POEMS

Baby Teeth and Bullets

I’m Calvin’s lonely cousin
the one without a friend
The darkly-quiet moody kid
The one who couldn’t blend

I’m the smoker in the stairwell,
skipping school all day
the fall-between-the-crack-type-kid
the one who slips away

I’m the ink inside the headlines
the lead story on the news
The kid the network anchor says
was surely born to lose

I’m the details at eleven
a community in shock
I’m the often-bullied quirky kid
who lived just up the block

I’m a parent’s darkest nightmare
I’m my doctor's deep concern
I’m the angst that no one seems to get
the match about to burn
I’m an issue in the social science
circles of the day
I’m the brush it underneath the rug
that never goes away

I see angels circling the sun
feathered wings and halos
golden and hand-spun
Frozen little angels
Circling the sun
bursting into rain drops
cleansing everyone

I’m the isolated Incel
The bullet in the gun
The angry white American
Who’s blaming everyone
I’m the cryptic manifesto
The video online
The AR-15 lover-boy
Who grew-up Columbine

I’m the one who gave up caring
I’m the anger and the rage
I’m the finger on the trigger
I’m the tiger in the cage

I’m the suicide by cop
On the stairway in my school
I’m the little boy with crooked teeth
That others ridiculed

I see angels circling the sun
feathered wings and halos
golden and hand-spun
Frozen little angels
Circling the sun
bursting into rain drops
cleansing everyone

Ashes to Ashes

When your mind is melting in worry’s kettle

And troubled thoughts refuse to settle

When tears fall backwards
and you’re drowned in sorrow

When todays get buried by tomorrows

When the pit gets ripped hard from the plum

And your soul is stretched tight on a drum

With smiles grinding to the gum
and nervous laughter from everyone

Just Whisper

Ashes-to-Ashes, dust-to-dust
from bang-to-boom and boom-to-bust
Let’s all pray for a blissful end,
Where death’s a belly dancing friend

Fascisms Forest

Every time he speaks

I hear the bluster and the lie

and what my mother taught me

about empty barrels

making the loudest noise

bubbles up inside

And I wonder how

the plainly evident

gets skewed in the eyes

of so many others

what did their mothers

teach them about

boisterous bullies and

skirt-chasing scoundrels

Perhaps the words

were never spoken

or maybe only as a token

and so, we have the lost and broken

Unable to separate

the shit from shinola

they bend to the viciously simplistic

The fake paternalistic

Father-knows-best

how to rule the rest

They never question

they simply fall in line

No matter the level of asinine

As we march democracy

towards that empty pit

in fascism’s forest

we hope against hope

that our eyes will open

before that final blast

to the back of the head

Donny Shakes the Jar

Donny stirs the pot

Donny knows that hate and fear

are really all he’s got

Donny peddles lies

He feeds them to his friends

They eat’em up

And spit them out

The cycle never ends

Donny knows that facts

are a death knell to his game

He always tries to bury them

And set the truth aflame

Insurrectionists as martyrs

And the freedom fighter lies

“A fraudulent election!”

