February 5, 2022 · 1:23 am

Legitimate Political Discourse

The Party has fallen beyond the pale of course

Cheering on legitimate political discourse

Beating defenders with steel pipes

Bashing skulls of Capitol police

Stabbing their chests with flag pole spears

Screaming curses and threats

Of violence and death

Defecating on walls and monuments

Building scaffolds to hang vice-presidents

Seeking majority leaders to rape and kill

Stealing podiums and laptops

And making Giuliani war in the streets

Expecting their president to join the fray

But he watched and waited

Gleeful and pleased

That his party sees insurrection

As legitimate political discourse

Of fascists and autocrats

Bullies and cheats

Day after day for months

The strength of such

Political discourse

Which of course is not discourse at all

grows stronger

The longer we wait

To stop it.

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February 4, 2022 · 3:17 pm

A SNOWMAN AWAITS

A SNOWMAN AWAITS

Each morning I rise from dark night

and to the window I go,

after turning on lights,

opening blinds to the sights.

Each day I note lamps bright

in neighbors’ windows

where others are alight,

getting ready for life.

Six inches of Snow

and Wind on-a-blow

leaves windows in darkness.

No movement. No glow.

Sleeping in is a grace

on snowed-in days such as this.

Yet, I arise early lest I waste

a moment, the snow to embrace.

A snowman waits now

to  be rolled up tight,

as am I in boots and bundles

of fleece and down.

Too cold, you say

to go outdoors and play?

If the birds can do so

why cannot I?

Let us go.

Let us play.

let us bask in the cold.

You want to. I know.

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February 1, 2022 · 5:00 pm

The Year of the Tiger

Bravery

Strength

Courage

in the Year of the Tiger

More needed than ever

To start over

And under

And around

the world’s plight.

Jungle growth chokes

The life of gardens

Of order and delight

And blocks sunlight.

Spring fears to push

Against soil kept dark.

Winter death lurks

Until

The tiger stalks new paths

Opening our way

To the possibility

The garden may be saved.

Bravery

Strength

Courage

Tigers.

Happy New Year.

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January 31, 2022 · 3:13 pm

Unsettled

No one wore masks

At the BMV

Where photos are required

On the driver’s license.

Even the clerks

Breathed openly

Over the elderly

And severely

Immunocompromised

Like me.

The only person masked

The one most in need

Of protection.

Required to unmask

For a photo

To prove identity

And that I am

No threat

Driving a car

Or boarding a plane.

And yet,

The un-masked

Are allowed

To threaten me.

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January 30, 2022 · 3:30 pm

WE FORGET WE ARE ANIMALS

We forget we are animals

defined by our biology,

determined in our theology

to become gods.

We claim supremacy

in our ability to reason.

Thus, science is treason

to our basest animality.

There is no true supremacy

in puppies seeking comfort in the pack,

but a leader holding back

its basest urges so they thrive.

Their is no supremacy among ants

plundering crumbs left behind

by birds with greater speed

after picnickers have had their feed.

Like puppies, birds and ants

we seek opportunity

and shared camaraderie

in order to survive.

Supremacy would deplete our strength,

interrupt the flow of shared effort,

deprive us of the joy of joint accomplishment.

It would make us less and steal our comfort.

Science steps in to stop such a fray

using reason to light our way.

Science untended 

leaves a world upended.

Viral storms circle the globe

behind fires and drought,

rain and flood,

leaving illness and death.

Economies fall before we do

onto bended knees of recovery.

Myths replace stories

as reason loses glory.

We forget we are animals at our own peril. 

We must forgo supremacy

to sustain democracy.

We must remember who we are.

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January 30, 2022 · 3:29 pm

WE FORGET WE ARE ANIMALS

We forget we are animals

defined by our biology,

determined in our theology

to become gods.

We claim supremacy

in our ability to reason.

Thus, science is treason

to our basest animality.

There is no true supremacy

in puppies seeking comfort in the pack,

but a leader holding back

its basest urges so they thrive.

Their is no supremacy among ants

plundering crumbs left behind

by birds with greater speed

after picnickers have had their feed.

Like puppies, birds and ants

we seek opportunity

and shared camaraderie

in order to survive.

Supremacy would deplete our strength,

interrupt the flow of shared effort,

deprive us of the joy of joint accomplishment.

It would make us less and steal our comfort.

Science steps in to stop such a fray

using reason to light our way.

Science untended 

leaves a world upended.

Viral storms circle the globe

behind fires and drought,

rain and flood,

leaving illness and death.

Economies fall before we do

onto bended knees of recovery.

Myths replace stories

as reason loses glory.

We forget we are animals at our own peril. 

We must forgo supremacy

to sustain democracy.

We must remember who we are.

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January 29, 2022 · 2:10 pm

AFRAID TO BEND

Sometimes, I think

I have forgotten how to bend.

Life now seems mere posturing.

We stand 

for something.

Or, we stand 

for nothing

real.

We sit on our hands.

We run from truth.

We sleepwalk through twi-light

days and nights blended

and mended by calculation

of who holds the reins

of our harness.

So, I stand

and I stretch

to find some balance

of thought and action;

a tiny fraction

of what reality 

used to be.

And I dare not bend

for fear

of losing

my balance.

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January 29, 2022 · 2:07 pm

AFRAID TO BEND

Sometimes, I think

I have forgotten

how to bend.

Life now seems

mere posturing.

We stand

for something.

Or, we stand

for nothing

real.

We sit on our hands.

We run from truth.

We sleep-walk through twi-light,

days and night blended

and mended

by calculation

of those who hold the reins

of our harness.

So, I stand

and I stretch

to find some balance

of thought and action;

a tiny fraction

of what reality

used to be.

And I dare not bend

for fear of losing

my balance.

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January 29, 2022 · 1:41 pm

GLOBAL WARMING

Too bright for the eyes

I could not watch

The sun rise.

and his behind cold lids

a fearful surprise

and dread.

No ribbon at a time

of colorful delight,

but a glaring reminder

all is not right.

The overheated sun

surprises the garden

drenched in snow

risen and fallen

from melting ice fields

in warming seas

I may never see.

The connection

between heat and ice

is broken off the glacier

of frozen hearts

in heated despair.

And we, blinded by glare

of the too-strong sun

are too blind now

To see.

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January 29, 2022 · 1:32 pm

GLOBAL WARMING

Too bright for the eyes

I could not watch

the sun rise,

and hid behind cold lids

a fearful surprise

and dread.

No ribbon at a time

of colorful delight,

but a glaring reminder

all is not right.

the overheated sun

surprises the garden

drenched in snow

risen and fallen

from melting ice fields

in warming seas

I may never see.

The connection 

between heat and ice

is broken off the glacier

of frozen hearts

in heated despair.

And we, blinded by glare

of the too-strong sun

are too blind now

to see.

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