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Devil Atticman Feb 2020
One hundred men gather to decide their king.

They bring their minds and gold together;
They weave a crown of rope with gilded string,
Then, quietly, it lay before them in the grass

The first man moves to seize the rope,
"See your king with rope in grasp!"
Another comes and yanks it back, "I brought more gold than you!"

Another comes, and another still, 'till every man has seized the rope,
Until it wrapped around the throat of someone in the feud.
"Hold! We've gone too far," said the man whose throat was caught.

The rabble of the hundred men ended as it came,
And each the golden rope held firm; one-hundred men had pulled the knots.
The man who brought the most gold said to the one who seized it first,

"I'd rather you, the first to take the rope, be king!"

The first to lift it said back,
"And I that it were any of you!"
Thoughts on kingdoms and leadership, translated in fun old-timey parable-speak :)
Robert Ronnow Feb 2020
While I pretty much opined for this impeachment
my fellow Americans voted for this guy and they could be right
I’ve been wrong before, stuck as we are with a system
that generates some perplexful leaders, democracy being the worst form
      of government—
except for all the others.
Anyone can be president, that’s been proven time and time again.
Wars can start for no discernible reason other than
radical purity, avarice, cupidity, gluttony, rapacity, even affluenza—
meanwhile life goes on outside all around you
perhaps you identify as Jewish, Latino, Muslim, Indian or Filipino
asexual, cybersexual, somasexual, hypersexual, homosexual, pentasexual
it doesn’t really matter, nothing **** matter matters, matter
content of life (serious, love it) hate death for the hell of it
to see what it’s like inside the heart of darkness.

Not that I accept their god, their void, I accepted humanity as a natural
      part of nature
demisexual, downsexual, ecosexual, Eurosexual, eversexual, exsexual,
extrasexual, femtosexual, Francosexual, geosexual, gigasexual,
Grecosexual, Indosexual, intersexual, kilosexual, macrosexual,
malsexual, megasexual, metasexual, microsexual, missexual,
medisexual, mocksexual, monosexual, muchsexual, multisexual,
mustsexual, nearsexual, neosexual, nonsexual, oftsexual,
omnisexual, oversexual, pansexual, parasexual, partsexual,
photosexual, polysexual, postsexual, presexual, pseudosexual,
psychosexual, quasisexual, rentasexual, selfsexual, semisexual,
Sinosexual, subsexual, supersexual, telesexual, terrasexual,
ubersexual, ursexual, ultrasexual, undersexual, vicesexual,
weresexual, wikisexual, zoosexual.
When I did that I had to pay the rent and get a job, too.
Madelle Calayag Jan 2020
Maaga kong nilisan
ang lupang sakahan
Tinahak ang lugar
na maingay at magara,
ito pala ang Maynila.

‘di napigilan ng tirik na araw
ang aming pagkukumpulan.

Nagkamayan
kaming magkakabrad,
Simula na ng himagsikan.

Sariwa pa sa alala
kung pa’no
kami inagrabyado.
Itinulak.
Binugbog.
Tinakot.
Ginamitan ng dahas.

Sa plano ng gobyerno
kami pa rin pala ang talo.

Paano pa kami mabubuhay
kung wala ng lupang mapagtatamnan?

Akala ko sa bundok
o gubat lang may ahas
-yun ay sa akala ko lang pala.

Sa’ming magsasaka’y
Kumukulapot ang putik
Ngunit
sa inyong mga nakabarong,
animoy
walang duming nakabahid.

Sa inakala kong
tubig lang ang maaaring
idilig,
Dugo
pala nami’y pwede ring
pumatik.
Tila ba ang gobyerno’y namamanhid.

Nasaan na
ang pinangako nyong
libreng abono?

Ginawa nyo na bang pataba
sa mga bulsa nyo!?

Sa pagpunta
ng mga imperyalistang bansa,
Matutulugan
pa ba kaming mga dukha?
Makatatayo ako
sa aking pagkakadapa
Ngunit
ang bayan
kong nakalugmok ,
makakaahon pa kaya?
I wrote this four years ago for the Filipino farmers
Mark Toney Dec 2019
Hong Kong China crunch
clash of ideologies—
iron mixed with clay
12/4/2019 - Poetry form: Senryu - Copyright © Mark Toney | Year Posted 2019
Lewis Irwin Nov 2019
I'm like climate because I deteriorate each day, it's a treat,
My nails are bitten to the seams just so I can feel; so I can bleed.
The nihilistic ******; I don't feel sorry; I hope we crash,
Pushing buttons in mirror cause my vision should be clearer, what's another ****?

