authoritarianism poems

She Survived the Nazi Terror - A Poem by Richard Kalfus - Dive into the Depths of Contemporary Voices

She Survived the Nazi Terror – A Poem by Richard Kalfus

She survived
on a “Children’s Transport”
to England.
But the memory of her mother’s
panicked attempt
to pull her
from the moving train
has never left her.

And the mother?
As the SS soldier
viciously shoved her
on a cattle car
bound – she was told –
to the “East,”
she remembered her own
anguished attempt to keep the child
and was grateful
that the daughter would survive.

Martinet - A Poem by Ian Fletcher - Dive into the Depths of Contemporary Voices

Martinet – A Poem by Ian Fletcher

Rolling into the classroom
on Monday morning
they ignore him
will not be silent
as he speaks
chat among themselves
about the weekend
this and that
cocooned in subcultures
he would not understand.
An anachronism
he cannot break through
to quell their energy
bend them to his will
force the curriculum
down their throats
teach them ‘respect’
nor can he corral them
down the narrow path
his life has taken.
He would beat them
if he could but
thwarted by laws
he would repeal
can only shout.
“Shut up! Listen!”
he bawls getting
momentary attention.
“Why?” one of them
simply responds.
He has no reply.

Singing to His Base | Stan Morrison - Dive into the Depths of Contemporary Voices

Singing to His Base | Stan Morrison

Palpebral fissures and hair types
The words on t-shirts and caps
Nowadays are dead giveaways
Like body sales at the morgue
Tatoo images and sunglasses
Blue tooth plugs and gold jewelry
Say no more, we’ve got your number
Shorthand summaries never fail
Amerika, Amerika
God shed His Grace on Me!

Supper on Guinda St. 1957 | Ruth Mota - Dive into the Depths of Contemporary Voices

Supper on Guinda St. 1957 | Ruth Mota

Around our gray formica table
mother managed the roast beef and mashed potatoes
but father presided
thudding his limping frame into the only chair with arms
booming out his gratitude for another fine day
and for his wife’s fine home-cooking:
“I’ve dined in Rome, in Paris, but never had beef as fine yours, Thelma”
Eventually his piercing gray eyes turn to me:
“Ruthie, how’s your right arm?”
meaning I was to fetch his second cup of coffee.
“What did you learn in school today?”
meaning I would be fetching the dictionary, the encyclopedia, the atlas.
I said that today we talked about Communism.
Thelma’s temples throb at the mention of the word.
She’s mad about Miss Welch calling Miss White a Communist.
She’s mad at Nixon calling Helen Gahagan Douglas
pink down to her underwear.
She’s mostly mad at McCarthy calling everybody red,
what he did to Annie Lee Moss,
a name that sixty years later lights up my brain in neon with injustice.
But she’s spittin’ mad at the stupid American electorate
who voted these scoundrels into office.
“I’m not sure I believe in democracy.
There’s a lot to be said for a good king.”
Father croons and soothes: “Now dear, we’ve lived through Harding.
We’ve lived through Coolidge. We can live through this.”
But father died in 1988. He never had to live through this,
never had to concede that this time his wife had won the argument,
big time.

The Official | JD DeHart - Dive into the Depths of Contemporary Voices

The Official | JD DeHart

He is in charge and you can tell
From the stick he carries
It is large and full of venom
Puffed up adder
Plus the badge with the fancy letters
Golden spirals of digits and codes
So complicated they must mean
Something important
The universe of a black bag to place
You in, heedless
Plus the car, all trappings of authority
Siren light and blaring noise
Speeding on the night street breakneck.

When the War Comes | Tilla Sonrise - Dive into the Depths of Contemporary Voices

When the War Comes | Tilla Sonrise

When the bullets start singing
where will you be,
humming tunes
in your canopy under your
juniper tree,
when the buildings go a blazing
like blunts and bongs
will you still be singing those freedom songs?

The war is coming
revolution is on the rise
it’s them against us
and us against them
you better open your eyes.

The war is coming
revolution is on the rise
it’s them against us
and us against them
you better open your eyes.

When they drive tanks
through your neighborhood
and trample your
hopscotch chalk
are you gonna bust back
or are you full of talk,
when they bomb your homes and
murder your babies
what are you gonna do
when they
take your bags lady?

The war is coming
revolution is on the rise
it’s them against us
and us against them
you better open your eyes.

The war is coming
revolution is on the rise
it’s them against us
and us against them
you better open your eyes.

When the law
breaks the law
they are under themselves
freeze mister officer
this is a citizen arrest
we’ve been watching your
police state test
you’ve been planning martial law
since 1999
this land isn’t your land
this land is mine.

The war is coming
revolution is on the rise
it’s them against us
and us against them
you better open your eyes.

The war is coming
revolution is on the rise
it’s them against us
and us against them
you better open your eyes.

Transgender: On Trump's Seven Forbidden Words... | Eliza Mimski - Dive into the Depths of Contemporary Voices

Transgender: On Trump’s Seven Forbidden Words… | Eliza Mimski

I am a transgender fetus.
I am vulnerable.
My vulnerability is evidence-based.
There is no entitlement here.
I am a diversity fetus.
I have no entitlement.
My transgender is science-based.

Transgender transgender transgender transgender
Vulnerable vulnerable vulnerable vulnerable
Evidence-based, science-based
Evidence-based, science-based

You are not allowed to talk about me.
Do not speak of my vulnerability.
I am entitled to nothing.
Vulnerable diversity.

I am an evidence-based fetus.
Diversity is science-based.
I am a vulnerable transgender.
Evidence-based fetus.

A Legacy Too Late | Tara Lynn Hawk - Dive into the Depths of Contemporary Voices

A Legacy Too Late | Tara Lynn Hawk

The good disappear
And no one speaks of it
A type of sanctioned poison covers it
Waiting to be released but for the key of a syllable
Hearts burn quickly and minds stay numb
They shuffle back and forth each day
With buried acknowledgement
There is no comfortable silence
It screams and moans with sweat and abuse
Then leaves them to die in loneliness
With no solemn bagpipe accompaniment
Elusive relaxation evades the tourniquet
The new normal

More at https://www.taralynnhawk.com/.

Easy Peasy | Cattail Jester - Dive into the Depths of Contemporary Voices

Easy Peasy | Cattail Jester

Thought it would be easy
to be in charge of all this
world.
It’s not easy to be human,
not easy to bracket your
agenda, to act in humility
when the world offers you
power and goods.
But I’ve seen it done, not
so long ago, for eight years.
Enough saber-rattling, enough
pushing and shoving, enough
supremacy talk.
It’s time to smarten up.
Time to approach this job
with eyes to both sides
of the aisle, and eyes to what
all of us offer.
Do your work wisely and well.

Chaos | Kara D. Spain - Dive into the Depths of Contemporary Voices

Chaos | Kara D. Spain

Tears of dismay, stream in buckets of grief,
down, red-streaked cheeks
Society’s controllers have been debriefed,
as a population descends into chaos
Slavery abounds, among missile-torn ruins,
as the chains, never thought to be seen again,
return, out of the ominous ashes of war

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