America! America!

painting by sherpard fairey

America! America!!

At 04:00am, PST, it became official.
I turned on CNN and it was announced in bold print:
BARACK OBAMA IS OUR NEW PRESIDENT
OF THESE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!

Praise God,
praise Jesus,
praise the intellect and good instincts of the people,
the same people who have suffered for eight years
under the auspices of the Great Oil Party.

Obama did it right,
Hurrah, hurrah!!
He put his battalion of barristers
out there watching
the polling places like hawks,
ready for a scrap,
ready to prosecute,
and the GOP goons, the redneck sombitches,
the fascist skinhead super-patriots,
the good old boys, the demagogues, the bullies
all kept their greasy hands in their pockets;
no hanging chads,
no cops keeping the black voters from the polls,
no screwed up polling machines,
no Jeb Bush to rig the situation, to put in the fix,
no excuses, just
the righteous election of
the first black President of the United States!

America,
we are the winners,
we can once again feel that swelling in our chest
as we announce we are Americans,
and we are proud this morning,
pride putting a strut in our step,
pride that has been pushed down and back
like heartburn
for much too long;
the rescue, the resurrection of the emotion
we all felt in elementary school saluting the flag,
cheering for JFK, protesting the war in Viet Nam,
hating LBJ, hating Richard Nixon,
tolerating Ronald Reagan,
reaching out to Jimmy Carter,
watching the Lion in the Desert,
Islam,
rise up from the dust and ignorance,
and stab so many of us
squarely in the heart.

Obama at his rally late last night said,
“America, this campaign was not hatched
in the halls of Washington.
This campaign was created because
you demanded it,
and now I assure you,
this is your victory,
and you will once more be proud
of a government of the people, for the people,
and by the people
that shall not perish from the earth!”

Thanks for sharing, Barack,
our hero, our eloquent leader,
the first of many to come we hope,
thank you Jesus,
you are the Sidney Poitier of politics,
the Jackie Robinson of the White House;
the first, the first, the first man to step up
with solid compassion,
with truth in both fists,
with clear eyes,
with a good heart,
and now you have a firm grip on the helm,
and you will need it,
for there are dark days yet to come
as you struggle to bring America
back from the brink,
out of the quagmire of stupidity and greed.

You have wrested control
out of the hands of zealots,
of the Illuminata, the skull and bones boys,
the rich assholes who have tipped the balance
directly into their deep and treacherous pockets.

Never has this been done so cleanly,
so completely.
You rubbed their noses in their own feces.
You let the people create more money
for your campaign than the politicos
could ever have dreamed about,
you have stopped Sarah Palin
from being a heartbeat away from the power
she did not deserve, nor should
have had under any circumstances.

Now the work begins.
We must form a ring around your family,
around you, millions deep, with each of us
more than willing to take a bullet for you,
that bullet
the John Birchers are already polishing.
We must protect you so that you can protect us,
divine reciprocity, democracy in action.

I wept as I drove through the chill of this morning,
pounding my fist on the dash of my pick up,
pumping the air, screaming Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,
goddamn rights, oh yeah.
Now is the time.
The time is now.
America, America,
you will rise again,
yesterday we spoke with one voice,
and it was so strong, so bellicose, so clear
that the words were heard
in every corner of the globe;
the oil barons have been stopped,
the Depression has been abated,
the new Crusades will find a peaceful solution,
and being an American means
being color blind.

Glenn A. Buttkus

November 5, 2008

Listed as #86 over on dVerse Poets-Open Link Night 28

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