Covid and the Constitution
by Michael Doyle

Voices arrayed together against an institution
Out of control of the reining in by the Constitution
Checks and balances swept away along with our rights
Still, we ride forward like beleaguered knights

Stay at home orders meant for communicable urgency
But not intended to create a permanent emergency
Were put into place for health, safety and welfare
This was not intended as a weapon of partisan warfare

We have handed off legislation to executive dictate
And until we separate these powers, we've sealed our fate
There must be balance made with needed deliberation
Not a stripping away of our freedoms through machination

Casinos are allowed to open but churches are closed down
It shows the strength of money's powerful crown
Too many of our freedoms are being stripped away
In an abuse of authority that must face the People some day

The pushback is coming absent true representation
As technocrats and bureaucrats have seized our nation
Enforcement issues are now an overdue conversation
While the Federal Executive Branch follows the Constitution

It is the states, who in their overbearing policing power
Have taken the laboring oar too strenuously in this hour
As the virus lingers on regardless of rigors of natural law
Which form the basis of reaction as we fail to recall

There are many question steeped in this philosophy
As draconian regulation threatens to strangle our economy
The reining in of these steps rests with legislature
Such is the political landscape even in abeyance of nature

Of what it is that we do now currently embrace
As we bring this about in order that we might face
Not to be unfair or to appear the contrarian
We might want to at least consider perspectives libertarian

The Courts have the power of able legal interpretation
As the 14th Amendment makes the case for government's limitation
We, the People, have the right to make our living
And to this point, history is not and will not be forgiving

It hasn't been the case of missing needed decision
To state that the emergency police powers have exceed irritation
Each of these should be reviewed as best practices state
Otherwise, we will permanently have lives lived by dictate

In the current crisis, we have been reduced to functionalism
Surrendering rights and freedoms without true rationalism
Effective and free governance is not the exercise of today
Forcing good citizens to vocalize against this fray

The right to peacefully assemble is a protected right
That is somehow being restrained by the virtue signaling blight
The uglification of America comes with the wearing of mask
Is this then liberty the price, we must each of us ask

Will this be the new normal, living our lost liberty?
Will we now surrender our role in mankind's noblest history?
Samuel Adams spoke against the wearing of chains for security
And we know we are strong enough to withstand this adversity

Looking out across our beautiful and great nation
We see a radically imposed desperate situation
Looking back on the world's worse moments of history
We know that the cost of silence is the loss of our liberty

There has been a suspension of the rule of law unending
Standing aghast, I will no longer be quietly pretending
It is the soul of our nation that is indeed at its jeopardy
Whatever course others take, give me death or my liberty

(c) September 17, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved