a career path
a ladder climb
a dog-eating claw to the top
a goose-stepping march to world domination

is a progression that comes soon or late
to lucifer’s defiant attempt to unseat
the Almighty

and so we come to the insight
gained by viewing the progression
OF progression

ambition to competition to acquisition
and they are toxic when concentrated
when focused like a magnifying lens
redirecting the sun’s rays

mussolini was a bullyboy buffoon
pol pot a whack-a-mole murderer
george armstrong custer a backstabbing butcher

and donald son of fred
is a dream-perverting pipsqueak
is a crazed captain bligh
misleading the ship of state
athwart of mercy and decency

the history of conquest is stained
with the doings of soulless thugs
and in this latest chapter
a mob has been seduced and gathered

crush it we cannot: we become mobsters
resist we must
yet the nature of the resistance
must not run athwart
of our decent american souls

the decent american soul
the rebuilder of cities
the feeder of the starving
the welcoming lamplifter
is a shivering weakened flame now
yet subflames are in each of us
and may be brought ablaze
with the championing of Truth
and Justice

love enemies
that they may cease to be