Small World and It Ain’t Right

Not like it used to be at all
yeah it’s happening here and now
it’s going on under our noses
I don’t know where you are from
but it’s a little Tiajuana around here
now we’re getting ready for the Cubans
coming up here thinking the streets
are paved with gold but they’ll find out
nothing gets paved with gold
only with hard work, know what I mean.

Yahweh said to me, “You are my son.
Today I have become your father.
Ask and I will give you nations for your inheritance,
the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron.
You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

The politicians take what they want
and make a mess of everything they touch
especially that one in the White House
dragging us all down with him
hard work is thing of the past
got free schools and free hospitals
just go over there and look and see
all these brown kids day and night
not like it used to be at all
small world and it ain’t right.

I am weary with my groaning nightly
I flood my bed, drenched with my tears.
My eye wastes away because of grief
It grows old because of all my adversaries.
God is a righteous judge,
yes, a God with daily indignation.

Look at the girls living around here
now with the way they all dress
just little girls looking like you know
that house over there that used to be empty
party last night cars everywhere
and more houses right up the street
people coming and going and never
the same ones letting their relatives
stay with them and then they move on
back and forth like there’s no border.

Yahweh, how my adversaries have increased!
Many are those who rise up against me.
But you, Yahweh, are a shield around me,
my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
I cry to Yahweh with my voice,
and he answers me out of his holy hill.

People with no religion and worse
coming here in unwashed droves
thanks to our so-called Christian leader
arm in arm with Muslim moderates
they call themselves that while infiltrating
speaking in grunts and whispers
from Sudan and Pakistan and Haiti
bringing their bilingual restaurants
and woman all covered up and chanting
five or six times a day downtown.

I will not be afraid of tens of thousands
set against me on every side.
Arise, Yahweh!
Save me, my God!
For you strike all of my enemies on the cheek bone.
You break the teeth of the wicked.

Getting worse and getting worse
I don’t see it getting any better
the rich and the poor going to war
refugees scattering every disease
I can’t watch the news no more
makes me want to lock my doors
horror stories just like in the movies
the walking dead in dirty rags
and they want to take what I’ve got
but what I got and they don’t know about
is a baseball bat and a twelve gauge
so when they come I’ll be ready
dead or alive I know I’m right.

For, behold, the wicked bend their bows.
They set their arrows on the strings,
that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
For, behold, believers bend their bows,
chambers filled with righteous wrath,
that they may shoot at the ravenous beasts.

20-26 August 2015
found poetry based on material gathered
from my neighbors and the Book of Psalms.