Dear America

When I came to this continent I met Ralph Waldo Emerson

and society as a home built by friendship 

and barns built by community.

Jobs for and with people — but you were awed by capitalism 

the transcendence of economy above sentiment, 

fantastic things, celebrity, the remaking of men 

and woman — a toy to play with

that only a few souls could influence.

The universal church of screens, talking heads and red lips, 

new words for new meanings, crash and bang 

you made it up and presented us with Jesus the superstar 

and Trump the christ — in the new world anyone can be 

a balloon floating on air and who needs real people 

when you can turn it on and turn it off again

but we cannot escape the meaning of this wizard who replaced 

shamans, kings and emperors with prisons for profit.  

Let them eat candy floss.

While the great fascists of Europe were fed oil and gas

you were singing in the rain and loving Lucy and we 

lapped it up like cream and sugar allowing Albert Einstein 

and Hannah Arendt to teach truth which nearly caught on
until the next economist came out with new puffs

and by then we were marshmallow chums

singing kumbaya around the campfire

more fun than British Bulldogs

(bobby sox were not for the stiff upper lip)

and those hippies knew how to put an end to war

until the neo-liberal economy crossed out

every living thing from the Amazon Forrest

to the orca whale and all that remains

is the lizard brain and far-sighted raptor.

Neo-nazi’s, I suspect,  are supported by two camps 

those afraid the people will create a new future

and those traumatized before they met tenderness.

Now the continent must be returned

to the earth and its inhabitants

or wordless bonfires without borders

will finish the game.