Rupture

Half Europe sees it's long past time to dump
those US bonds that keep this ship afloat.
'Though that might be too subtle to move Trump,
and Bessent's not the man to right this boat.
Some hope that Wall Street still retains the clout
to rein him in as Mattis did, before.
This Congress lacks the balls to throw him out,
and many there hope profit comes with war.
The order we contrived at Bretton Woods,
to stabilize the world, and make us rich,
four score and more was working pretty good.
Now, all is blown to Hell by Putin's bitch.
While Trump indulges one more hissy fit,
Mark Carney isn't taking any shit.

echoes of Tienanmen

On Tienanmen, one figure stood,  alone,
bagged groceries forgotten in his hands.
Stark image that still thrills us to the bone:
massed armor halted by one unarmed man.
The violence that Stephen Miller craves
to justify the Insurrection Act,
appeals to one so utterly depraved
he reasons from his passions, not from facts.
Each Cossack isn't welded to his horse;
Jack-booted thugs routinely "ride" in cars.
If we're not peons cowed by shows of force,
Americans won't meekly kneel to Czars.
He did what's right, without regard for fame
immortalized, 'though no one knows his name.

Persian prospects

The Mullahs cut the internet and phone
as if a world made deaf could not react
to evidence they're in this all alone;
like al-Assad, their patron's overtaxed.
Far-scattered proxies, doing Moscow's will
from Tartus to Caracas, and beyond
won't push on like they're underwritten still;
that stream of funds had been the only bond.
Transparency sustains democracy;
in darkness, counting votes would be a joke.
The underpinning of theocracy
is always violence, and fear, and smoke.
Two generations since Pahlavi fled
the price is on the Ayatollah's head.

Persian passions

Two generations, Persians in the street
display more piety than they may feel.
When Mullahs dictate how we shave, or eat,
Religion's more performative than real.
Sistani fled; he never meant to rule;
"My kingdom's not of this world" as it's said.
elSadr may dream government's his tool,
but ask Khoei how he got so dead.
The French threw off the Church when they ditched kings;
laïcité's been sacred, ever since.
'Though government can deal with many things
morality's just foreign to a Prince.
Another failure in al-Assad 's mold;
Khamenei lines his Moscow nest with gold.

the piper will be paid

The gold reserves are finite, when they're spent,
his bankers won't hold any cards to play.
The bankruptcy of Putin's government
looms ever closer with each passing day.
The blitzkrieg Putin's generals had planned
presumed the secrecy Joe Biden'd blown.
While Europe stands fast with the better man,
the Russians find they're in this fight alone.
Ukraine's imposing sanctions, of a sort;
the Shadow Fleet's diminished, one by one.
Explosions on the Baltic,  or in port,
discreetly,  Special Forces get it done.
Ambitions Putin plainly can't afford
condemned a generation to grim war.