Fear anger manipulate irate lust & youth,
The values that stitch the masses in truth.

I cut my neck to watch it bleed; imagine what I'd be if I was death on the screen?
I grip my teeth to watch them leave; crumble my soul like a God on its knees.
And when I fall back into the black kick me back; don't grab my hand,
And when I reach out it's a farce don't placate me because I don't want to land.

Fear anger manipulate irate lust & youth,
The values that stitch the masses in truth.

I want to die young to a dulcet cause; and romanticise my sins and all my flaws,
Pack my bags and leave a note; laugh it
off and slit my throat; like I give a toss.
I burnt a hole in my soul, I lost my will so long ago; I can't come back,
Forced to live without a choice; I've lost the right; I've lost the track.

Fear anger manipulate irate lust & youth,
The values that stitch the masses in truth.

In a world filled with power and greed,
Don't forget to check with them if you can be free.
They choose who you want to be and who's the new celebrity,
And when the water cooler talk starts to wear off, and when you start attack people when they don't like what you want.
When general public consensus is apparently "key", don't forget who controls exactly what you see.

You're not free,
You never will be.
The foundations are crooked,
And I know it sounds stupid,
But you've got to annihilate the system if you want to see the change,
Because they don't care about a single ******* thing that you say.
The world revolves around you and not the sun,
And you all wonder why nothing ever gets done.
You made the machine and allowed it to corrupt,
And forgot to build a fail safe, ah we're all ******...

I know I'd probably get hate comment
But your words cannot create torment
It's just like the way people these days stare at my hair
And I won't even care; as if it doesn't ring a bell
You know; sometimes I wonder if it's possible for someone's brain to be paralysed
That's what I feel anyway; about those who call themselves sarakites
Sometimes I wonder if some youths' mind has been contaminated with the society mayhem
Maybe their master has brainwashed and re-brain-feed them
The so-called buharist too; makes me sick
With their overhyped appraisal for a political freak
they sees their master as saint; and anybody who don't support
's gotto be corrupt
The whole concept of this district makes me weak
It's just a different story of a blind man and his stick
But this time; the white-cane controls the blind man's brain
Just like the white folks controls black man's aim
The sheep now controls the shepherd
The goat rule over the leopard
How do you expect me to praise someone who's got nothing to offer
I'd rather be an orphan
Than being a ripen fruit of a corrupt family tree
Never a slave; I was born to live free
I'm not a puppet of a political faction
I can only lease fraction1/2 support of a political action
Because unlike them clueless fool
I am not a useless youth
Who will abandon his roots and fruits
And start praising some political occult
I am not a political tool
Who engages in spreading counterfeited news
About how the president is a fascist
I'm not an agent of hate-speech
How can I support leaders
with zero point agenda
When poverty is the only completed government project
When political opponents poke-nose in civil servant protest
Why will I vote when I know my vote do not count
Corruption, our newly designed flag
Poverty is our special kind of rain
Our skin covered with grey and black paints (instead of green and white paints)
Pain, pain all over and over again
Now; let us pray
Oh Lord; please do not forsake
Please intervene
Do not let our country stray
To the youth with lighten sane
Receive brain in Almighty's name
Rich Oct 2019
The government’s up early in the morning
hours before my dreams said their last words
~~I wiped off the cosmos from my consciousness~~
our leaders are up, digging for mechanical gold
that sweet fuel for the machines and their automated wealth
today, their shovels disrupt Alaskan wildlife refuges
tomorrow, your backyard
but I’m waking up way later, following the sunrise as an unemployed, unashamed, unresolved and un-unified whole, unpredictable, unfitting man with a wallet
full of poems
packed tighter than an Earth with twice our population
yet still writing
without hesitation
still drifting in and out of your perception
in and out of adjacent trains
stumbling over career paths
until I land on my face and look up
wiping the gravel off hazy eyelids to see the road
and then footsteps become moments
which become monuments upon which I build a future unseen
one day,
we will all be free.
Andrew Rueter Oct 2019
Government secrets undermine democracy
in the same way lies undermine honesty
by circumventing accountability
at the expense of truth and credibility.
As citizens we should have a say in decisions
which is impossible when they’re clandestine.
Proponents say that’s why we have a representative democracy
we choose who handles our secerets
which is fair enough I guess
but once the secrets start *******
how are we supposed to know who should represent us
when we don’t even know what they’re doing?
Kayla Gallant Sep 2019
Lie across
Train tracks
Without fear
Call it insanity
Yet you stand
Willingly
Hand on chest
Pledging your life
To the men
Who dictate you
mindless sheep
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