
“When Red and Blue Meet” by Elise Palmigiani
stark arctic Aleutians
steamy tropical keys
mighty arms holding
liberty out to the world
as totalitarians seethe
at their fingertips
shivering sweltering
punishing remnants
of dead Marxist dogma
sustained by resentment
of personal enterprise
shouted across narrow
waters so close yet
so far mere proximity
helpless to overcome
doctrinaire minds
meanwhile here in
the heartland our
pluralist strengths
undergo a malicious
conversion to weakening
forces inflicting
diseases of deepened
divides between
free-hating factions
that threaten to leave
this exquisite geography
uglified chopped into
isles of intransigent
red and blue stains
From my books Pieces of Wine and Legacies (vol. 2)