Jennifer Lagier

SHADOW GOVERNMENT

Purchased by an unelected oligarch
as part of a hostile takeover,
democracy teeters, then starts to fall,
hollowed out by mass firings,
dismantling agencies and departments,
infiltration of government databases
by teenage incels.

Old white men mistake The Handmaid’s Tale
as an instructional manual,
introduce legislation to prevent women
from exercising the right to vote
or control their own bodies.

Daily, I doom scroll headlines,
ponder each unfolding outrage,
wonder how to prevent ongoing assaults
against established rule of law,
separation of powers.

I resist and speak out,
refuse to concede
or bend the knee
to corrupt egomaniacs
who are stealing my country.


Jennifer's YouTube reading of "Shadow Government"


Jennifer confesses: "Every day since January 20, 2025, has brought a flurry of unconstitutional, repressive executive orders. An unelected oligarch has seized control of our government while spineless legislators ignore their constitution, country and needs of their constituents. We are witnessing the death of democracy, murdered by greed and ignorance."

JENNIFER LAGIER lives a block from the stage where Jimi Hendrix torched his guitar during the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. She is a retired college instructor/librarian who taught with California Poets in the Schools, edits Monterey Review, helps publicize Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium reading series. Jennifer has published twenty-three books.