Excuse Me, I Already Ate

Sittin’ here tryin’ to contemplate
A nation and a people consumed with ****
Some around the world say we deserve our ****
Others just wishing that we had a clean *****
Joblessness, wars, xenophobia all on our *****
Bodies shipped home in a flag covered *****
Folks deciding for others how to choose a ****
Exacerbating crime that is hard to ********
Pernicious parsimony you just can’t *******
Religious intolerance that we all must *****
A red and blue color code that defines our *****
Charlatan pundits always quick to ********

Some people read Orwell…and say, Oh Well.
I read Orwell…and say, Oh Hell!
A visionary mind in ’49 did create
The reality of today… called the Two Minute Hate

(Answer Key)
A. Hate
B. Fate
C. Slate
D. Plate
E. Crate
F. Mate
G. Tolerate
H. Satiate
I. Abate
J. State
K. Bloviate

Dish Wish

A Stem cell in a Petri dish
Cannot speak, have one wish
Humanity, oh, let me please
Try to help, and cure disease
From Immune systems to Diabetes
Listen to…my entreaties
Research done, might save lives
Ravaged souls and paralyzed
Would God object to the microscopic?
Saving someone’s life…isn’t that perverted logic?

Honored Company

Many men and women
Writers…Poets
Shackled with that, which they
Can’t Escape
A Conscience…Earthly principles
The burden of suffering humanity
Fetters attached to the heart
Woe to poor Poe
As the flinty, flickering-eyed raven
Raps and Taps him
Towards despair, dipsomania and deliverance
Shelley, whose young eyes found in nature
The beauty, the placidity, missing in man
Orwell, who looked in, and through, a mirror
And saw the future…black, foreboding… imminent
Zinn, who exposed the hypocrisy of Oligarchy
With brilliant insight…and their own time “honored” words
Wordsmiths working in yellowish candlelight
Or the incandescent glare of Edison’s invention
With quill pen or typewriter…on note pads and matchbook covers
Ideas and Inspirations…Trenchant streams of Consciousness
Conceived amidst fears…Tear stained parchment
Sometimes written…in a blood fever
Voicing the quintessence of communal mankind
With trembling lips and steady hands
Literary lions …Valiant voices in urban wilderness
They now and forever…Rest in Peace
Or do they?
For if a conscience is not a soul
Then what is it?

Tennashoes

I retrace steps taken as a boy
A black asphalt “lawn” sprouts buildings
Painted lines and rounded curbs direct traffic
Once fertile Central California soil
Grows, not rows of tomatoes, or onions, perhaps corn
But row upon row of strip malls which do not attract bees
Or Monarch butterflies. I reach down grabbing a handful of that soil
A small oasis of earth surrounding an exhaust-ed urban tree
Particles slowly running through my fingers as I Imagine
With moist eyes, it’s the same dirt I once ran joyfully through
P.F. Flyers attached to sockless and surefooted feet
Free of pain, free of worry, free like the hot summer breeze
On a day long, long ago, when a wise old crow
Gray bearded, using a walking stick for assistance
Squawked, then said, “I told you so”

Execrable Epidemic

Mary Christian had it written on a note
When she got to the booth she’d know how to vote
She felt good going in but not enough yet to gloat
Wearing red, with white and blue and a tea bag laden hat
Signed her name in the register with a pen whose ink was black
Said a prayer then threw her vote note in a star spangled tote

Old John Sergeant saluted his flag smartly that early morn
‘Twas voting day and he had an obligation that must now be borne
He’d been a union man but his devotion had of late been wholly torn
Drank his coffee whilst listening to Rush on the waves
Damn liberals and their health care sending old folks to the grave
Put his Legion hat on and walked proudly out the house with a scorn

Jason Callow met the day with a searing, screaming pain
Done three tours of duty in Iraq coming back with an injured brain
But smiling Army doctors assured his parents that he was quite sane
Took his hunting knife and deepened the carved swastika on his arm
Time to vote today he remembered looking out across the farm
Got in the pick-up, tuned into Savage, and headed out into the rain

Lisa Bigotte sat and watched the “President” speak on TV
She chewed her nails and clenched her fists pissed at how it came to be
That a “foreign” man with African tan was elected in the land of the free
Then she walked in the bedroom, and slapped her daughter for listenin’ to rap
Told her three year old son she’d slap him too if didn’t clean up his crap
And grabbed her handy voting guide, a “special gift” from Sean Hannity

Dennis Moroni awoke with a half drank beer can in his hand
He slammed down the rest wonderin’ what the hell had happened to this land
Cranked up some death metal on the stereo from his favorite band
At the age of thirty six for the first time he’d go vote
Had a Ninth grade education and wore a camouflaged torn up coat
The guy on Fox said it was time for “real folks” to make a stand

George Fuming had seen and heard enough bleeding hearts in his day
And it was time to vote and get the sons’a’bitches out of the way
The country had gone to hell because of lack of work and too much play
So he put on his ball cap that said “Freedom’s not Free” and moved spryly
Got into his Nissan hatchback and switched on the morning O’Reilly
He’d stop at the bank and cash his social security check on the way

One year later having gone through spring and summer swelter
Mary, John and Jason spent a chilly Night at the local homeless shelter
With George and Dennis, Lisa was there, John often whispered that he smelt her
Mary complained “it just wasn’t fair” that she’d lost her home when she lost Medicare
John said he’d worked “his whole life”, his social security taken by a reckless budget knife
The other four stared at the floor, Lisa had a black eye where her ex- husband had pelt her

They’d taken Jason’s carving tool, the swastika was healing but not his mind
Dennis was quickly hurting bad, he needed a drink and a job he wouldn’t find
George lived in a odious hole, hated “them” on the dole, for on his back… they dined
But Lisa reminded all of them, they had “their country back” and that was great
As they filed, mumbling incoherently, to view Glen Beck’s Two Minutes Hate
And they pined and so whined for the good old days they had left behind

Desperate people, sick and starving now packed in under the lee
The country was battered and their lives shattered without even a cup of tea
Then slowly, so ever slowly, they saw the lies, of Plutocracy
And the yachting class indulged themselves and kept up the old class war
They told the people to succeed you simply had to work much more
Then on 9/11, a rousing anniversary, televised for all to see, they strung up a innocent
Muslim man…To a weeping… willow tree

Two Hearts, One Voice

We met at the dance, it was only by chance
And I was bewitched from the start
She moved with such grace, and that angelic face
Quickly had captured my heart

Twas a night to remember, that temperate September
And I so dreaded the hour it was through
Alone on the veranda, I stammered to tell “Miranda”
That which I failed to do, namely I …. …

Heart pounding I watched her gown, enter her carriage then off to town
As I stood there feeling ever so the fool
Would I ever see her again? And if so, oh God, when?
And I tossed a “lucky” coin into a pool

Had been three weeks I thought I’d die, when from the corner of my eye
I saw her strolling with a friend across the town square
Whilst the sunshine caressed her head, I prayed that I would not drop dead
If I approached and tried to speak to she so fair

Nervously I blocked her path, praying I incurred no wrath
Her friend but giggled and bid a hasty, and most welcome, adieu
It was now I’d make my stand, and so gently took her hand
But my nerve fled once again, and I choked on “I ….”

Two more weeks had now gone past and my dreams were fading fast
When I fated to climb a rocky knoll to think
Upon arriving I gulped fresh air, then looked around and sitting there
Was my love resplendent, in a dress of pale pink

I was so happy I nearly cried, as I sat down by her side
And stared most deeply into her comely eyes of blue
She said, “My darling be not glum, if thy words they will not come
Let me say them, now and forever, I Love You”

Die ..... Laughing

They snickered and guffawed
Some chortled and chuckled
One cracked up so bad
He broke his belt buckle
Many howled in the aisles
Others broadly grinned
And at that precise moment
I understood my sin
That seems a harsh way
To explain a foolish gaff
How I’ll carry on
Since I’ve forgotten…how to laugh

Heart and Knoll

Why doth man covet a woman’s breast?
‘Tis it not nothing but an inflated chest?
Is it a pillow for a Knight’s head to rest?
Or ‘tis it a trophy to which success will attest?

When a fair sprightly wench doth cause a male ripple
‘Tis it the stare that’s so fair or the cast of her nipple?
‘Twas a man ever born who at once would not chuckle
If doth given the chance to woo and too suckle?

Yet,
Hath not man learned the perils of enticing cleavage
Been led astray by the bosom and fell prey to bereavege
Doth not man understand that ‘tis been from the start
Not the heft of the chest, but the size of the heart

Midnight Music

Replaced by droning freeway roar
The Cricket song plays no more
He’s packed his traveling violin case
And set out for another place
But once upon a dewy lawn
The schoolyard stretched my yard beyond
Slabs of asphalt, leveled concrete
Laid summer clover and winter sleet
A Cricket’s song is what I miss
Played on the bow of a starlight’s kiss

Perifirma

There once was an Earth that had no borders
No fences, no boundaries, no marching orders
Its waters were pristine, its mountains unscathed
And in shimmering pools, nature did bathe
Forests were mighty and commanded great awe
The Wolf and the Deer had no need for a saw
Oceans were teeming with life far and wide
Meadows sprouted flowers with bees buzzing inside
Flora and Fauna had made an arrangement
They’d stay married forever, an eternal engagement
For millions of years things proceeded as planned
Until one shadowy day when Earth first met man
Humanity took tentative steps seeking food, needing water
Yet in a blink of time’s eye was consumed with mass slaughter
Demarcations were established and great walls were erected
Unblemished rivers were fouled, forests no longer protected
The Tiger and the Rhino sought safer, hunting ground
Many species went extinct and no longer can be found
The Homing Pigeon and the Dodo, just two on a long list
Spectral shapes on a mountain side, obscured in murky mist
And then on a blustery night, torrid winds stirred stale, defiled air
As Flora and Fauna stood together, before kneeling, a solemn weeping pair
Renewing vows made long ago before their home was plundered
They spoke to owl and to redwood proclaiming man had blundered
And winds upon the oceans waves brought news as snow caps glistened
Then plant and animal, insect and fish craned an ear to listen
“Flora and Fauna, true masters of the planet, do hereby so decree
That the madness and the pillaging will no longer fall on thee
From this day, this very hour, we’ll join in common task
And the sanity of nature’s symmetry will once again so bask

A False Flag Casts a Deadly Shadow

An anniversary approaches
a day in September
A tragic calamity called 9/11
you’ll remember

But let’s travel back in time
before crashing, burning towers
Before graveyards had an influx
of nearly three thousand groups of flowers

Four planes took on passengers
‘twas a change of venue that they sought
They’d driven, or been bussed, perhaps taxied
to use the tickets they had bought

On one plane a young girl
clutched her mothers loving hand
While on another a blossoming couple
ran fingers over their wedding bands

An aged pair, together many years
with flecks of gray in hair and eye
Lamented nervously how neither of them
had ever really liked to fly

There were a number of business people
boarding with leather brief case
It was the price to pay for getting
caught up in the eternal rat race

A little boy, barely a toddler
started crying on Flight 11, section two
The man who sat behind him
just rolled his eyes; what else could he do?

They came in all shapes and many colors
and they moved in different sizes
There were some on money making trips
others brought home summer prizes

Comprised humanity often looks the same
if you’ve ever been on a plane
But the people on these four “flights”
would never set foot on Earth again

No one seemed to notice that the aircraft
were of an altered configuration
Why, should that be a concern
in a free and trusting nation?

As they lifted off on their respective flights
seatbelts fastened, knuckles whitened
For on two planes the crew and passengers soon
had reason to be frightened

They’d been hijacked and now terrified
they knew not what lay ahead
And couldn’t know that in so short a time
they would all be very dead

Flights 11 and seven-seven would soon
crash through glass and steel
I’ve sometimes wondered when you’re vaporized
just what you actually feel

Hitting high on girded towers that seemed
almost to reach to heaven
And within hours they came crashing down
joined by a building known as 7

News flashes sped ‘cross America
and we were put on heightened alert
As the networks all scrambled
to find all and any terrorism experts

We were told that Flight 175 had also
slammed into the Pentagon
But by the time investigators arrived
they just saw a hole and a scorched lawn

Then we soon heard of bravery
a stirring tale that is told
How a group of our courageous countrymen
made a stand and said “Let’s roll”

This is Flight 93 that will soon
expire in a Pennsylvania field
Yet like the Pentagon, those who first arrive
find no wreckage a crash would yield

No giant aircraft pierced the Pentagon
that’s a judgment only a fool could not see
And whatever struck that farmers field
merely left something akin to “missile debris”

The evidence is so overwhelming
if we could just get more to look
This was a “false flag” operation
to get our country on the war hook

The towers that came screaming down
were clearly a “planned demolition”
View the testimony, be a “true patriot”
and then decide by your own volition

The men who planned this crime,
and have done no time,
still walk among us today

And from the looks of things,
there won’t come a day
when they ever have to pay

Nationalism, which renders blindness
and has worked its charms before
Has allowed the guilty to walk free
and drag our nation into war

Now at a site they call “ground zero”
Islamic hatred is becoming frantic
And I speculate if two planes with “human cargo”
lie at the bottom of the Atlantic