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In Belarus

(Rondeau)

by Pamela Toomey

In Belarus white flowers bloom
Reflected on steel-plated gloom
Of armored bodies; phalanx hewn
From tyrant’s need to crush the tune
Of freedom’s trill, its voice entomb.

We are alive and will resume
Soft tap on Kevlar hearts, exhume
Blest Gate of Dawn while hearts balloon
In Belarus.

Outflanked by tanks and rattling boom
We face the fray: doom stacked on doom.
O Western world, seek no cocoon;
Democracy is not immune
To growing glut of despots’ spume
In Belarus.
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Gutsy Gadflies

(Rondeau Redoublé)

by Pamela Toomey

Gutsy gadfly gunned down by feral fear,
Ruble greed spurred truncheon crunch against pate,
Loathed bugbear survives lethal toxin smear,
Fierce foe defies poison-pants potentate.

Broad-backed Nemtsov bore a four-bullet fate,
Revealing the viper’s fragile veneer
Of virtue dressed in kind to liquidate
Gutsy gadfly gunned down by feral fear.

Beaten to a pulp for over a year,
Fearless Magnitsky got rubbed off the slate
Exposing state fraud; the slaughter was clear:
Ruble greed spurred truncheon crunch against pate.

Kremlin death squads seek to eliminate
Plucky Kara-Murza for czarist peer
Intent on nulling oversight. Checkmate:
Loathed bugbear survives lethal toxin smear.

The nerve of Navalny! Truth cost him dear,
Pilfering prince spoofed behind Palace-Gate.
Regardless of gulag, torture, and jeer,
Fierce foe defies poison-pants potentate.

Cagey beast ill governs still budding state
From caged bunker: disrupt and domineer,
Dismantle NATO, EU; hack and hate.
Instead spread Magnitsky Act everywhere!
Everywhere revere gutsy gadfly trait.

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HATER In Our HEART

(Rhyming Sestina)

by Pamela Toomey

You in or out? Just play the hand you’re dealt for want
Of legs shackled to the ship’s floor. The ribbed jester
Coasts on the back of the black man’s labor, his haunt
Familiar ground to cuff linked hopes that fester
And form into chain-linked chain gangs raised to taunt
The “in” club: the incarcerated protester.

Out standing on the stacked deck, the protester,
Severed steward of the earth’s ransacked heart, in want
Of a home, lays a trail of salt tears to fester
In Georgia’s mind. Gold rush at fever pitch to taunt
Indigenous love for sacred ground. Greedy jester
Flaunts the Indian Removal Act, familiar haunt –

Old stomping ground explodes into granite shards that haunt
And hail exploited labor: Pacific protester,
Nitty-gritty, nitroglycerin, noxious taunt;
Asian spade, inured, links the oceans for the jester.
Hand played: full house; Chinese Exclusion Act in want
Of victims: railroaded, lynched, strange fruit left to fester

And fold like a house of cards amassed to fester
Anew: massacre to mass deportation, old haunt –
Same tracks; treason the debunked reason the jester
Invokes Japanese Internment. Stricken by want,
Stripped of home, yet still undaunted, the protester
Bides these false premises garbed in barbed wire that taunt

Yo-o-o-o-u’re out! Three-strike law earns one life sentence, a taunt
Wound hand in glove with Jim Crow’s crowd, but hard to fester
With Hammerin’ Hank on deck, Brave slugger in want
Of access to Georgia’s ballot box. That protester
Eschewed the need to steal home or vote or life; his haunt
The diamond, not the Gold Spa of the gun-packing jester.

Here’s the deal: Stop All Hate Crimes now; thwart the jester 
By Building Back Better; don’t settle for détente;
MLB didn’t balk but yanked the big game. Protester,
Hit For The People Act out of the park and no haunt
Of voter suppression will thrive and fester.
Bat clean-up for the Jobs Plan, union jobs to counter want

And dress our EARTH in clean air, clean water, no want
Unaddressed to all but the HATER, our jester
In our HEART; let’s redress our fault and supply a safe-haunt.
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Turning Back Jim Crow’s Return

(Villanelle)

by Pamela Toomey

Bar Jim Crow, straw man, scarecrow, gun-cocked foe
Of decency. White sheets sparking friction,
Spiked eye holes, self-blind echoing ego.
 
Grim lynchpin reaper rapping out veto
In unvoiced filibuster infliction.
Ban Jim Crow, straw man, scarecrow, gun-cocked foe
 
Back to bust tied neck-and-neck Senate, so
Fake news, new noose: knee-to-neck constriction.
From choke holds, self-blind echoing ego
 
Fashions new noose: necktie, flush dough
Surging special interest predilection.
Bar Jim Crow, straw man, scarecrow, gun-cocked foe.
 
From dark money spigots, sheeted bigots flow:
Spiked water…air…gun, voter restriction.
No holds barred, self-blind echoing ego
 
Rages before justice, ethics, fair show.
Grant sacred, aching grace jurisdiction;
Ban Jim Crow, straw man, scarecrow, gun-cocked foe;
Stitch us whole. Make FOR THE PEOPLE ACT a go!