dragonrollku
the life dragon bites/but here is your rare chance to/bite the dragon back
californiarollku
california/rolls are scorned by some as too/californian
chalkoutlineku
the sushi chef sees/his enemy and hopes he/wants to try fugu
6 jan 2021/a mob surges toward the Capitol building/where vote certifications are being kept
the mob was urged to “fight like hell”/but the phrase “peaceably and patriotically” was also in there
violence ensues
the man who urged watches/he does not interfere/though he knows full well/that all he has to do/is get in front of a microphone and say
“Hey, stop with the violence already. What part of ‘peaceably and patriotically’ didn’t you understand?”
no, he continues to watch. continues/to watch./he gets word/that some are chanting HANG MIKE PENCE!/not much later he texts a message.
the message is not “Knock it off, you guys! You are not being peaceable!”/no, the message boils down to “Shame on Mike Pence for not doing right by me!”
and much later he delivers a message via microphone./ part of the message is “Go home.” part is “We love you.”
the concept of “the elephant in the room”/is insufficient for the events/of 6 jan 2021.
many more than one elephant is required.
“Luck is hot and people funny.
Everybody’s fond of money.
Lost a chance and sell your mother.
Win the pot and buy another.
Other people fall and crash:
You could win the pot of cash!”
Cordwainer Smith (Norstrilia)
Candidates are on the Net/With fancy cardboard signs/Help us win! Our goal’s not met!/Please be our Valentines!
I have given till it hurts!/It’s not enough, they say./Sell your houses! Live in yurts!/THEY win, you’ll REALLY pay!
Save the puppies! Save your souls!/Help Joe get his new kidney!/Help Steffy’s face be free of moles?/Fate dealt her trash cards, didn’ he?
I am broke. Fudge it! Alas!/Jumpstart may deliver/Needed funds to save my ass,/I, the Compulsive Giver.
***
Afterword: The asks for money for this and that has grown to epic, epidemic proportions on the Internet. And if you give, you poor sap, they have evidence that you are a soft touch, and they ask you for more and more.
My poor Uncle Jim died near-broke in 1993. On the side of his bed he didn’t sleep on there were huge stacks of correspondence with charitable organizations, some legit, some predatory. My advice to generous souls: Make a budget for charitable contributions AND KEEP IT. (PS: I try, but I can’t, but not by much.)
hair and sky and pearl and cat/eminence and feltoid hat/underwear and spiffy suit/praise the lord and pass the loot
fabrics that have needed bleaching/consciousness that suffers leaching/in a world that’s splashed with hues/colorless relief can’t lose
now cars are also tvs also backseat drivers and scolds also spacecraft with a mission control
and that’s just some of the good news
most of them start with a push of the button and a foot on the brake and some of them even have self-folding side mirrors like the shields of the batmobile
some of them do without the internal combustion engine which is inherently inefficient and evil, instead generating horsepower far more silently and correct with an electric motor
carworld is no longer in need of paper maps
there are cupholders and no windwings
but i still prefer to walk
The heat is a zapper/An energy tapper/And when you’re tapped out little gecko
Your consciousness skids/As you nictitate lids/And blur out the bright and its echo
But a danger will rouse you/A scent will undrowse you/And you’ll make your suckerfeet scamper
And a crevice or crack/Has your pebblestrewn back/And you’re once again one happy camper
sink a sword till all you see is hilt/that is what is known as running through/but violence begets guilt/or not/rejection is to jilt/eh wot/abandonment of meter for instance/may bring a grammarian’s remonstrance/ but rules are made to be set atilt/and mine some newness from the silt
if a plant lacks wahwah it will wilt/but a filter is never one who filts
awkward language and a leg lengthener both stilt/just as the shaky premise on which/this mess of words is built
don’t get me started on kilt or milt/but sew some squares and you’ll have a quilt
instance and remonstrance/are a monstrous slantlack rhyme/but a scant Kant canticle or rant/will get you everthyme
after you stop reading/and unspool this non-sense feeding/if you search on “inns near me”/there undoubtedly will be/a nearby Conrad comrade to which you may with lusty snort resort/and live maximally and guestedly/by getting your hilt on
and on on that note i’ll bid adieu/please sheathe your sword don’t run me through
when the diabetic/the unmedicated diabetic/sugars himself with a couple of donuts/rogue proteins are formed and they attack his eyes/fog his brain/and trash his body’s repair shop
if the manufacturer/chooses a savings of pennies per unit/over proper industrial hygiene/fish and fowl die/and locals get sick
if an airplane opens its belly doors/and drops powder-loaded tubes onto the landscape/people become widows widowers orphans and enemies
the toxicity of our spinning home has gone up and up/and management of detox is not by reasoned plan but by crisis
but you need not feel like a powerless victim my friend
nor need i sanctimoniously preach any further
if you do just a little detox today/of body mind and spirit
and remember/the less we tox/the less we need detox
When I was eleven years old/A sixth-grade student at a middle school called Unit VI/My homeroom teacher was Mrs. Virginia Holmberg
She was strict and forbidding/But an early pioneer of behavior modification/Incentivizing as she did/A perfect week of spelling scores/with the reward of a candy bar
And she read us an exciting Horatio Alger story once with each chapter ending in a bad-luck cliffhanger
But she also heaped out scorn in quantity/Shaming a kid who’d written his name on his desk top with//”Fools’ names and Fools’ faces/Are often seen in public places.”
So one fateful day she was talking about how breathtaking the sight of Halley’s Comet was…
And I, the runny-nosed know-it-all, the smallest kid in the class, saw a delightful opportunity…
And my hand shot up and Mrs. Holmberg nodded and me and said, “Yes?”…
And I said, “Mrs. Holmberg, wasn’t the last time Halley’s Comet came close to Earth…in 1910??”
Many class members gasped/In astonishment/at the revelation of how OLD Mrs. Holmberg must be/And I could swear she blushed/But then a little self-deprecating smile came to her face/And she said, “Why, yes. But I was only a little girl then.”
And that moment revealed Mrs. Holmberg to me
As a little girl still.
what may be an accusation of falsehood or false motive/is the response to a claim or conjecture/”that’s as may be”/with its flavor of skepticism and scorn
physicists are now telling us that observation has the effect of collapsing probabilities/even unto snuffing out entire universes/of “as may be”
so it behooves us to be watchful
and thankful that we ourselves are observed
as i thank you now for helping me exist
