ASHES #7, "The New Pledge of Allegiance" by Rex Butters

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THE NEW PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE REX BUTTERS

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Rex butters

THE NEW pledge

OF allegiance ASHES ONLINE 1

COPYRIGHT © 2024 by REX BUTTERS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Howling Dog Press, Publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles, studies, reviews, and the non-commercial brief usage of visual work via transmission through multi-media with acknowledgement and credit given to the author, artist, and publisher, citing the source as “ASHES #7: The New Pledge of Allegiance by Rex Butters.” For information and permission, contact Michael Annis online at Howling Dog Press: WritingDangerously@HowlingDogPress.com.

Illustrations on the title page & page 16 by David Bruce Wolfe.

Illustration, page 5, by Michael Annis.

Layout & Design by Michael Annis “American Nero” was first published in COST OF FREEDOM: The Anthology Of Peace & Activism [HDP, 2007] The FETUS LOGO on the cover in the ASHES CHAPBOOK SERIES was created by Michael Annis The back flyleaf is a facsimile of the printed back covers of the original ASHES chapbooks, numbers 1- 5.

HOWLING DOG PRESS ASHES Chapbook No. 7 Spring 2024 MICHAEL ANNIS, FOUNDER & DIRECTOR Denver, Colorado

THE NEW PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

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American Nero

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American Nero he strums guitar in San Diego monkey mugs for the once prestigious washington press corp laughing with a country star his month long vacation nearly over dragging their children those children alive citizen survivors in garbage Mississippi towns soggy kindling fire stations flooded buildings burn for lack of water sweltering citizens parched face down a young girl half under grimy water floats her pink hair clip still in her hair no ripples submerged American Nero strums guitar in San Diego draws cheers and applause from an adoring audience at a naval base in Southern california

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dark rank smelling house sticky Mississippi mud porch slick living room floor crumpled woman still holds snake fight stick black and white dress bodies rotting quickly in the heat rats feasting on your loved ones dead in the street American Nero strumming guitar during the Gulf Coast floods this time, not wearing phony ranch hand duds “If you’re someone who’s having to struggle between food and medicine, those days are over,” he says to Seniors in Southern california children rest in ration boxes hospital patients stretchered on airport baggage claim floor nurses weep leaving dead patients faces the color of mud and brown water 4 mos. old 6 mos. old they died right here in america waiting for food their tattered dead in lawn chairs bodies in refrigerated trucks used to ship bananas sick poor black old and left behind

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stroke victims in laundry baskets treated like an occupied enemy race, age, and bank book determined survivors as official excuses and transparent lies swarm like a thick cloud of blood sucking flies American Nero in sunny San Diego strums his guitar eats cake in Arizona with John McCain while sewage soaked survivors cling to life in rising water atop cars rescue efforts pulled back to focus on looters Save the Stuff kill anyone moving it we can’t show the world we no longer value property the self-righteous wind wing bellows “Shoot On Sight!” but the looting began long before the storm public funds shore up defense contractors’ bank accounts levees left in tatters Nero-minded numbskull King of Vacations

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he flew over high above he looked out a window a prepared statement of concern then returns to the golf course their devastation and misery a fly by photo op prop Bond, Biloxi, Maxie, Star, Thomasville, Gulfport, New Orleans, Mali, Somalia, and Sudan survivors their names washed away all they will call you will be refugees will they receive the 2-3 hundred thousand dollars given to each family relocating off Gaza paid by US taxes? will the US govt.’s $75 million bribe offer refused by Iraqi Sunnis be chipped into the Gulf Relief Fund? two days after Katrina hit the federal rescue leader hadn’t heard about the 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying in the New Orleans Convention Center from Mobile, American Nero smiled, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”

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“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, THE WRETCHED REFUSE OF YOUR TEEMING SHORE. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, That I may feed them to my greedy death god,” American Nero sang and twanged, laughing.

Mississippi John Hurt rain your sweet finger pick tears on the People Charlie Patton roar their frustration and pain Memphis Minnie sing about when the levee breaks it’s 1927 again

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i will no longer be complicit in genocide humanitarian Aaron Bushnell did incredible work for various mutual aid and unhoused coalitions spent every penny and second serving his community living anarchist principles developed deep friendships with people living in the encampments buying them blankets, sweaters and snacks gave his cat to his neighbor gave his savings to Palestinian children should any survive talented USAF IT for one of history’s most enthusiastically genocidal nations engulfed in flames flesh sizzling preset camera recording

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because 2 months earlier a different fiery extreme protest cancelled trivialized diminished erased suppressed cynical Western society rigidly unable to comprehend sacrifice to a cause greater than oneself policeman gun drawn repeatedly yelling “Get on the ground” before the airman collapsed vividly demonstrating ironically embodying the mindset Bushnell protested slumbering complicit people he chose to burn for thousands burnt without a choice “it is done to wake us up” said Thich Nach Hanh offering the body as a torch to dissipate the dark ( 12 )

