Yet Again

They weren’t swastikas that swept the street
in Germany preceding World War 2,
but tactics voiding patriots’ receipts
and swapping them with payments that were due.
And that, in time, would bring into relief
the wretchedness of those deemed in arrears.
The charge outstanding would inform their grief
by stigmatizing them to paid up peers.
There, citizens, traduced by heads of state,
who held groups patriotically in debt,
were more than eager to initiate
proceedings that would be their epithet.
For wormy imprecations loom like bait
to sate the tastes of those who vegetate

beneath the thrall of fascist militants.
But in a country like America,
where democratic laws keep vigilance
to guard against a Nazi replica,
there’re sycophants who would traduce the state.
For threats that wouldn’t resonate beyond
those saying them, das folk reiterate
until more feckless followers respond
in kind. They’re thus, the camps and dungeons laid
on grounds good people built as guarantor,
until the latter find they’ve been betrayed
and creditors start knocking on their door.
Thus, every menace given currency,
are breaches on our homeland’s warranty.

Born and bred in New Jersey, Frank worked in New York for many years. He loves music from Bach to Amy Winehouse, World Music, Latin, opera. Shakespeare is his consolation, writing his hobby. Frank likes poets Dylan Thomas, Keats, Wallace Stevens, Frost, Ginsberg, and Sylvia Plath. Read other articles by Frank.