CLOUDY DAYS

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The rain came during the night.

Soft and silent blessings fell

to drench the earth

where mankind dwells.

But they slept on unaware

that helpful forces left a gift

to soften the soil

of hardened hearts.

They rose with the dawn,

faint light clouded over,

and misunderstood such peace

brought a chance to subside

the blazing heat of anger

in fearful eyes 

scorched

by staring at the sun

of a too-bright false sunrise.

Cloudy days ahead 

to soften the blow

when they awaken to the lies

that they have been told.

Every artist knows

one sees clearer

on cloudy days

when truth is crisp

despite the haze.

Or maybe,

because of it.

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COME REST WITH ME

Centuries pass

not in straight lines

but in circles

piled upon one another

and stretched

in genomic lines,

pulling free of destiny 

we thought well-defined.

We look back

only to be distracted

by the patterns

cut up and rewound

until the tales are lost

in webs blown apart 

by unexpected winds.

It is hard to see 

paths forward

when past paths

overlap and spiral

out of our control.

Progress makes its own way;

only when control is stayed

by openness to change,

and comfort in staying afloat

until we land exactly where 

we were meant

to come to rest.

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RUNNING TOWARD WINTER

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As frantic squirrels gather nuts

I hurriedly gather friends to my garden;

creating memories to last the winter,

locked deep in darkness,

as the nuts squirrels store

beneath the soil,

to be dug up as needed.

If only I can recall

where I put them.

If not, they will be reborn

when Spring returns

and friends gather once more

to bloom in full splendor

which far exceeds the memory

of what went before.

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HAIKU

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Days of slanted rays

dust motes rise before my gaze.

Time for Fall cleaning.

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THE MOUNTAINTOP

Screenshot of Trump rally for JD Vance, Youngstown, Ohio

Fingers raised instead of fists

above the mindless misfits

crowded for the cameras’ view

to appear more than just a few

sycophants and cowards driven

to defend the ONE who has given

rise to fascist liars who claim the prize

of a nation’s soul and its demise.

By all means stand and cheer, you fools.

You are now the ONE’s new tools.

The silent Ones allow the game to grow

beyond such crowds, as they sow

discontent and insurrection,

destructive hate and misdirection

to those who do not pay attention;

and attack those who provide protection.

History has seen this all before

The ONE whom we should deplore

markets to the envious a cure

of male supremacy, white and pure.

This has become the new religion

blessed by God, and all The One’s pigeons

who flock to rallies or T.V. screens with raised fingers,

birds of a feather, Qanon singers

prepare for the war-like days ahead,

while the silent Ones simply watch with dread.

Guns and slogans proliferate

while the ONE’s soldiers spew more hate.

Who will rise and say, “NO MORE!”?

Love and truth-telling are the only cure;

but, not enough now. That’s for sure.

Too many decades of greed seized by lies,

allowed by a nation which closed its eyes,

and by religions who sought to gain

power and influence over this game

has brought us so low the climb’s now too high.

The vote may be all we have left, we sigh.

And, that is uncertain as election 

workers must flee for protection

and Ones take the place in order to assure

that votes do not count any more.

Never give up and never give in.

That would be the greater sin.

Get out the vote and then help others,

disenfranchised sisters and brothers.

Get out the vote. Stir up hope. Raise a din

of truth and love. Never give up. Never give in.

The vote can stop the war the Ones seek.

Do not remain silent, fearful and meek.

Keep your hands down by your side

ready to hold others’ hands, and help guide

every citizen up the mountain so high,

all equally standing strong, side-by-side

full of life, liberty, happiness and earned pride.

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PROGRESS

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We sing a swan song with the woman under the only tent left

in the parking lot of North Market once filled with famers’ tents.

Drifting from tent to tent has been over for a long time,

since developers decided condos would be more profitable.

Gone are the Saturday mornings tasting the sweetest melons,

and chewing the most delicate pastries,

and buying produce far fresher than that in any grocery.

Other famers left long ago.

Where, for now, we do not know.

They were promised a nearby lot, still empty,

where progress is sure to follow. 

They seem to have fled to more stable sites 

where they have set up their tables before it gets light,

and their trucks do not have so far to go 

from their fields and farms and hollows.

Trenches are being dug around the perimeter

and still one woman stays on, to our delight.

We sing her swan song with her

over the dead buried beneath this plot long ago.

A cemetery where African-Americans and immigrants

to a new country were buried and forgotten,

even their names left to rot unknown.

