Deep pall cast o’er each sunlit ray,
As these proceedings fade away 20 January “installation” day.
And after dinner-fed,
Then winter’s cold night bed,
We record a foreboding, A chilling sense of dread.
Indeed,
A newfound unfamiliar angst Disturbs a spirit to rue the dank.
Preserved for progeny’s retention,
Scribes note wary apprehension.
Perhaps none was ever heard to mutter,
But palpable no less the shudder;
A unique arrival of unease.
Before history’s memory flees,
It must be logged for honest decrees.
This unsettling burden, borne silently, exemplary,
Presses fully half our citizenry.
Iowa’s august House here today
Will with her scriveners’ tools relay
A sinister wraith hovering,
Now descends, and covering
the peoples with malevolence,
we ask, Whither? Hence?
Something wicked this way comes—
Imperiling the nation.
Does this portend abomination,
Against innocents, domination?
Will consolation be bereft,
Desolation all what’s left?
A smothering of expression.
The ratcheting of repression.
“No longer assemble!” Our social isolation.
Tremble!
No grievance! No petition!
Else cancel you to perdition.
Dare to have dissented!
Will garments not be then so rended?
What will happen to debate?
Mass deplatforming, it is late.
Already marks of police state:
Troops flood DC, dutifully,
To posts, they scatter;
Are We the People persona non grata?
Justice meted out two-tiered.
Leaving much to be so feared.
Will tyrants take
What God did make
For man to be a man?
To pray and worship as we please,
To God alone we bend our knees.
His gifts to us, made in His image,
Disdained by a mere despots’ visage?
Lament late, indeed we will,
This new advent of hate, evil.
May vile revenge and retribution,
Wash away in our ablution.
May none but wise and honest
Wield new rule upon us.
Pray that Providence dispels
A host of horizon’s earthly hells-
This eerily building, gathering gloom,
Seemingly inexorable, Our precipice of doom.
Author: Jon Jacobsen, B.S.B.A., J.D.
Rep. Jon A. Jacobsen, J.D. (R-Council Bluffs), is newly re-elected member of the Iowa Legislature, as Iowa State Representative from District 22 (Pottawattamie County). Jacobsen serves in the House as Vice-Chairman of the Commerce Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Ethics Committee, and in addition is seated on the State Government and Agriculture Appropriations Committees. Jon won his 2016 election by the largest percentage margin of votes in modern district history, engendering a huge voter turnout of nearly 75% of all registered district voters for a mid-term, non-Senate cycle. A married father of three, Jon is a bank senior trust officer/vice president, attorney (Univ. of Iowa Law alumnus), and has won a dozen Iowa Broadcast News Association Awards for Radio programming, including for Political Coverage, Public Affairs, In-Depth Series, Feature, and Overall Best Use of Online Media.
