AN "AMERICAN SPRING?"

 

     Why doesn't anyone see,
What is happening all over America today,
     Is over 50 years in the making,
Push back against the '60s; wanting society to go another way.

     Mostly subconscious, rarely expressed,
Turn the clock way, way, Back...
     ...lash against too much "progress" and "advancement,"
Could be why certain some ones are under attack.

     Trying to "have it all" leads to domestic "discord,"
White cops "carding" unarmed, young, Black males over race,
     The Civil Rights and Women's Movement be dammed,
Put "groups" back in their rightful place!

     Or don't let them in at all,
Witness the fight over allowing long time "illegals" to stay,
     Gentrify "others" out of sight, out of mind,
It seems it's only safe to come out these days if you're lesbian or gay!

     Afghanistan and Iraq were supposed to finally make up,
For the humiliation of the war in Vietnam,
     But turning our focus outward was only a distraction that ignored...
And contributed to the simmering domestic jam.

     Militaristic police, campus rapes, sexual assault in the military,
In this gun happy nation, we use violence to assert power and achieve cultural bliss,
     "Rogue cops," frat boys, and male soldiers disrespecting others' life,
Raised on tech, playing "human" video games, one less, "faceless," that no one will miss.

 

     Killings "provoked" by misperceptions and minor infractions,
Police shielded by "the law," America's Dad by his fame,
     Entitled athletes using women and children to practice their "hits,"
"This is who we are," - speak up now, or we have only ourselves to blame.

     With no real economic recovery for the 99%,
Is it no wonder attempted suppression makes the majority seethe,
     Buried in racial conflict, intergender tension, the whole country...
..crushed, is screaming a collective "I can't breathe."

     So what will it be? An "American Spring?"
Or the worst of today mixed with mid 20th Century old?
     "Enough is enough," at this tipping point the question becomes,
Will the momentum sustain - or just fold?
Karen Ann DeLuca