Change the System from Within

(Apologies to Leonard Cohen)

Three hundred thousand demonstrators
joined in the People's Climate March
in New York City

to demand
that global leaders
take action on climate change.

This congregation
of bleeding-heart hippies

(with "C02-ebrity" heart-stabber
Al Gore present

among others

like big-government Democrat
New York Senator Chuck Schumer
and "independent"
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders

and big-Hollywood actors
Leonardo DiCaprio
and Mark Ruffalo)

was timed to coincide

with the United Nations
Climate Summit this week.

First we take Manhattan
then we take carbon?

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Proclaiming on Scotland

Would the Scottish rock duo
The Proclaimers
"walk 500 miles"
and then "500 more"

(and if they hadn't been looking
to make the song
a hit in America

it would've been
"805 kilometers"
and "805 more")

to fall down at the door
of an independent Scotland?

If donating 10,000 pounds
to the Yes campaign counts

then yes

they will wake up
they will go out
they will get drunk
and they will haver
(babble foolishly towards)

before coming home to
their beloved country.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Public Display of Arrogance

The black actress Daniele Watts
who starred in the 2012 hit film
"Django Unchained"

was briefly detained and handcuffed
by the LAPD on Thursday

after a bystander saw her
and her white husband Brian Lucas

fully clothed and kissing
inside a parked vehicle

and reported it
as indecent exposure.

In the 1920s
it is possible that "PDA"

was streetwalker code for the question
"Prostitutional Dalliance Arrangement?"

but modern cops really deserve
the scoop on up-to-date lingo

and a brush-up
on current moral standards.

Nowadays it stands for
a prehistoric pre-iPhone
digital organizer device

or smooching your significant other
close enough to the public

that they get splashed
with errant saliva
and wipe their faces in disgust

leaving room for apologizing
and moving somewhat further away
to resume activity

(as long as it's not
blocking a fire exit)

but not getting arrested.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Nine One Two

The following day
we stand at the crux where meet
fresh wounds and conscience.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

No Effing Losers

In the wake
of Ray Rice's indefinite suspension

domestic abuse survivors
have started the trending Twitter hashtags
"#WhyIStayed" and "#WhyILeft".

Maybe the NFL should start its own hashtags
such as #WhyNFLStayedWithRice
after suspending him for two games

"because we didn't want
a little mistake like that

to keep a grown man
from playing a game for us"

and #WhyNFLLeftRice

"because harboring a known abuser
to play a game for us

was suddenly
becoming embarrassing
and politically inconvenient."

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

A Word After A Word After A Word

Margaret Atwood has become
the first author
to contribute a story
to "The Future Library Project"

an idea conceived
by the young award-winning
Scottish artist Katie Paterson

who planted
one thousand trees
in the town of Nordmarka Norway.

Every year until 2114
one writer will be invited
to write a story for the collection

and in that final year
the trees will be cut down
made into books

and if they're lucky
be read.

How nice it would be
to be able to move
centuries into the future

not only to see
what our present has influenced

but to explain
to these alien people of time
the good and the bad

about who we were.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Yes He Cant

It turns out Eric Cantor
did not live up
to his namesake

and heal the country
with Jewish song

but he did get hired
as vice chairman and managing director

at a type of institution
known to be
a breeding ground

for "welfare queens"
who beg for
and then recklessly spend
taxpayers' hard-earned money

while adding nothing of value
to our society

or otherwise officially known
as one of the Wall Street investment banks

Moelis & Company.

In this new post
he will earn
almost ten times

his Congressional salary
of $193,400

putting him into
a solidly millionaire tax bracket.

Would that a few
of those Occupy folks

come back from 2011
and wait below

just in case
he suddenly feels compelled
to serenade them.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

A Labor of Love

On this mandated day off
Rev. William J. Barber
head of the North Carolina NAACP

preached in front
of dozens of workers
in downtown Greensboro

that "mountains are climbable
valleys are crossable
problems are solvable
ways are makeable
ressurection is possible
sickness is curable
trouble is overcome-able"

and "when we all
when we all

get together

what a day
what a day
what a day

of rejoicing
it would be."

We have our work
cut out for us.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Tanning His Hide

Hey there
New York Republican
Representative Peter King

you should know
that the only person

allowed to make comments like

"There’s no way any of us
can excuse what the president
did yesterday"

in reference
to Obama's "fresh" tan suit

is Joan Rivers

who is currently in the hospital
recovering from cardiac
and respiratory arrest

and was unable to attend

yesterday's press conference
in which the President

in addition to wearing clothes
also made a statement

that our country as yet
has no strategy
for conquering ISIS.