His fake-ass battle cry

He’s got minions on the take

And congress in his pocket

FOX to help him spin the lies

Vlad Putin in his locket

We need Guardians of democracy

To fend against attacks

From Donny and his hateful gang

Of red hat wearing hacks

When you’re forced

to use fear and hate

To bolster your position

To inspire acts of violence

and treacherous sedition

And when you do so

For vainglory and the

Insatiable lust for power

Expect a mass gathering

To knock you from your tower

A Fearful Life

A crooked path before us

A ragged race we run

A 9-to-5 grind-to-dust

To keep pace with everyone

We take some time to breathe

A few weeks every year

Then jump back in the race

That’s fueled by inner fear

Fear about finances

Fear about jobs

Fear about COVID and Fascist-led mobs

Fear about terrorism

the Taliban and ISIS

Fear for America’s Democracy-crisis

Fear for our planet

increasingly warming

Fear of our fear

which is constantly forming

When emersed in fear

It's hard to live life

The roses and sunshine

Give way to our strife

And we just live to survive

On the edge of a knife

Relentless Time Regardless

we begin life nervously

waiting in the wings

queued up and ready to take center stage

each of us a fragile link

in a fractious chain of humans

we embark on a quixotic quest

for meaning and connection

the thought of our transience

evades us at first

or maybe we just refuse to let it creep in

we keep those thoughts at bay

we bury them under daily routine

for years at a time

until we begin to sense

the slowing of the merry-go-round

and we see and feel

the snarled and toothy grin

of the carney worker

all rides must end

we lean hard from our painted ponies

elbow pit married to the pole

we reach and stretch for the brass ring

and it’s promise of another ride

as if more ride is a cure-all

it isn’t

as if more time will sand the jagged edge

of disappointment and regret

It won’t.

we don’t need more time.

we need understand how little we have of it

Sometimes

it’s a struggle

just to keep my eyes open

I feel anxiety’s weight resting fixed

like a fishing lure

that’s been dropped

in the dead-center

of my thoughts

Sometimes

I hear the clock ticking

I feel the pages turning

Knowing that most of my days

Are in the rear view

A fast-approaching horizon

through the windshield

One eye on the road

I fumble with the radio dial

Musical snippets and static

Trying to find that perfect

Sequence of songs

Before the ride ends

That’s the goal

Time to Marginalize Marjorie

Space-laser promoting
Gun toting liar

Bigoted Truther
Nine-Eleven Denier

Spewer of filth
Talker of trash

Dumber than dumb
With boat-load of cash

Kevin McCarthy
He ain’t no Vin Diesel
Afraid of his base
A gutless shit-weasel

Checking with Trump
Before speaking his mind
Removing that stump
From way up his behind

Where have you gone
Once Proud GOP
Afraid of the loonies
Who support Marjorie

You run from the truth
Like a squirrel from noise
Wyoming’s Lynne Cheney
Has more balls than the boys

Time to rise-up
Put an end to the slime
Recognize a Truth as a Truth
And a Crime as a Crime

A loss of some votes
Might be the toll
But at least you can say
You’ve still got your soul

Down the Rabbit Hole We Go

Welcome to Stupidville

Next stop, Devastation town

I’m Donald, your conductor

I moved on her and tried to fuck her

Now Americas’ my biggest sucker

Dr. Deb toes-the-line

she disregards the asinine

Hides her frown and coddles the clown

He wears her complicity like a crown

It’s just hunch I had at lunch

A Lysol-laced epiphany, A moron-led symphony, a crappy dog and pony show

and down the rabbit hole we go

There’s no respites from test kits

and the mask discussion has no end

All the wrong decisions that got us here

become impossible to defend

“Suppose we hit the body with a powerful light?”

It never fails, we’re off the rails

the string detaches from the kite

As we flail and wail into the night

Chrome Covered Rosebuds

Chrome covered rosebuds and dyslexic daisies

Dirt-devil divas and wombats with rabies

Blue bloodless fem-bots that drop from the sky, misogyny dies in the blink of an eye

Dipshits in red hats with white MAGA letters

Grunge bands with new tats of Cobains and Vedders

Palm trees and face plants a rip in the sky

Ginger loves Mary Ann’s Coconut pie

Deep-seated distrust and misinformation

Biscuits with deadbolts and sex doll inflation

Mad rants and just cants, a flask full of lies

The truth falls asleep to our sad lullabies

Sinatra and Martin, Carson and Rickles

Bone chips on blood-stained pennies and nickels

Douchebags and despots about to ally

To map out our lives on the wings of a fly

February, in the Warmth of the Morning Sun

I found a dead ladybug

on the sill of my window today

Just a few days prior

I witnessed her flying around my bedroom

and wondered,

trapped inside my sunny domicile,

with frost on the windows,

did she long for the warmth

of late summer days

and leafy plants on my kitchen patio?

