Category Archives: POETRY

DAYS OF INFAMY

No more war, no more, no more.

This is what the world hopes for.

But bullies of war always go farther,

always want more.

My dad was at sea

off the shores of Waikiki

on a December Sunday morn

when bullies of war against China

went farther wanting more.

While Japanese diplomats wrangled in DC

for changes to US policy 

which barred trade with nations at war, 

Japanese planes far from home

dropped bombs on US shores.

Destroying the Navy which had escorted

Lend Lease weapons of war sent

across the Atlantic on ships 

guarded by sailors including my Dad,

dodging German U-boats and destroyers

was their goal, delivering aid to Europe

with weapons of war.
Bullies always go farther,

always want more.

Japan attacked China in 1931. 

using a false flag attack

on Japanese soldiers to justify war.

Japan pushed farther into China,

and Raped Nanking.

Burma and S.E. Asia were near.

And bullies always go farther,

always want more.

British soldiers and theUS Navy 

stood in the way.

Much was destroyed at Pearl Harbor.

But ships at sea like my Dad’s 

were out of the harbor that day.

The Day of Infamy was December 7. 

Dad was on his way to the Pacific on December 8.

From island group to island group,

To the Philippines and beyond,

The war went father and longer

until stopped by a nuclear bomb.

Dad came home. Too many did not.

As Ukrainians now shelter below,

like the Brits and Chinese long ago

And nations hesitate, negotiate 

and Russia threatens nuclear war

we Lend Aid as before, 

dreading once more

a new Day of Infamy.

Bullies always go farther,

always want more.

Has history taught us

nothing at all?

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MAMA, I AM AFRAID

It started with the words, “…Mama, I am afraid.

Words any soldier facing an enemy would say.

The phrase that cause my tears to bank

before overflowing down my face were these,

“They throw their bodies under the wheels,” 

under armored vehicles and tanks

meant to protect or attack,

depending upon one’s side.

“They told us we would be welcomed.” 

With open arms, “They hate us.” 

Was he dismayed  before he died; 

before those tanks and vehicles 

carried death to those unarmed?

Soldiers die, their innocence intact;

their innocence dead, if they survive.

And all I can do from afar

is cry, and cry, and cry.

For soldiers on both sides

of Putin’s lies.

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ANGELS OF DEMOCRACY

The foreign life of angels

is to earth brought down

to fight the good fight

for freedom to abound.

Zelensky leads his people.

The whole earth gathers round,

defended by angels

on Ukraine’s sacred ground.

Putin’s fallen countrymen

attack with cunning and deceit

to undermine democracy

and its mission creep.

Tyrants fear their citizenry

exposed to the fruits 

of democracy.

Putin fears the loss of power

as Ukrainians move west,

and Ukrainians fight valiantly,

stand and give their best.

Zelensky needs more than angels

to keep the Ukrainian people free.

One thing is certain

even if cities fall and people flee.

No people is more free

than those who stand and fight

for freedom and democracy.

Such people live among angels

no matter where they be.

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EVIL ADDS UP

Not all of us are good at sums.

Math seems an unknown language

But, Here’s a rule of thumb

we all can glean,

“Evil adds up”

ignored if not unseen

by passersby who briefly notice

the drunk huddled with his rum

in the doorway, 

below the underpass

as they scurry by.

Integers of one

are not the same one as I,

we tell ourselves.

That one is different

than the one who is I.

Integers add up 

in natural disasters.

Tornados, hurricanes

fires and floods

multiply the integers

until the numbers draw the light

of media to their plight,

for awhile.

The numbers are reduced

by such attention.

When media lights go off

we passersby forget the

need to finish the subtraction.

Not a single drunk,

but entire blocks of numbers

are left in evil’s hold,

seeking shelter and warm beds,

a drink of water, a loaf of bread.

Crime lords and government

corruption and economic destruction

multiply exponentially the evil done

to entire communities

forced to flee to safety as refugees.

Evil adds up until its mass

is beyond measure

as we passersby seek our pleasure.

A father and daughter on a park bench

in Merry Old England after touching 

the handle as they closed their door,

poisoned by secret police abroad,

sent from Putin and his minions

whose minions are legion,

fallen angels from The Cold War,

who explore every nation

with a single message,

“You cannot hide from evil.”

There is no place to run

as evil has been left to grow,

to multiply beyond every border

of the New World Order.

The people of Ukraine know this well,

after years of dividing  their nation 

from the hell they struggle to quell.

They are not mere passersby

to the evil driving tanks in their streets,

sending missiles into buildings

where children dwell.

Each piece of war equipment tallied

and accounted for. 

Numbers measured on both sides

of the equation of war.

The only story that adds up

is that evil has multiplied 

to drive the suffering

to basements and train stations below

the streets of an entire nation.

Ukrainians do not clutch a bottle of rum.

They clutch one another,

measuring the possibility

of survival upon evil’s arrival

on their own doorsteps.

They seek a drink, a loaf of bread,

the warming comfort of sleep 

in their own bed.

Lesson learned that evil adds up.

Passersby add to that equation.

Passersby who drop coins in a cup

and tell themselves they do good.

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UNITED NATIONS SHAME

United Nations Shame

Lying bully Vlad

shines Russia’s crown 

with the blood

of innocents

who cry out for protection

from an organization

which allows him Security

instead of obstruction

of his deadly disaffection

from truth and discretion.

