Sudetenland

When Kissinger proposed she should appease
aggression to ease Putin past this mood,
Ukraine demurred to take it on her knees;
Zelensky's answer's eloquently crude.
When Neville Chamberlain sold out the Czechs
as if the Nazis wouldn't then grab more,
such causes have predictable effects;
what followed was a more appalling war.
It shouldn't take a genius to discern
such cowardice just magnifies the threat.
But politicians don't get paid to learn;
what Caesar knew, more modern minds forget.
Old lessons History could teach the sage
get lost too often in this smartphone age.

process of elimination

bizarrely, Trump's his party's nominee
the donors' favorites left the voters cold
his language skills are rudimentary
but still, he's in, when all the others fold
the bid his rivals thought was just a bluff
has bigly demonstrated what he's got
he's found an audience who like it rough
and anti-Semitism makes them hot
in such a contest, Hillary looked sage
adult who's seen such tantrums all before
who'll bring back Kissinger to the world stage
but only cultivate  a little war
this moderate Republican in heels
excluded Bernie and his new NewDeal

realpolitik

for Hegel, genocide defines a "win"
where none survives, there's no one to accuse
life's victors can't be too concerned with sin
where stakes are lethal if they were to lose
morality's the refuge of the weak
who'd bind the strong in self-imposed restraint
perversely finding virtue in the meek
misrepresenting martyrs to be saints
a feral world's the prize for one who's strong
as innocent as Nature sketched by Hobbes
unless if fails, no violence is wrong
and justice is administered by mobs
no higher goal than keeping death deferred
permits no meaning in this life absurd

meddler

when Kissinger was shaping policy
he fancied he could play the world like chess
the public only later got to see
his covert hand that wrought this global mess
it's taken decades to appreciate
the cost of trampling Human Rights abroad
four billion  people look on us with hate
where he had thought to leave them over-awed

his latest protégé deems it's her turn

behind the throne, he'd wield his old dark power
no prosecutor ever seems to learn
he should be serving time in some dark tower
the Church Committee failed to exorcise
Dick Nixon's minister of tricks and lies

backroom

Obama's cast his lot with Hillary
like he's campaigning for his own third term
to influence her as eminence gris
where she lacks vision that we can discern
behind the throne, he'd wrestle Kissinger
who has his own ideas what power's for
each claiming his agenda came from her
'though one loves parley, and the other, war
two academics grasping power's reins
persuading Hillary with reams of facts
a pas de trois of brass knuckles and brains
to be the moral compass that she lacks
the Will to Power scares us when it's raw
and so it masquerades as Rule of Law

realpolitik

four decades on, the DirtyWar still bleeds
where Kissinger slapped down his cynic's bet
way past what any statecraft strictly needs
endorsing that grim butcher Pinochet
the disappeareds' blood cries out from the earth
accusing those who waxed fat on the crimes
their black-swathed mothers still wait to be heard
'though dwindling with the onward march of Time
like Hegel's, Kissinger's ethics belong
on history's slag-heap, a worthless mess
denying that an action's "right" or "wrong"
set's monsters free to rule the wilderness
no sycophant of Henry's got the right
to plunge the world back into such a night         

rudderless

when Kissinger formed policies of State
no whiff of virtue shaped the calculus
conflating war with peace and love with hate
when such deceit could buy an edge for us
our national repute was built on lies
the world knew there was nothing we held dear
but people were convinced that to seem wise
we had to cultivate an age of fear
his protege defers to one who's strong
she orbits him in each phase of her life
as deaf as Hegel to absolute wrong
as sure that there's a profit where there's strife
no moral compass keeps her steady helm
when she thinks she deserves to rule the realm