Spectres

Specters of fear
Specters of Hate
Are reimagined propaganda
Like a grand Hollywood remake
Scripting our country’s
Historical and Political
Landscapes.

Is he Uncle Sam or Charlie Kane?
Love on his terms
By any means
19th Century hope
Crushed by avarice
In the land of opportunity
Are you alien or naturalized?
Undesirables warmed by Lady Liberty’s Flame
Harsh realities in the slums
Lives lived in vain.

Andrew Jackson and Destiny
Reduced proud native spirits
Into a fraction of their ancestral grace
Assimilate or die
The demands of our Forefathers
The Policies to police were given to the States.

Theories of racial hierarchies
Reinforced disparities afflicting
African Freedman.
Emancipated, our ancestors grasped
David Walker’s appeal
Unwilling to compromise
Inspired by Nat Turner’s zeal
Until the 1877 Compromise
Ensured our constitution
Was not color blind
When the 14th died
Jim Crow serfdom permeated
America’s way of life.

The remedy
For the day forever marked by infamy
Freedom skewed in the Bay
Yellow hues so blue
America the beautiful
Or the Great Satan
Why didn’t Sam’s Bill of Rights
Protect those lives?

McCarthyism, the Red Scare
The Cold Warriors storm,
Sphere of influence
Instigated insurrection
American arms with foreign radicals
Sins against the Iron Curtain
Delivered 21st Century
Atrocities.

The romanticization
Of intimately oppressed.
Matriarchs disempowered
By Adams Rib.
The homemaker and lover
Couldn’t escape
The problem without a name
Fought to own land,
The right to vote,
Equal pay, the same as Man
Only to witness
57 and 62 year old Lions
Try to abort
Roe v. Wade.

Clinton's Crime Bill enacted
With propaganda
Justifying private prison enterprise
We thought he was humane,
Sincere, faithful to all
His only vice,
The ménage
Blue dress, weed, women,
Recipe for a good time
We were blind.
The Fox Snickered;
With little regard
For honoring good faith
Welfare was given to the states
The poor marched through
The 13th’s gate.

Now a days they say
America will be great again
Bigotry,
Ethnocentrism,
Racism,
Have announced the casting call
Brown brothers and sisters cast
As MS-13,
Pocket full of tax payer money.
Muslim brothers and sisters cast
As Radical Jihadist
Families watched Islamphobia
Almost smother Grandma and Grandpa.
UCAV hit 3 targets
The bodies we couldn’t see
They’re buried beneath 666
Civilian casualties.

Specters of fear
Specters of hate
Are reimagined propaganda
Like a grand Hollywood remake
Scripting our country’s
Historical and Political
Landscapes.