Now, developers promise removal will be handled properly,

when nothing seems proper at all to me.

This is progress. I hear it. I feel it. I sing it.

It is the swan song we have all come to know.

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RULES OF DISRULE

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Rules for lawyers:

Never try a divorce case 

on the day the judge 

fought with his wife.

Never try a disability case

before an alcoholic judge.

These are the usual rules

when trying to maintain impartiality

to reach a decision consistent with the law

and not flawed by human will

which should be set aside

to follow the dictum of this land

that no man is above the law.

The law is turned on its head

by Judge Cannon and her MAGA crew.

Attorneys of good will and sound ethics

now face  bending of these rules:

Never try a criminal case

when the criminal conspires with the judge.

Never try an emergency order

before a judge intent on delay.

No judge forum shopping is allowed.

So find a court where the only choice

is a judge the criminal appointed.

Judicial impartiality is a rule

oft’ influenced, it is true, by experience and inclination,

but not by partiality, blind to the rule of law 

instead of impartial justice;

but not by a judge who rules

before the evidence is even given,

but not by a judge who rules

that the man who gave her her job

is above the law she pledged herself to.

How can a judge be allowed to sit

in a court where law is not followed

and where blatant disrule becomes the rule?

Impartial judges sew the threads

holding the law together. 

Judges who put down the needle

and rip the fabric of law

can destroy justice for us all.

Tearing apart the fabric of law

will leave us all naked,

vulnerable to autocratic rule.

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WOKE WITH A POKE

Louise,Angela,Angelo,Angelo,Jr.

By the age of two

chocolate was my favorite hue.

One day, I was firmly woke

by my mother’s forceful poke.

We were shopping 

in the lower level of the Five and Ten

when I saw the most lovely woman,

elegantly sleek with a stately mien.

I pulled my thumb out of my mouth

and stood in silent awe

at the first person of color I ever saw.

As soon as I spoke I felt the poke

and knew what I had said was wrong.

What had I said that made Mom move

to wake me up, and make me see

some new truth among the many

she tried to teach me?

I said with joy, so gleefully,

“Mommy, look at the chocolate lady!”

Mom’s horrified look 

was accompanied by the poke.

“Shush,” Mom said, “we do not comment

on how others look.”

The lady grinned, 

then opened her smile to take us in.

She said to my Mother, “Your little girl is fine.

I assume she loves chocolate as much as I.”

The two women laughed and shared a smile

that brought out their beauty, in eyes that shined

with love and joy in the innocence

of a child who thought chocolate ladies

are oh, so deliciously fine.

I asked the lady, “Why are you a different color?”

Then, Mom said, “God made people of many hues,

sizes, and shapes to make the world more fun for you.

We would all be so bored if we were the same.

Like the bigger box of crayons of sixty-four hues

you keep asking me to buy for you, 

God made each one of us different

so we could enjoy life so much more.”

Then the two ladies said, “So very nice to meet you.”

That day I came home with a box of sixty-four

crayons and wisdom, and so much more.

I was woke with a poke 

and found a new and bigger world to explore.

At seventy-three it still holds true

that I love chocolate, and diversity, too;

in the paints near the easel, the neighbors nearby,

the books on the shelf, and the places I fly.

The world awakens with pokes to keep us awoke

so life’s many wondrous possibilities do not pass us by.

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Freedom From Tyranny

The tyranny of the minority never ends well.

Ask the geese who flock together

To better withstand the wind and weather.

Ask the grass whose roots entwine in clay

To better carpet fields upon which children play.

It is always better to find a way to join together

In whatever manner helps the majority weather

The storms and dramas of lives well-lived.

We each can choose to bend and give.

Establishing a majority requires sharing

In a nation dedicated to caring and daring

to promise its people will be blessed

With the right to life, liberty and happiness.

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THE BOOK OF LIFE

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Live long enough

and enough becomes more

then was once imaginable.

It is not resignation

to the seemingly insoluble

problems making the young

passionate and high strung;

nor to youth’s perception

that old people are stuck

in the past, and even the mud.

No, the old are simply elated

that problems which once made them 

passionate and high strung

have been overcome.

The old simply have

more hope for

and less fear of

the future the young will live

with greater energy;

a future which the old may not live to see.

Reluctance to become irate,

wave arms and raise voices of dismay,

may simply be the wisdom to see

no problem is without a solution.

It just my not come for a few more days.

Truly, the old and the young

are writing the same story.

They are merely on different pages

in the book of life.

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