For Democracy
Free Verse
I’m trying my hand at a little free verse today. Yet, I know absolutely nothing about writing free verse. Maybe the below is good and interesting and fun. Probably it is really, really bad! Only you, the reader, can decide!
They say they are fighting for democracy.
Ukraine isn’t a democracy.
No Free Speech.
No Free Religion.
No Elections.
This isn’t democracy.
They say they are fighting for democracy.
Denying voters a choice isn’t democracy.
Trying to keep Kennedy off the ballot.
Trying to keep Trump off the ballot.
Trying to keep Phillips off the ballot.
This isn’t democracy.
They say they are fighting for democracy.
Censorship by proxy isn’t democracy.
Telling Twitter to remove people and posts.
Telling Facebook to remove people and posts.
Telling the people that which is false is true.
This isn’t democracy.
They say they are fighting for democracy.
Should we believe them?
Should we see through the lies?
Should we recognize propaganda?
This isn’t democracy.
They are not fighting for democracy.
Notes regarding Ukraine:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/world/europe/zelensky-journalism-law-free-speech.html
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/october/ukraine-law-ban-russian-ukrainian-orthodox-church-uoc.html
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20231107-ukraine-s-zelensky-says-not-the-time-for-presidential-elections
Notes regarding ballot access:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-ballot-access/
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4390938-supreme-court-agrees-to-review-trumps-colorado-ballot-ban-in-historic-case/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bidens-democratic-challengers-hit-ballot-access-roadblocks/story?id=105882807
Notes regarding censorship by proxy:
https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/fbi-ukraine-colluded-to-censor-lawful-social-media-speech-house-report-says-facebook-youtube-instagram-twitter-christopher-wray
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/07/07/biden-barred-influencing-social-media-free-speech-win/70387141007/
https://reason.com/2023/04/12/the-media-and-politicians-keep-trying-to-censor-things-that-turn-out-to-be-true/
Democracy and demon come from the same root word Daemon. Daemon means divider, lesser God demon👿 . The points in your poem tend to validate they are practicing democracy. Maybe our conception of democracy as being a good thing is wrong?
I see the patterns, and the pentameter.
I don't see this as any worse than when I was in high school, and my grades reflected that I wasn't a poet, but then again, I wasn't much of an analyst of papers for proofreading, and that changed really quickly when I entered college, and is now one of my strong points.
So you never know!