Tag Archives: politics

Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ (written by Brendon Behlke and Pablo Ramon)

Spotlight; me:
peace starved,
hunger met by darkness,
Not sated –
            stoked.
Become bullish fire,
horns of flame,
eager to gore
an audience of errant toreadors.

Stage Direction:
“Destroy”
“Murder,”
Scene – Infinity,
enter: monster (me).
Raze the set to rubble,
fade to black.

House lights on,
Reveal: Wreckage,
horror,
me.
Not the fiend –
but the human takes a bow,
for all the vindicated matadors,
dead eyed, slack jawed,
red with the weight of requital,
as thick curtains fall,
secreting away every
                        exit;

I leave, but linger,
haunting the now dimming theater,
where shadows stretch and merge,
a figure lost in canvas.
seeking peace,
and forever unseen.

Citizens United (Video)

This is part of a collection of poems accompanied by an AI generated illustration as a response to those poems. In the collection, “A Super Collider of Zigs and Zags” by Brendon Behlke, each poem was submitted as a prompt to an AI art generator and produced the artwork on display. To view them the way ancient peoples would have viewed them, you can order a copy of the entire collection, over 100 poems and art pieces, releasing on November 18th 2023 here: https://www.fontainehousepublishing.com/product-page/a-super-collider-of-zigs-and-zags-by-brendon-behlke

Dainty Tyrant

A lie is only a lie when plotted against the truth,
alone, the deception is plausible;
with time enough to gestate, undeniable;
with power enough to overwhelm, unchallengeable;
with support enough to rise, unquenchable.

Determined diminutive deceptions deftly directed,
degrade democracy, defending dictators.

Truth torn to tatters, tortured through tantrums,
transitions to trepidatious tragedies, that turn tail,
                                                                                then takeoff.

The Serpent and the Snake

Eager blades rise like waves,
tightly coiled for the depths below,
where dark waters twist and tumble
fraught to maintain such great heights
until gravity’s anchor drags them back to the undertow

Those fangs sink in through the scales,
stopping only covetously for the bone.
The venom it sends rushes to unknown ends,
a curious tide trespassing secret coves
echoing haunted laughter in sunless geometry.

The other beast strikes back in reflected anger,
rushing its aggressor like a gull caught in a gust;
sharp salt sea breeze cutting the sun,
fracturing the blue canvas with a searing light
before plunging again into the familiar stream.

Two currents opposed to form a whirlpool,
neither willing to give any ground to the other,
flowing ribbons of water; ocean waves,
burrowing against the earth and rising against the sky.
For the want to live, they both will die.

Tithonus

I want to scream
to yell out against the wind
to accost the world before me
    condemn those responsible
    curse myself too,
I can’t.

I want to rage
to lash out against that stone wall
to become violence upon the leeches
    take by force my fair share
    fight for life until death
I can’t.

I want to collapse
to fold on myself in despair
to make myself small
    diffuse into the static background
    become less than what is needed
I can’t.

I want to live honestly
to breathe the fresh air of clarity
to rest on the laurels of defined purpose
    move through the world without restraint
    act as the situation dictates
I can’t.

I can’t in this climate
so I’ll just wait
…

Dashed Against the Rocks

What prizes satin words afford!
our foreign ears made to boiling
with those that dine on finer things
describing our future delights
in fly by night campaign speeches.

Not David, but Goliaths chord
booms over the gathering throng
praising what god is left to us.
The world razed, we in its ashes,
they tell us that we are adored,

that they are umbilical cords
feeding us and making us strong.
The hollow message would echo
if the acoustics weren’t so wrong
resonating against the horde.

Insecurities long ignored
now awoken and brought along
to territories unexplored
carried away by sirens song
to rage and die on their own swords.

Citizens United

I wish I had enough
to budget for my vote
the cost of the ear
my representative
long since entombed in gold.

While we scrawl on paper
which evil is lesser
our betters tell us
that they are citizens
and they are united

behind something greater
than any we could wield,
as many zeros
trailing as for us lay
ahead, there to impede;

for though voting is free
positions cost money
and it behooves them
to give money power
while we still reward greed.

We too are citizens
but are not united,
we blame each other
for the lack of funding
we would need to contend

but if I could afford
to bend the golden ear,
I’d cry out in pain,
give voice to our freedoms
dying in avarice.

The Wolf That Needed No Disguise

Liberty is dying
                 sure
but we’ve known that.
Two months ago we heard it scream.
On January 6th we waded through its blood
          barely able to keep our head above the flow.

In 2016 it’s attackers announced themselves
their intent
                      their accomplices
and spent four years brutalizing it.

August 10th 2017: Stabbed

October 6th 2018: Stabbed

October 27th 2020: Stabbed

We’ve felt its pain in thousands of similar cuts
              its longing in empty positions
                         its hopelessness in lack of protection

Liberty is all but dead
and the only thing keeping it alive
is the malevolence of its attackers
who more than anything
             to torture it forever;

To keep you thinking
                        somehow
                         it will pull through.

To give them more time to pervert and destroy,
manipulate the numbers to make fascist oligarchy
look like democracy

Reminding you that
                     your voice matters

But it doesn’t
     sometimes change requires more than words.