in this fell administration
chess is played with pawns as queens
with the sacking of our nation
rife with thieving wayward means
and pretension grift and lying
has the press repressed and boxed in
with recriminations flying
and the ticking of the toxin
..
we need action free of static
to ensure such chaos quelling
but the bomb’s on automatic
and the good fight isn’t gelling
all the well-forged fine alliance
has been twisted all awry
absent decency’s compliance
we may curdle up and die
It never ends
It drains your soul
And Grief contends
With Stones To Roll
And Endlessness
And Lack of Fun
And What a Mess
We’ve just begun.
..
It must be done
And so let’s bless
The ship we run
Tight, more or less
And grab a bowl
And make some friends
And tell some droll
Tale and ascend.
Pillage
(First published in Facebook group Poets All Call)
(To the tune of “Go Ask Alice”)
One pill slows my heart down
One fights cholesterol
And the strange green and white capsule
Turns my leaks to waterfalls
Go ask doctors
If pill-popping’s right for you
Well, they say in the commercials
They can fix your RA quick
But the side effects they’ve listed
Make me stick with being sick
Is it malice
When Death is one side effect too?
Yes I do have constipation
And sometimes it makes me listless
But this crazed pill-popping nation
Is enough to scare me shitless
And I remember
What the man at the doormouth said
Blue or Red?
Blue or Red?
cookie subverses
the cookie is not sentient
the cookie is inanimate
all it took was ingredients mixed
with expedience
sheeted and baked in the oven of what
but we say that the cookie is good
and we think it in some way benign
..
and the cookie sheet cools on the counter
and the fat man renounces his diet
seduced by aroma he
verges on coma
his ethos devolved to a riot
his fate is no question
entwined with digestion
Aren’t We Lucky?
“I love you”
Between two lovers
May get said
A thousand times.
Today my love
And I exchanged
I Love Yous
But she looked
This time into
My damp eyes
And added this:
“Aren’t we lucky?”
We are indeed.
naught need caught freed lot
we were nothingness and then we coalesced
from nova to planetesimal to moms and dads to us
..
then we had need after need
air water nutrition shelter love purpose
..
we were shanghaied into school systems
some thrived in captivity some were warped
..
we were freed when we were graduated
or let slip
..
now we do not tempt fate for fate is indifferent
but we wonder what place we hold
and what will happen
and how long we have
..
absolutism absolution
there is a central limit
and eke a second law
and if your headlights dim it
may not be due to flaw
..
the circle has no endpoint
the oval has no teen
the hyoid has no bent joint
some pintos never bean
..
some mountains are not rooted
some fountains come from pens
some woodwinds are not fluted
and ifless elses thens
perambulate in limbo
and percolate unbidden
a truth is falsehood’s shim though
and most fine sites are hidden
Diabetics Gone Wild
Two adult-onsetters
Going, going, gone
Throwing good sense to the winds
Bringing Sugar on.
Ordering four waffled scoops,
Calories galore,
Glucose level through the roofs–
May we have some more?
Oaths
I pledge my effort to this day;/May zero lassitide dismay.
I affirm that I will do my utmost to seek truth for the rest of my life.
There are sources of joy beyond impulse satisfaction, and I will value the former more than the latter.
Every person is distinctly different from me, and I will do what I can to respect that difference.
I swear with all my heart I am not done.
I’ll Tell You the Truth About Love
(A response to W. H. Auden’s “O Tell Me the Truth About Love”)
A poet named Dubya Aitch Auden
Once asked for the Truth about Love,
Untarnished, unsoiled, unsodden?
We hope and pray heaven above.
I think of a Hepburn named Audrey,
And then of another named Kate,
Who prove that Truth needn’t be tawdry,
And that Love is both wild and sedate.
..
So I say, late lamented friend Dubya,
That the Truth about Love is elusive.
Sometimes Love may seduce and then club ya
Sometimes Truth is not gladness-conducive.
But the Truth about Love is it’s needed,
And can beckon and cure the uncouth,
And the Truth is it’s lovely when heeded,
And is much that I Love about Truth.
