image from flicker.com
Change is a Bitch
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels,
the troublemakers--because they change things.”
- Rob Siltanen.
Remove change,
and there is less
conflict & chaos--
but the sad fact remains
that without change, progress
stalls out like a tractor out of gas,
like lungs without oxygen, like fish
flopping on a bloody deck.
As recipients of unerring
seasonal shifts, every
one of our days is rife
with change.
As we age there are new limitations that appear
like lichen or rodents or barnacles in the night.
As we mature,
one hopes that
wisdom, better judgement
and compassion
will embrace our sphere.
As we learn, we are given opportunities to
incorporate and apply changes to our personal
perceptions, our interactions & relationships.
Yet, I have
railed against,
rebelled and resisted
change, as if it were
a plague ship,
allowing my well mantled fears
and well constructed comfort zones
to complicate and obstruct, even though
I understand that most times change
is inevitable, & often inexorable.
When it comes to “Change”, the
only thing I hate more than my
mounting health issues, more
than all those things I have to
cross off from my plans and
activities, is my daily bitter dose
of Trump-madness, as the
ghosts of Mussolini and
Boss Tweed’s Tammany
Hall combine in filthy depths
of their corruption,
and America, as the bastion of liberty is now
developing crippling cracks in its white columns,
and grievous wounds to its spirit. All I possess
is anger and grit to sustain me.
Donald J. Trump,
like the institution of slavery,
like the Inquisition,
like pogroms & gas chambers,
like Witch trials & McCarthyism,
like boils on my butt
shall pass.
It may be a painful transition,
like pulling teeth with rusty pliers,
like passing stones through your urethra,
but history is sharpening its daggers
and sanity is gathering its forces.
Glenn Buttkus
12 comments:
Such a deep and thoughtful piece of writing Glenn. Change is of course inevitable but how we engage is where our freedom lies. Wonderful stuff.
I have a feeling that what Trump actually is doing is trying to reverse change... pulling back on everything... the good thing is that it might give progressive states a change to move ahead faster and show by example that this is the best way to do it... but I fear that it will take some time to get started again.
There is so much in this poem, Glenn. I had to read it several times to follow the twists and turns of change. I love the simile:
'...without change, progress
stalls out like a tractor out of gas'.
When I was thinking about change, for once I didn't think about changing seasons but the changes we are forced to make or try to make in order to achieve something. And I came to the conclusion that there's enough change going on all over the place without putting my oar in - now that I'm getting older, I might as well let it happen on its own. But then of course, I write and that does the job too.
I think the older we get, the more we resist change. how we respond to that change is on us, not the person doing the changing. I like that change will pass. that is the character of change - it is always changing! Did you hear N. Korea fired another ballistic missile today over Japan? Lord have mercy on us. I liked your rant and blows against the empire. Let's throw some rocks!
Ha. Ok, first. Love the movement in your words Sir Glenn.
You do cover a lot of ground here. The age changes. I feel them. I am slowly going blind, ironically. The last 2 years my eye sight has degraded tremendously.
Trump. I really should not get started on this because this could be a very long comment. Politics aside, for a second. I struggle with the lying. Now I know most if not all candidates lie. But the blatant disregard for truth is ridiculous, and on such petty things too. Mind blowing.
Kinda glad I have never had to pass those stones, except metaphorically. Yikes.
As we age there are new limitations that appear
like lichen or rodents or barnacles in the night.
I love these lines, the image is so absurd! Yes, it will all pass, even those wretched rodents.
....this too shall pass... even the the horrific Trump. I'll say 'amen' to that!
Brilliant, Glenn. I share your feelings about "The Trumpet", and I do so hope you're right about history sharpening its daggers and sanity gathering its forces.
Love the visuals of that line about American developing cracks in it's white columns.
I hate the political turmoil created by Trump and his cohorts and I can't wait to see the day his presidency is done. Hope the USA people will vote for a better candidate this time around, having learned that being apolitical and unconcerned, will lead them to another Trumpet ~
I have always embrace changes, except my health, ha ~
Just look at change like the rings of a tree. Some show good wet years and other show dry. Together they make the tree. The Good the Bad and the Ugly!
Dwight
Your similes are all very apt to describe the dude, but I personally think "boils on my butt" is most fitting.
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