Imperium Hex

The moth attracted to the flame
The people who “game” the game
For those oblivious to shame
Power

The cop who looks at all as “perp”
The oligarch weaned on usurp
From tyrannical to tiny twerp
Power

The man who chains and kicks his dog
The sadist grinning as he flogs
A mastodon ‘top squirming wog
Power

The husband who beats his wife
The hunter snuffing wide-eyed life
A tough guy with a six inch knife
Power

The landlord who hikes the rent
The gentry with all morals spent
For thugs applying “sinking” cement
Power

The boards, panels and commissions
The governing who know not contrition
In all climes and times ‘t is the condition
Power

The one who blithely breaks a heart
The gluttonous taking choicest part
Humankind’s addiction from the start
Power

The power to heal and create smile
Is oft’ exchanged for self-serving guile
And methinks it shall be quite awhile

Before time’s clock shall strike the hour
Of the altruistic flower…and man begins to sour
On…Power

Shadows Recaptured

Lengthening shadows of September
Carry me back to my days as a youth
We aled, regaled…I remember
And lived happy lie before the sad truth
Someone once said, “Youth is wasted on young”
There once was a day I could have cared less
Now aging, jaded, the toll bell has rung
How many more chimes is anyone’s guess
Yet, autumn’s sweet song it never lasts long
The onset of winter, coming of death
Once rambunctious, a most boisterous throng
We’ve crested the mountain, gasping for breath
Glorious, jubilant, my September
Skies and hair gray, awaiting December

Hot Rod Reaper

Thinking I might, test drive…death
Smell the snarky salesman’s…breath
Stroll around…see what they got
Personage ends…in parking lot
Kick the tires…adjust seat
Corpus Delicti…hitting the street
Cruise around…laughing at time
Then tell the dude…changed my mind
Got the itch…for a sales pitch
Cat convinced me…sonofabitch!

Moral Compass

“By Neptune’s beard…we’re hopelessly lost, Cap’n.”
“What say ye? Son of a slithering serpent…”
“T is true, me Cap’n…without the Compass…”
“Aye, and you’re bloody daft, man -
The bloomin’ compass is here afore me!”
“Yeoman Bosun…tie the scurvy dog to the yardarm
And give me the cat ‘o’ nines!”
“Wait, Cap’n, ‘tis the wrong compass ye gaze.”
“Speak quick, lad, ‘ere I peel ya like a purple grape!”
“T is not ‘that’ compass Cap’n…
'T is our ‘moral compass’ that’s lost”

From A.M. to P.M.

I was eighteen…for 365 days
Thirty six years and
Nine months ago
That’s Thirteen thousand
One hundred and forty days past
Three hundred and fifteen thousand
Three hundred and sixty hours ticked away
Forty five million, Four hundred and eleven thousand
Eight hundred and forty seconds gone
And know what, Alice?… "I liked it”

Silverfair

Spoons…we fit as spoons
She…curvaceous, exquisite
Designed for fine creams and sauces
I…extended, blunt
Created for shoveling
But together…when winter’s chill
Finds the owl wearing muffler
And the squirrel warm in underground lair
We merge under thick blanket
The world becomes abstract
Our bodies one… creating harmony
Only spoons…can make

Noblesse Duress

Prosperity, shunning Parity, held aloft its Portentous, Patrician nose
Viewing contemptuously, through callous, covetous eyes the penurious, insolvent beggarly
Scarcity, and malnourished child, Want, fettered and bettered
Lamented, as Cupidity and Father Insatiable exhaled noxious clouds of
Privation… and Jove’s grumblings sounded as thunder
As Humanity etched yet another letter upon the tombstone of
Austerity

Postdate Fate

An effervescent moon doth make me swoon
Aurora’s gold fingers jostle my bed
Anachronistic, a soul out of place
Awakening body long ago dead
But how can this be, the mirror reflects
Bitter tears well in eyes, I see, hear, feel
Bygone and forlorn, I fear all suspect
Betrayal of loved ones compels mine kneel
Can you hear me oh God, far, far away
Crepuscular light doth tinge my being
Changing of guard, I’ve overspent my stay
Clinging to hope that you’ll soon be freeing
Damned am I, t ‘is evident in my face
Doomed and entombed…out of time…out of place

Far and Tethered

Freeway expansion…Antiquated upon Completion
Intravenous Interstates…Unleaded “O” Positives
Traffic Jams…Corporate Scams
Horn Born…Air shorn
Asphalt Car-Scars
Caliphate California…Saudi Sycophants
Tar Sands Land…Pipeline XL Hell
CEO True…CO2 Blew
Addict-matic…Four lanes, Six lanes, Eight lanes
The Eagle “Mainlines”…ahh!...”Gaspedalmetal”
And “Sober” pipe dreams…of Bullet Trains

She

Women…beaten, burned, branded, spurned
Protected, rejected, selected, neglected
To the innumerable, a lover, a wife
A soul mate, companion…friend for life
Worked, abused, purchased, used
The mother of humankind…’t is “she” who gives birth
Delicate, delightful, stout, spiteful
Her hues are myriad…’t is no “Father Earth”
She’s the flower in meadow…braving chill, searing heat
“Mom” to fading soldier…last word he’ll repeat
Numbering more than one half of our race
The “pearl” known as girl…gentler half of man’s face
A soft glow of ardor…in pale moonlight
The cat with raised back…she’ll put up a fight
First lullaby to a child’s upbringing
Angels and mermaids…upon wind hear them singing
Intelligent, emotional…distinctly human
Complex, diverse…acknowledged by “true men”
“Behind every good man”…the old saying goes
Yet not all men are good…ask a woman…she knows
Her mind, her soul, her body…unique
And the man who commands…offers stinging critique
All women’s destiny…must be hers to decide
Her “sentence” commuted…served with courage and pride
The clarion call to speak with “one” voice
And path she so walks…forever her choice

No Beach to Walk On

Each night I dream of sand…sand
Spherical, satiny, warm…sand
Milky dunes of respite
Undulating cloudships sail blue wave’s o’erhead
Palm fronds rustle in breeze inflected harmony
“Life…not strife” caresses me in…sand
‘T is then I awake to cold, coarse world
Despairing that my nocturnal utopia
Hadn’t a “grain of truth” to it

Too Big ... to Argue With

“Your time expired…on parking meter
Six credit cards unpaid”…so sayeth he Saint Peter,
"Your 'entrance'…is delayed.
Please, keep your composure…
Do not risk eternal foreclosure
For if it’s Heaven ye wish to see
Herding sheep through languid lea,
God now works on Wall Street
And acceptance is predicated
On payment…. of fees"

Daub Job

Each step into murky water
I am less
Each chime of the bells
I am closer
Eternity’s clarion call…beckons
Landmarks topple
I warm my hands to burning mileposts
Anthropomorphic crow’s feet emerge from ashen sagebrush
The road narrows…fantasies flicker
And I sit in the corner
Paintbrush in hand
Searching for the black paint

No Kindled Spirit

Can a “Kindle” get dog eared as well traveled book?
Pages yellowing and dusty in nook
Will time-worn inscriptions…”From Mary to Jim”
The impersonal Kindle...shall never know them
Impending nights…power failures come
By candle I’ll bookread…Kindle ‘tis mum
Life’s tapestry…weaves back to spindle
Books to cherish…toss the Kindle

Passing Petals

Friendship’s a flower…blossoming in spring
Or perchance thorny offering…besieged by
Winter’s withering
Summer’s sun, untroubled fun
Plants roots in fertile Earth
Autumn’s chill oft’ times will
Result in rapport dearth
Handshakes, hugs and smiles wane
Reduced to stale insipid grain
As the search renews again
Seeds mired in mud
A “friend” stems the blood

Existentially Yours

The puzzle…fragments
The chapters…finis
The bread crumbs…vanish
The world…sheds its skin
New moralities
New metaphors
A new day…the old you
Your hopes, your mileposts, your being
Diminishing ripples
Upon the pool of eternity
The clinging leaf…shivers
The stone settles into ebon obscurity
As dewy hands build
The everlasting…puzzle

Bottomless Barrel

Roving Eye of Newt…Hair-vain Mitt
Michele Bachmann…Inane twit
Rick Santorum and seven kids
Herman Cain has hit the skids
Perry threatens to secede
Huntsman equivalent to chicken feed
“The Donald” bailed the sinking ship
Mane in place with pouting lip
Election time will be this fall
The gloom exudes…a noxious Paul

Taillights

“She”…rumbles ‘round the corner
Lipstick applied in the rearview
‘71 Dodge Challenger…Dual Holley Quads
440 Magnum exhaling eterrrrniiiitttyyyyyyyy
4 on the floor…Hurst linkage
.”Where we goin’ baby?”
“Places”…I slide into the driver’s seat
She smiles…plugs Lee Michaels into the 8-Track
“Do you know what I mean?”
Well….do ‘ya?

Move On, Pardner

Pepper Sprayed…Peaceful Protesters
Highly Trusted…College Molesters
Gross, Gluttonous…Common Man Exploiters
D.C. Denuding…Debauchery Adroiters
Two Billion a week…For perdurable War
Democracy reeks…Like an unwashed Whore
You’re not “in the chips”…Well, you poor, dumb schmuck
Born into penury…Just tough Luck
This here is America…Where we don’t give a ….