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ON THE FRONT LINES

How does one prepare 

for cyber warfare?

There are no longer fronts

where soldiers block the way

onto civilian grounds of safety.

We are all on the front; 

dependent upon technology

for gas and electricity,

for information and news

which could keep us safe

to stay in place.

How do we connect

with family, friends, police,

fire houses, doctors and EMTs,

and get help in an emergency ?

How do we get food on shelves

when distribution channels 

get entangled  with cyber bullets?

How do we bring water out of taps

when treatment plants are trapped

by foreign intervention

of service connection?

Cyber warfare is a world war.

It has already begun.

Prepare for it to get worse.

There is  nowhere to run.

Cyber bullets do not replace

bullets made of lead,

nor rockets, missiles and tanks.

Cyber bullets are simply new

ways to injure, maim and kill.

We are all on the front lines.

The cyber siege has begun.

There is nowhere to run.

We are all on the front.

Worse, the enemy is also within

our congress, state legislatures and courts,

the propaganda machine

of the right-wing Republican Party

funded by American oligarchs,

media-blitzed krieged by FOX 

and other talking point right-wingers,

with fingers in the pie

of democratic institutions.

Such patriots of greed hide

in plain sight

cheered with delight

by MAGA white male supremacists

who use Trump as their poster boy,

inciting and inviting

secession from democracy

in favor of autocracy.

We are all on the front.

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TAX SEASON

I love paying taxes. I do.

They help me connect to you.

and you, and you, and you.

I pay my share and trust my taxes

will outlast the needs we share.

They show how much I care

about city, county, country.

Taxes build strong community.

The shining necklace 

that connects us

is only so strong 

as its strongest link.

so, I do not shrink

from my duty to pay my taxes.

They are never late.

It is the forms I hate,

pages of numbers

that destroy my slumber.

Is it too early to rise?

Can the day not wait

until my words can untangle,

by numbers strangled,

inside my dreams

where truths scream

to be lightly told 

as dawn unfolds?

My dreams try to pass on

objects long gone

from emptied drawers:

wooden spaghetti fork,

aluminum sieve,

cotton cheesecloth.

All items one needs

to stir the pot as tangled food heats;

as tangled words strive to unfold

the stories hidden and untold.

And tools one needs to sift through

lies and deceits to give you truth.

Reading tax instructions in my sleep

makes me weep

at the destruction of poetry.

There is no tax symmetry.

Words flee the grasp of Publication 17.

Line by line of form 1040

blocks all ability and creativity,

destroying poems before they are born.

Tax season is the theft; not of cash,

but of dreams. Words are torn.

Tax season is a thief in the night

Tax season continues to steal even in daylight.

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Three Bows to Untie

There are three bows to be untied

if peace is to abide.

Untie the bow of fear

and open the package of hope.

Untie the bow of greed

and open the package of faith.

Untie the bow of hate

and open the package of love.

Pretend it is Christmas Day

and celebrate

Peace to all of good will,

If you will.

Pretend it is your birthday

and free yourself

Of the past.

When all the bows are untied

Peace will abide.

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The Trees and Me

I walked among the trees today.

Warm winds melted icy walkways .

Thus I could go again to see

Entire families of trees.

I must look quickly now

To know each trees unique bow

As Xylem floods from root to tip

as each sun beam nips and glows

And begins the nest where buds will grow.

I look now while I can still see

The naked truth that is each tree.

For once the leaves begin to grow

It’s truth is hidden far below.

I return home in reverie.

It is time to acknowledge the mystery

that has been my life before I go

beyond this forest of humanity.

I look at my mirrored image

As naked as the trees.

I see the creases and lines

Define the life I’ll leave behind.

Despite some days of bleakest sorrow

I yearn for many more tomorrows.

I will not easily decline any day

that fate decrees will come my way.

Like trees I bend rather than break.

I welcome the flood of xylem and phloem.

I choose more buds ready to grow

and more leaves to unfurl

before I go,

I may look old but am still a young girl.

Where I shall go

I do not know.

It is another mystery

contemplated in pews on bended knee,

or on stools in pubs with glasses raised.

Or while I walk among the trees.

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BEFORE NATO THERE WAS EUROPE

Before Nato there was Europe.

Borders set by mountains and rivers

protected by castles and keeps not often breached.

We remember the elephants.

We remember the trenches filled with gas.

We remember the tanks rolling through the streets.

Appeasement and neglect underestimates

the threat of world wars 

and megalomaniacal bullies fueled by

money launderers and banks

claiming a percentage of the take

from gun running and drug sales.

We remember the victory.

We forget the defeat

for Europe’s brothers and sisters

left behind Soviet walls,

left under the gun,

left under the KGB

left out of NATO.

Some did the unthinkable,

the seemingly impossible.

They tore down walls,

They marched freely in the streets.

They finally claimed victory,

a victory hard to keep.

NATO weeps for these 

brothers and sisters long denied

their freedom barely won

before They find themselves

once again, under the gun.

Remember NATO,

before there was NATO there was Europe.

It has not gone away by treaty.

Those left behind by NATO

have not gone away.

Nor have the bullies who wage war on innocents,

our brothers and sisters claiming democracy,

strong enough to claim freedom long denied.

These should be NATOs pride.

These should be the pride

of everyone who claims freedom and democracy.

They are our brothers and sisters.

Do not watch them die.

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