America in 2017

An ode to Mary Shelley's "England in 1819"

An old, mad, blind, despised and dying King;

Senators, the thugs of their dull race, who flow

Through public scorn - yet kiss his ring.

Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know,

Suck blood, like leeches, from fainting folk

Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow.

A people, starved and full of rage;

The police, whom liberticide and prey,

This two-edged sword will bend and break.

Constitutions, bibles, which tempt and slay;

Religion Christless, Godless - who has it healed?

A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed-

Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may

Haunt, to illumine our winding way.

Author's Note

I am new to poetry and this is really my first true attempt at it. With that being said, what might I revise in this piece to keep to the spirit of Mary Shelley's original? Obviously, I would like to be the message to be overt but is it too overt? Are there glaring structural errors?

Reviews

[Scribbles]

It's your first attempt you said it yourself don't get so hard on your self the future 2017 I hope it's just not America. Your work is pretty awesome