Category Archives: Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus

The Empire’s Fading Light

13 Sunday Jan 2019

Posted by in Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus, United States

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The Great Wall of China and Hadrian’s Wall
surviving projections of great power
of ancient dynasties and empires
defense against barbarian attacks
breached by invaders and internal strife.

East Germany’s Berlin Wall of our times
projection of fear and intolerance
of the communist Soviet Union
defense against divergent policies
razed by cries for freedom and inclusion.

The USA-Mexico border wall
projection of fear and intolerance
defense against criminal invaders
withdrawal from global alliances
to stoke dispersion of moral decay.

The flame of Lady Liberty sputters
a refuge no more for Earth’s dispossessed
freedom, inclusion, human dignity
hostages of cries for former glory
strangled in the empire’s fading light.

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We want our country back

11 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by in Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus, United States

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White NATIONALISTS in Charlottesville – Virginia – August 2017
Photo Credit: Vox (Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency)

We want our country back
rile white nationalists
goose-stepping through the streets
of Americaville
waving tiki torches
emboldened and blinded
by their chosen fuhrer
ruling in the White House.

Homo sapiens. Wise man. Where is the wisdom, our superior intelligence, when we know not that we know not? How soon we forget that we live on the ancestral lands of conquered Native Americans: over 500 tribes occupying these lands for more than 15,000 years. How soon we forget that the good life we have enjoyed for generations has come with the sacrifice of non-white bodies to the gods of greed, plunder, and dispossession. Continue reading →

Space-time: A Cosmic Perspective of Man’s Entanglement

27 Sunday May 2018

Posted by in Human Behavior, Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus

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Artist conception of curved space-time around Earth - NASA

Artist’s conception of GP-B measuring the curved space-time around Earth
Photo Credit: NASA

 

Einstein’s theories of relativity
upending the way we view time.
Past – present – future but an illusion.
Time & space woven together
forming a four-dimensional fabric.
Space-time, Einstein called it.

Quantum entanglement defies physics.
Separate entangled photons
& they remain connected
mimicking the behavior of the other
at the same time.
Spooky action at a distance, Einstein called it.

What of Man made from stardust
of atoms & entangled photons
existing in space-time
mindless of his cosmic entanglement
and shared fate?

Misogyny – racism – xenophobia
expand space-time between photons
disrupting their entanglement.
Same but separate
yearning and friction without end.

America
rising from the detritus of war
splits the atom
unleashing humanity’s Doomsday Machine
in space-time.

Jerusalem
citadel of the gods
of Christians – Jews – Muslims
trapped in space-time
where past – present – future are one.

In space-time warped by Man
world peace is impossible.

Man of Earth
how do you undo
what can’t be disentangled?

 

LEARN MORE:
Space-time Continuum
http://einstein.stanford.edu/content/relativity/q411.html
Quantum Entanglement
http://www.livescience.com/28550-how-quantum-entanglement-works-infographic.html
The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg (USA 2017)
http://www.ellsberg.net/doomsday-documents/

 

 

Planet Earth: Our Home & Resting Place

28 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in Nature and the Environment, Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus

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View of Earth from Space - NASA

View of Earth by the Apollo 17 Crew while traveling to the Moon on December 7, 1972
Photo Credit: NASA

 

Planet Earth
Mother Gaia to the Ancient Greeks
goddess and primordial power
to emerge after Chaos

Spinning and hurtling through space
at about 66,600 miles per hour
always in motion
trapped in orbit around the Sun

Earth your home and mine
no escape
gravity holds us all hostage
except for

Astronauts and cosmonauts
in their rocket ships
a privileged few
to view Earth from space
a tiny, fragile, blue ball of life
with a paper-thin shield
hanging in the void
exposed & vulnerable to

Solar flares and radiation
reflected and absorbed by a 300-mile-thick atmosphere
holding the life-giving air we breathe
a ticking time-bomb with rising carbon dioxide levels
as of January 25, 2018
the Doomsday Clock moved to two minutes to midnight
a notch closer to the end of humanity
from looming threats of climate change and nuclear war

Doomsday Clock updated to two minutes to midnight - 25 January 2018

Doomsday Clock updated to two minutes to midnight – January 25, 2018
Updated yearly by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since its creation in 1947
Photo Credit: Science Magazine

 

Spaceship Earth
one living, breathing organism
with one destiny
the “overview effect” causes
a cognitive shift of self-awareness
as part of the larger whole 

Mother Earth Gaia
our home and final resting place
if we the people of Earth don’t take care of her
if we don’t set aside our differences
and work together
who else will

Watch the Video: The Overview Effect

Father said…

18 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by in Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus, United States

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Father with Baby Daughter - A girl's first love is her Daddy

Father said not to worry about anything.
He was working to provide for my needs.
And I believed him.

