Poetry Corner: “The Decline of the American Empire”

                     The Decline of the American Empire

The destiny of any empire is to collapse
Look at Nero, Hitler and the USSR and there is no need to ask
for centuries they may last
Portugal, France and Rome
it is rather self evident so why mention in a poem?

As with any end
violence and insurrection cause the mind to bend
Kennedy both John and Bobby then Martin Luther King
and Malcom X said the chickens have come home to roost
giving white and black hatred a boost
they didn’t get Reagan
and settled in New York for John Lennon instead
or those with an homophobic ilk
took joy with the assassination of Harvey Milk

Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wilkes Booth, Jack Ruby, Sirhan Sirhan
so much sickening violence in this American clan
the conclusion of decline hastened by an incompetent you know who
allowed to flourish in an American political zoo

Would this inanity being prevented by the election of John McCain
or was America already too far down the drain

And now with angry mobs storming Capitol Hill and vegan horn-rimmed asshole
trying to put Pence in a noose
quite frankly there is a load of shit flying about in the American political caboose

America is burning in a political and racial riot
fuelled by a moron called Trump

But incited by his treachery to the proud boys
I fear they’ll attack him and with a machete his legs will be reduced to a stump
I’ll feel sorry for him as a chump
deservedly in a wheelchair will be occupied by his rump

America burns in a fire
comedic in its ire
Biden left in ruins missing Trump playing his violin as Rome burns
while the hateful and blinded Republicans and Democrats churn

Not even a brilliant African American poet at Biden’s in inauguration can heal
as democracy in the United States takes its final squeal

Being far to late for any healing FDR New Deal
death rings from churches peal
facilitated by the Orange Toad seal
balancing balls of hatred
as the American Empire takes its death kneel
no church bells of his evangelical troops will bother to peel

Robert K. Stephen