A Day ... in the Sun

Grain of sand...moved today
Washed out to sea
Moving towards future date
With decisive destiny
Day and night…clinging tight
Tenuous upon the beach
But the sea had its say
The grain now beyond reach
A grain of sand moved today
To small for eye to see
Grain of sand…with outstretched hand?
Me

Tree, Tree ... Sing to Me

This winter is much colder, colder yet
‘T is not temperature that of which I speak
The year has left me older, older set
Upon blue mountain top, a forlorn peak

With anguish calling solitude is best
The owl and the fox give me wary eye
Wind provides music, ‘t is here I shall rest
Away from maddened crowds, ponder and die

Summer’s song is now fading, fading so
To remain on craggy crest is mine goal
Broad Sierra pine, shading, shading low
Bones will not be blanched, nor eyes burned as coal

Mine spirit will be waiting, waiting for
The name on mine lips, she that I adore

Honey, One of our Lights is Missing

He was just a dog…I, just a man
In summer’s heat…or winter’s fog
Chilled hands…or valley tan
My eyes hazel…his eyes brown
My eyes crying…his eyes down
No Butch this Christmas…
The first time in twelve years
My dog is gone and I’m spiritless
Yuletide carols…mixed with enshrined tears

Pare-Mare

Over 65?...Wanted: Dead…not alive
Your Security?...Social impurity
Your Welfare?...Reduced market share
Your future?...Tax funded sutures
‘T is cleansing, purging…aged daughters
Aged sons…Perhaps distasteful
A job that must be done
“Tough Snuffers”…closer to bone…sweet, young elite
Apply Revel Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Babes, Bouncers and Barbarians welcome

Existential Pestilential

And man looked…but he could not see
And man listened…but he could not hear
And man spoke…yet no one heard him speak
The others…were busy
Counting their money
Counting their blessings
Counting the hours
And man souled out…silver for salvation
And a lone tree…fell in the forest
Unheard…Alone

The Golden Rule

Parking permits, syllabi…sticker shock
Textbooks buy
Droning lectures…Homework fun
Papers written…Semester done
Quiz, Quiz, Quiz…Test, Test, Test
Bleary eyed, Did your best
Dollar a word…for each one learned
Roll call, Cap and Gown…College loan burned
Job applications…Fall’s dropping leaves
Bachelors…Masters
Paper or Plastic?
Taco building…by Degrees

Our Nature Channel

The red ant General lowered his field glasses. The Earth…a barren,
Inanimate orb oscillating in dark matter. Man’s prodigious structures
Of crystalline glass, steel and concrete lay everlastingly entombed.
Across a small expanse of infecund landscape, a black ant Commander
Deployed his armor. The “cockroaches”…trailed by a million “soldiers.”
The War…goes on.

The Road to Oblivion

The Road to Oblivion is littered with the dead
Distended ribs, glassy eyes, wounds bled crimson red
War, disease, famine, malice, avarice…to the end we’re sped
On the Road to Oblivion

Upon the trail of wrenching wails we encountered Morose
His chest was sunk, a shrunken trunk, no longer staunch, verbose
Now silenced tongue, his hands he wrung, he’d been from pillar to post
On the Road to Oblivion

On down the path, of fate’s cruel wrath, we saw old Forlorn
His stature little, stubbled chin with spittle, his clothes ragged, torn
Twas chained to tree, we set him free, for brief second he was reborn
On the Road to Oblivion

Down blackened street, came dragging feet, her name was Heartbroken
She’d heard us creep, and from her sleep, she staggered scarcely woken
With heavy sighs, and red rimmed eyes, her story went unspoken
On the Road to Oblivion

Cross sweeping plains, plagued with rains, we found young Dejected
On knees he bent, his pleading’s spent, his entreaties so rejected
Shivering body numb, he would succumb, to pestilence infected
On the Road to Oblivion

Atop mountain crisp with snow, moaning, moaning very low, ‘neath rock sat Blue
Our sad brigade, this stop we made, to see what we could do
She stood up tall, to nearly fall, to ask “may I join you?”
On the Road to Oblivion

Through begrimed city, devoid of pity, we marched to find Grieved
Once a proud man, through garbage can, he sorted and he heaved
With agile grace, he joined our pace, bringing cousin bereaved
On the Road to Oblivion

At wind whipped shore, where lone gull soared, were footprints Melancholy
A wise old sage, of withered age, a victim of man’s folly
Her white hair askew, in sea breeze it blew, she’d hitch up to our trolley
On the Road to Oblivion

In weathered boat, on swells we’d float, to locate wave tossed Woe
From tranquil lea, to capricious sea, for reasons only woe doth know
Salt water fingers clutched the side, he’d gladly accept ride, no matter how slow
On the Road to Oblivion


Our feeble ship, somehow made its trip, to crash on rock Tragic
With rations slight, ill-fated frigid nights, a voyage lacking magic
The rock stood stout, and we climbed out, touching terra firma fabric
On the Road to Oblivion

Over lowland hills, with songbird trills, stood people of the Glum
They knew not where, nor did they care, where we had traveled from
But where despair was in the air to this they’d surely come
On the Road to Oblivion

Tottering ‘cross hot desert sands, we joined hands, to stumble on Heavyhearted
She clutched dead child to her breast, with heaving chest, her hope departed
Our caravan both long and wan, she took stock and replied “let’s get started”
On the Road to Oblivion

Then upon a moonless night, starlight, starbright, we end our flight
We wish we may, we wish we might, be free of our hellish plight
‘T is our right to lose this noble fight, our sorrows plainly in your sight
Oh God in heaven, do not refrain,
Take us home and end our pain
In Oblivion

Biercely Worded

“Bassofied”: A new term included in Webster’s continually evolving Dictionary.
With strong connotations to the expression “Pacified,” the hybrid refers principally
To both gentrified and stupefied residents of Stockton, California. The phrase has its
Roots in the “Stockton is Magnificent” hokum perpetuated upon crime infested, home
Foreclosed, city service depleted residents in Summer of 2011.

Future Hamburger Builders of America

Vote GOP…Jobs, jobs, jobs…where?
Endorse DNC…Doppelganger Fobs…snare!
Democracy dies in the unemployment line
“Assiderms” make sure…mine, mine, mine
The mule’s got shtick…but pathetic kick
The ‘phant has deal…repeal, repeal, repeal
Both parties “spinning” with wad of Wall St. grease
The only gig looming big…is the Uterine Police

Hail Mary

The “Mile High Messiah” celebrates another win
In Bangor, Maine Mary Doe cringes with the wind
God in stands, Tebow raised hands, thanking the Lord
Mary’s aged fingers blue, no more heating oil stored
As QB Tim gave praise to Him…Mary froze to death
At Mile High ‘neath starry sky…rose “victory’s” unjust breath

The Curse ... of Immersed

Awake! Awake! ‘t is not time for sleeping
Mine walls closing in, the Earth spinning faster
Tears rain from above, the sky is weeping
Happiness denied…empathy master

With face upturned the water imbrues me
Each tear ‘t is tinged a morose sanguine red
Upon blackened clouds, faces I do see
Manifest of those aggrieved tortured dead

I point in desperation to her, my wife
“Do you not see them, feel their stinging tears?”
She opens umbrella, to her this is life
Understanding, patronizing…my fears

Consoling the word…belief in heaven
Mine “die” has been cast…never a seven

Supporting our Troops

Taps under wraps…Silent bagpipes
Squadrons of flies…mounds of rubbish
Incinerated remains…”rank” of Private
Prayers and Parades?...Dump truck brigade
John Doe…maybe Jane
Ashes to ashes…a foot, an arm, a brain
“Spent cartridges”…no return urn
Squalid landfill…lousy with swill
Broiling sun…angry Mars
Final resting place
Camp Mayonnaise Jar

Night of Fancy

A picture at eventide hanging on wall
Two figures dancing atop hardwood floor
Each time I gazed I became more enthralled
Doth vision deceive shadow lurked ‘hind door
I stared ‘til madness crept slow unto brain
The shadow emerging with glistening blade
The figures danced on…had I gone insane?
My exhortations ignored…help forbade
The shadow morphed now into shape of a man
Ebon eyes, hoary skin, he sliced, and slashed
Dancing couple crumpled on plush divan
I screamed out in pain, ‘t is my body gashed!
Blood, crimson blood now doth drain me of fear
Dead orbs in black sockets ‘fore the mirror

The Lower You Go ... the Higher the Plateau

Rats have affinity for other rats in need
Humans infected with hedonistic greed
Rats we’ve discovered show empathy
Humans know three words, me, me, me
Rats deplored for carrying disease
Humans exalted for hording stocks of cheese
This sheds new light on rat’s unjust plight
I’m instructing my cat…bite bankers toe…not a rat

Toiled Trumps Soiled

Morning’s when I dress to fulfill my job
The pay is meager…the labor most hard
I oft’ receive looks…”that man is a slob”
Green calloused hands beautifying some yard
The working man’s lot…regressed much of late
His presence a reminder to the elite
‘T was not pampered hands once made country great
“Wait here, my good man…please wipe your feet”
Nightfall arrives…I don snappy attire
Swells on the town, they do seem most impressed
Four syllable words…thrown on haughty pyre
My status that morning, they couldn’t have guessed
‘T is morning again, more ragged clothes
Shortsighted eye…travels length of the nose

Undefeated

My past…yesterday’s kiss
My future…tomorrow’s sorrow
I celebrate my birthday
Everyday…each nanosecond
Gifts of the “present”
I’m tireless…voracious
Engulfing Millenniums
You need me, You bleed me, You concede me
I am nothing…everything
Colorless, shapeless…ruthless, escapeless
I’m passing now…did you see me?
I am Time…You, are now older

Homosape-Escape

Stygian Earth…24 hour “spin” cycle
Miasmatic soil…Flora and Fauna…reposing
Petrifaction remains…The “Zoo”…terminated
Steel, glass, concrete…shards of lang syne
Cauterizing heat…Vermilion rivers boil
On mountainside, in countryside,
Life shan’t be denied…a blade of grass
Viridian, serene…Rudimentary resurrection
Evolutionary sleight of hand
This time excluding…Band of Man

Eavesdropped

Populist Protest…Pepper spray
Millions homeless…Executive pay
Shellacking Fracking…Mountains sheared
Democracy exalted…Yet Police Feared
Unemployment desperation…Two-tier divided nation
Legislative leeches…Tar balls fouling beaches
Financial Malfeasance…Bureaucratic breeches
Foreclosures, Disclosures, Excessive College Loans
Corporations are people…Predator Drones
Al-Quieda, The Taliban…Nowhere near
Shh! Uncle Sam’s in the mirror

A Last Lullaby

The Meadowlark he sings no more
Eclipsed by infernal freeway roar
His song enters still through mind’s door
Yet, listen as I might, ‘Neath moon and starry night
The melody hath now…been consigned to lore

The Meadowlark no more he sings
Air devoid of dulcet chirpings
His absence doth bring sad musings
Yet, nothing I can do, alone, bereft and blue
Will return his voice…those sweet offerings

The Meadowlark no more sings he
He doth not forage upon asphalt lea
Where once he trilled atop stout trees
Yet, on that very spot, stands inky parking lot
And litter gross scattered…by inanimate breeze

