Poetry

Jurgen Telkmann photo

By

Norberto Franco Cisneros

Hook, Line And Sinker, America

The greed that covets America

Is outrageous

And all that meet an under the table payroll

Are equally guilty

How much of the filthy lucre is enough?

Can you say that brain washing hasn’t been going on?

We all have bought into it

Shame on us

We voted for them or we work for them

A lot of the men in charge have been real smart

They know how to play the system they created

Bye bye, Miss American Pie

Good bye American dream and unreachable star

Reached for but never reached

The struggle to comprehend this fallacy

Has been our downfall

Shame on us for believing the system

Perpetrated by ignorant but very smart bozos

But they are our bozos

Ours alone, we gave them the right to abuse us in many ways

We bought it hook line and sinker, America

And what is our reward: a gargantuan blond man with a jelly ass to match his belly

A real carnival barker screaming about immigrants, walls, rapists and insulting our allies

His believers who believe his verbal prestidigitation of lies bow in reverence

The rich and the hierarchy of America have made out real well

By rigging the system the subsequent rewards have all been theirs

The rest of the working men and women, well, what of them?

Let them wait for their next meager raise

The next stipend

The next bone from the master’s table

The next threat to their jobs

The next slap, then turn the other cheek if you want to keep your job

Yes, America it still happens, maybe not physically, but verbally

The threats are there, but rejoice a new day is coming

The Fourth Aryan Reich is almost here beautiful and filled with greatness for you

Says the big man with insidious lies, fake tan rosy cheeks and blond fake hair with a jelly belly.

The World A Million Years Ago

I saw a third world kid today with frayed shorts, bare-brown naked chest

With no phone or electronic gadgets to play with

He ran rolling an old rubber bicycle tire with a stick

He wore the widest, happiest smile ever seen on a 7 year old kid

I thought about my grand kids

I’ve never seen them sport that kind of an exuberant smile

But they do have TVs with countless X-box war games,

Electronic toys and privileges I never had

I feel camaraderie with that third world kid

Many years ago I was that bare-chested boy

With no need to think of his future

I was a kid and I enjoyed every minute of being a child

Except for an occasional aspirin

I never had any need for any other drugs

True we had no TV, but I still enjoyed myself being with myself

I was a happy-go-lucky kid at that time we could afford to feel satisfied

The world has spun many times around America since those days,

I understand the de-evolution of a civil society

I don’t approve of it but am impotent to change it

We made the world acquiesce to greed and we won

Now we have reaped the whirlwind and we are broke

And all the angels in heaven won’t put us back together again

God bless the America that was

And the human dream yet to be.

Norberto Franco Cisneros

My poems have been published in the following publications: Indiana University Journal Chiricu; Avocet Review (Avocet Press); Snow Jewel (Grey Sparrow Press); Ilumen (Mouthfeel Press/ Sam’s Dot Publishing) and several others, including e-zines, Black Petals, Ruhatish and have been a Featured Poet in Poetry Soup