Democracy As Blues

Posted bySynnika Chizoba LoftonPosted inmailbox weekly, PoemsTags:, , , , , , , , ,

Leaders trade seats. Transfer
mediocrity with slick tongues,

crossed fingers. The people
still flip channels. Fighting for

better masters momentarily
soothes troubled souls. Empire

eats, belches, and says thank you.
“They like to be ruled, hood-

winked, bamboozled,” Tunde
says. The disenfranchised suffer.

Marginalized groups pull on
fatigues, black leather boots. 

Dismantling this funky machine
requires feet to stand on squares.

Drones find targets. Conflicts
stretch legs—people swipe left.

The American way tilts his brim,
wipes fresh blood from his cracked

lips. Attitudes check behaviors
at doors. Suppressed tempers

surrender to the hustle. The people
fix their uniforms—a tribe of bots,

carrying iPhones. “Harm Reduction
is a real finesse, an elaborate hoax

to disarm seething radicals, neutralize
hot blood,” I say. Red-tinted sky

breathes for some. A privileged shade
of blue appears for others. The House

wins again and again and AGAIN.
A polluted structure refuses to heel,

a rabid dog flashing teeth, a dream
admiring hostile fingertips. Wake

up! Wake up! Wake up! Sleep has
an appetite! The machine needs

a jutting, blues-like belly—culture.
Hunger is halted. Thirst is satiated.  

Savagery smolders. Democracy
hums blues and misses no meals.

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Published by Synnika Chizoba Lofton

"Synnika Alek-Chizoba Lofton is an award winning poet, the president and CEO of Guerrilla Ignition LLC, host of a Nationally Syndicated radio show, and an educator, teaching literature at Chesapeake Bay Academy and English courses at Norfolk State University. Lofton has recorded more than one hundred and fifty CDs, albums, CD-singles, and mixtapes of poetry, including his highly praised debut, The New Breed. He is the author of twelve books and the founder of Riot Speech, a musical genre combining performance poetry with traditional musical forms, such as Rock, Jazz, and Hip Hop. His poems have been published in Experience Reality Magazine, Quay: A Journal of the Arts, UpStreet: A Literary Magazine, and, in 2014, Lofton has been featured in Blind Sided Magazine. He is a regular on Virginian television programs such as The Hampton Roads Show and Chesapeake’s Thinking Out Loud on WCTV. He teaches World Literature, British Literature, and Composition, while touring the country, performing at literary festivals, musical festivals, poetry readings, open mics, concerts, high schools, and colleges."

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