by Ernie McCray
As the year 2025 closed
American citizens held out hope
that 2026
would be a better year,
considering that 2025
had us shaking in our boots,
in fear,
crying in our beer,
shedding tears,
but now, just a few days
after the new year arrived,
before we could
collectively heave a sigh
of relief,
it seems
that water will continue to flow from our eyes
like rain falling
from a thundery sky
into powerful rivers
that rush towards seas
already rough
from the previous year,
as a president
appears to be even
more out of control,
downright irrational,
his behavior increasingly unpredictable
and erratic,
a dangerous threat to democratic norms,
taking down the president
of Venezuela
and seizing the country’s oil,
claiming that this action was taken
according to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine’s
mission of US supremacy in the western hemisphere –
rebranding it the “Donroe Doctrine”
according to his penchant
for wanting
to put his name on everything American
like an animal leaving its scent
to mark its territories,
announcing to the world
that he will now run Venezuela
as though he has run America
in some meaningfully hopeful manner…
Oh, this sociopathic human being
tries to rule the world
while problems in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan
and the country’s economic strain
and issues with climate change
and so many other social and political troubles
remain the same.
So far it’s as stormy, if not more, than it was in 2025,
calling on us to continually ride the rough currents
and keep the resistance alive.