“Free Palestine” he screamed a voice of flame his words are fire remember his name he said “This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal”

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the last taboo peace is the final obscenity peace is the last humiliation peace is not on the table peace receives no serious consideration peace is not an option peace is a waste of everyone’s time peace is a refuge of the naive peace doesn’t make the right people rich peace must be heavily censored peace won’t sell peace obstructs greed peace undermines fear as a weapon of social control peace unemploys special forces peace stinks up the room peace misses the point peace ruins the plot peace won’t work because of someone else peace threatens enforced economic and social disorder peace gets low ratings peace gets bad reviews peace won’t prop up a dead currency peace looks stupid in a uniform peace needs a marketing plan peace remains out of reach peace could crash the internet peace endangers capitalism peace creates uncomfortable silences peace redistributes wealth peace exposes stupid sadistic bullies peace lacks ambition peace can’t loot the treasury ( 14 )

peace requires more courage than war peace infuriates the already angry peace didn’t make the survey peace raises eyebrows peace makes you check the time peace won’t get corporate sponsorship peace ends entitlement peace requires your full attention peace bores the gossip industry peace can’t compete with cultural myth peace can’t hitch a ride peace can’t get a like peace makes the wholesale slaughter of brown people seem so psychotic peace can’t eradicate species peace feels like it’s being ignored peace asks the wrong questions peace means mental illness in a militaristic culture peace gets labeled a traitor peace beheads barbarism and savagery peace can’t get a fair hearing peace lost control of the narrative peace can’t get booked on a news show panel peace suspends relations with obliterating idiocy peace can’t be serious peace never gets invited to peace conferences peace won’t trade on Wall Street peace can’t afford to bankroll Hollywood propaganda empires peace can’t make itself heard over the ear shattering wargasms peace won’t be born of bombs peace taken off life support still breathes peace is our only future ( 15 )

THE NEW PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE bend over and repeat after me the elites educate you to stop thinking the elites want you to believe what their media tells you the elites want tv to be your reality ( 16 )

the elites want you to suspect everyone but them the elites encourage unspeakable violence as the norm the elites fully support toothless artistic expression the elites write every movie to revolve around who has the gun the elites make music suck by draining our lives of sacred spontaneous sound the elites want poetry to rhyme all the time the elites listen to your phone calls after reading your texts the elites spend billions recruiting, training, arming elite forces to protect them from your waking up the elites hate women and children the elites feed you genetically altered/nutritionally empty patented mutagenic food the elites make you work three jobs die young, burnt out, and broke too busy to read or react the elites waste your limited resources for their profit the elites will privatize your water after they fill it with toxic waste killing every swimming species ( 17 )

the elites exploit impotent acts of radicalism to pacify your heart and mind the elites commit crimes against peace the elites undermine/discredit/destroy hospitalize/imprison suicide/ruin anyone glimpsing them the elites create and bait the races keeping us distracted and divided the elites deploy tax paid public servant police force as bullying over armed mad dog occupying army answerable to no one the elites bake you with radiation laughing from the comfort of their lead-lined bunkers the elites control elections giving candidates and issues preferential media exposure the elites keep slavery alive behind bars in for profit prisons the elites look you in the eye take your children molest them in airports just to see you obey the elites destroy community and culture by raising rents

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the elites want you to shut up and stay home before a flickering light the elites use their religions to kill your spirit the elites feed your children into a physical and psychological invasion force meat grinder to protect oil company and defense contractor profits the elites throw out your votes the elites want the truth marginalized the elites want the truth sanitized the elites want the truth institutionalized the elites depend on you not believing me

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Since 1976, longtime SoCal resident REX BUTTERS has published journalistic writings on sites and in magazines including BAM, Rapport, Folk Works, the LA Free Press, the Free Venice Beachhead, and 242 pieces for All About Jazz. His poetry has appeared for over 45 years in such diverse journals as the True Wheel, Caffeine, Brain Vomit, the Night Forest Cell of Radical Poets, interbang, sic Vice and Verse, The Journal of Interdimensional Poetry, Yogi Times, Bad Haircut Quarterly, the Mas Tequila Review, and the Muse International Journal of poetry. His anthology credits include Cost of Freedom, A Beautiful Resistance, Extreme, The Revolutionary Poets Brigade, the San Diego Poetry Annual 2015 & 2017, #SheDoes, and Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts.

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BACK COVER the last taboo peace is the final obscenity peace is the last humiliation peace is not on the table peace receives no serious consideration ...

HOWLING DOG PRESS Ashes Chapbook No. 7 Spring 2024

the last taboo peace is the final obscenity peace is the last humiliation peace is not on the table peace receives no serious consideration … ~ Rex Butters

HOWLING DOG PRESS Ashes Chapbook No. 7 Spring 2024