VERSE / Mariann G. Wizard : Fire in the Hole

Cartoon by Dan Piraro / Bizarro.

Fire in the Hole

The powder keg is full
and the fuse is lit.

Daily before our eyes
men and women speak truth to power,
power crushes them,
they rise up again and again –

the powder keg is full
and the fuse is lit.

Daily before our eyes
spoiled executives flaunt
staggering profits while
staggering veterans beg for alms –

the powder keg is full
and the fuse is lit.

Daily before our eyes
arrogant legislators slash
funds for education while
prisons strain to contain more youths –

the powder keg is full
and the fuse is lit.

Daily before our eyes
scowling agents of morality
insert themselves into the
private cracks and crannies of our lives –

the powder keg is full
and the fuse is lit.

Daily before our eyes
decent working people,
having done the right thing all their lives,
find they have nothing to show for it –

the powder keg is full
and the fuse is lit.


The Mayan calendar ends in the year
twenty-twelve: an election year.
Some believe the world will end as well.
But if it continues, hear this:
the world of Obushma and Rottemney,
Bi(nLa)den and Palahuck,
Trumpette and Gingrinchvitis, is ending.
It ended, in fact, on Nine-One-One,
when the Twin Towers tumbled,
and the scraps of our freedom
were swapped for "security";
ended when the feds
bailed out "securities" firms that
bilked retirees' accounts;
ended when the promise of peace
became the reality of multi-war;
ended (finally?) when

before our eyes we saw
poor downtrodden camel-jockeys
stand up in the dust of centuries
and say "No more!"

Are we free people or slaves?
Will we be "Left Behind"?

The powder keg is full
and the fuse is lit.


Mariann G. Wizard / The Rag Blog
22 May 2011

[Mariann G. Wizard, a Sixties radical activist and contributor to The Rag, Austin's underground newspaper from the 60s and 70s, is a poet, a professional science writer specializing in natural health therapies, and a regular contributor to The Rag Blog. Read more poetry and articles by Mariann G. Wizard on The Rag Blog.]

The Rag Blog