virtual virtue doesn't cut it

"Tax his  tobacco,
Tax his  drink,
Tax him if  he
Tries to  think.

Tax his  cigars,
Tax his  beers,
If he  cries
Tax his  tears."

we do need to tax vices
addictive pleasures
we can't tax thinking
or feelings

it's taxes for war
that kill them and us
taxes to slop
corporate hogs

exxon's 40 billion in profits
goes untaxed year after year
that's what i hear
techno-pacified americans
cocooned & entertained
pay no attention to capital's gains
that's what i fear

German Easter 1524

reading engels on war, "The Peasant War in Germany"
the peasants form troops and make reasonable demands
the peasants are betrayed by various allies in different ways
the peasants burn castles and monasteries
the princes of secular power slaughter the peasants
page after page of beheadings, roastings and impalings
eat your roasted leaders or die is one ultimatum to a throng
and so it goes thru the early 1500s and on into 17th century
dark ages before darker ages after but marx and engels trudge
the road of unhappy destinies finding a thread of "progress"
"Who profited by the Revolution of 1525? The princes.
Who profited by the Revolution of 1848? The big princes,
Austria and Prussia. Behind the princes of 1525
there stood the lower middle-class of the cities,
held chained by means of taxation.
Behind the big princes of 1850,
there stood the modern big bourgeoisie,
quickly subjugating them by means of the state debt.
Behind the big bourgeoisie stand the proletarians."
who stands by me for peace & eco-balance in 2010?
not the artist formerly known as prince
not the lumpenproles and lumpenbourgies
not the lieutenant class or the sargents at arms
not the intermediate lackey sector
everyone is kept running, running, running
too busy surviving to think about survival
but not too busy to think about taxes and state debt

last night, seeing so many young people at a nagasaki vigil in winsted
last friday, making danceable music with children in falls village
each day, feeling deep connections possible across the generations
maybe, just maybe, we're moving past all the plunder and pillage

frequent vigils frequent dances affirming minute particulars of life
lighting candles putting words in phrases for peace, a continuing delight
tax resisters invited to amazing planet! farm & justice center in vermont
creating solutions to real problems is never fight and rarely flight