Paul Haeder, Author

Reset Poem #4: We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.

— Malcolm X

Oakies strong-armed away from
California, deputized citizens
spying out any grapes of wrath

the reset smells of retro-set
Americana retrograde
regressive land, updated
just enough for more
accumulation of wealth

dream hoarders galore
pummeling Japanese
stripping of property
suspected enemy
of the state of Capitalism
eminent domain pressed
into service

Exclusion Act, China first
now happy-go-lucky shoppers
see Chinese invasions lurking
under tables pressed
into new use, duck and cover

Commies galore, associations
the crème de la crème
even books read, newspapers
subscribed, anything to alien-ize
counter-intuition

all hands on deck
follow the recalcitrant
hack the doubters
call them haters, shift the
left asshole to the right asshole

reset, reconstruct, realign
reunify, repress, retreat
reinvent, redress, reconcile
all to the tune of agnotology
the people are the enemy
and the state is CEO
Autocratica, hawking dreams
now in full-spectrum nightmares

fondly, land of cross burning,
village pillaging, grand theft
treaties, lies triple raised
chasing in truth chips

masters of illusion
running us into
recalibration
resetting, extortion

rackets oh so slick
Vogue model smooth
Time-Warner deft-defining
resetting life
death, yours and mine