My Meadowlark sings he more?...no
Where he resides I scarcely would know
Perhaps quaint field where wildflowers grow
Yet, his song in my heart’s heard…precious little bird
To perchance reach aging head…pensive, tinged with “snow”

Cold Day in Hell

Climate change overstated, “Green” hoax
Proselytized America…recipients of rote
Tar sands, waste lands, coal fired belching smoke
“Gas up, befoul, drill down…profit impeding joke”
Eagle, Giant Panda, perform proverbial shake
Coming attractions, searing feature “Bake”
Corporate America claps covetous hands…lusting for the dough
Confucius weeps, Panda creeps…”May it always be so”

Chamber of Horrors

Cunning…duplicitous
Shadowy…discreet
In smoke-choked Boardrooms and Backrooms
On ill-watched Wall Street
It’s enough to make one a solemnest
Our very own “Financial Fifth Columnists”
Self-aggrandizing, predatory, perverse
The eye on the pyramid confirming the curse
Their mission to stuff the most over stuffed purse
The profligate U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Wooden Nickels

D.C. Yard Sale in 2012
Office apparatus, leather couches, chairs
“Gifts” from various heads of state
Putters, Kentucky Hardwood cigar boxes
Busts of Napoleon, Alexander, Caligula, Machiavelli
Five hundred and thirty five limousines
Waterboarding manuals, numerous decanters,
Many books, “Bamboozling the American voter,”
“Mastering Doublespeak,” “Insider Trading for Idiots”
Congressional members free
Marked: “Already Sold”

Cricket Tickets

The crickets have sold their violins
The children have lost their infectious grins
The “news” from our media spins and spins
In America

The hungry they multiply every day
The unemployed long to work for day’s pay
The people protesting inhale pepper spray
In America

The politicians claim to do U.S. a service
The voters look fastball and the media curves U.S.
The parasites pout that they don’t deserve U.S.
In America

The ground is exploding from new technique Fracking
The forests are dwindling from endless tree whacking
The climate is changing but the will to change lacking
In America

The schools once our pride are under duress
The teachers are handcuffed but still do their best
The funding each day it grows less and less
In America

The military must always be forever supplied
The brass at the top care not who has died
The thought of empire shrinking must be denied
In America

The blue collar worker is disposable fodder
The service provided like dirty dishwater
The foundation beneath U.S. will soon crack and totter
In America

The wizards of Wall Street command our attention
The crimes they commit foster little retention
The “best and the brightest” belong in detention
In America

The middle class that once was pride of our nation
The elites are determined to destroy this generation
The revolution coming may be our salvation
In America

America, America…a beacon to the oppressed
America, America…we’ve sure as hell regressed
America, America…its priorities all askance
America, America…the crickets didn’t have a chance

Grandpa Makes the List

“Grandma got run over by a reindeer
Located her false teeth Christmas Eve
Hadn’t crossed paths since Black Friday
But the Lord’s Prayer she believed
Now, no frenzied malls and rude shoppers
I stay home, hang up one dead twig
Grandma’s picture there beneath it
Once a year I kiss it and do a jig

Nine Plus Nine ... Is On My Mind

Music blasted…beer flowed free
Everybody got plastered…joyously
Faces came…and then they went
Parties die…when youth is spent
I dance with ghosts…to old school tunes
With empty arms…in hallowed room
Alice was right…with his billion dollar band
I was a boy, I was a man…and I liked it

Pledge of Resistance

We the people of Occupy Nation
Wish to preserve humane generation
Disperse we’ll not, despite despotic oppression
Shed blood, not blot, with violent aggression
‘T is land of the free… not lair of wage slave
Begone parasitical rapacious knaves
Your scam no secret…we know it too
Enjoy your fine wine…we’ll be waiting for you

Fruitless

I am hollowed, lifeless, devoid of pride
An animated shell, lacking in mirth
Mine spirit forlorn, mine dreams hath all died
Yet I continue to walk upon Earth
Each day jagged peak that I must so climb
Night menacing shadow of days travails
The clock is my friend, its tick-tock a rhyme
Cryptic in nature, last breeze for mine sails
I hang on to crevice, for those who are dear
To fall into blackness, cowards retreat
Infirmities mount, how do I hide fear?
Mine enemies charge, I stave off defeat
The years they flow by as in tortured trance
I ponder Karma, and one “second” chance

Exploination

Nearly a billion, souls worldwide, emaciated
With squalid, scant water
Yet story, number one, in our country, concerns
Woman, and dead daughter
Tears, for the child, most deserved, expected
Fears, for the faceless, sadly vague, neglected
Ratings, advertisers, shall prolong the cacophony
For the dollar controls our destiny
Of course I speak…of Casey Anthony

Isle of Guile

I helm singular upon hellish seas
Poseidon’s stale breath doth wither and fail
Starry skies cum sun bear witness my pleas
Mine ship doth flounder no further I’ll sail
Night’s darkling hand leaves torrid, tingling skin
Sleep, oh blessed sleep, ‘t is mine only reprieve
Dawn, marches on, I wake to Dante’s din
Equinox to Equator, vortex grieve
Nighttide returns on purview fair maiden
Or hath mine eyes become chimerical
Freedom from angst, for too long am I laden
Land! Finite sand, Peace! ‘t is hysterical
I leap, I run, yon maiden’s hand, touch of cream
I wake, I weep, back to sea, searing dream

Heart Mending

She forever sees to all of my needs
Her complaints by weight are just mere feather
With spirit downcast, and heart that doth bleed
She stitches mine soul, holds it together
Graveyard would be home, had I not found her
The anchor to which I clutch for mine life
A sweet breeze upon flows her tinge of myrrh
My center of gravity…she my wife
Age appears to hath forgotten she’s here
A figure girlish with eyes that twinkle
Oft’ times in dark I reach out in mute fear
To gently touch ‘neath soft blanket wrinkle
Ashes to ashes, mine bones would be dust
Mine savior awaits, I go to her thus

Eleventh Hour Harvest

The “tree of hope” doth bear scant fruit
‘T is old and withered as the skin of aged
Held upright yet leaning by atrophied roots
My mind recalls chapters of past ripened pages

Ah! When I was but young there sat on my tongue
The promise of tomorrow; it hath a taste most sweet
Now in distant churchyard a lone bell is rung
Doth resonate in mine head, take leave through my feet

Yet, I’d be remiss to not kiss exalted memories
For yesterday’s peaches clung heavy on the limb
The fields of circumstance, rimmed by clustered trees
Upon which so hung, that which I could trim

Juicy and delectable, there for the picking
I snatched a precious few ne’er thinking of a sack
With reckless abandon, and fingers moist and sticking
A “Dipso-Gypso,” ‘t was foresight that I lacked

The once sagging boughs were stripped of their weight
By others who saw fortune alive on bending sprig
I was carefree, ‘t was me, me, me, awakening too late
My sole decaying tree bears little else but twigs

Then on a day when fog was laid thick atop the ground
I eyed my forlorn tree for single growth of hope
That bell began to ring again, ‘t was the only earthly sound
My calloused hands, desponding hands, so began to grope

‘T is futile, I so thought, as I struggled to the peak
This bark and wood most barren, many days gone by
I climbed at great peril, and was greeted by a peek
Mine hands began to tremble, mine eyes began to cry

There in solitary, clung “one” surviving, shriveled treat
I painstakingly reached out, one last bite of mirth
As I knocked on wood, branch gave way, head followed flailing feet
The bell tolled but once, “hopeless” lay on Earth

Hard to Starboard

“Black Friday?”…Why Day?
Bargain loving, “civilization” shoving
“Oh My, Day”
“Peek-a-boo,” I see you
“Facebook” cum “Tracebook”
“Dude, you gotta a “Pepper Spray”
Protest day, mace look
Beguilement…Defilement
Social Darwinist Requirements
America…Recession
“Bling spring”…cha-ching obsession
No solution...Perfidious, Patrician pollution
Eagle weeps upon “stained” glass
Remembering…saner past

On rhe 12th Day of Madness

Xmas in January, Black Friday again
Xmas in February, three days ‘fore the end
Xmas in March, Leprechauns laugh
Xmas in April, monetary gaffe
Xmas in May, nice and sunny
Xmas in June, for the economy
Xmas in July, get a jump
Xmas in August, tarrying chump
Xmas in September, Autumn sales
Xmas in October, Spectral wails
Xmas in November, Turkey sublime
Xmas in December, one more time

Paddleless Urban Creek

Plywood panes, graffitied stucco, a dead cat
Tincture of bacon? Wafts on crepuscular air
Two bedraggled men tote today’s life savings
Of collected aluminum cans
A Mom/Child pushes a Baby/Child in a stroller
To nowhere
Automobile exhaust…exhausts
Three dead soldiers…40 ounces in height
Salute me…A man walks in aimless circles
On a square block in a pyramid ordered world
Spare change, spare change, spare change?
Geo. Washington oblivious to his new owners
Three towering palms seem incongruous
A urine soaked asphalt beach lies below
“Your smog check is complete sir…it passed”
As I pass…through one infinitesimal quadrant
Of Hell

Cash Curs

Lawmakers!?...Gross fakers, bought and sold
Do what they’re told…Graft Takers
Deal breakers, Perk rakers, limousine riding
Transparency hiding, justice foresakers
In D.C., your state, your city
Leather bound leeches…it’s a damn pity
Lawbenders…offenders…pseudo pious,
Flag waving lyists…pretenders
East, West, North, South…in the Middle
Boss Tweed progeny…hominid piddle

Altruism ... Anihilation ...Perdurable Pugilists

They laid together, two small and harmless creatures,
alone and frightened in a hostile world, clinging to the
decaying yet comforting carcass of their dead mother.
Four small, apprehensive eyes nervously observed me,
as I placed life sustaining food near to their forlorn position.
Their location was naked to the elements and winter’s
Frosty breath encroached upon them as the days grew shorter
And nighttime frost laid chilled airs upon them.
As time passed,hope for their survival became a flickering flame on the
distant horizon. With the help of another, a rescue operation
was put into effect and through its offices one small
heart, one meager head, had been kissed by the lips of kindness.
Yet, one still remained, now alone for the first time, terrified,
understandably bewildered. It must have hidden in terror,
one day and then another.
Then, on a day when bedimmed clouds rolled slowly above,
releasing drops of chilled moisture on pitiless ground
I found this final refugee.
Hunger had compelled it to seek nourishment
and it fearfully approached that which it must consume.
I speculate of course, for the piled food had visibly been nibbled
and the now lifeless form which lay before me testified
to my supposition. A large, bloodied length of wood bore witness
of an act most foul.
The little kitten would dream no longer. The flame of life
irrevocably snuffed out on its twinkling horizon.
It’s crushed body now lay in timeless and quiet repose.
The euphonious sounds of its gentle purr now and forever silenced.
Man’s hand had extended its life,perchance to have created dreams of
lazy summer days stretched out under golden rays of sunshine.
And another man’s hand had smashed those illusions
as quickly as they had taken form.
Man…allegedly created in God’s image doth emulate him well.
For it is written that the “Lord giveth…and the Lord taketh away.”
And not even soft and supple furs supported by petite and
unassuming paws are immune from the “wisdom” of that
perpetually flawed order.

