America alone

Tech billionaires watch markets fade away
as Europe builds capacities at home.
Horizons dwindle where they're free to play;
America's increasingly alone.
"The Wealth of Nations" Adam Smith has taught
expands when parties all cooperate.
What's hard to make, is often better bought;
high tariffs will impoverish the State.
Three generations, we secured sea lanes
and Europe trusted we'd hold perils back.
But now that Putin's avid for Ukraine
his vassal Trump's been told to just retract.
Enablers, focused wholly on their stocks,
have conned our Ship of State right onto rocks.

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.

empires in retreat

Dimetriev slipped Witkof Putin's plan,
and Donald Trump turned in"his" homework sheet.
The same old landgrabs since the war began,
but now, it's Russia staring at defeat.
The blitzkrieg failed, Ukraine remained unbowed;
Zelenskyy stood, and didn't stand alone.
True allies sent what budgets had allowed;
the Europeans know this war's their own.
The Navy at the bottom of the sea,
the warplanes that don't dare to go aloft,
Defections decimate the infantry.
Morale in the Red Army's pudding-soft.
The gross examples we've already caught
make clear our presidency has been bought.

flip-flop

The war-chest Putin stocked by doubtful means/
looked like enough...until his blitzkrieg stalled.
But now, he's calling up cold-war machines,
and even Stalin might have been appalled,
at so much blood spent for so little gain.
Ukrainians prove quite as tough as Finns;
The paper tiger crumples in Ukraine.
Such wars are quick to lose, but not to win;
Trump's realized that Putin's cause is lost.
The empire of the Czars ain't coming back.
As long as Europeans bear the cost,
He won't restrain Ukrainians' attack.
Increasingly, the Kremlin sulks alone,
and darling Vanya's never coming home.

the Fall

Zelenskyy's way too cool to tip his hand
'when Vance and Trump upbraid his lack of cards.
He's not the fool who'd show these clowns the plans;
they're far too close to Putin, and his guards.
The Brezhnev-era legacy of planes,
lies burnt and punctured on their distant base.
They'll make no further sorties on Ukraine;
these beasts would take a decade to replace.
Mortality now camps at Putin's door;
his blitzkrieg hasn't rolled out as he planned.
His legacy's this grinding bloody war
that Russia's losing to the better man.
The Russian empire Catherine'd made great
strikes out and blusters as it dissipates

brinksman

"Great television!" Putin's lapdog snarled
reverting to a scale he feels is real.
Deluded that he's merely playing cards
when frontline allies need a weapons deal.
The Europeans watched Zelenskyy stand
against the bullies, knowing he is right,
and rushed to underwrite the better man;
Ukrainians are waging the West's fight.
The Nazi threat our fathers' fathers fought
now not in Germany, but here at home,
took just one demagogue who's long been bought
and wants America to sit alone.
While Trump pursues his stupid fictive debt
all Europe's unified against the threat.

"Over There"

The Kremlin quakes; the war's come home at last;
another general will kill no more.
All Moscow must have heard the car -bomb's blast,
and Russians can't pretend they're not at war.
Three years of efforts to assassinate
Zelenskyy so far, all have been in vain.
At home, he's so hard to defenstrate;
the Kremlin wields few levers in Ukraine.
The empire Putin dreamt would make his name,
like Katherine reborn, astride his steed,
insists it has no wish to be reclaimed
to gratify his autocratic greed.
Civilians, far too late become aware
no war's conducted wholly "over there".

gordian knot

The Kremlin caucus lost, Joe Biden won.
November must confirm what's been made plain;
This speaker crosses lines to get things done,
and top of his agenda is Ukraine.
His MAGA colleagues live to pump their base,
as if our needs were met by making noise.
But Johnson's looking past November's race;
he'd rather send our bullets than our boys.
The billions Putin didn't spend in arms,
and maintenance of relics of the past,
he lavished buying quislings near and far.
But allies bought, are not the friends who last.
The Arsenal that backs democracies
though dilatory, still coughs up the fees.

useful idiots

Mike Johnson has defied the Kremlin's tools
who'd stuck our lethal aid bill in a ditch
For now, it's Putin's shills who look the fools;
this Speaker isn't Greene's complacent bitch.
As mud solidifies, treads won't get stuck.
With modern armored rolling up the plain,
the antiquated Russian tanks are fucked;
they're wholly obsolete now in Ukraine.
While Greene and Boebert parrot Putin's lies,
all sane observers know what it's about.
To undercut our allies isn't wise;
professor Snyder's called these quislings out.
Zelenskyy's prospects volt-face on a dime;
this season Putin's blitzkrieg's out of time.

Kremlin tools

The Kremlin Caucus holds Zelenskyy's funds
against Americans' explicit will.
Bizarrely proud that nothing's getting done,
in Washington's two Houses on one Hill.
Joe Biden'd rather claim a half than all,
if winning'd mean he'd make an enemy
But Speaker Johnson isn't playing ball;
his masters spurn collegiality.
Ukrainians defy the empire's might;
a million Davids groping for a stone.
Defending home and hearth, and clearly right
They'll they kill the Roschisti--at needs--alone.
A president who aims to compromise
confronts obstruction, calumny, and lies.

