On the TV news, I watch the faces
of people wearing red hats.
When their hero appears,
they stand at the bar,
raise their beer glasses
in praise. The bartender shrugs,
carefully tops the foam.
The scene reminds me
of the iconic movie Cabaret,
when American brat Liza Minnelli
charmed the audience,
Joel Grey mastered his Liebchen
and mocked the Jewish gorilla.
Nazis terrorized Jews,
killed Frau Landauer’s pet dog,
left the bloody corpse,
rang the doorbell,
ran away like
a crude Halloween trick.
As Count Maximilian hustled
Sally in the beer garden, a blond,
blue-eyed Hitler youth rose up,
sang a chilling patriotic song.
O, Fatherland, Fatherland inspired
broken, poor and angry
Germans to stand, join
the rousing tune,
plant their hopes firmly
like a flag for der Fuhrer.
The Nazis viciously beat voters
at polls, their uniformed soldiers appear
in eerily greater numbers
filling the final bar scene.
Today, our own frustrated
rise to salute a different tyrant,
recover their pride,
hoping, once again,
to be saved.
O, FATHERLAND, FATHERLAND
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Originally published in The Bezine