Remove Thy Blinders

lillian

And still they hide
behind partisan masks,
minus apertures.

Occupant in driver’s seat
tantrum spittle spews.
White-knuckled, weaves erratically
beyond civility, decency, decorum.
Down-shifts –
crash-dummy hurtling forth.

Redefines killing fields
beyond ecology to necrology.
In cages, beside borders,
ours and those across the seas.
Still they hide behind partisan blinders,
apertures seamed resolutely shut.

Let slip the masks this hallow’s eve.
Rein in with blistered palms
what thou hast unleashed.
Your children’s children shall ask,
innocent heads tilted up to you,
eyes wide open in disbelief,

How could you?

I beg you,
transpose the occupant’s childlike words below
as theirs to you this night:

“History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool! I will call you later.”

Aye, your children’s children shall call to you,
standing upon your grave.
How could you not let slip your mask,
apertures torn asunder?
How could you not act then,
call foul that which ruled the land,
thinking of them and theirs to come.

Written for dVerse’s Open Link night where I’m hosting tonight. This virtual pub for poets hosts prompts on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Open Link night means folks can post any poem of their choosing — no prompt, no specific form or length. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time. Come join us!
Quotation from Donald Trump’s letter to the President of Turkey, dated October 9, 2019: authenticity confirmed by White House.  Photo from Pixabay.com

35 thoughts on “Remove Thy Blinders”

    • lillian October 17, 2019 / 3:25 pm

      Oh….given the press that letter has already received, I think he’s hearing that.

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  3. Glenn A. Buttkus October 17, 2019 / 3:07 pm

    Dick and Jane readers are better written than his letter. He is credited at communicating on a 5th grade level; even that is a stretch. Truth to power–kudos to you. This will be like we will become the German people under the Nazis. How could we let the atrocities happen? How, indeed.

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    • lillian October 17, 2019 / 3:26 pm

      5th grade level? You are too kind. I’ve read 3rd grade level. Sadly…..very sadly…..history repeats itself in terms of a population wearing blinders until it is too late.

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  4. rivrvlogr October 17, 2019 / 3:14 pm

    His letter true is to form from a simpleton. He will never learn, even when corrected or call on for his incompetency.
    Well written, Lillian.

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    • lillian October 17, 2019 / 3:28 pm

      Thank you for your comment here. We can only hope that the blinders will come off and our congressional “leaders” will act with the conscience and not be silenced by a bully on the global stage.

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  5. msjadeli October 17, 2019 / 3:47 pm

    Well-said, Lillian. Reason hasn’t worked yet, but we have to keep trying.

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      • msjadeli October 17, 2019 / 4:32 pm

        I remember a fable in the garden of Eden where the lions lie with the lamb. This polarity is too extreme to be breached I fear.

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  6. Frank Hubeny October 17, 2019 / 3:50 pm

    Good advice: “History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. “

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    • lillian October 17, 2019 / 3:53 pm

      Yes…..only the point in the poem is that our children are telling us this as a warning…..using his words in the mouths of babes to instill some kind of guts and bravery to say enough is enough.

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  7. Colleen@ LOOSELEAFNOTES October 17, 2019 / 4:50 pm

    The words from that letter will go down in the laughing stock of history or on the campfire ghost story circuit. It’s hard to write about what is happening today poetically but you managed to do it. Killing fields indeed. How dare you? Indeed!

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    • lillian October 17, 2019 / 5:05 pm

      Thank you for reading, Colleen….a letter deemed at the third grade level, written by the occupant of the United States Presidency to the President of Turkey to affect international policy. So very very sad.

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  8. Colleen@ LOOSELEAFNOTES October 17, 2019 / 4:52 pm

    PS I just had a poem published at this site that posts a poem a day about surviving in Trumpland Maybe you’d want to submit this. http://winedrunksidewalk.blogspot.com/

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  9. rugby843 October 17, 2019 / 5:33 pm

    Such a sad note, isnt it. The world is in awe of such a spectacle.

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    • lillian October 17, 2019 / 5:38 pm

      Well…..I think I’d call it “disbelief” rather than “awe.”

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  10. Bodhirose October 17, 2019 / 7:24 pm

    I appreciate your well written and insightful poem, Lillian, even though I’ve pretty much stopped listening to the news regarding Trump and his idiocy. Just when you think he couldn’t possibly do or say anything worse than he already has, he tops himself. He’s just a total disgrace.

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    • lillian October 17, 2019 / 10:10 pm

      ….shoes keep dropping….

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  11. Dwight L. Roth October 17, 2019 / 8:36 pm

    Redefines killing fields
    beyond ecology to necrology.

    People addicted to power sell their souls to the devil! We who vote for them don’t seem to see that we are only voting for what we consider to be the lesser of two evils! Blinders for sure!!

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    • lillian October 17, 2019 / 10:13 pm

      I am so very hopeful that the blinders are being ripped to shreds and the conscience of leaders will prod them to step up. People can not give in to a bully and follow him out of fear, no matter the threats. This is what we tell our children….sadly, we must tell our congress people this.

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  13. Laura Bloomsbury October 18, 2019 / 4:54 am

    your poem is so well written and came back for a 2nd and 3rd reading. The topic trumps most of what is said by most politicians from both sides of the tracks -‘ in the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king’

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  14. lillian October 18, 2019 / 10:02 am

    What a wonderful comment to read this morning. Thank you, Laura.

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  15. memadtwo October 18, 2019 / 11:01 am

    I fear there will be no world for our children’s children if we don’t change course. How can so many be so blind? (K)

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  17. calmkate October 19, 2019 / 4:16 pm

    that moron has done more damage in a few years than your worst enemy could do in a lifetime … but seems the masses are keen to be fooled … well written!

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  18. Christine Irving October 20, 2019 / 9:14 pm

    Agree, the cowardice of congress makes me angrier than then Trump himself. The blatant criminality,cruelty, incompetence and misogyny has been a call to action from the first moment in office. As it escalates so does the effective resistance on the part of people who have sworn to uphold what he is bent on destroying,diminish. It’s our children who will suffer the long term effects of his mad sojourn much longer than we will.

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  19. Nitin Lalit October 21, 2019 / 1:47 am

    This is a very powerful poem. I’m not much acquainted with American politics, but I can relate in a way because right-wing Fascist nationalism has gripped my country.

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