Tie-Died

The Earth is unraveling, spinning, traveling
A Top of linear string, revolutions of mass suffering
An infinite line drawn from the brine
Blood soaked, tear choked body of twine
Chaotic, disordered, its resources hoarded
A cosmic spool with seven billion boarded
The Mayans predict…end of the thread
Hoary old hand will wind up the dead

A Last Blush

To be reincarnated as a rose
T’ is most fervent wish, longing desire
Delicate, exquisite, only leaves for clothes
Pink petals sunbathing I do so aspire
My stem shall be sturdy, adorned with thorns
Roots of the “mother” deep into the ground
A “smile” for lovers, I’ll frown for the scorns
Rain dropping, dew sopping, wind…only sound
Life will be short, briefly resplendent
In prime of my life, stem is divided
Life’s blood now gone, I become dependent
Yet fate long ago hath been decided
Cast across casket in freshly dug grave
Pink petals in mourning, on journey with Dave

Mama Mia

When the palace door hits your eye and you lose cutie pie
Burlisconi
When the spun pundits all say a politician’s o.k.
He’s a phony
When they claim the budget is weak so let’s go gouge the meek
Say baloney
And when the fat cats hit town and the limo’s abound
It’s “Dog and Pony”

Dime Tossed

Nothing really can compare
Afternoon spent at the Laissez Faire
Pandering politicians on the stump
A hairspray demo by Donald Trump
Joel Osteen and bejeweled honey
Preaching the gospel of making money
Pachyderms and mules intermingle
Liquidity lemonade makes you tingle
Charge it all, if you dare
See 4-profit pigs…at the Laissez Faire

A Fork in the Road

Our primal ancestors stormed forth from hostile African terrains
On calloused feet made their way into Asia, Europe and atop the Steppes
They crossed the frigid ice of the Bering Strait, a breathing chain of humanity
Nomadic, indomitable, they endured savage, wind blown sands across august deserts
Traversed both mighty oceans and staggering mountain impasses
Waged knee deep in the crimson blood of war, famine, pestilence
Withstood the blizzard, the flood, the cyclone, the drought
Harnessed colossal sources of energy, conquered mighty plains
And planted both life sustaining crops and towering civilizations
Standing together…Man, Woman, Child have contemplated the heavens
Watched the undying cycles of both Sun and Moon and the
Haze which forever links the two in their changing of the guard
Now, they totter on precipice, teetering on the edge of a lost tomorrow
Perhaps to fall headlong into the stagnant waters of apathy and pretentiousness
Bubbles, imperiled, impoverished, struggling to the surface…if only, if only
Shallow shades of aqua lashing the shores of perfidious parsimony

Sunrise

Truth, jangled, mangled, crushed…strangled
Shall rise once again, Phoenix like
Its voice hoarse yet strong
Its arms bleeding yet sinuous
To confront its timeless enemy…malice
Who, wounded by arrows of sincerity
Shall die amongst his worshippers
A malignant body placed upon pyre of parsimony
Ashes to the wind…until only the wind remains

The Consistency of Clay

Overhead the skies were sunny
And I’m sown in un-moving pot
Revolutions of faire planet have multiplied
Many times, since that far-off day

I now stand aged, tall and beholden
For what the soil has wrought
To have a pot at all is such
That complaints my fate betray

Yet, to spend one’s life upon same soil
Oft’ seems a battle never fought
A world seen from corner of expansive universe
And roads left untraveled, never once to stray

Autumn’s shadows now reflect graying of my hair
I ponder ceaselessly probing karma’s lot
Hath life with many wonders gone careless rushing by?
And whence December comes, ‘t is here I shall lay

Legion nights before, semen lodged in this ground
Others walked the earth that I now deem my spot
Do ancient veins ‘neath me mimic my rootbound?
Or doth primal tentacles cling to foot forever caught?

Life Goes On

Predator drones, Ice cream cones, Tea and scones
Life goes on
Gangland shooting, Banksters looting, Rah-Rah rooting
Life goes on
First day at school, Alzheimer’s drool, Puppy love fool
Life goes on
Fraudulent voting, Rifle toting, Dramatic emoting
Life goes on
Interview waits, Gilded gates, Desperate straights
Life goes on
Starving cat, Bloated rat, Aristocratic fat
Life goes on
Loss of home, Big game in dome, Six feet of loam
Life goes on
Endless wars, Imperiled whores, Marble floors
Life goes on
Polluted Mountain Lake, Insults you can’t take, Guys on the make
Life goes on
Cheeseburger taste, Nuclear waste, Kindergarten paste
Life goes on
Cancer ravaged friend, Letters meant to send, Money you can’t spend
Life goes on
Hurricane plight, Star filled night, Baby’s first sight
Life goes on
Devastating call, Back against the wall, Love’s eternal thrall
Life goes on
Politician’s lies, Ketchup covered fries, Deep set eyes
Life goes on
Mighty oak tree, Swaying grass lea, Water’s flowing lazily
Life goes on
Daughter’s first date, Squeaky swinging gate, Bald shiny pate
Life goes on
Emerging crow’s feet, Kisses so sweet, Large stinking feet
Life goes on
Tranquilizing violin, Halloween’s toothless grin, Coffee table whacking shin
Life goes on
Christmas in December, Shadows of September, Pictures to remember
Life goes on
Paralyzed in battle, Herding wayward cattle, Enduring banal prattle
Life goes on
Aged hands together, Mindless talk about weather, Grandma’s light as a feather
Life goes on
Raging waves upon ocean, A lover’s secret potion, Poetry in Motion
Life goes on
Soothing springtime nap, Loud pounding rap, A long forgotten scrap
Life goes on
Love gone astray, Bleak hopeless day, A raise in your pay
Life goes on
Shooting star in your gaze, Life seems a maze, To simply be amazed
Life goes on
Pain and Addiction, Gross wealth Affliction, No sure prescription
Life goes on
Bird’s melancholy song, Grasping, Clutching Throng, Will we ever get along?
Life goes on
Born with silver spoon, Rascally Raccoon, Reeling from a Swoon
Life goes on
Boy’s first baseball Mitt, An Ideological split, an Epileptic Fit
Life goes on
Boundless situations, Surviving meager rations, False Venerations
Life goes on
Handsome in his Tux, The matter of the crux, A Universe in flux
Life goes on
Summer’s sun kissed sky, Another child dies, Will we ever know why?
Just between you and I…As the days slip on by…The Cosmos looms nigh
Life… goes on

Help Me, I've Fallen and I ...

In lieu of dismantling Social Security and Medicare
Congress today passed bill R.I.P. O65. The bill provides
Seniors with an AT&T “Clapper,” automatically
Notifying a “private mortuary” stipulated upon earlier.
Visa, Master Card, American Express all accepted on condition
Of requisite funds. All others to be cremated and interned in
“Deadbeaten” wastelands near Busted Flat.

"Aye" of Newt

Members of the GOP (Gouge Old Pensioners) were understandably
“downcast” when experiments attempting to refute Newton’s basic
Law of Gravitation failed today. “Trickle Down" tests confirmed that
Leaky faucets, urine, feces, spittle, tears, oil, creeks, hope and
Union membership all corroborated Newton’s original findings.
Despite all predictions and exhortations however, Money continued
To “Trickle Up.”

Fault in the Vault

Pounding the rockpile?
Manipulating the stockpile
Overwhelming the dockets?
Lining their pockets
Patriotic residents?
Purchasing a President
Paying equitable tax?
Exploiting loopholes too lax
Professional composure?
Salivating o’er foreclosure
Financial industry wizards?
Acknowledged lounge lizards
Fee free debit cards?
Sorry, but our best regards
The original fiduciary canker?
Nah! Just your diamond cuff- linked banker

Carnalverous

War is the whore so belonging to thee
She caters crass instincts…lacking remorse
We dine on her dime…perpetually
If fortune finds us upon her stout horse
Antediluvian…”charms” eternal
Man knowing not the path of resistance
Her “staying power” becomes fraternal
She plies her trade with adroit insistence
Measureless millennium…we succumb
Tears flow and blood knows thy place of its birth
Flesh rots and bones wane ‘til humanity’s numb
On cosmic necropolis…known as Earth
War is the strumpet…plays tune on the dawn
Her rue, baneful notes I fear shall play on

Oz is Now ... Wuz

Ruby red slipper’s sold on E-bay
The Tin Man...A “heartless” precious metals dealer
The Cowardly Lion “put’s up his dukes” for the NRA
The Scarecrow…“scattered” across Kansas plains
Toto…euthanized…Munchkins union…munched
The Wizard capitulates to the Wicked Witch
And under achromatized rainbow
Dorthy indeed finds, “There’s no place like home”

Smog Log

Coughing, choking, snorting, sneezing
Breathless, gagging, gasping, wheezing
Surrounded by grandeur of Mother Nature’s realm
I toured Sequoia National Park
Commander Cody at the helm
No need to toke amidst the smoke
A mule deer donned old gas mask
Worst air in the nation? Is this a joke?
High in the ozone…we shall bask

No Brakes ... on Mistakes

‘T is now the eighth year, that I stand so cursed
Have I found explanation…for such pain?
Long past accident I ne’er reimbursed
Doth fellow sufferer ride fateful train?
‘Neath the stars and gross liquor afflicted
Unlikely collision with destiny
That such an outcome could be predicted
Haze days…inebriant stupidity
Now every day ‘tis as I’m on fire
Is this compensation for hidden deed?
Doth reaper play tune upon blackened lyre?
Is soft ground awaiting…aberrant seed?
With God as judge I meant nobody harm
Evolving prophesy…or false alarm?

