When I came to this continent I met Ralph Waldo Emerson
—society as a project, a home, built by friendship,
barns built by community.
Jobs for people—but you were awed by capitalism
transcendence of economy above sentiment,
fantastic things, celebrity, the remaking of men
and all the ways a woman’s body can be used
influenced by privileged souls.
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 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
we lapped it up like cream and sugar
reading Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt
teach truth—which nearly caught on
until the next economist came out with breakfast puffs
and by then we were marshmallow chums
singing kumbaya around the campfire
more fun than British Bulldogs
(bobby sox were not for stiff upper lips)
and those hippies knew how to put an end to war
until the neoliberal economy wiped out everything
from the Amazon Forest to the orca whale
and all that remains
is lizard brain and far-sighted raptor.
Neo-Nazi’s, I suspect, are supported by two camps
those afraid we will use reason to create a future
and those traumatized before they met tenderness.
Now the continent must be returned to earth
and its inhabitants or bonfires without borders
will finish the game.
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