An Open Poem to Governor Abbott and Republican Legislators

Oh, you tiny Texas tyrants
in your frail white hide and drawl,
a-feared of women and all migrants
so you weaponize the law.

You beat your breast about mask mandates,
rend your clothes when athletes kneel.
I suspect that you self-flagellate
’cause you couldn’t “stop the steal.”

You’ve banned through legislation
teachers teaching about race,
about sexists and oppression,
but what will take its place?

No more talking about slavery,
broken treaties with the tribes,
no discussing the chicanery
that cost Native kids their lives

or the Japanese-Americans
interned in camps out west.
Don’t think about the Ku Klux Klan,
Chavez, King, and Malcom X.

Ignore the Sand Creek Massacre,
sports’ grudging integration,
the racist past of Texas Rangers,
who fought desegregation.

Say nothing about suffrage
or gerrymandering.
Not interracial marriage
or years of public lynchings.

Forget the raid on Stonewall Inn.
Ignore the Holocaust.
No need to bring up Rodney King.
You see? So little’s lost.

And now that COVID’s uncontrolled
though vaccines are effective,
businesses have all been told
vaccine passports are rejected.

Their licenses you’ll confiscate;
state contracts will be void.
Lacking permits, they can’t operate
just ’cause anti-vaxxers get annoyed.

When discussing masks and firearms,
you shout, “Texans should have choice!”
But when someone does your ego harm,
you promptly curb their voice.

If people march against some wrong
and stop traffic in the streets,
they’re quickly dubbed a riotous throng
and charged with felonies.

Even Spurs and Cowboys aren’t immune
from your speech impediments.
They all must play the nation’s tune
or lose funds from government.

We exercise our free speech rights
especially in elections,
but you’ve clearly lost your appetite
for those opposing your selection.

You’ve stacked the deck against your foes
by claiming voters cheated.
No round-the-clock or drive-thru votes
and urban polling sites depleted.

You’ve set Texan against Texan
by making snitches out of those
with their “right-to-life” objections.
Plus, you armed those who oppose

women’s self-determination
with loaded lawsuits and their guns
so upon the least suspicion
they can harass most anyone.

Worse yet, your spiteful ignorance
(which masks your real intent)
overlooks the role of men
when women become pregnant.

You make mothers all responsible
even in the case of rape.
You make it virtually impossible
to distinguish pregnant from just late.

And since you clearly couldn’t resist
bringing back the Wild West,
you gave the law a final twist:
“Get out yer guns! There ain’t no test!”

Your goal is ruthless and self-serving—
make us fearful of each other
so that life is so unnerving
with you we can’t be bothered.

Damn you little Texas fuehrers,
swinging Bibles like they’re whips.
You’re a virus, not the cure,
you power-hungry hypocrites.