hypocrites and traitors

The treason Putin purchased in Ukraine
impaired defense, but failed to throw the war.
Abroad, his rubles bought him greater gain;
and TrumptyDumpty proved his eager whore.
A world ablaze, the Speaker doesn't care;
Trump'd laid his stubby hands on Johnson's head.
While unctuous traces linger in his hair
he won't betray the manger where he's fed.
Where piety and lucre so collude,
compassion for the living's shoved aside.
A million who'd have lived, had they had food
don't prick his conscience as they've starved, and died.
The Kremlin Caucus help their master kill
and piously profess to serve God's will.

modern warfare

The horrors Putin thought could be contained,
this week are banging on the Kremlin's door.
The independent people of Ukraine
don't play in Putin's asymmetric war.
The troops he'd need to occupy the land
must now be redeployed to guard his back.
If all her border-posts must now be manned,
no Russian's left to parry, or attack.
The mothers who made Gorbachev repent
Afghanistan, and bring their Vanyas home,
despair of bending this new government;
but any tyrant can be overthrown.
Elites could send riffraff to die alone
in ages past, before the time of drones.

imperial view

The violence that Muscovy projects
on subjugated peoples near and far
the educated readership rejects.
They're not put there to serve a distant Czar.
If Chechens were as vicious as portrayed,
The Moscow subways would have long gone"boom"
The Kommentariat's been bought and paid
and broadcast into every livingroom.
Kadyrov's the most useful brand of fool
"house-nigger" helping mastah to oppress.
He's not so much a "man", as household tool,
enjoying scraps they've stolen from the rest.
Class-consciousness remains exceeding rare;
and will until the People grow a pair.







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Compose:

villainy

While Russian population's on the wane
minorities--by contrast--only rise.
So Putin's snatching toddlers in Ukraine
to man an empire their blood-kin despise.
A conscript's motivation's not the same
as theirs defending fam'ly, hearth, and home.
An army's compromised by its own shame
when staking claim to land that's not its own.
The Argentines have seen this play before;
adopted children rarely learn the truth.
Atrocious booty of a dirty war
when thugs appropriate opponents' youth.
Autocracy in its decrepit stage
pursues a policy of bygone age.

Funeral Games II

Now Shoigu's private army takes the field;
Kadyrov and Prigozhin've done the same.
As Putin totters, stakes have gotten real
The warlords drill their assets for the Game.
The Muslim has no clear play on the throne;
The Patriarch insists that's his to grant.
Kadyrov must take Chechnya for his own
to safeguard his own life, where others can't.
When Alexander passed, he left no son
mature enough to take an empire's helm.
Succession's where great legacies are won;
the people starve while dukes contest the realm.
Old patterns stamped in Europe's scarlet blood
reprised in Ukraine's snow, and ice, and mud.

Funeral Games

Now Shoigu's private army takes the field;
Kadyrov and Prigozhin've done the same.
As Putin totters, stakes have gotten real
The warlords drill their assets for the Game.
The Muslim has no clear play on the throne;
The Patriarch insists that's his to give.
Kadyrov must take Chechnya for his own
if any haven's safe for him to live.
When Alexander passed, he left no son
mature enough to take an empire's helm.
Succession's where great legacies are won;
the people starve while dukes contest the realm.
Old patterns stamped in Europe's scarlet blood
reprised in Ukraine's snow, and ice, and mud.

Blonds in bondage

Maghrebi pirates held Gibraltar's strait
exacting tribute on those narrowed seas.
Norse traders, when obliged to innovate
linked stream to stream, portaging down through Kyiv.
To Mikkelburgh, a wonder to behold!
Before the world had heard of "Romanovs"
Where smelly wares were parlayed to bright gold
some days it's tusks and pelts, some days it's Slavs.
Until they're baptized, everyone's fair game;
"sold down the river" wasn't metaphor.
'Til Voldemar signed up--at least in name--
to live near rivers was to suffer war.
'Til Africa was featured in the Trade
the working class was signed up, raid by raid.

Rus

Professor Snyder guides us through Ukraine
three thousand years and more since Colchis fell.
Brave argonauts risked life and limb for grain
His trophy bride made Jason's life a Hell.
Moroccan pirates held Gibraltar's strait;
Norse sailors couldn't buck that standing wave.
When Vikings were obliged to innovate,
their longboats plied the rivers, towed by slaves.
Far Muscovy presents the latest threat
like Lithuanians, and Poles before.
Ukrainians ain't going to forget
they bore the brunt of"Patriotic War".
ICBMs and oil are rough to eat
And in the end, Ukrainians have wheat.

gambit

The Finns remember rolling Russia back,
and coach Ukrainians to snipe from trees.
In dead of winter, patriots attack,
while Putin's conscripts snivel, drink, and freeze.
On Christmas Eve, we crossed the Delaware,
and took the Hessians roughly from behind.
Their London masters sniffed "that's scarcely fair!"
But no one pays those poofters any mind.
In asymmetric war, we give no pause;
invaders would just use it to re-arm.
The Kremlin's violated 'stablished laws;
they're not the side that's suffered grievous harm.
The empire Romanovs and Stalin grew
outlived its age, but losing here, it's through.

Frozen lines

The word's gone out:"we need cold weather gear
to drive invaders from our native land"
And Finland understands the Russian Bear
is vulnerable to a well-dressed man.
The million troops that Josef Stalin lost
to move a boundary stone, and claim some woods,
still sets the bar for what such wars can cost.
But Ruskyi Myr's gone "poof", this time for good.
Attrition reigns, where blitzkrieg failed to stun;
arms depots are depleted by the fray.
Entrenched like nightmares out of WorldWarOne.
The chance to shock and awe has slipped away.
Ukrainians appreciate the love
but with artillery rounds, please send gloves.