When madness erupted on marbled steps
And the world watched with mouth agape,
And panic set in on the scurrying reps
And producers exhorted, “Roll tape!”
The half-witted mob, besotted with lies
Hurled flags, gas and insults our way.
And some came with truncheons and some with zip ties
And all had a piece they must say.
Enraged by a president’s egoful boasts
That he won an election despite
More folks in the prairies and left and right coasts
Opted otherwise on Election night.
But facts, what are they, and what purchase they have
With the sense of betrayal this strong?
By fiat, the crowd wouldn’t quarrel to halve
Biden’s total and Trump’s reign prolong.
But what of the laws, of the Founders’ intent
When setting this state on its feet?
Are they to be broke, irreversibly bent?
When you lose an election, you cheat?
True, mobs played a part in our split from King George;
Their howling made Tory hearts faint.
But yowling a durable nation won’t forge
Any more than a wall stand by paint.
Consent of the people is needed for that
And people not maddened by myth.
But reason and truth, and an urge to combat
Base intrigue like what we’re saddled with.
Polls say that two-thirds of us fear for our nation—
That should be assuring — it’s not.
When half will make war out of fear, desperation
And the other half call them crackpots.
How people who witness the very same acts
Describe them from different frames,
“You’re entitled opinions, but not your own facts”
Is quaint now and that is a shame.
A shame? Truly tragedy, of portions enormous
as last January six proved;
No foreign invasion could so well deform us:
All sense of proportion removed.
It’s sad beyond measure that mobs sacked the seat
Of our nation’s most sacred domain.
But worse that one party has still yet to meet
Heights of villainy they cannot attain.
To fall into line with a tyrant would seem
To a democrat hard to endure;
But the GOP shows it will act as a team
To kill freedom — peel, seeds, pith and core.
This, more than then mob that spread filth in the halls
And tased a poor cop in the neck;
This more than the curses and violent brawls
Will leave our poor nation a wreck.
How can a democracy largely conceived
On the value of everyone’s voice,
When fairness and law (if not always achieved)
Are dispensed via partisan choice?
The law for the goose must apply to the gander
Or law loses all of its meaning;
Else praise to one to another is slander,
True justice not once intervening.
The law for the powerful and for the weak
Must not be dependent on party,
Else who would assent to its strictures, but seek
An exception, be it legal or arty?
A mob armed with sticks, cuffs and thick, nylon nooses
Invaded, but our tribunes must say
What rules — whether well-defined law or abuses
Will reign when the smoke clears away.