(First published on Facebook, not long after the debate ended)
One of the candidates showed these characteristics:
Savvy
Hearty-Handshaking
Energizing
On topic
Winsome
Nurturing
Enthusiastic
Decisive
Healthy
Inclusive
Moxie-ful
The other?
Haranguing
Eewww-y
Loathsome
Outrageous
Sullen
Tantrum-y
In conclusion:
Victory
Over
The
Evil
Bombastic
Lurking
Ugh-Monster
Eventually.
a long time ago i was a ten-year-old kid and i was going to new york with my family in a t w a airplane and we were going to spend a few days on the island of manhattan
and i had a next-door neighbor friend named david hilyard or it might have been hillyard and we hung out together a lot and i told him about the trip and in a combination of bigshot-itis and a genuine wish to somehow have him enjoy the trip too i told him i would buy him a souvenir
next thing you know there i was at the u n building which looked like a giant glassy cereal box and in the gift shop they had a ballpoint pen with the u n insignia on it
and i bought it for david but here’s the thing i never gave it to him
and in fact i avoided him all the way up to when he and his family moved away
and though i don’t know exactly why i betrayed him that way I do know it wasn’t because i wanted to keep the pen
my guess is i was messed up psychologically and there was a weird mental membrane blocking me and not only did i betray david but also the self i could have been had i more gumption
so I now unburden myself s little by saying i’m sorry not only to david wherever he is
but to little gary as well
.
Into the First World/I at birth was hurled/And 70 years on/I still try to have fon
So I oft ambulize/To my neighborhood Fry’s/And get goodmealed and juiced/With some prices reduced
As music by Getz swells/I purchase soft pretzels/The better to yum us/When dipped in fresh hummus
Pour Santé sans Malade/I buy Taco Salad/And cheap with no bilk/One gallon whole milk
If I was younger and more lusty
I’d notice the cashier is busty
But since I am a burned-out geezer
I make eye contact hope to ease her
Quick stride cannot linger/ Right hand trigger finger/That totes weighty parcel/So home or this farce’ll/May well come to grief/Ah I’m home now. Relief!!
their minds persist
in ink on white
in epitaphs
and monuments
their echoes heard
in language new
on celluloid
and structures tall
*
don’t call them ghosts
they are not gone
they are the mulch
from which we’ve grown
so blossom forth
and thank the souls
who well observed
and shared their thoughts
by yesterday’s end/plus nine and a halfish hours/i ended up here
and the earth has moved/nine hundred thou k toward/sagittarius
and the trump v harris/debate that will rock the world/is three days away
and i am a week/and nine days into my new/seventies decade
and three along with/its multiples is still the/prime mover number
the Muse isn’t always a woman/it’s often a Voice in your head/a powerful Strength you can summon/if you let yourself be so Led
ignore it at peril. Engagement/is locked in by seeing a Truth/as in Facing the source of enragement/or owning an Action uncouth
the Universe isn’t a puzzle/that’s constantly trying to Trick you/rabidity happens. A muzzle/applied may make Happenstance pick you
and give you adventures of Making/and show where may comrade or Lover be/take Ink or Pure Thought or Heart Breaking/and voyage on seas of Discovery
In order to walk in the Valley/And not be burnt crispy like bacon/You can stride and be bold/Where it’s Climate Controlled/And keep track of the steps you have taken
The Mall where they sell youth and tally-/Ho Lasses and Lads Game’s Afoot/Expressing your passion/With high crimes of fashion/And studies in vellum and soot
The Mall where the old are invisible/Or extras like Gramps One and Two/Where hypervitality’s/No abnormality/But greyheads are chimps in a zoo
Yet I do my Mall Walk and rally/My spirit to Dignified-Stately/And no one to vex if/I slip out the exit/And win introversion innately
Afterword: The phenomenon of the Shopping Mall seems to be on the wane, but Scottsdale Fashion Square, where I do my mall walking, it being easy for me to reach via public transportation, still seems to be bustling. But I do sometimes feel like the answer to “What’s Wrong with This Picture?” when I go there. With my Goodwill clothing and old-age countenance I am literally unfashionable.
for a kid playing pinball a flipper’s the way
a deft pinball wizard keeps pinballs in play
and flipper’s a mammal who swims like a fish
and chattered on tv bout mid-sixtyish
when sweat makes the equity soar for the fixer
she flips for liquidity (primo elixir)
an egg over easy a coin in the air
take two different flippers who flip with a flair
but one wondrous flipper this year became known
as the Greatest Of All Time: the Gymnast, Simone.
The Los Angeles Dodger
Leans on his bat as if it is a crutch
Then straightens and strolls to the batter’s box and takes his picture-perfect stance
And on the first pitch owns the New York Met who threw him an uncutting cutter, parabolizing the ball into the left-field upper deck
****
On the publicity pamphlet for the upcoming vote the city’s Chamber of Commerce had written an 800-word syllogism-laced argument in favor
Of Proposition 69 which ironically would outlaw simultaneous consensual oral sex between the hours of 9 AM and 5 PM
On the basis that doing so flouted certain sacrosanct societal norms and/or cultural proprieties
And implied that the bodies of citizens belonged to themselves
