All in a Day's Work

A Nigerian “soldier” rapes a nine year old girl
A Chinese coal burning facility belches toxic smoke
A small boy in India digs through garbage…for his breakfast
A woman in Afghanistan blows herself and 47 other people to smithereens
A fat hedge fund manager sweats profusely looking up at bouncing silicon
A pompous athlete points to sky after hitting a fifty thousand dollar home run
A hurricane blows across a mid-west landscape ripping limbs from trees and people
A Palestinian, ancient and wise, points out to kids where his “country” used to be
A man armed with chainsaw removes one more piece of life sustaining Brazilian rain forest
A toothless 40 year old woman pushes her home, a shopping cart, under a rippling U.S. flag
A man is tortured somewhere in Eastern Europe for being in the wrong place at the wrong time
A Mexican farm laborer stretches his aching back before resuming his “salad making duties”
A Muslim man is beaten senseless by British hooligans for the sole crime of wearing a turban
A “Man of the cloth” coerces a young boy with angelic voice to come later for “private lessons”
A politician somewhere…everywhere, looks about attentively before sticking hand in “cookie jar”
A dog, a cat, a raccoon, a deer is crushed beneath the wheels of what is euphemistically called “progress”
A child is born, a woman dies, a man laughs, a “lost soul” cries, and the cycle is forevermore repeated
And God, watching from the beginning of time and the outer boundaries of amaranthine space
Weeps

Backseat Lullaby

Summer…1950 Chevy Coupe
Kosmo’s drive-in…Here she comes
Satin shorts…Roller skates
“Blue Moon”…on the push button
She licks delicious lips…”Eating or just looking?”
“The menu looks great baby”
She laughs… harps from heaven
“If I was your baby…would you rock me to sleep?”
“Relax honey…I got the pacifier”

No Rewind

Summer stars, loud guitars…fade away
Camaraderie…slowly separates
Sultry winds chafed youngish skins…yesterday
Mine eyes do inform me, ‘tis getting late
We drank nectar of youth…no tomorrows
Climbed mountains of the brain…forever lost
I hear the old tunes… they oft’ bring sorrow
No one tabulated, the future cost
Friday nights were always, something festive
A toke or two of herb…cold keg of beer
The record’s stopped playing…I grow restive
Gray hair and wrinkled skin…make message clear
Youth lost on the young…so the story goes
Songs drift on wind…I still feel summer’s throes

Frontier Fascist

In Maricopa County…they like takin’ things slow
Excludin’ that stalwart lawman…who folks call “Sheriff Joe”
Detained, Investigated…Shackled, Humiliated
Human beings herded like cattle…Old Joe he sure does prattle
If you’re headin’ to ‘Zona…wear BS resistant boots
And when you go, say hey to Joe, and pick your own damn fruit

Cash + Cross

“Twas an unholy alliance requiring compliance
On the part of all concerned.
But matter of factI’m telling you Jack it’s a recipe for getting burned.
A portfolio marriage, they rode off in Gold carriage
For the whole damn world to see. But crap hit the fan
Not jivin’ you man when Capitalism married Christianity.

Fox Tales

Homer swilled a beer and smiled
Man “always” was happy
Agnes… barkeep, drew another draft
She said, “Homer, you always smiling’”
“Simple philosophy, Aggie darling,
Ignorance is bliss. I hear Rush every mornin’
Watch Fox every evenin’, came to a conclusion.”
“Wanta share, Homer?”
“Sure enough Aggie girl - I been ‘Blissed.’”
Simple solution, simple feller.