Monday, November 11, 2019

DeKorte November 11, 2019

album

nothing less

It's going to be a life and death struggle
To compel the fossil fuel extraction industry 
To leave all that money in the ground 
Expropriating the billionaire owners.

The good of the planet and the people of the world
Our rallying cry against the self serving capitalists
Requires nothing less than removing their class 
Taking the power from them to change everything. 

Right now they are in complete control
The courts the police the politicians all do their bidding 
The media tell us anything else is unthinkable 
Even as the climate crisis emergency hits home. 

But when the idea of the socialist alternative takes hold
Spreading through every place and every way
Mobilizing all manner of actions to seize the day
There will be no stopping the determined population.

Today their government eliminates all restraints
Against the rapacious destruction of the environment
In a desperate rush to cash in at the last minute
Before popular anger slams the door shut. 

Tomorrow necessity will be the mother of invention
Transforming how we live and work together
Based on a whole earth health awareness
With science in the service of global well being.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

engendered pronouns

She came up to me as she walked past
There in the back of the room during exercise class
Me active following along doing the workout moves
She unrecognized an unfamiliar face not participating. 

I looked at her as she spoke round face with white hair
Heard her tell me I had my harem around me
And I frowned back without pausing as she walked away
Feeling put off confused and disturbed by her remark.

She was aware as I am aware I am among women there
One of the few men at the senior center in the class
Where my moves seem awkward among the practiced ones
Where at times I feel out of place like an interloper misfit.

I do not expect to hear a sexist joke from a woman
Expecting I would be amused and pleased
As a kind of backhanded welcome to me in this group
That would make me complicit in oppressing women.

And who am I to deny having lived with the advantage 
Being male in a world where patriarchy is in everything 
Where fear of rape and violence against women is palpable 
Even in this room of warm bodies in exercise clothes.

If only a single pronoun were sufficient for all of us 
Like the way children might be if they were dressed as neutral
Before puberty hormones engender her adult shape
And the difference outlines their history of exploitation. 

Sunday, November 3, 2019