World "leaders" honored Mandela when he died. Unfortunately, other brave and wise men and women, who sacrifice their comfort, their health and welfare in the struggles for equality and dignity--languish in prisons in the so-called "advanced" countries, their stories ignored, their deeds mis-represented. If we are to advance as a people--as a species!--we must tell their stories.

::::::::

Lynne Stewart, Our Lady Mandela, in the Season of Giving

By Gary Corseri

      

She is ten feet tall" and dying in her cage.

While Obama and Cameron take "selfies,"

shedding crocodile tears,

our Lady Mandela gazes over

the path she has made by her walking.

After his funeral, American drones

kill fifteen people in Yemen.

(Where in the world is Yemen?)

American shoppers rampage, and trample

those in the aisles of their trinkets.

She said she believed "directed violence"

(just as Mandela had said)

would topple the anarchist State

(engorged by its own helter-skelter

in the best tradition of Manson).

In New York City or Yemen,

with drones or tasers or wars,

the Manifold State is watching,

its "laws" abated by judges,

conducting kangaroo courts.

"Who will judge the judges?"

Juvenal wrote about Rome,

which crucified a preacher

for driving money-changers

out of the House of God.

They slashed his back with lashes,

collapsed his lungs on a crossbow,

then shot him into the sky--

for mourning or redemption,

depending on one's view.

Now It imposes its laws

on a woman wedded to Law,

who fought for the truth of the Law,

to publish it like Luther,

on pain of execrations.

On pain of separation

from family, home, and her Cause.

Even a sentence of cancer

cannot deter her Cause.

She can never betray her Cause.

Over the matricide planet

her thoughts take billowing wing:

the State's cells metastasize

in every corporate prison,

in every farmed-out heart.

Miley Cyrus twerks her ass

in the face of the hubbubbed mob.

Annointed pundits feign disdain,

then tweet pictures", but none

of Lynne alone in her cage.

The "people" scurry like ants,

monitored and surveiled, liable,

without notice, to be snuffed;

emulsified like organic dirt

under the heels of the State--

above the Law, acting in the name of Law,

sanctioning crime and murder,

in the name of marmoreal memes:

"We the People" in "the home of the brave,"

"created equal" in "the land of the free."

Dr. Gary Corseri has published novels, books of poetry and a literary anthology (editor); his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta, and he has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Center.   He has taught in prisons, public schools and universities.   His articles, fiction and poems have appeared worldwide at hundreds of websites and periodicals, including, OpEdNews, Village Voice, The New York Times and Redbook Magazine.   Contact: Email address removed .  

from Wikipedia: "Lynne Stewart: (born October 8, 1939) is a former attorney who was known for representing controversial, poor, and often unpopular defendants.   She was convicted on charges of conspiracy and sentenced to 28 months in prison. Her conviction led to her being" disbarred.  She was re-sentenced on July 15, 2010, to 10 years in prison in light of her alleged perjury at her trial. She is currently serving her sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, a federal prison near Fort Worth, Texas."   NOTE-UPDATE: Her breast cancer has metastasized, and her doctors predict she has about 1 year to live.   Her requests for a "mercy" release have been repeatedly denied, despite some 40,000 signatures on a petition for such a release.  

Authors Bio:
Gary Corseri has published & posted his work at hundreds of venues worldwide, including Op Ed News, The New York Times, CounterPunch, CommonDreams, DissidentVoice, L.A. (and Hollywood--) Progressive. He has been a professor in the US & Japan, has published 2 collections of poetry, 2 novels, and edited a literary anthology. He has performed his work at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum, and his dramas have been produced on Atlanta-PBS and elsewhere.