Tuesday, December 20, 2011

VACLAV HAVEL FREEDOM FIGHTER 1936-2011

by Barbara Lightner


Child.    Man.    Of his time.    Beyond time.    May he rest.
            dogged impish eloquent unkempt dissident
from the Magic Lantern        and the Civic Forum
            empowered     never tamed
rumpled jeans to the dress for dignity
            riding the hallways on a children’s scooter
signature with a heart             crudely drawn
            women, smoky rooms, flamboyant topless vampire wife
his loves           and “the specter of what in the West is called dissent.”
            Mick Jagger Rolling Stones Bush the son Clinton and Obama

until philosopher EX’s politician
            struggled opposed foundered diminished
Velvet Revolution, and he does not survive.
            ‘Til the last clash of time, he prevails.


Barbara Lightner escapes the daily drudge by writing poetry in the vein of ever-hopeful. She lives in Milwaukee, WI.
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