She was a lifeless faded orange

hard, shiny, and smooth

her legs tightly tucked

into her flat underside

I slid her on to a piece of printer paper

carried her down the staircase

that goes from the bedroom to the kitchen

and placed her gently in a potted plant

in the warmth of the morning sun

Religious Fanatics in Red Caps and Black Robes

Religious fanatics in red caps and black robes
Choice Appomattox and transvaginal probes
Beaten and raped, then told what to do
Stripped of your voice, no autonomous you

Back-alley midwives with buckets and hangers
Forced into action, like fierce Margret Sangers
Matt K and Sam A

don’t care what you think
Judge Thomas and Barrett

drown Roe in the sink

Ejaculate holder, an object, a vessel
A fait accompli, with no room to wrestle
Your thoughts do not matter

Just do what we say
Your handmaid’s dilemma

the American way

From pro-choice to no-voice

a Trump court of minions
Precedent-killing

abortion opinions

The fetus and soul are what matters the most
Your womanly role is to be a good host

Communion Nazi

No communion wafer and wine!

The archbishop has spoken

Your soul is too broken

Your union with the savior, “Declined!”

To that tall-hatted dude out in Frisco

The one chanting “El Cuerpo de Christo”

I’ll pass on your wafer, to make women safer

Then dance in the street, like a disco

Condemning our views on abortion

Withholding God’s grace as extortion!!??

Your tactics aren’t bold

They’re petty and cold

We’ll not bend to suit your contortion

To the Church that treats women like cattle

For the lines that you’ve drawn for this battle

It’s a badge (not a snub)

to be tossed from your club

We will march on New York and Seattle

To the league

of the pedophile protector

I’m a cool conscientious objector

I’ll pass on the cracker

and fight the attacker

To the church

You can call me defector

Sycophants

Sycophants in tailored pants

Smiles crooked as a creek

Willows weep and dragons’ snap

The futures looking bleak

Dialed-in and out zoning

Spinning in despair

Riled up deboning trout

While singing Leo Sayer

Bumble bees in Belarus

Jackrabbits skipping stones

Crumble cheese and sex abuse

The Pope is eating stones

Seeped in Seventies

Darkly sarcastic and sardonically wry

We danced and we hummed to American Pie

Rolling thunder over head

Kool-Aid, Converse, Wonder Bread

Vietnam served us the blues

Cronkite was the nightly news

Worry traveled through the air

And stuck to faces everywhere

They shipped us to the Vanhoff School

We learned about the golden rule

Over finger paints and duck-duck goose

and thermoses of apple juice

Mrs. V in her floral dress

sang “raise your hands”

and “clean your mess”

and "before the day is done

try to touch the sun”

Jungle-gyms and trampolines

Wacky Packs, Mad Magazine

Baseball hats and Spider bikes

Dad’s Miller beer, Mom’s Lucky Strikes

Kick Ball, Fishing, Doorbell ditch

Hogan’s Heroes and Bewitched

Nixon, Agnew, and John Dean

We Pillow cased our Halloweens

Through wiffle ball and kick the can

"Johnny C" and Ed McMahon

Watergate was all around

in our sight and in our sound

on the news and in the paper

the Viet Cong and foiled caper

It lurked and hovered overhead

Words were written and then were said

it wormed its way into our head

that innocence was finally dead

it’s all we heard and all we read

in undercurrents a subtext grew

a dye was cast for me and you

so, we dipped our bread into the stew

enjoyed the dark side of our view

and you were me and I was you

The Witch and The Farm Girl

The high-pitched sound of cicadas
the wind dances over the wheat
When out of the sky
in the blink of an eye
A witch on a broom for seat

A reckless Midwestern twister
A box full of fury and flow
On a ruby-red mission fixation
With an army of monkeys in tow

