American Made

Hong Kong, Taiwan,
India, Japan,
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
Paris, Pakistan.
Leaps and bounds the trend resounds,
Increases every day.
Wondering why products don’t say
Made in U S A.
 
Bedfellows in politics or
Just good business sense.
Doesn’t seem to be a way to
Build a strong defense.
Shouldn’t be this difficult to
Find a place to trade
Where the label proudly indicates
“American made.”
 
Sure, it’s cheaper,
That’s no sleeper.
Can’t compete with that.
But the secret, hidden deep,
Comes slinking like a cat.
Tucked inside the silent storm
A deeper price is paid.
Shelter dwells inside these words –
American made.
 
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Don't Be Afraid

The winds of chance fly swift beyond the clouds
To carry seeds of challenges ahead,
Til buried deep in furrows plainly plowed
They languish in uncertainty and dread.
And every whisper falling on their ear
Lends warning of the dangers yet to come.
Foreboding foils of feckless, freakish fears
Are birth to caution, leaving reason numb.
As aimless arrows all around ascend,
Like willow branches bending without harm,
Fair truth becomes a melancholy friend
To battle with the liars of alarm
Epiphany – at last fair ransom paid –
Speaks softly in my ear, “Don’t be afraid.”
 
 
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Making the Grade

Year after year of brain-stretching agony
Bending the limits of tempered endurance,
Tables and intos and plus-minus posers
Til X becomes Y becomes, magically, Z.
 
Long-winded tales filled with dates and dead people
Wasted on battlefields far, far away.
Stories of Camelot, Sherwood and Hannibal
Camped beneath bed sheets with flashlight in tow.
 
Cries of rebellion for useless assignments
Fall on deaf ears, go completely unheard.
Oft being quoted, “Oh, you’ll thank me later.”
Though never quite clear when this “later” occurs.
 
Days wrought with dread of those sheets lined with questions,
Problems and essays and multiple choices.
Waiting for marks through unbearable agony,
Never quite sure…
Never quite sure…
 
Time marches sideways through twelve years of prison,
Forced into labor til all due is paid.
Finally, time boldly steps to the future,
Silent and thankful for making the grade.
 
Lulu Storefront: http://www.lulu.com/dsmartin Plays: http://sites.google.com/site/playsbydennissmartin/