allegiances

the English proletariate's aggrieved
at policies set by the One Percent
and so they voted Britain ought to leave
and sever trade-ties to the Continent
but Scots are loathe to see liasons fade
they're Europeans no less than they're Brits
since Adam Smith, staunch champions of Trade
rewarding not just resources, but wits
United Kingdom's in for a rough ride
Leviathan's been taken down a peg
is this the wound that leaves the thrones untied
the body politic shorn of one leg
the centre cannot hold; thing fall apart
a great unravelling had petty start

loyal to her people

a candidate wed to the status quo
hopes it's enough she's not the other guy
her focus groups assure her that it's so
it's in the bag, she need not even try
eight years elapsed in which the big banks grew
and we're still on the hook if they should fail
but her constituents are the rich Few
for whom a "penthouse" doesn't mean a jail
until November, anxieties mount
'though she nipped Sanders, riding his dark horse
as California readjusts the count
unbendingly, she grimly stays the course
content the voters have no place to turn
she gives no hint she understands the Bern

class warfare

the status quo has served the Clintons well
they've joined the Ruling Class' moneyed ranks
no matter it's a marriage made in Hell
they've hitched their wagon to the biggest banks
Piketty warned us of this downward slope
as capital's ingathered to the Few
as Bernie fades, so fades the People's hope
that we may share the nation's bounty, too
real wages don't reflect the market's gain
that bankers divy in the bonus pool
while Bill assures us that he feels our pain
his wife serves Wallstreet as its faithful tool
be happy that a woman gets her turn
but this one really doesn't feel the Bern        

retrograde II

unending peace need not exceed our grasp
if we'd but raise our eyes above the State
and grant Leviathan a higher task
a League of Nations pacifying Fate
extrapolating Hobbes to span the world
each nation ceding partial sovereignty
what benefits to every boy and girl
would flow from its benign hegemony
monopolizing force would make it moot
for want of any Other to attack
were there no "them" there'd be no one to shoot
no bogeyman to hurl our insults back
Kant's vision may yet--one day--come to pass
were Boris Johnson not a braying ass

retrograde

for Scots, the Brexit came as a surprise
that frayed their linkage to the continent
United Kingdom suddenly unties
as Edinburgh blows off parliament
three score and ten years Europe's mostly calm
and mutual destruction's just a threat
'cause everybody's got an Atom Bomb
and no one's mad enough to drop one (yet)
the centre cannot hold; things fall apart
as London bridles at the Brussels path
and Caledonians prepare to chart
new trade relationships with better math
and England might float free, 'though float alone
unshackled on her disunited throne

under the bus

Mohammed Morsi shook the Saudi throne
assuming rule by popular consent
if Arabs could select one of their own
what others might embrace his precedent
but Washington won't call this coup a "coup"
and billions unabated flow in aid
no matter what the Cairo junta do
we guarantee the officers get paid
behind our rhetoric, one hard fact lurks
the people on the street don't have our trust
in Egypt, it's the army corps that works
where other institutions are a bust
we preach the Rights of Man, but it's a sham
when--tangibly--we just don't give a damn

dark ops

McChrystal ran the show at Special Ops
whatever a battalion couldn't do
bin-Laden's agents never reached the top
each suddenly expired at "number two"
decapitation's not a strategy
but keeps a non-state actor leaning back
if we don't grant them legitimacy
we claim a freer hand in our attack
bin Laden brought the struggle to our shore
which struck Americans as so unfair
unhesitating to engage in war
as long as all the bleeding's over there
no monument's erected in the park
to those whose war's conducted in the dark