Pandemic epidemic, fever, chills;
As viral spiral sickens, quickens, kills.
We’re tasked and masked with no place left to go.
A lockdown, knockdown, drag-on TKO.

The churches, schools, and pubs once quintessential
Are now defined as being nonessential.
While travel, holidays, and short vacations
Are put on hold in lieu of vaccinations.

The polls and pols conspire to bend the rules.
And Voter fraud? Good god! Both Elephants and Mules
Assert the other’s warped conspiracy
Portends the death of our democracy

Their legal eagles seek to certify
The vote or find votes to disqualify.
Accuse, abuse, refuse civility
As wealthy athletes bend the knee
To anthems, Antifa and BLM,
While claiming righteousness belongs to them.

Like Caesar, Saint George Floyd is deified.
While law enforcement’s cursed and demonized.
As peaceful demonstrators loot and burn.
The press blames cops and Trump in turn,
Demanding his immediate submission
To Biden’s still-imminent transition.

Like Kane and Miller’s face-off in High Noon,
The final showdown will be coming soon.
But in this case, instead of man to man
(Like Aaron Burr and Alex Hamilton)
A hundred thousand votes or more could be
Discarded on a technicality.

If so, then SCOTUS could decide and choose
Which President will win, and which will lose—
A choice that, like the Cracks of Doom, will thunder,
And likely tear our commonweal asunder.
God save us all in some way or another.
From biting and devouring each other.

 

 

James A. Tweedie is a recently retired pastor living in Long Beach, Washington. He likes to walk on the beach with his wife. He has written and self-published four novels and a collection of short stories. He has several hundred unpublished poems tucked away in drawers.

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5 Responses

  1. C.B. Anderson

    Release the Kraken? It has already been unleashed, and there will be Hell to pay, unless I miss my guess. I liked the irony and the serial Bryant-esque internal rhymes. Contra your final couplet, I’m not sure that God is interested in saving us from what Man has wrought. My advice is: get used to the new dietary laws soon to be in place. Tweedie under glass and Anderson flambe’ will soon be on the menu at a street fight coming to a theater near you.

    Reply
  2. Margaret Coats

    James, this poem is so loaded with rhyme and with allusions to recent events that I think we need some new terminology for it. With the longer stanzas below and the shorter above, how about “a hive of buzz words featuring a multiplex of rhyme”? I’ll leave it to you as inventor of the form to decide how much of each is required. There is some honey in the amusement of reading it! And a serious turn in the final couplet entreaty.

    Reply
  3. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    James, this poem taps into the insidious spirit of the age with poetic aplomb and a form that inspires me. I love it!

    Reply
  4. Cynthia Erlandson

    Your frequent internal rhymes are lovely and clever, James. And the line about Saint George Floyd is nicely ironic.

    Reply

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