Douglas Polk- Three Poems

Persia of Old

Cyrus and Darius,
Persian kings of old,
their graves disturbed,
their images destroyed,
their lands now overrun,
marauders from the desert lands,
bringing nothing but a belief in a militant God,
chaos quieted,
no questions allowed,
order demanded,
by the religious doctrines of the silent desert,
now cultures die,
while the religion grows,
three thousand years later the unrest explodes,
and Islam is spread,
freedom surrendered,
to militant men,
hit men of the prophet,
quieting the questions,
and killing the doubts,
blood streams and flows,
into the red hot sands,
the desert's thirst insatiable,
Assyria and Babylonia,
lost to the wind.



Blind Justice

Lady Justice blindfolded,
all are equal before her eyes,
not to feel,
and emote,
or be swayed by momentary passions,
by the images before her eyes,
law is not relative,
but the timber and framework of our nation,
a house divided,
Lincoln once reformed,
united,
gutted now by a president,
and congress,
too blinded by emotion,
too arrogant to care,
the petty politics of the moment,
won or lost,
damaging the nation,
at enormous cost,
still unseen,
termites,
parasites and pests,
it seems Lady Justice,
the only one,
who can truly see.

A Day in the Senate

Senator Sessions,
a bulldog with a bone,
immigration,
a bone he can't let go,
Senator Durbin,
an orator supreme,
distorting facts,
misrepresenting the future,
and the past,
Senator Reed,
of Nevada,
not Rhode Island,
rambles incoherently,
paranoid of this bill,
or that,
blaming the Koch brothers,
and right wing zealots,
tea partiers,
old and gray,
Senator Whitehouse,
with his elitist lisp,
the prophet of climatic doom,
preaching a sermon,
dumbed down for the masses,
or maybe for the senator,
Senator Thune,
He Man in a suit,
tanned and fit,
a super hero,
but the villains,
he is unable to fight,
no money,
no time,
running late to the next interview,
Senator Boxer,
a little chihuahua,
from out west,
always yapping,
and snapping,
and hoping to bite,
ignored by almost everyone,
another day in the life of the Senate.