A bright-hearted farm girl from Kansas
No boyfriends or lovers to call
Struck dumb by the words of a wizard
Who wasn’t a wizard at all

Fell asleep in a field full of poppies
Woke with a head full of fear
Approached the green castle with caution
But spoke like the tip of a spear

Tracing the stitch on her pillow
she imagines the blood in her veins
she chases the witch through the willow
Till the beat of her heart starts to wane

She wakes to the wind in her navel
The bees fulminate in their hive
The blue mink is donning red sable
The white wolf is barely alive

Dot’s in a battle worth fighting
Dot’s in a fight she must win
With a gaggle of misfits and losers for friends
On a mission to get back to her kin

She skipped on the bricks that were yellow
She fought with the man made of straw
Met a cat terrified of his shadow
Found the hollow man’s heart in a drawer

She summoned the courage inside her
Relied on the love in her heart
Instilled faith in the minds of her comrades
And never gave up from the start

Trapped in a dreamscape of terror
And demons and doubt from her bed
Overcame the evil that faced her
She awoke with a bump on her head

Dot’s in a battle worth fighting
Dot’s in a fight she must win
With a gaggle of misfits and losers for friends
On a mission to get back to her kin

The Dangers in Pittsburgh, the Dangers in Norway

our ecosystem is raging

ferociously so

yet round and round

and round we go

stop mashing clarity

into morass

open your eyes

get off of your ass

hurricanes and heatwaves

mass flooding and drought

the science is clear

there’s no room for doubt

yet we’re still digging coal

and day-tripping on oil

it’s taking a toll

on the air and the soil

we’re shredding our forests

polluting our seas

and with chemical weeding

we’re killing off bees

It's time to stop pleading

and get off of our knees

put all your support

behind green policies

Musk in rocket

Bezos-a-blasting

they reach for the stars

and life everlasting

a climate disaster

our earth is-a-blazing

and those who can help

are ego star gazing

the dangers in Pittsburg

the dangers in Norway

wherever we live

its outside our doorway

what world do you want

to give to your kids

a world with some hope

or one on the skids?

Tired

Tired of lies and daily fact fucking

Tired of America totally sucking

Tired of word salads

and moronic statements

Tired of tweetstorms

with no sign of abatement

Tired of tariffs and your tawdry affair

Tired of the jacket that says I don’t care

Tired of deflection and blaming the press

Tired of you not owning your mess

Tired of Flynn, Manafort and Page

Tired of the kids you stuck in a cage

Tired of the jealous Obama obsession

Tired of your cabinet’s lack of discretion

Tired of distractions

to save your own ass

The FBI, DOJ,

The Kaepernick morass

Tired of the endless egotistical bragging

Pussy grabbing and adulterous shagging

Tired of grandiose self-absorption and vanity

Tired of faux news and meatheads like Hannity

Tired of your childish defiant arm crossing

Tired of disgraceful paper towel tossing

Tired of you acting like a dictator thug

Tired of the comb-over

on your fat ugly mug

Tired of your petty and child-like spats

Tired of your ignorance of science and stats

Tired of the cronies and the rich getting more

Tired of policies that don’t help the poor

Tired of how you downplayed the pandemic

Tired of denials that racism’s systemic

Tired of your desperate need to self-flatter

Tired that you think so many don’t matter

Tired of those who think you’re a savior

Tired of conspiracies and moronic behavior

TIRED

Fire or Ice

It won’t be by fire

It won’t be by ice

Not a slow-creeping glacier

Or atomic device

The sun won’t implode

On apocalypse day

There won’t be four horsemen

Riding our way

The Messiah won’t show

With a list in his hand

And, no

Heaven won’t have

one helluva band

And there won’t be any

fences to mend

or dastardly sins

We’re forced to defend

And the angel of death

Will have no wings at all

She’ll be a viral and nasty

Spiky red ball

Aided by

an immoral fool,

who always felt he was too cool for school

And the angel of death

will give him a task

“Push lie after lie”

and don’t wear a mask”

Together they spread

Death far and wide

Taking all of America

on a perilous ride

So, no

It won’t be by fire

And it won’t be by ice

Not a slow creeping glacier

Or atomic device

Our ending will be

Too small to see

BrokeMerica

America

We’re strong on paper

But don’t deliver the goods

We swallowed the hype

Got lost in the woods

Don’t love our neighbors

Mistrust them instead

They’re either a little too blue

or a little too red

So, we must disagree with

Whatever they said

“They don’t really look American to me”

We can’t seem to get

beyond what we see

Be it color or religion or ethnicity

We get lost in the hateful

Shit that we read

And we share all the garbage

That finds its way to our feed

And the news

that we choose

isn’t news at all

Just a place to trawl and brawl

Then scrawl on our wall

We set up our camps

are told to pick sides

It widens the gaps and deepens divides

We no longer talk with each other

We talk at each other

We’re in a constant state of agitate

arguing is now our default setting

So easily triggered and never forgetting

We don’t live and let live

or live to forgive

We’re an angry flock of bots

Always bratty, catty, and taking cheap shots

Always posting and boasting

and political roasting

We’re walking-talking bumper stickers

We’re cheap and shallow politickers

Our house is burning

Our ship is sinking

we’ve got no solutions

just meme-based thinking

We’re a promise broken

A useless token

A hatred spoken

The Threat

The threat is existential

The rhetoric is real

Hate can hinder progress

When a liar lies with zeal

Democracy’s a drunk

she teeters on the curb

And every day’s a day

We have to reckon the absurd

America’s in chaos

She’s lost in discontent

Fertile ground for revolution

Discord and dissent

Ask who stands to gain

When the country’s split in two

The ones who gain the most

Are never me and you

Time to take her back

Put her back up on that hill

Let her shine the way she used to

Before the Russians found their shill

Was is Hope

Scattered thoughts in worry’s kettle

they boil, bubble and test your mettle

Your day gets buried by tomorrow

Deep distress morphs into sorrow

Sorrow blooms into despair

With eyes shut tight, you cut your hair

You live your days in underwear

Stained coffee cups are everywhere

The blinking lights, unanswered calls

Just windows, ceiling, and four walls

Kitchen trash and rotting fruit

Dirty laundry, crumpled suit

Gripped by it, it sticks like tape

Thoughts are formed and then take shape

So, you plan and plot your great escape

Then . . .

The sun seeps through the blinds one day

Her emergence takes your breath away

You brush your teeth, you comb your hair

A welcome break from your despair

You hope it lasts; you pray it does

Then it dawns on you that hope is “was”

Because . . .

“was” is change always pending

A twisting road, unknown and bending

I was depressed, it went away

It stuck to me, but did not stay

It will return, of this I’m sure

Because was is hope, it’s not a cure

Still,

keep “was” close

in your darkest hour

because “was” is hope

and hope is power

The Hum of the Drone

Bucha and Kiev

get blasted by rockets

Widows and orphans

Dead soldiers in lockets

Cruise missiles fall

From Ukrainian skies

Putin’s foul mouth

Spewing nothing but lies

Train station platforms

with panicked civilians

War crimes and weapons

with aid in the billions

Switchblades and Javelins

see tanks with their eyes

Dead Russian generals

provide food for the flies

Thrust on the world stage

An actor turns hero

Europe is burning

as Putin plays Nero

Nuclear sabers, they rattle and clang

The world anxiously waits

for that one final bang

The EU and NATO

Fight Russian aggression

While Russian civilians

live under suppression

Doomsday on doorsteps

A knock at the door

Mankind is dead

on the living room floor

Sunflower seeds

in dead soldiers’ pockets

White teeming maggots

in bloody eye sockets

Children lie dead

under rubble and stone

To the flutter of birds

and the hum of the drone

Connectionless

Tik Tok and YouTube

Facebook and Snapchat

Mad boys on Reddit

Claiming the earth's flat

Millions of followers

with no one to lead

a whole generation’s

collective brain bleed

Communally chatting

in woke echo chambers

dimwitted dice-throwing

zombie-like gamers

vid links and jpegs

the shallow and vain

everyone jumps

on the “look at me!” train

Looking for meaning

in meaningless places

we screen-scroll bikinis

and beautiful faces

With eyes gazing downward

we all barely see

the world of the living

our humanity

More connected than ever

yet still isolated

we’re captive less active

we’re chained and we’re gated

Networked in sorrow

we borrow from pain

we search for tomorrow

with nothing to gain

We touch screens and tap links

but don’t touch each other

we sniff around Pornhub

for sexy stepmothers

Adrift in the wireless

we’re glued to the cam

we’re tireless voyeurs

wolving the lamb

Shadow Beings

We are shadow beings

Mute witnesses to the pain

Dormant and unborn

Existing just outside your veins

A broken recollection

Forever misaligned

A crackling poor connection

from the corner of your mind

We’re the tiny primal platelets

That dance inside your blood

The prickly hairs

that stand up straight

The sound inside the thud

We’re the truer self

that you deny

trapped beneath your skin

your dark and dirty

devilish self

dripping wet with sin

We’re lighter than an eye lash

less visible than God

We’re the sexy ghosts that

dirty dance

upon your soul’s facade

And when your dead and buried

Decomposing in the dirt

We burrow through your belly

And steal the buttons from your shirt

Man of no Importance

A man of no importance

leans against the city’s sounds

telling every passerby

to lay their worry down

Every day at one o’clock

appears this weary warner

a bible in his bony hand

on the same street corner

A cautionary caller,

Throwing words into the wind

He warns us of our avarice

our decadence and sin

“A double-dose of Jesus Christ”

That’s what he says we need

“The grace of God the glory

Will free us from our greed!”

Most don’t even look up

or glance in his direction

Ignoring his crusade against

The devil’s insurrection

Steadfastly undeterred

“There are souls in need of saving!”

Raining grace upon us

with his ranting and his raving

And every day at 5 o’clock

Amidst the non-compliance

He bows his head quite suddenly

Retreating into silence

And in this act of piety

Is when he’s noticed most of all

The man of no importance

Becomes important after all

The Orange Snollygoster

Worse than the Green Grinch

Who bamboozled Whoville

The Orange Snollygoster hates

Red-White-and-Blueville

Unlike the Green Grinch

Who sled in the snow

His ego is endless

and his heart doesn’t grow

Apathetic and petty

His mouth always shootin

A brain like spaghetti

A puppet of Putin

In need of a fixer

for his damn nasty deeds

He drinks an elixir

of hatred and greed

He lies so often

he broke the fact checker!

He’s a crook and a pig

In love with his Pecker

The Orange Snollygoster

lines his own pockets

He cuts down the trees

and fires off rockets

Peddling fear for political gain

The Orange Snollygoster

should be held in disdain

But for some, he’s savior

A call to the past

When white was a rite

In a system of caste

They latch on to fear

Like a babe to a breast

Strut in red hats

And pound on their chest

We need to resist

The Orange Snollygoster

A fraud and a cheat

A presidential impostor

We need to fight against

this historic disaster

Vote American values

and become our own master

Blocked and Loaded

Lately

when I try to write

Nothing comes of it

Just raspy thought-schisms

That fail to take hold

They fizzle and pop

And disappear

in a wisp of blue smoke

Leaving me

With faint and fading echoes

in the empty chambers of my brain

Mornings used to be

My fruitful period

Now they’re as dry as the Sahara

Coffee used to be

a thought lubricant

Now it’s just gasoline

for a stuck and revving engine

There’s a constant buzzing

a negative counterbalance

A marshalling of malevolence

To block the words and spill the ink

I’m waiting for a clearing

A splash of light

On an open field of possibility

Because This is All There Is

When you reach the end

I hope you had more good times than bad,

laughed more than you cried, and

loved more than you hated

I hope regrets were few,

achievements many,

and that your wealth

could be measured in smiles

I hope you enjoyed your stay,

were buoyed by happiness,

oxygenated by love,

and were at peace when you left

Because this is all there is

Gravely Still

Not a single mourner in the mist

No priest to say “And now we pray”

Just a casket

a freshly dug hole

two gravediggers and a crow

Cold enough to see your breath

But warm enough to dodge the mausoleum

No one in attendance

No one to toss that first handful of dirt

signifying the end of earthly ties to the living

I imagine a nattily attired corpse

still able to hear

Weeping at the silence

Embarrassed and dismayed at the poor showing

The muffled mummers

of the two unknown grave diggers

the very last voices he hears

A faint and fading

“Rest in Peace, Bro” followed by

“Do you want to grab a coffee at Dunkin?”

The corpse, he smiles

The Gift of an Old Dog

Through slightly cataracted eyes

A glint of happiness flashes

As I reach for the leash

That hangs from a hook

On the back of the door

Your nails

Plastic-like clicking

on the hard wood floor

less sprightly than it used to be

but still, I associate that sound with joy

and I suppose I always will

We’ve engaged in our daily routine

For nearly a decade now

the wag of your tail

a little slower

your teeth tanning with age

are rounded and smoother

from pearly whites

to tiger’s eye

they tell the tale

of you and I

The pace has slowed

(For both of us)

but you still relish the ritual

Nose to the ground

Intently sniffing clover and dirt

Thistle and weed

The base of every tree and mailbox

A puzzle of smells

as you try to solve the

mystery of the previous day’s events

I used to tug at your leash

after a minute or two

when you were younger

And I was less patient

Measuring my time

In meetings

and phone calls

Not frisbees

and thrown balls

But today I give you

all the time you desire

Because I don’t know

how many more walks

we have left in the bank

and a tug now

seems unwarranted

bordering on criminal

Sometimes the wind kicks up

And you raise your head

Towards that gift-bearing breeze

wistfully smiling

it seems to me

When we get back

you drink cool water from your bowl

Find your bed

which has been warmed

by the afternoon sun

And lie down

Tired and content

You close your eyes

then open them

and then close them again

slower and slower

eyes open, eyes shut

until finally

you settle into a rhythmic rest

I will miss you when you’re gone

Agent of Rot

Rot has an agent –

An orange bartender

who pours lies and half-truths

like piss from a blender

and off we go

on a misguided bender

living off hate

with no sign

of surrender

The agent of rot

Knows who to seek

Prays on the fearful,

the dumb, and the meek

The agent of rot

Has a masters in evil

He burrows in deep

Like a sick twisted weevil

His whisper-warm breath

takes a crap in your ear

He laughs in your face

And fucks from the rear

With broken promises and

malevolent behavior

The gullible get

screwed by the

unsavory savior

More significant than rot

Is the person who serves it

Aim all of your rage

at the one who deserves it

The disdainful malevolent

essence of rot

The source of the stink

The slime on the snot

The grand wizard of

falsehoods

The tweeter of lies

The vindictive and petty

muncher of fries

Use your vote like a shiv

and twist it in deep

Don’t ever forgive

That fat orange creep!

The Orange One

With sheer vanity he glows like a bulb on a tree

It’s always “I, I, I” or “Me, ME, ME”!

He’s a whiny wall-building science denier

A thin-skinned, fear-mongering Orange faced liar

He’s the tear in the fabric, that holds us together

He’s the bend in the hose, and the blood on the feather

He’s an embarrassing blowhard, shallow and loud

A stain on the world stage, all cocky and proud

He’s the America we hoped no longer existed,

Bigoted, intolerant, Fearful, and twisted

With a stroke of the pen, He poisons the water,

He willfully separates Mother from daughter

He belittles anyone who dares to oppose him

He stomps up and down and screams America chose him!

With no sense of history, spewing nothing but junk He’s an arrogant gasbag, a scoundrel, a skunk.

Now it’s up us to form the resistance

To push back on the orange, with steadfast persistence

Engage in the process, hold his feet to the fire

Remember, facts are the enemy of the orange faced liar

Crap-casting Rogan, Young-loving Streamers

Crap-casting Rogan

and Young-loving streamers

Fact-blasting moron

artists and dreamers

Free speech and fact breach

they dance, and they stab

Truth in the morgue on a cold marble slab

Drip-drying wet naps on Vin Diesel’s Daisy

Popcorn and Pepsi with Martin Scorsese

Grifting and grafting on quaaludes and blow

Gaetz in sex traffic with nowhere to go

Oath Keeping Proud Boys, soldiers in waiting

“My Pillow hucksters” gaslighting and baiting

Fascists and fucktards fall from the sky

Democracy’s gone in the blink of an eye

Hopscotch and whiskey, Sorry and Twister

Rebellion and UNO with Vlad Putin’s sister

Records and transcripts get flushed in the can

Truth getting trumped by a fat orange man

Cow tipping junkies and pill-popping tweakers

Political flunkies in loafers and sneakers

Gazpacho Goosestepping Capital cops

Malevolent Marjorie, she never stops

Fuck headlines and deadlines

Bread, milk, and inflation

The next time you vote

for the soul of a nation

Carry integrity into the booth

Raile against liars

and vote for the truth

From Classroom to Casket

From classroom to casket

an American journey

come in on a bus, leave on gurney

As children lay dead in Uvalde Texas

it’s hard to ignore the obvious nexus

with unfettered access to weapons of war

the number of dead will continue to sore

We live in a land

of pierced hearts and sorrow

no shooting today?

we'll wait for tomorrow

in a fog of futility

explicably numb

we reach for our heartstrings

but there’s nothing to strum

Our March Towards the Gallows

Silhouettes and shadows

blurred pictures on the wall

we stumble towards the gallows

our walks turn into crawls

People start to gather

they’re screaming at the sun

hollow eyes and sunken cheeks

blinded, crippled, stunned

Cracked and hardened landscapes

fires all around

sunbaked souls

are full of holes

no water in the ground

Empty silos bellow

a sorrow fills the air

we turn to face our fellow man

and find that he’s not there

Trees that beg for water

dead branches in a field

a loss of social order

our weakened faith revealed

The warning signs were present

we looked the other way

as climate climbs

and mankind falls

what else is there to say?

Souls too weak to whisper

our words fold into prayer

the dead feed off the living

and dust becomes the air

POEMS

Baby Teeth and Bullets

Ashes to Ashes

​

Fascisms Forest

Donny Shakes the Jar

​

A Fearful Life

​

Relentless Time Regardless

​

Sometimes

​

Time to Marginalize Marjorie

​

Down the Rabbit Hole We Go

Chrome Covered Rosebuds

February, in the Warmth of the Morning Sun

Religious Fanatics in Red Caps and Black Robes

Communion Nazi

Sycophants

Seeped in Seventies

The Witch and The Farm Girl

The Dangers in Pittsburgh, the Dangers in Norway

Tired

Fire or Ice

​

BrokeMerica

​

The Threat

​

Was is Hope

The Hum of the Drone

Connectionless

Shadow Beings

Man of no Importance

​

The Orange Snollygoster

​

Blocked and Loaded

Because This is All There Is

Gravely Still

The Gift of an Old Dog

Agent of Rot

The Orange One

Crap-casting Rogan, Young-loving Streamers

From Classroom to Casket

Our March Towards the Gallows

​