Blood does not protect,
neither good deeds.
Your kind thoughts
won't stop the cobra.

Identified by acts that harm,
subject to change
like time and the weather
yet eternal, as light and dark

"Love your enemies"
recognizes their existence;
otherwise, you would have
been told, "Have no enemies."

The way to have no enemy
is to obey your foe,
surrender to a hostile will
and lose your own.

When you abandon your life,
you spit on your ancestors,
forfeit your home and country,
wander lost in a foreign land.

This world always tests you
with crossroads and dead-ends.
When you face one way,
you turn your back on another.

Opposing forces rule life.
No resistance, no muscle.
The one peaceful place
on earth is the cemetery.   

No point lamenting the loss
of some snakeless paradise.
Good and bad bacteria
battle for life in every body.

Lilija Valis' poetry will be featured in her forthcoming book, "Freedom on the Fault Line".

Be on your guard when
someone calls you poor.
It means they see you as small
for having less than they have.

They possess more of the seen
but can’t see the unseen.

“Poor” opens the door
to strangers with more.
They will not wipe their feet
when they trample in.
They don’t see anything
you would want to protect.

There is poverty among the rich
and wealth among the poor.

As the intruders begin to feel better
about themselves, you will
feel surprisingly worse.
When you resist, you will
be accused of ingratitude.

They prefer donating
to paying good wages.

The more you are given,
the less you will have.

The bondage of pity:
more powerful than chains.
What is given can cost your soul.

Lilija Valis' poetry will be featured in her forthcoming book, "Freedom on the Fault Line".

Opposition sheds light
on your position.

It’s moon light letting you know
where the ground ends
and the water begins.

Lilija Valis' poetry will be featured in her forthcoming book, "Freedom on the Fault Line".

Nobody loves equality
more than the French.

Their Revolution proved it;
defined it with a blade.

Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite
ou La Mort in 1793. The death part

was dropped after the Terror.
The trinity is still their motto,

even after they found out
that every threesome is a couple,

with a detached disrupter.
Liberty is married to Fraternity

and Equality tries to break them up.
The French, fond of mistresses,

naturally spent more time
with the beguiling Egalite.

The guillotine was the divorce.
Off went the heads of Liberte.

Fraternite got soaked with blood
and fled the celebrating throngs,

public rape of Liberty’s daughters,
theater of theft and death.

The mistress is never satisfied.
Even her rogue lover is not immune,

and may find himself in line,
behind the aristocrat and the priest.

Leveling needs head cutting.
Blood is Egalite’s wine.

When Egalite becomes drunk,
and debauchery sets in,

and people sicken with excess,
the usual savior shows up,

some short dictator
with a tall ambition

to impose submission
on as many nations as he can.

Today, the aging Egalite
has lost her sharp edges

but still retains a sense of humor:
a spacious chateau for some

with servants busy
easing the strain of living

and for others a closet-sized garret
in some decaying building

where the public toilet overflows
and other tenants steal

from the unprotected working
woman who fears coming home.

The thieves work for equality;
she labors to escape it.

"Egalite" and other poems will appear in Lilija Valis' forthcoming book, "Freedom on the Fault Line".

Choosing is rejecting
- that's bullying now
definitely verboten.

You can go to jail
for not liking
people who dislike you.

No more saying No
to a stranger
demanding you share.

You can tell jokes
but only the ones
everyone finds funny.

To offend is to cause
rioting in the streets.
Lawyers will file briefs.

If you report a fire
the hoses will be turned
on the real trouble – you.

You are to follow
directions to a gray place
where no one will know you.

"Gray Place" and other poems will appear in Lilija Valis' forthcoming book, "Freedom on the Fault Line".

Politics is not politics.

It’s what you think of me
and how I see you;

it’s family and the stranger;
it’s who will do the work
and who will get the reward;

it’s how we decide
who owns what and
who the thieves are;

it’s how we act when
we see a child broken
from a beating or a dog
chained and starved;

Equality is reassurance your neighbor
will not get too far ahead of you.

The promise is we’re all one
but someone else decides which one.

Force is used to take from you
to give to others not of your choosing.

Equality invites not doing more
than others, until nothing works.

Plymouth Pilgrims lived it
into discord and starvation,

It continues to inspire. Unmarked
mass graves testify to its appeal.

Inequality is an open road.
A safe journey is not guaranteed.

No assurance is motivation
for hard work and invention.

Want and envy are harnessed
to produce what others desire.

Choice is virtue’s tool:
You cannot escape responsibility.

Equality is theft.
Inequality is insecurity.

Fairness and equality
are forever estranged.

Equality or freedom. The more
you have of one, the less of the other.

"Equality" and other poems will appear in Lilija Valis' forthcoming book, "Freedom on the Fault Line".

Dedicated to those who love humanity and have big plans for it.

I Don't Like You

I don't like you
but I leave you alone.

You say you love me
yet you want to rehabilitate me.

Of course, you mean
people in general
and I'm a people
though in particular.

I will listen to what you say.
If I don't like your words
I may give you some of mine
                           or I may not
but I will not accuse you of heresy.