Malicious Monkeshines

War, pestilence, disease, depravations
The bane of all peoples, plague of all nations
Yet one stands above all others in crime
Honing his craft with centuries of time
First on the continent and then in tall ships
Relentlessly ascending…tightening his grip
From this libertine there is no escape
Nature’s aberration…the hairless white ape

The Wisdom of Pepe and Felix

Feral skunks…feral cats…feral stinking bureaucrats
Ubiquitous fliers…campaign donations
Limousine service…generous rations
Ceaseless arguments…years, months, days
Overwhelming consensus…when time for a raise
“Austerity measures” for folks on the street
Gala Balls for the gilded elite
It’s not cats or skunks collapsing your walls
But “flag lapel warriors” littering the halls

Don't Want No Pepperoni

Herman, say it isn’t so, with your Mitts in pizza dough
Lifted up her skirt…started talking dirt?
A “deep dish” Pizza fryer, now a “serial denier”
Yet job you seek, demands a damn good liar
So in future please refrain, you are able, Cain
Or call guy named Bill...he can “feel your pain"

Seared Spelunking

Forgive me if this comes off smut
Something must be done ‘bout “Plumber’s Butt”
Is it decency they lack…when exposing reeking crack
Are they simply unaware…naked skin ain’t underwear
I propose a simple test…I speak in earnest and do not jest
When confronted with unsightly cranny
Drop lighted match into the fanny

Feline Phantasm

Raging surf smashed below house cresting hill
My weary legs faltering upon top
Gargoyles with stone eyes guard the window sills
Rain began to pour…leaden laden drops
Rendezvous this night, appointment in hell
My betrothed I’d slain, yet so beckons me
Bells ring ‘midst inky moisture, midnight’s knell
Fortress reeks of death…I rise to one knee
Through the rain, cold aching pain…mewing sound
Visage on cornice woman or black cat?
Eyes blur, legs bend I fall on sodden ground
Hissing noise closer, fleeced lover or cat
Sleek, slender, slinky green eyes read “betrayed”
Soon come cat-o-nine-tails…my flesh so flayed

Blue Rue

To cry for lost soul, to grieve for stray kitten
Is now deemed crime, current state of affairs
To feel…relate…charitably smitten
No worries, I’ve mine who cares about theirs
Surgery hath been performed on the heart
Patient oft’ unaware until too late
Callous and cold, insensitive from start
A nation of stones, passing from iron gate
I cannot, I will not become mere rock
Devoid of mercy, to bask in the sun
A good Shepherd sees to the needs of flock
To die with clear conscience, is work well done
Each hungry belly and tear laden eye
To help those in need, for that’s who am I

You Can't Win 'em All

Five seconds after the clanging of eternity’s alarm clock
God stood at the barrier of time and space
Using a comet’s tail for a toothpick he looked serene
Casting blithe eyes across the rapidly expanding universe
He flung a handful of seeds, themselves caught upon cosmic winds
The embryos of all tomorrows landing, hither and thither
In all “corners” of the illimitable, e’er expanding universe they sailed
The antecedent sailors of the cosmos, propelled by omnipotent power
Many still travel today, pitted spores whisking interminably through dark matter
Still others took root on germinal worlds and grow to this day
Now, looking out across his fields, the original cosmological farmer ruminates
Life…self-perpetuating, everlasting, flourishes amongst the stars
Yet, on one infinitesimal speck, spinning buoyant in a Milky Way
Trouble loomed; A single stalk, emerging from the primordial soup had emerged
In the celestial blinking of God’s eye it had risen to number in the billions
This virulent strain of life was unlike all others that resided on this planet
It and it alone “acted” with the sole purpose of malice behind its chaotic thoughts
The remaining flora and fauna of this pullulated parcel were at its mercy
A species which thrived on Avarice and Ambition it quickly laid waste to its home
Amaranthine follicles of silvery white hair traversed the limitless vastness of space
To slowly wrap their way around this wayward field of crops gone astray
And on a day when forests fell, animals lay slaughtered, waters defiled and man desolated man
God “trimmed” his flowing beard, and the Earth, cocoon like, was consumed by the fires of the sun
Reminding our most antediluvian progenitor, that even he might erroneously plant
A Bad Seed

Hatchback Hypnotism

Patriotic pasties…Trunk lid nationalism
Fading, peeling…aging, revealing
Requisite adornments…sham sacrifice
Pseudo symbols…”I’ve got your back” charlatans
Their numbers growing fewer
Deteriorating, disengaging…destroyed
Junkyard relics…Trash can inhabitants
Applied with snide pride…precursor to divide
“Tie a yellow ribbon”…affixed to Hummer
Support the Troops magnets…But it’s the economy
Bummer

Apparitional, Unconscionable ... Reps

It’s the only truly haunted “House” in America
With ectoplasmic tentacles encircling the globe
Malicious inhabitants roam its debauched chambers
Poltergeists pontificate at midnight’s hour
Their echoes possessing the daytime inhabitants
Gilded age malfeasance oozes from plush crimson carpet
And words of wisdom are acts of damnable treason
Avaricious, Ambitious, Abhorrent…Don’t forget to vote

Grave Mistake

Beguiling she lay in soft, sweet repose
Adorned in silken finery, young, fair
Her skin alabaster, ankles to nose
Topped by flowing locks of long golden hair
Each black eve’ I would conjure this mirage
To sleep was terror, to wake dreading night
Her eyes wide open, I oft’ smell the corsage
Perchance to dream, yet one more hellish night
Intent innocent the night I killed her
Insanity knows not voice of reason
‘T was green eyed I raged, and she so demure
Purity profaned…murderous treason
Misunderstanding…kissed old friend on boat
Chimerical hands now constrict my throat

Last Bite

‘Twas 99 steps to top of the pyramid
99 floors to penthouse suite
99 souls from backgrounds most myriad
99 hearts calling out from street
99 trees had been felled, saving one
99 contusions looked upon 1 open sore
99 voices called out “Save us some.”
1 tongue gave utterance…”We just want 1 more.”

Empirestein

Created in the laboratory of avarice and ambition
The blood of Sumerian, Egyptian, Grecian, Mongol
Persian, Aztec, Turk, Spaniard, English, Russian, German
American, many others coursing through surging,
vitriolic veins. Lumbering across continents, its
ensanguined, trampling heels marching, forever
marching, lusting for that which humanity has
so oft’ been immolated for. Imperium…impervious
to tears or reason…carving a perdurable swath of
suffering and submission across the centuries.
Dreams and death the heady, noxious concoction by which it
Sustains maddened aspirations brought to aberrant,
Animated reality. It shall continue it’s annihilative
Journey unimpeded for it exists not in the realm
Of the temporal but in the hell’s fires of man’s
Unyielding cravings, only to be arrested by the
immortal hands of Father Time himself. We shall call him
“Empirestein” and wherever you may live
His shadow is upon your horizon, his corpulent
Boots a mere natural resource away.

Penmandrip

Tears make poor ink they blotch upon paper
Flowing from the eye, besmirching the lines
Swordsmen cries not brandishing rapier
He grieves not in fray, refusing to pine
Mine pen taps the well…unceasing sorrow
Drawn up from the heart, the words appear smeared
Warrior I’m not, mere wordsmith on morrow
Shortcomings many, when soul has been seared
Lamenting am I, the sickness of friend
The wish to affix cure, lone desire
If only weeping, were means to an end
Drops from mine eyes would extinguish ill fire
The ink well runs dry, yet never the tears
Lugubrious pen, scribbling my fears

When Ya Come, Darlin', Bring My Guitar

He strummed an old guitar every night at sunset
Watching that old red ball dipsy-doodle behind the hills
His mind sometimes travellin’ life’s long road
Wasn’t much of a guitar player but he kept at it

Liked smokin’ a bowl, blowin’ smoke rings into the desert
Had fun thinkin’ the coyote’s used ‘em for hula hoops
The old VW bus was still runnin’, but walkin’ was more like it
A long beard hung off him like a shaggy snowball
Last time he shaved it off damn near scared himself to death

Some nights he’d sit on the porch and write poetry in the moonlight
Had a Folgers can full ‘a pencils and a couple ‘a dogeared notebooks
One night as the Joshua trees were talkin’ ‘bout getting’ a little rain
And the wife perched herself down and was fussin’ over the cat
He wrote this:

“Never did amount to much when all was said and done
Picked a rose one day and the darn thing’s still in bloom
Ain’t got a helluva lot out here in the scorchin’ sun
But planted my roots in this old, hard soil and this’ll be my tomb

The old gal sittin’ next to me is still as pretty as a belle
How the hell it happened I don’t rightly know
Why should a guy like me have this luck for such a spell?
Living with a cactus flower, faintly dusted by the snow

Got lotsa cats and a couple ‘a dogs, always have, always will
Ain’t nothin’ warms the innards like a kitty across the tummy
Had one old dog who passed away, is he out there in the hills?
Another one who likes ice cream, we should ‘a named him “Dummy”

Try to get along with folks, no matter the color or creed
Ain’t got no use for those with malice in their hearts
A long time ago, God came along and planted a bunch of seeds
And with water of love a handful grew into many diverse parts

Won’t be long ‘fore the old guitar will start collectin’ dust
A shootin’ star cross a crescent moon appeared two nights ago
My darlin’ can sell the VW or just let the old bus rust
I’m just hopin’ my exit’s fast, not painful, sick and slow,”

He was buried today in the dusty, red clay right here on his own land
Some folks in the city said the old boy had gotten a mite dippy
His beloved had a tombstone carved from a hardwood stand
It read: “My dearest John, I’ll soon be along…wait for me, Old Hippie”

Joe Bagger

Joe BAGGER
He was, in all his GLORY, a true… American
Horatio Alger shine On jet black MARCHING boots
The Constitution NEVER read but wrung and bled
Held aloft in ONE tight fisted hand
A CREDIT card emphatically swiped$$$$$$ in the other
His FLAG lapel pin conspicuous
His arrogance…ubiquitous
He was…………………
Ready to Swat! buzzing, MEDDLESOME parasites
Impediments to the grand tradition Of FREEDOM
DAMN THEM!
Poor kids in DECAYING schools spending MY tax dollars, making U.S. fools
SWAT!
DAMN THEM!
Green skinned…tree HUGGING (they’re really bugging me) enviro-fascists
SWAT!
DAMN THEM!
Dove breeding, hanky needing , anti-VIOLENCE Peaceniks
SWAT!
DAMN THEM!
Bleeding hearted, head started EQUAL rights Socialists
SWAT!
DAMN THEM!
Baby killin’ blood spillin’ women’s RIGHTS supporters
SWAT!
DAMN THEM!
Open bordered Anti-LAW and ordered immigrationalists
SWAT!
DAMN THE BLACK!
DAMN THE BROWN!
DAMN THE BITCHES!
GIVE U.S. BACK our TOWN…….
And so it passed,
A Day in the LIFE…..of Joe Bagger
Whereupon he slept comforted by Beck and BIBLE
Dreaming of BYGONE days
When a man could SHOOT a buffalo
Or a N****R
And the GOOD book told us
SUFFER the little children…come unto me
AMEN

Foreclosure Cats

Street fighters, All-Nighters
Leonine castaways, Boulevard brawlers
Trashcan connoisseurs, Missis…Messieurs
Mewing meanderers…Fence Top Crawlers
Dead end survivors…Struggling to be alivers
Doggedly determined…to eke out existence
Abandoned, assaulted…yet not to be faulted
Mankind’s dispassion…oft’ the path of resistance
Mystical, Cryptical…Eternally Elliptical
Eye of the Cat…reflects humanity’s soul

Solstice Sojourn

Autumn’s leaves glide down
Yellow, Red and Gold
Nature’s fragmented parchment
Guileless messengers they be
Dying and dead…decomposing
Gloriously preceded by
Springtime’s symphony of life
Having completed its roaring crescendo and
Summer, circumnavigating its antediluvian arc
Solar fingers reaching through ebon void
Bearer of life…courier of death
Now, lengthening shadows stand sentry
Guarding the threshold to winter
Resplendent winter of gossamer glaciers
And icicles descending as ashen beards
The perdurable circle once again complete
And I, failing, fading, finite…await
As my whiskers grow hoary
Upon a withering, aging canvas
With perpetual companion pain reminding me that
The flower of youth hath lost its petals
Delights of summer’s sun hath forever rescinded
And mine own December, frightening and final
Stretches her immutable arms, to hearth and heart
Anticipating our first…and only embrace

Dream Scheme

Come join me in my dream world
Live with me in my dream world
Stay and kiss me in my dream world
That’s all I’m asking of you

Together we can make the dream world
Into a very special real world
All it will take is my dream girl
To turn dreams of one into two

Don’t know where to begin
But the world we live in
Is driving me out of my mind

Gotta find a new place
And I know just the face
To brighten the world we shall find

So, lets pack our bags for our dream world
And if it turns into the real world
We’ll have found the world’s only real pearl
Darling, will you say I do?
Will you make one dream into two?

Livin' Large

She was trailer trash.
Been taking out the garbage since I’s a kid.
We both got tattoos on our butt cheeks.
Hers, “Kiss my ass.”
Mine, “Yer crackin’ me up.”
Had eight kids. Ugly stick ugly.
Joint caught fire one night.
Kids making nachos. Copasetic.
Got a double-wide so mama can watch TV
with us.

Ventifated

Picked her up hitchhiking
Chick was hotter than grandma’s griddle
Before I could say “hey baby” she put
Six cylinders ‘a cold blue steel in my side
I would’ve asked “what’s up,” but nothing
was. An hour later she relieved
the tension with a 38 caliber hole.
Damn it! Never knew Betty had a sister.

Darwin's Dilemna

The bodies piled up in the streets
Fixated eyes, immobile feet
In cities and towns across the land
The lifeless lay with listless hands
Emaciated and unmedicated, their demise
Solely predicated by pernicious lies
“Too big to fail,” the Holy Grail
Crass Rapaciousness billows the sale
Callous, maliced, “bottom feeders”
Corporate welfare’s “chic” dead beaters

Ardor Harbor

Can love be seen, can love be heard, I wonder?
Surely love’s taste stays sweet upon the lips
Oft’ expressing love, I err’, I blunder
Shan’t I ever learn, curing verbal slips?
To her I deem soul mate, I ask forgive
Tongue an instrument with mind of its own
‘T is you precious darling, cause for which I live
Allow my lone rose, at base of your throne
Mine failings are many, please, do not count
Tally would be great, ‘ere halved in two
The sole defense, I feel compelled to mount
Is heart on torn sleeve, bleeding…I love you
Love is mine anchor, amidst stormy seas
A word ‘oft synonymous…with please

Baneful Ballast

Winds of change blowing, ripples from the sea
Waves arising recede as perished day
Sails go slack, I await fate in the lee
Faith is depleted… no one whom to pray
Pain and angst my traveling companions
We greet each sunrise, and sup together
Alliance hath been forged…can’t abandon
Through spring, summer fair…inclement weather
I drift on aimless current…sky is black
My comrades diligent, voyage not dull
Trembling finger tests wind, no breeze at back
Water seeps through aging seals of my hull
Looming horizon, earth abruptly ends
Into eternity I sail with my “friends”

Yer Steppin' On My Toes, Darlin'

She played me like a jukebox
Wurlitzer Wanda
A1 and I’d up and pay her rent
B4 all my money had been spent
C2 that I never would catch on
D9 that she ever would be gone
Saw her in the corner…giving Hank a hug
Did myself a favor…went and pulled the plug

Fox News Programming

Bash Obama, “Free Market Affirmations”
White Girl Missing, Bash Obama,
“Pinheads and Patriots Promotion”
White Girl Missing, Bash Obama,
“Hottie Weather Report,” White Girl Missing
Interview With Ann Coulter, Bash Obama
White Girl Missing, “Jingo Hour” with Sean Hannity
Bash Obama, White Girl Missing, Exxon-Mobil
Lobbyist Debunking Climate Change, White Girl Missing
Buy Gold

Half-Mast

Achromatic stars defiled
Resplendent blue field threadbare
Red…ivory stripes
Transgressing…regressing…oppressing
“Old Glory” morphing hoary
Bleached out…in Chinese Laundromat
Hanging limp…freedom’s breeze exhausted
Bleached, Blemished, Bled
Thirteen points of diminishing returns
Jefferson weeps down Rushmore
Tri-folded “token” of appreciation
Financial whores…amaranthine wars
Meretricious lapel pin symbolism
“White flag” arising

Bloated on the Spit

Corpulent, seasoned, pampered, rare
Main course tonight…the Millionaire
They come with such superior breeding
Extended pinkies when they’re feeding
Living in luxury… sumptuous cribs
They’re juicy, careful! … use your bib
Thigh or leg ‘tis best it’s true
Breast is often filled with goo
Leaves the teeth a true vermillion
Tomorrow’s specialty…bovine with Billion

Nine Slices of Nonsense

Coolidge proclaimed “a chicken for every pot”
FDR reminded “Fear can be fought”
JFK implored of U.S. simply to “ask not”
Nixon killed couple of “mill”… flew off overwrought
Reagan attacked government
Clinton was bawdy gent
Dubya, he just spent and spent
and Herman Cain, if he’s able…
will have a pizza on every table

Circulating Despair

The heart doth not cleft cleanly down middle
Peels off by fragment, a chunk here, piece there
As single string snaps off fiddler’s fiddle
Tune of the soul hath taken on error
How to right this malady eludes me
Gentle kisses mend, old songs often rend
Anguish is duplicitous, cunning, shady
It hath no compassion, just path to end
Heart so split in two, how long can one live?
The harp of the angel, louder each day
Crux of my being, pittance left to give
I stand alone and this I have to say
Tears exemplify the tremendous cost
When hope vanishes and heart bears the loss

Musings of a Jester

Does true beauty ever die or live on?
Her picture in my mind defies the ages
I think of her now as I do new dawn
Yet rose long ago decayed ‘tween pages
We once pressed lips…once became forever
The hand I longed to hold out of my reach
I dreamt of that kiss, the years would sever
No getting lost in her eyes, walks on beach
I age quickly now, those dreams lost in mist
Some other boy, other girl, play the game
One starlit summer night, we touched, we kissed
Later fires have now, concealed the flame
You shall never know, ode I’ve wrote for you
And we’ll go to our graves, ne’er one but two

Counter-Clock Lies

I often wonder ‘bout the day before
Columbus stepped on foreign shore
Or young woman become’s paralyzed
And dreams she’ll never realize
In the hours prior to December 7
A Kansas boy was pre-marked heaven
The laughing, carefree teen-age crowd
Their screams of horror before car plowed
Native-Americans on their holy ground
Afore the conquering white man’s sound
The day before, the day before
How many have prayed for one chance more
The frigid cold of Siberian Ice
The girl you loved showered by rice
The parting kiss…the last good-bye
The sudden loss…the questions why
If time is fluid…if time is sliver
And we all must traverse the same river
Instead of heartbreak, death and war
Why can’t we swim…to the day before?

Trolling

They "troll" the websites, clutter the blogs
Like debauched, infectious, snarling dogs
With intellects that rival frogs
They speak

With neither insight nor compassion
We're forced to see pernicious ration
They can't comprehend "altruistic fashion"
The meek

Are coming to your towns, your city
Demanding justice, not patronizing pity
For the end of the stick has been just a bit shitty
So seek

To hide upon the internet
Sip your wines and place your bets
Vengeance shall collect your debts
Thus peek

Into our future

Affirmative Faction

100 grapes upon vine
1 became Chablis, leaving 99
100 apples suspended from tree
1 chosen cider, 99 behind her
100 melons floating flooded ground
1 was saved, 99 left to drown
100 salmon spawning frigid river
1 donned coat, 99 left to shiver
100 Americans in monetary jail
99 got life, 1 got bail

All Wound Up ... No Place to Go

Time flies, it stands still…metaphysical
Extensions, Disruptions tick tock, tick tock
Abstract, precise, so…symmetrical
“Hands” of eternity…perpetual…clock
Seconds, Minutes, Hours…one millennium
Sun dials, shadows…chronological
Equinox pox…space time continuum
Big bang, birth pang…ever predictable
Awake, asleep, progression marches on
Tomorrow, yesterday, rhythmic pair
Today is the day soon to be bygone
Consumed by cosmos, in time’s secret lair
Long for days minutes transpired sublime
Tried turning back hands, fails every time

Scripcured

Who would Jesus bomb?
Who would Jesus kill?
Who would Jesus starve
While He ate his fill?
Who would Jesus execute?
Who leaves Jesus destitute?
Who would Jesus call prostitute?
In land of ostentatious shill
Who would Jesus castigate?
Who would Jesus implicate?
Who would Jesus expropriate?
Humble, simple, still? Or,
Avaricious atop the hill?

Rastafari Don't Need No Ferrari

Rasta Man headin’ to a jam
Reggaelicious band…Shufflin’ sandaled sand
Tell U.S. yes we can…rise up in our land
Need a helpin’ hand…Rasta Man, Rasta Man
Gotta take a stand…jivin’ with the man
Nothin’ but a sham…plutocratic scam
Rasta Man… you hear me talkin’?
Please start a-walkin’…Rasta Man

Neptune

Neptune’s mighty breath propelled Magellan
Homer’s florid pen embraced fair Helen
Around both Horn and Cape propelled by breeze
Rough hewn and clutching hands, curse on the wind
To colonize to plunder that was goal
Empires are not built on meek charity
Ivory, sugar, spices…silver, gold
Strip land, enslave man with tenacity
Human cargo chained ‘neath deck of creaking ship
A stain on mankind never to wear off
Five hundred years hence grasp about to slip
Some comprehend whilst many they do scoff
Neptune’s trident catalyst for empire?
Or rapaciousness impelled by Hell’s fire

Tea Party ... Cooke'd

“Don’t know much about history
No longer taught it’s a mystery
Don’t have use for foreign tongue
Just listen when church bells rung
Don’t need no science books
Scripture doesn’t need second look
But I do know one and one is two
And pretty soon I’m telling you
What an unlettered world we will be”

Avenging Anti-Toxin

We’ve brought our placards and complaints
Replenished with our prayers and paints
Our ranks consist of sinners…saints
Yet lo

Yon enemy ‘tis entrenched great
The mainstream media coin satiate
Neither hath conscious, morals to relate
And so

Avaricious, most noxious banker
Embodiment of a walking cancer
There’s no escaping from our rancor
You!...CEO

The Idle Ride of Wintertide

Winter’s opaque skies come creeping…much to my delight
Chilled letters spelled out upon frosty, patent breath
The endless drone of summer, long day’s journey into night
Yet, each winter that I witness brings me closer to my death

The barren trees, the fallen leaves, compliment my mood
Frost upon the ground that crackles underfoot
I proclaim proclivity to be lugubrious to brood
Doth not the brightest fire drop residue of soot?

Days become shorter and the hearth is welcome warm
Aging hands feed wood, once young eyes stare into flame
A time to ruminate as memories descend as a swarm
I'm just a player in life’s eternal game

The ageless cuckoo bird will now take his winter’s nap
Sun, when it appears, disappoints with bright effect
I much prefer the rain though it dampens woolen cap
Misery’s company is my mantra, I suspect

For that is the gist of this sullen little story
The world hath passed me by, yet winter slows it down
When ebon clouds surround I am in my glory
And howling, shrieking winds impede the happy and their sounds

So, embrace me old friend winter, devoid of heat and light
Let kindle paint mosaic inside my humble room
Wife, pets and I will all marvel at the sight
For one day fire will extinguish and flame will not find tomb

Wrote Salvaged Smote

Statues crafted of men with swords
Books bound for those with words
Blood shed and havoc wrought
Deeds long forgotten save those of thought
Immortalized on dusty pages
Battles fought on long lost stages
Warriors, Statesmen absorbed by time
Forever live in tale and rhyme
Glory, Tragedy both live again
History’s parchment…ode’s by pen

S.S.ness

Liberty to locks
Pillory to stocks
Proper dollars purchase whore
On legislative floor
Unemployed looking sallow
Texas cheers another gallows
Financiers…corrupt banks
Join gallery of rank
And the ‘little” people slave
From cradle to the grave
Need our oil…always more
So we wage…another war
Never thought I’d see day
Swastika…ruled USA

Oblivion's Orphan

Dead men tell no tales…lips forever sealed
Live men create dead men…eternal act
Heart ceases function, blood is congealed
No deity’s involved…infinite fact
The urge, the quest, necessity to kill
Primal in nature, inherent in all
The unseeing eye doth provide a thrill
Corpse of enemy or bug on the wall
Each day something dies so others can live
Merciless system without due remorse
A world of “take” that shuns concept “give”
Degenerate place… ‘t is best described coarse
I cannot kill and heretofore will die
My fate hath been seen by unseeing eye

My Baby's Named Dow Jones

God…no longer.
Nor any of his myriad names.
Jesus…a synonym
A theo-cosmological bake sale.
Love, honor, compassion?
Obsolete… irrelevant. Wanton desire,
Gratuitous greed, inundated with voracious applicants.
Multitudes mingled to horizon’s limit
Mouths agape, the low hum of imbecility ameliorating.
Palms outstretched, halcyon eyes awaiting
the latest financial report…
from “The Profit.”

Somber Supplication

To write through hot tears, difficult to do
Obscured vision leads to many errors
Pain will not subside, my thoughts are with you
The breath of charity, we both must share
I embraced your impish ways…soft, warm fur
A devil and an angel…all in one
To hiss or to kiss, you retain allure
A wish upon star, golden ray of sun
First and last baby, so precious to me
Your image ‘fore fire, now etched in my mind
Eyes drain and strain, ‘t is you I need to see
May God bestow mercy…gentle and kind
Press lips upon your head, I long for that
My darling little boy, Opie my cat

Sin City Ditty

Nevada desert…cruisin’ the Delorean
The Stratosphere Tower rises…’bout 15 feet
Time: 2311…
Tarantula sportin’ a sombrero warbles
“Viva Las Vegas”…
Scorpion named “Frank”
Doin’ things “his way.”
Elvis tools up in a ’62 Caddy.
Says, “Where’s The Sands?”
“Under your wheels,” I answer.
“Thank you…
Thank you very much.”
Long live the King!

The Pitiless Pursuit of Purpose

I hear, I see, I feel…but I am dead
Animated corpse going through motions
Daylight shadow walks, stars loom o’er my bed
I’m yesterday’s wave, breaking from ocean
Somehow, someway…I slipped past reaper
Falling through the cracks…what fate had in store
Have I “stainless” breath?…should I be “sleeper?”
Doth daily pain come to even out score?
My time extended…what have I to give?
A soul in torment knows only its voice
Each day blackness abounds, yet I, still live
Life…to more worthy…if I had such choice
Forever, will one day, sound mighty horn
Rusted chains I drag, eternally shorn

Delirium Under a Blue Moon

Immutably “touched” but with nary a “scratch”
Occupying void between logic…and lunacy
Breeding on inherent fears… prejudices, of mankind
Defecating its own unparagoned brand of “human waste”
Colorless yet jaundiced, myopic yet myriad, unhearing yet all-knowing
‘tis ageless yet aged laying claim to the sobriquet “Insanity”
Akin to Infinity…knowing “No” defined borders

Bargain Debasement

For your perusal...Ladies and Gentlemen, this Congressman
An unrepentant Brown-Noser
Fervid Corporate Shill with accompanying low handicap
Absolute Authority on off-shore tax shelters
Proficient in art of doublespeak
Scruple scrubbed…palms rubbed
Who’ll start the bidding?
For this stalwart example of American Exceptionalism
Do I hear Fifty Million?...Democracy…going, going, gone!

Fat Cats "Splat" in the Middle of the Road

Heart Disease and Diabetes
Will negate our Wars…Abortive Treaties
Super Gulps and Frothy Lattes
Soon will provide the Dying Bodies
‘t is disaster in the makin’
Three slabs of Meat…four slices Bacon
Forget the tea…extended pinkie
“Freedom” is…fistful of Twinkies
Our enemies can catch their breath
As we Eat…ourselves to Death

Time ... Out

Floundering ink wells do render me mute
I dip bucket to psyche and come up dry
Song of the meadowlark, strum of the lute
Hearing them not, I so ask myself why?
Why was I chosen for this hostile place?
Where soul is for sale to highest bidder
Grim lines encountered upon aging face
Many elements I must consider
Countless before me hath been ill-fated
Mirth doth paint portraits of fortunate few
Hath frolic as such been over-rated?
Mankind’s tribulations oft’ shaded blue
I hunger for simple life high on hill
To inhale pleasure without bitter pill

Insanity 101

Latest fad ‘tis not vanity
“Simple,” puerile insanity
Coast to coast…class in session
Syllabus says…goal’s regression
Availability sans Sustainability
Oligarchic Tinkering trumps Critical Thinking
Biblical Transgression equals Secular Progression
“Tragedy of the Pales”…the new Oppression
Seats going fast…Bring blood to boil
Logic obfuscated…by shards of Tin Foil
Closed Minds recommended

Fallow Fields of Dreams

A liquid red neon sign blinks “No Vacancy”
The “Heartbreak Hotel” is booked squalid
Scorpions square dance twirling a child’s bandanna
“Fruits of Labor” are insidiously deemed…traitorous
Spurious “White Eagles” spread “bread” crumbs for “coyotes”
Camouflaged “Patriots” nibble kibble at the kennel of “dogmatism”
And chimerical visions of Aztlan…bleed onto your salad plate

Midnight Touch

Summer’s sun, blithesome fun, one day in Park
We peered into bliss of the other’s eyes
Now decades past we touch, fingers in dark
Both in world of pain, ears attuned to sighs
Time evaporates as shallow puddle
‘Tis not seen, ‘tis not heard, shadow at night
Process rapid, leaving one befuddled
I still taste our first kiss, ‘neath warm sunlight
Twilight of our youth now forever past
Naivete no longer hangs on vine
Grapes of innocence hath fermented fast
But doth not time enhance flavor of wine?
The summer sun has set, you within grasp
In moonlight’s penumbra, our fingers clasped

