Pause For Poetry:
Michael Hawkes /67

Great All Over Again

A poem by Michael Hawkes

February 26,  2024

Let’s gorge ourselves on hate again

Yanks fight Confederates again
and seal the soldiers’ fates again
decimate the tribes again
and segregate the slaves again
then let us altogether state
America will be great again.

Let’s take a caliphate again

drape stars and stripes on old Big Ben
hydro-dam the river Seine
drain the Mediterranean and
plant it with Monsanto grain
then paint the Golden Gate again
and make America great again.

Let’s separate the whites again

exaggerate their rights again
re-designate the camps again
re-allocate the Mussulman
to clamour at the gates again
until they see that Supermen
forever will be great again.

Let’s chrome plate Cadillacs again

build smoky chimney stacks again
alleviate tax rates again
humiliate the gays again
incarcerate ingrates again
and any man who says The States
may not in fact be great again.

Let’s detonate the bombs again

irradiate the plains again
consolidate our gains again
and gather up the reigns again
to prosper in power games again
and blow their fickle minds again
until they know we’re great again.

Let’s never be too late again

to sate our appetites again
to desecrate the world again
to lord it over other men
and take our frightful place again
let all as one re-iterate
America is great again.

11/12/16 – Hawkes

Feature image: Quinn Dombrowski, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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