[Oe List ...] Hands Off Our Democracy (a Ghazal)

[Milan Hamilton]

*Hands Off Our Democracy*

*(a ghazal for You) *



Hey Mister T and Little E, please take your hands off our democracy.

We do protest against your anti-democratic, sour democracy.



We know you both have no need for what the rest of us humans depend on:

What you label “entitlements” were voted on to power democracy.



Civil servants you consider free-loaders and frauds in society,

We believe are essential workers in this cowered democracy.



Book bans and unlawful deportation of American citizens

Must be considered to be a nation with de-flowered democracy.



What did you not understand when you heard from everyone “tariff means tax”?

And by the way, creating oligarchs makes for whor-ed democracy?



Free speech, free markets, free press, freedom from fear, freedom from
want--freedom ain’t free.

The words “free” and “freedom” ring hollow in a Trump Tower democracy.



Mother Earth is the last voice you will hear in our democratic pleading.

Mister T and little E, here’s our glower—“Hands off our—democracy.”



Milan Hamilton

March 6, 2025



The Ghazal (pronounced guzzle) was originally an Arabic poetic form, like
an ode, often about unrequited or unattainable love, tracing back to
Persian poets in the 7th century, becoming popular in the 13th & 14th
centuries (Rumi & Hafiz), found its way to northern India, translated into
Urdu, Hindi, Pashto, Turkish, and Hebrew. Goethe and Lorca experimented
with it in German and Spanish. Indian musician Ravi Shankar popularized the
form in the English-speaking world in the 1960s (the ghazal was often sung
and accompanied Sufi dances). But it was the poet Agha Shahid Ali, who
introduced the classical form in English to Americans. His poems “Tonight”
and “Even the Rain” are worth a look.



I chose this form for my Poem “Hands Off Our Democracy” after participating
in the April 5th Hands Off gathering, to remind Those Who Care to keep the
faith that being on the right side of history still matters.

-- 
Mellow Milan Hamilton
80 North Center Street
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: (909) 943-1667
email: mellowmilan2 at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20250407/f90be42c/attachment-0001.htm>