extrajudicial

Barack Obama whacked al-Awlaki
with no semblance of due process of law
invoking National Emergency
fed Civil Rights to the bonfire's red maw
no people are quite rational when scared
discarding rights to buy security
betraying lofty words lightly declared
about core values of Land of the Free
but al-Awlaki was a citizen
who had indulged--it's true--in noxious Speech
and that must stay neither a crime nor sin
if anyone's beyond the HellFire's reach
if we're to win, it must be on our terms
and not by treating citizens like germs