However she is not
the Chair
of the House Subcommittee
on Counterterrorism and Intelligence either.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Crouching Leopard Concealed Carry

The bar for badassery
has been set

by 57-year-old Indian woman
Kalama Devi

widow and mother of one

who was cutting grass
with a sickle

then began walking
through a field
in the village
of Koti Badma

in the town 
of Rudraprayag

when a leopard
suddenly pounced on her.

Armed only with the farm tool
she fought the animal

for about half an hour
until it gave up.

Meanwhile an indicted Rick Perry
his concealed-carry gun rights
now restricted for two years

imagines the time in 2010
he shot a coyote
with a pistol

and privately
hangs his head in shame.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Quid Pro Bro

Four male students
from the Materials Science and Engineering Department
at North Carolina State University

are developing a nail polish for women
that will change color

when it comes in contact
with common colorless and odorless
date-rape drugs.

An innovative idea
but unfortunately
a fashion accessory

that will provide a function
that shouldn't be needed at all.

Next up on the horizon
for another group of student researchers

is a project
to address the perpetrators.

It's a special cap

which would-be rapists
can put onto their bottles of roofies

that speak to them
in a relatable "bro" voice
when they remove the cap.

"Hey dude
in case you weren't sure
this is sexual assault.

Yeah brah
still sexual assault.

You may not care
about women

or your professors

or your parents

or even the anger
of the most chillaxed of your friends

but I can guarantee
whatever alibi you invent

won't be
a 'cool story bro'
with the police.

Why don't I
call them right now

because you're kinda
asking for it

and I really want you
to be totally safe?"

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Shall Not Perish

After the protests
in Ferguson

President Obama
has ordered a review

of the federal programs
and funding that allow
state and local law enforcement

to acquire military weapons.

Advocates of fewer restrictions
on firearms

have learned the catchphrase
"Guns don't kill people.
People kill people"

in defense of the gun owners
who regularly handle

their (usually much smaller)
weapons responsibly.

But putting aside
(for a moment)
direct physical harm

the fight
will never be fair

so long as one side
can explain

the use of their tools
in the heat of the moment

as self-defense

and the other

armed only with rights
granted them by their democracy
cannot.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Perpetuated in Righteousness

On this day in 1959
Hawaii was admitted
to the Union

as our fiftieth state.

On this day in 1961
Kenyan political activist
Jomo Kenyatta

jailed by British authorities
in April of 1953

for his participation
in the rebel militia Mau Mau

was released from prison.

At the time

Barack Obama
was seventeen days old.

On June 1 in 1963
Jomo Kenyatta was elected
the first Prime Minister of Kenya

and for his first official act
he had the country's first
white witch doctor

an eight-year-old Barbara Kingsolver

inject a poisonwood potion
into the toddler

and in Swahili she said

"One day you shall
rise your way
to the top
through America's Ivy League schools

then strike fear in some
and guilt in others

to become its first
black president

and destroy the nation
from the inside out."

And the rest
as they say
is history.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Freedom of Information Acts

Because it is
not yet the day

that every citizen of Earth
is permanently hooked up telepathically

to the One World
Liberal Reality Projector (TM)

that turns the insides of our eyelids
into always-on cameras
covering every possible angle
of the globe

and wordlessly conveying its importance
to our consciences and souls

we have people
who daily
put their lives at risk

in the name of information.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Making One of Many

Towards justice we climb
if some ones lend their presence
and others their voice.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Executive Orders

Today a grand jury has indicted
Republican Texas Governor
Rick Perry

on charges of abuse
of official capacity

which is a first-degree felony

carrying a punishment
of five to ninety-nine
years in prison

and coercion
of a public servant

which is a third-degree felony

with a punishment
of two to ten years.

Rick Perry knows
that a real Texas cowboy

does not run away 
from the law

but rather
publicly threatens to defund
his state's public integrity unit

of $7.5 million
over the course
of two years

if its head

the Democrat
Travis County District Attorney
Rosemary Lehmberg

(who really yes
should not have been

endangering public safety
by drunk driving)

does not resign.

Rick Perry has approved
the execution
of 234 prisoners

more than any other governor
in US history

but really
they all completely deserved it

and such actions

should never leave one
with a lingering doubt
of one's own ethics

or even the sense
that what goes around

may in fact come around
to bite one

on the cojones someday.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Dreams of the Future

The United States Court of Appeals
for the Fourth Circuit
in Richmond Virginia

voted two-to-one
to uphold
the Federal District Court's ruling

that the state's 2006 ban
on same-sex marriage
was invalid.

Virginia counties could begin
issuing marriage licenses
next week.

In practical terms
any romantic fan fiction
involving the Founding Fathers

openly sallying forth
into their lives together
in a new country

with nary
a First Lady in sight

may need only the liberal use
of a time machine

in order
to become plausible canon.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.