Tag: John Snider

Bargain for the Right to Squirm

By John Snider sniderrex68@gmail.com His job had no health insurance.  His daughter owed thousands of dollars to a beauty school that had gone belly up.  His son came home from the latest war to save the world for democracy and spent his days and nights drinking and shaking […]

Hymn to the Fallen (for David)

By John Snider sniderrex68@gmail.com Hymn to the Fallen (for David) Damn our flag Our stinking pride God was never on our side Never, peace  democracy Just discarded amputees Empty trouser legs and sleeves and Gold-Star mothers left to grieve Draped–the boxes of the dead Dishonored shrouds blue, white, […]

The Genie’s Son

By John Snider sniderrex68@gmail.com The Genie’s Son   The story goes like this: a traveling merchant is eating his lunch alone.  He eats a date and then throws the stone away.  Suddenly, an enormous Genie appears and says, “Stand up so I can kill you.  The stone you […]

The White Rose

By John Snider sniderrex68@gmail.com The White Rose The name of a German student group who resisted the Nazis and dropped their leaflets from the highest floor of the University.  They were discovered, taken, and then executed by guillotine.   Black and Brown columns marching A suffocating mass Surrendered […]

The Quilt

By John Snider sniderrex68@gmail.com The Quilt The historian, Benjamin Madley, estimates that from 1846 to 1873 the Indian population of California declined from 150,000 to 30,000.  He documents 14,703 killings of California Indians by White vigilantes and White militia.  History, art, and courage converged one day in 1864 […]