thee, don’t listen false to words, cut out  tongues of those who pray to false G-ds

People  offend thee, if they are different,  hang them by their necks, at the gates of your cities

You must stand alone,

You must rule the planet

You must command beyond the horizons, perhaps beyond the stars

You must dominate all that is known, all that remains,

dust and ashes

A Focus on Vaginas

What is happening to the world,

when did the ‘other’ become in charge

you know the one who flunked biology

the one who had issues, who went away

before high school was done

And then came back and went to a college

struggled and flunked out

blaming the lazy faculty for their academic failures

while they were popular and admired by their peers

and wasn’t that enough to earn passing grades

And rode that admiration into life

with no knowledge of the world,

saying vaginas can be seen by tiny swallowed cameras.

but I fail, having passed biology, to understand how the gut is connected

to the female reproductive system

I do see striking similarities

mandated burqas  and mandates against yoga pants

God forbid the sight of the outline of vagina would drive men crazy

and away from God, especially if you were focused

on those part of a woman anatomy in the first place

I fail again to make the connection

between fungus and cancer

I suppose I could understand this

if I had never gone to school, never listened in class

never took notes, never asked questions

I will drink baking soda prophylactically

My ignorance is profound and I am ashamed

I fail to see why yoga pants are more important than health insurance

than a budget for education

than adequate food for all people

access to medical care

I fail to understand why woman’s gynecological exams

Warrant public vetting

And I especially don’t understand bunk science

That touts medical miracles if you just go to Nevada

Baking soda tiny cameras and no yoga pants will be the salvation of us all

If we forget that we were once educated