The Eagle Cries on Sunday

Neon lights blinked out…one by one
Roy Oribson was “Crying” somewhere
26,375 beer bottles…smashed across America
Another “freeway”… bumper to bumper
Two kids shot, killed…East L.A. playground
Touchdowns…Home runs, “two finger sanctified”
Gladys sliced birthday cake 90 with a Social Security cut
And the shopping cart…becomes the American dream

Wonder Bread

Baseball cards clicking between spokes
“Flatulent conversation”…adolescent ribald jokes
Dagwood sandwiches, sneaking smokes from Dad
Tormenting little sister, chopping Barbie’s head off…bad!
Four leaf clovers ‘neath clipper ship clouds
Walkie-Talkie rendezvous’…sorry…no girls allowed
‘Tis no measure of the treasure found in pleasure
Of just being a boy…pure “unadulterated joy”

Fork in the Road

Eyes weary, mouth agape I dream…escape
Paramnesia nay, Hell’s fires burn on Earth
My mind doth drive me mad, abstracted shape
Each sunrise displayed, a question of worth
Vexation hath low compensating traits
Woebegone life, blooms acrid flower
Apprehending “other side” what awaits
A clock under duress oft’ loses hours
Trail of life for some, undeviating
Pain and anguish sparse, as trees upon lea
Route I so follow, excruciating
Sights and sounds mock normalcy for me
Path to past hath quixotic memory
Perchance destiny’s road will set me free

The Finish Line

Primordial soup lines stretch into infinity
Atavistic hedonists imbibe vintage wines
The proclivity of insensitivity now the final fad
Bullets and bouquets tie the amaranthine knot
Emergency room floors are abraded with children’s tears
Oceans rise and expire, the whale’s lament haunting
And humanity is extinguished, the antediluvian man in the moon
Winking…in acquiescence

Hearts' Desire in a Candle Fire

Three hearts will so greet me, three hearts, three hearts
They’ll say happy birthday, with love so true
I’ll smile and adore them, alone, apart
Hiding the fact that I’m blue, oh so blue
With gifts bestowed on me the “game” is played
Each one a treasure locked deep, deep inside
No one will suspect my lifeforce is frayed
The trails of my tears now long ago dried
Ardor and attachment will soon fill room
With candles dripping wax on frosted cake
Like a great actor, I’ll conceal my gloom
Upon blowing out fires, this wish I’ll make
“Oh God please release me from my torment
To fulfill to three hearts my commitment”

Ticket Down Economics

The yachts…securely moored
Soft hands cradle esteemed wines
Stock market banter…hushed at “tee time”
Warmed leather seats comfort…”comfortable”
“Capital insulation”…“insular protection”
Then, shhh!, listen!...coddled ears on manicured turf
A rumble, low intensifying…is comin’
“All aboard!”…The People’s Train”
Highballin’ your way…C-note bound
Barrelin’ through…gentrified iron gates

Shrinking Inviolate

Instant smile say you?…at your fingertips
Or perchance tears…streaked to trembling lips
Memory enhancer or Dream canceller
Cerebral convenience or Wish chancellor
Moments once my sole province…unlocked
Through the wizardry of the internet…pox
Mom once bemoaned the “devil box”…the “boob tube”
Gratified, Violated, Mortified, Satiated…
I sit…typing out “YouTube”

Antediluvian Answers

Plato hypothesized, Aristotle attended
Copernicus searched, Hippocrates mended
Dante’s hell, Augustine’s empyrean
Descartes dissertated, Machiavelli the means
Milton lost paradise, Homer “rode” boat
Shakespeare took stock, brilliantly wrote
Locke spoke rights, Rousseau too
Darwin found man, Freud undid the glue
Sampling of great minds, today’s leaders seemed drugged
And what of Atlas? He’s merely shrugged

Daydreams of Helping Hands

Has the world gone mad or I mad at world?
Two questions one answer what can be done?
Each day that passes leaves me more churled
Sour countenance as I view dipping sun
Being just one man of most meager means
I’ve no stage to speak, mere face in the crowd
One weary anguished soul in old blue jeans
I oft’ have dream of a power endowed
To thee avaricious I woulds’t short change
Upon blind and deaf to see and to hear
To infirmed and oppressed within my range
Alleviate pain restore life, quash fear
Doth God have such sway, oh, where can he be?
I’m mortal man, yet I wish I were he

Fallow Grave

I weary of life, the burden of searching
Screeching owl o’erhead he doth understand
Pit of bedeviled…forever lurching
I claw at raw earth with most futile hands
There’s no escaping that what confronts me
Darker and darker my hopes flicker dim
If light on vista only I could see
My prayers unanswered, no assist from him
A sweet saffron rose arises in hole
Its fragrance beguiling, beauty sublime
In reaching to touch thorn pierces my soul
I have been sentenced, I know not my crime
Pain and suffering, worry and sorrow
Strong rope of hope perchance I could borrow

Berry ... More!

“Brown Eyed Handsome Man”
With “No Particular Place to Go”
Cat had ax to grind…and he did
He is “Rock and Roll Music”
“Reelin’ and Rockin’ ‘til
Ludwig gotta “Roll Over”
“Maybellene”, “Nadine”
Met “Carol” in “Tulane”
And everybody learned to play
With their own “Ding-a-Ling”
Elvis was King
King had Father

Last Year's Crop

Memories oft’ become most bitter fruit
When sweet taste of past ‘tis pleasing no more
A once succulent vine now becomes moot
Decaying peaches lie scattered ‘cross floor
The delicate cherry unmatched in taste
A robust apple with tenacious core
We’ve aged together in unbridled haste
His hand once athletic exists no more
Low hanging fruit of high expectations
Collected whilst young and consumed with glee
Fading images…spoiled mutations
Plum quickly turns glum when plucked from the tree
Sad, self-pitying anachronism
Now harvesting through my bygone days' prism

Upper Crust Lust

Gated estates…plush surroundings
Bifurcated world…quickly floundering
Cocktails before dinner…that your shtick?
Gunfire hour…neighborhood click
Wealth, the God whom we pray to
Money, the game which we play to
Low on cash…blue collar hack
Inherited breeding sadly you lack
Scour cupboard for unhealthy snack
Accepting expanding “wrong side of the tracks”

A Saga of Diminishing Returns

Pain…mankind’s common denominator
Penurious, Luxurious…both racked
Equally afforded…agitator
Peasants and Plutocrats bearing attack
Bane of the body ‘tis most pernicious
Writhing, wilting, color drained from flower
Effect on the mind, perhaps most vicious
Sweet fragrance of life doth soon become sour
Drain of thy soul eventually numbing
To smile, to laugh ‘tis an anomaly
Will to live, rueful thoughts of succumbing
A query for God, why hath chosen me?
Wane of hope for a painless tomorrow
Sane people swimming…river of sorrow

American Spring

They stumbled and mumbled
Heedless of time, direction or place
Fires illuminated the horizon
Acrid odors of human flesh pervasive
Shelters, hastily constructed of placards, signposts
Teetered in blustery winds or entombed some in hellish boxes
And they wept, hot tears on outfoxed faces, realizing
Tea Bags won’t steep…in the icy waters of Corporatism

A Lineage of Lead

I have lived for over five centuries
My speed and precision are unmatched
I am offspring of technology and ferocity
Propelled by forces discovered long ago
My influence…both monumental
And all encompassing
Many have called me…friend
Yet, pray, to whatever God or Gods you hold dear
You “never” meet me…I am Bullet

A Lineage of Lead

I have lived for over five centuries
My speed and precision are unmatched
I am offspring of technology and ferocity
Propelled by forces discovered long ago
My influence…both monumental
And all encompassing
Many have called me…friend
Yet, pray, to whatever God or Gods you hold dear
You “never” meet me…I am Bullet

Ashen Amour

I love you, I love you, I love you, dear
She so soothingly whispered unto me
Instead of elation I felt strange fear
Her eyes, stark black, stared demonically
Thin fingers long…exquisitely tapered
Hair colored like flame of great Neptune’s beard
Smooth pallid skin that almost seemed papered
To obsidian eyes in trance I peered
Voluptuous, seductive, that she was
Her mouth crimson red, fresh luster on lips
Ears began ringing with an entranced buzz
Her allure was Helen’s and I the ship
I love you once more, then flung to deck
My love drained out through two holes in my neck

Perfect Hormony

“It’s broiling”…”It’s cold”
“Honey…am I old?”
“I’m moody”…”I’m restless”
“You’re wonderful”…”You’re feckless”
“I love you”…”I’ll kill you”
“She’s younger…she’ll thrill you”
“Hold me closer”…”Don’t touch me, swine”
“Forget the sharp knife”…”Its o.k. I’m fine”
“Raise your glass…I’ve got toastal
Sleep with one eye open…I’m Menopostal”

Chill Pill

And the chill from the North raised gooseflesh upon her skin
Blackbirds donned white parkas and whistled Xmas tunes
The few remaining leaves on the tree huddled round a wayward firefly
As the frost on the lawn, a sparkling sheath, crunched underfoot
Icy clouds formed with each exhaled breath, expanding into nothingness
93 Million miles away an angry sun cast arching solar flares
But it was winter, glorious winter, and the heat that had so bedeviled her
Was now merely a bright light, incandescent and irrelevant
Her body temperature cooled, and with downy blanket tucked beneath chin
She slept, visions of Popsicles and tamales dueling on glacial peaks
With chilled, placid waters streaming deliciously over a strawberry rainbow
And tiny droplets of sweat, hurriedly packing uninvited hobo bags
Scurried off, running to catch…the Menopausal Express

Dancin' to the Boss Man's Beat

“Resident” President…has no spine
Anatomically impossible…save taught “white” lines
He smiles, gestures…proposes “things”
His “handlers” protest…retracting strings
Unable to mount…steep “bully pulpit”
Fallback retort…”Bush is the culprit”
Instead of contender…cry is surrender
The capitulator, explainer, the belly flop half gainer
Hail to the thief…House louse John Boehner