{"id":2880,"date":"2019-12-15T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-15T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/?p=2880"},"modified":"2019-12-22T15:59:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T19:59:32","slug":"no-faith-left-in-this-system-poem-by-alexander-manzoni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/2019\/12\/15\/no-faith-left-in-this-system-poem-by-alexander-manzoni\/","title":{"rendered":"No Faith Left in the System"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Andrew Manzoni<\/a>, Regular Contributor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It seems that its only purpose
\nis to protect the men, The Man\u00a0at the TOP.<\/em>
\nCloistered within Republicon confines,
\nthey stroke his ego and tell him, \u201cOH, Donnie! That\u2019s a swell idea!\u201d
\nSo what do you expect when constructing a monster\u2014
\nespecially one from Queens?<\/em><\/p>\n

Frankenstein\u2019s lament.
\nOne cannot hide the smell of corpses
\nwith a quick spray of Glade.
\nYour supreme court, \u2018tis\u00a0fill\u2019d\u00a0<\/em>with demons\u2014
\nthe truly just are\u00a0with\u2019ring away\u00a0<\/em>into vague memories of skeletons
\nwith sallow flesh hanging loosely between their neck flaps & clavicles.
\nThe good ones are venerable. The bad ones are terrible.
\nAnd guess who\u2019s\u00a0in\u00a0charge?<\/p>\n

Evil\u2019s back\u00a0in a big way,<\/em>
\nand it\u2019s calling itself\u00a0The Christian Right.<\/em>
\nThe Long Night of Satan\u2019s Strength has
\nextended its miserable talons over us all.
\nEach clawed finger pierces the earth at the border,
\nuntil\u00a0a massive wall STRETCHES OUT<\/em>
\nfor\u00a01,954 MILES<\/em>
\n(\u2018tis the official length of the U.S.-Mexico border).<\/p>\n

We are praying for salvation brought by what some call: God,
\nbut instead, we receive The Mark of the Beast
\non our breasts and on our tombstones
\n(for those who can stand to\u00a0afford it<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>in\u00a0this\u00a0<\/em>economy).
\nHow are we supposed to have\u00a0any\u00a0faith\u00a0<\/em>left?
\nThis\u00a0broken\u00a0system, its warranty has\u00a0RUN OUT<\/em>.
\nAnd there is\u00a0no\u00a0option for renewal.<\/p>\n

No\u00a0point\u00a0in\u00a0checks and balances when it is so\u00a0one-sided<\/em>:
\nThe President, his cronies\u00a0and donors\u00a0<\/em>vs.\u00a0THE WORLD.<\/em>
\nI could have been an ambassador, if only I had
\n$1,000,000 to give to the campaign
\n(or at least, that was all that Amb. Sondland\u00a0reported<\/em>)
\nWhich is amazing to think about.
\nPay-to-play, writ large.
\nSeems\u00a0the opposite\u00a0<\/em>of what this country was intended to be.
\nBut, like the words of Jesus, foul politicians manipulate the truth\u2014
\nthey\u00a0twist\u00a0<\/em>the words of The Founding Fathers until it so suits their deviant needs.
\nGREED. \u2018Tis the word of the day.
\nAnd so is: corporatocracy,<\/p>\n

demagoguery,<\/p>\n

oligarchy<\/p>\n

&<\/p>\n

plutocracy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo by\u00a0Nathan Dumlao<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Andrew Manzoni, Regular Contributor
\nIt seems that its only purpose
\nis to protect the men, The Man\u00a0at the TOP.
\nCloistered within Republicon confines,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":3228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Sunday Edition Live, with\n\nNo\u00a0Faith\u00a0Left\u00a0in\u00a0This\u00a0System\u00a0| by Alexander Manzoni","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[213,164,168],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","category-politics","category-the-white-house-occupant"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/photo-1520187044487-b2efb58f0cba-e1576464842464.jpg?fit=286%2C435&ssl=1","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2880"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3348,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions\/3348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}