During the Transition, a poem

 During the Transition

The Resistance has begun.

On X the Poetry Foundation

will no longer post any new 

material, opting instead

for good old Facebook

and its child Instagram.

I have used salty words 

about my erstwhile heroes 

still in 1600 Pennsylvania

so help them God.

I am not hawking 

Ten Thousand Steps 

Against the Tyrant

any more although 

I don’t deny the poems. 

Like Jack Smith

the Special Prosecutor

I may leave the scene

before the shit hits

on January 20, protect

myself from the wrath

of the Revenger. How?

With a new set of praise

poems, directed 

at the Grand Wizard,

Pennsylvania Jesus

resurrected in Butler?

Remember that town,

now a place of pilgrimage,

where the campaign 

victory became inevitable, 

the raised fist, Red Road Rage?

Indran Amirthanayagam c) November 28, 2024

Thanks, With An Eye To The Near Term, a poem

Thank you who read these words, 

friends, men, women, children, 

gays, trans, minorities, everybody 

who shepherded this poet 

into the wilderness and out 

again, ensconced and cradled 

in hands, on laps, in hearts. 

in the passenger seat while 

I drove from border town

to watering hole, 

to the city center

to sip cappuccinos, 

nibble cake and sit back 

and smile together

at the surreal stories clowns 

as politicians unfurled 

to bamboozle us 

as we stared catatonic 

at the latest declaration 

of war against our neighbor 

and friend, and war against 

every value our mother 

taught us to believe, 

for the greater good 

and the more fitting society, 

handed over on a tray 

to the Butcher of Queens, 

the Bogey Man of the Tower,

the Quack who says he will stop 

this and that war in the first hour 

on his first day 

(...or the day after..,or never).

Indran Amirthanayagam c) November 27, 2024

REVIVAL; A Poem On the Eve of the U.S. Elections

 Revival

To vote or not to vote, that is not 

the question or the dilemma. Mark 

a ballot for the candidate who 

wants to keep the ship floating 

or the other who wants to crash it, 

both supported by capital, my capital 

against yours, my ads versus your 

deep fakes. There are differences still 

between these two, not only their sexes, 

not only their relationship to laws 

and their administration. Yet, I wonder 

about flaws through which the blood 

of innocents flows, bombed by capital, 

weighing of profit and colonial dominion 

even now in the Age of Independence, 

of post colonial bliss. Surely that blood 

must be honored and from it nourish 

some better, more fitting ecosystem 

without great powers, power blocks 

and communities of interest but finally 

one world, one dream, one song

Indran Amirthanayagam c) All Souls Day, November 3, 2024

Para Silvio

 Para Silvio

     Silvio Santos (1930-2024)

Maravilhosa a mão que Silvio Santos 

estendida, a maneira como dançava 

e sorria, nos fazia rir e chorar de alegria, 

seu generoso apoio a tantos 

jovens artistas que chegavam 

na cidade, aos quais ele deu 

sua primeira chance, de cantar 

para uma multidão 

pessoalmente, na televisão. 

Silvio Santos, que poderia 

ter se tornado presidente 

do país se não fosse 

por algumas falhas burocráticas 

nas assinaturas coletadas 

para registrar seu partido.

A assinatura final 

é a de cada um de nós 

que passamos nossos domingos 

em sua companhia, rindo 

e chorando agora na memória.

 

Indran Amirthanayagam dr 17 de agosto de 2024