<div dir="ltr">Thank you, Milan.<div>Jann</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Apr 7, 2025 at 12:52 PM Milan Hamilton via OE <<a href="mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net">oe@lists.wedgeblade.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Hands Off Our
Democracy</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">(a ghazal for You)
</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Hey Mister T and Little E, please
take your hands off our democracy.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">We do protest against your
anti-democratic, sour democracy.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">We know you both have no need for
what the rest of us humans depend on:</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">What you label “entitlements” were
voted on to power democracy.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Civil servants you consider
free-loaders and frauds in society,</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">We believe are essential workers in
this cowered democracy.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Book bans and unlawful deportation
of American citizens</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Must be considered to be a nation
with de-flowered democracy.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">What did you not understand when
you heard from everyone “tariff means tax”?</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">And by the way, creating oligarchs makes
for whor-ed democracy?</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Free speech, free markets, free
press, freedom from fear, freedom from want--freedom ain’t free.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The words “free” and “freedom” ring
hollow in a Trump Tower democracy.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Mother Earth is the last voice you
will hear in our democratic pleading.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Mister T and little E, here’s our
glower—“Hands off our—democracy.”</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Milan Hamilton</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">March 6, 2025</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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 7^th century, becoming popular in the 13^th
& 14^th 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.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">I chose this form for my Poem “Hands
Off Our Democracy” after participating in the April 5^th Hands Off gathering,
to remind Those Who Care to keep the faith that being on the right side of
history still matters.</span></p></div><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Mellow Milan Hamilton<div>80 North Center Street</div><div>Redlands, CA 92373</div><div>Phone: (909) 943-1667</div><div>email: <a href="mailto:mellowmilan2@gmail.com" target="_blank">mellowmilan2@gmail.com</a></div></div></div></div>
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