Father said he would never let anyone hurt me.
He was there to protect me, Mother, and my brother Paul.
And I believed him.

Father said not to worry about climate change;
the science is still debatable.
And I believed him.

Father said the abortion of an unborn child is an abomination.
Life is sacred. Only God can take a life.
And I believed him. Continue reading →

Mother of All Bombs

16 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by in Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus, United States

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Mother of All Bombs

 

I am Mother.
Created by Father.
A complex scientific birthing process, they say.
I weighed over twenty-one thousand pounds at birth.
Father spared no expense;
he happily paid the $314 million.

I carried you for nine months
in the womb, my child.
I almost lost you, you know.
They closed the clinic
where I used to get healthcare.

I am Mother.
Created by Father.
My over-pressure waves obliterate
everything & everyone within a one-mile radius.
Look at me with awe & trepidation.
I am Death.

Where is Father?
I am cold & hungry, Mother.
He abandoned us, my child—
to pursue his dreams
of dominating the world.

I am Mother.
Created by Father.
He dropped me from the sky
to plummet to the earth.
My body detonated into gazillion atoms.
My soul became a black hole.

I am beautiful.
I am strong.
I am invincible.
Created in Father’s image.
I am Mother of All Bombs. Continue reading →

Caught in a Storm Surge

16 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by in Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus, United States

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hurricane-matthew-storm-surge-threatens-u-s-eastern-seaboard-october-2016

Hurricane Matthew – Storm Surge Threatens U.S. Eastern Seaboard – October 2016
Photo Credit: NBC Nightly News

 

Warmer oceans
Fearsome winds drive clouds of water bombs
Caught in a storm surge

In Aleppo
Lives mean nothing to take out Assad
Caught in a storm surge

Video tape
Unmasks groping billionaire
Caught in a storm surge

Hacked email files
Reveal deception of Favored One
Caught in a storm surge

U.S. & Russia
In stalemate over Syria
Caught in a storm surge

Temperatures rise
War drums roll between nuclear powers
Caught in a storm surge

Whatever our choice
Come November at the polls we are
Caught in a storm surge

Winds gather force
I hold onto Wisdom to save us
Caught in a storm surge

Reflections: The Pyramid

26 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by in Human Behavior, Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus, Social Injustice

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Pyramid of Capitalist System

The Pyramid of Capitalist System
Photo Credit: Evolutionary Economics

 

The pyramid
primordial mound
rising from the depths
ancient tomb of pharaohs
reflective sides mirroring the sun
gateway to the heavens beyond the earth
transforming the soul for its union with the gods.

The pyramid
tomb of the masses
forever trapped in its base
herded, cajoled & discarded
struggle, fight & kill each other
to sustain the few at the top of the pyre
bloated with their contempt, gorging on human flesh.

The pyramid
legacy of an ancient civilization
points to the heavens, the expanding universe
beyond the limits of our small finite world
to the full realization of our true being
a limitless spirit, capable of the impossible
together as one, sharing the gifts of the earth.

 

“We Came, We Saw, He Died!”

27 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by in Poetry by Rosaliene Bacchus, Social Injustice, United States

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Hillary Clinton on death of Libyan leader Muammar Ghadafi
Fox News – October 24, 2011
Learn more at Foreign Policy Journal

 

We came.
We the exceptional.
We the powerful.
We the wealthiest nation on Earth.
We the liberators.
We fight to secure your human rights:
~ your right to education
~ your right to health care
~ your right to have food on the table and safe drinking water
~ your right to a roof over your head.

We saw.
We saw the criminalized homeless languishing on your city streets.
We saw the line for a meal outside your local food pantry.
We saw the crumbling roads, bridges, and water pipes.
We saw the mass incarceration of blacks and brown-skin peoples.
We saw the demonstrations for a higher minimum wage.
We saw your dead floating in the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina.
We saw your protests against police brutality in Ferguson and Birmingham.

He died!
Jesus Christ died on a cross.
Lakota Chief Sitting Bull died defending his people.
Emmett Till died by lynching at the age of fourteen.
Martin Luther King Jr. died in his struggle for African-American civil rights.
Eric Gray died, suffocated during arrest, for selling cigarettes on the street.
Tamir Rice died at the age of twelve for playing with a toy gun in a park.
Sandra Bland died in prison after a minor traffic violation.

How many more will die?
ISIS is out to kill us.
Only the gods know why.