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Israel bombs Gaza
for twenty-four days
Inaugurating Obama’s silence
as a policy phase.

Tunisians rebel
Who Cares for that state?
Ben Ali lives well in
his Saudi estate.

Egyptians rebel
Mubarak kills hundreds, yet silence is golden
Can’t we get back to what’s normal?
After all, we’re beholden.

Libyans rebel
Gadaffi on the slaughter but now silence is broken
Violence, says Obama, the Afghan assassin,
is an unacceptable notion.

Aircraft carrier with 400 marines
War ships through the Suez
No fly assault is on the table
The military machine’s oil
is now unstable!

Freeze Gadaffi’s assets.
What about Goldman Sachs?
At least the Egyptians
Knew who to attack.

Americans resist
as Obama dismantles our past
with JP Morgan in Chief
this nation won’t last.

Bill Gates wants our pensions
Governor Walker our rights
Bankers take our homes,
As Obama takes the mic.

The Ds and Rs
both beyond repair
There even less relevant
than the Wafd over there.

Collective Giving won’t work
They want it all, don’t you know.
A little bit each time
It’s the Liberals’ mojo.

Congress gives bankers our funds
David Koch our fresh air.
They want us to live
quiet lives of despair.

“Game Over” is the sign
It’s true even here.
There is no bargain to be made
Let’s have regime change, no fear.

Can we imagine
A democratic state.
One where the people
Get what they make.

We keep conferencing
with workshops, panels and speakers
a dead-end technology
with the people in bleachers.

There’s no way around it
The space must be open
With all the uncertainty
of a circle unbroken.

Sometimes I wonder
If that was Tahrir
The youth opened a space
Where people lost fear.

They formed a community
Where free thought could take place
where demands were formed
and solidarity embraced.

It was stronger than violence
It shocked even those
who tortured and beat
those kids they opposed.

I remember Seattle
where kids saw a space
that opened a door
to the Ministerial race.

It got slammed shut
by cops, the state and its gas
but the neo-liberal agenda
began to breath its last gasp.

The institutions are closed
the relief valves shut tight
but that makes it easy
to see the space that’s in sight.

I wonder how many Tahrirs
we could construct over time
to expose the bankruptcy
of the bankers’ last crime.

We all know they took it
But we do want it back
A future with meaning
for our kids and their pack.

Dan Leahy

03/03/11