20211111.1111

Again and again
I give the refrain
Would that they had been right
But we don't abstain
From working that pain
On ourselves and increasing our plight

20210925.0430

Ninety days alone remain
And soon will some sound the refrain
At thought of which they often claim
To feel some great oppressive pain
That not all their holidays proclaim
And by not doing show disdain
For words they themselves don't explain
Through the examples of their lives

20210911.0430

Twenty years on
And they still say that the world has changed
That they remember the times before
And think that they were good
And there were good things about those days
For some
Just as there are good things about these days
For some
And maybe there are more for more
Which is as it ought to be
But if it is
Why do they look to former days
Knowing that the times before
Drew toward the one day
And these twenty years after

20210909.0430

So
The one man can
Lay out glowsticks as an invitation to a trap
Set a truck on fire
Flee
Fire on four others
Killing a dog
Killing three
One a babe in arms
Another its mother
Another hers
Try to take a cop's gun
And still walk out alive?
But the other cannot have his truck break down
Without making officers afraid
Signing his own death warrant?
Or another cannot have a quiet night at home
Without execution?
Gee, I wonder why.

20210825.0430

Only four more months remain
Until the time comes back again
When all the shopping must be done
And many have not yet begun
Though displays now start to appear
Though the day does not draw near
As yet. The early salvos fall
In what all too many call
A war. It only has one side
Though its hawks won't be denied
And call for muster even now--
I'll not buy gifts yet, anyhow.

20210625.0430

You have let half the year go by
And have not bet begun to buy
The gifts by which you think you will find love
From friends and family alike
And now that you've been reminded that
The holidays approach and
You have to buy things for them
I wonder if you wonder if
They really love you
Because you are not sure you really love them
Are you?

20210531.0430

We remember
Because we are told we must
Because we are told the many we remember
Because we are told we must
Gave all they had for freedom's cause
And gladly
So that we can be free
To be told we must remember
And do it freely
And to enjoy the discounts that
Job creators
Use to mark the day today
Because we are told we must remember
And the sacrifice of
A few dollars on a single sale
Is surely sufficient recollection
Enough commemoration
And wouldn't they be glad
Those whom we remember
Because we are told that we must
To be remembered thus?

20210412.0430

He walked by again
One hand around his daughter's
The other hovering near the butt of his gun
Sticking out from where he overflows
What does he fear so much that he
Feels the need to try to caress the
One thing he thinks he can count on to
Be hard in his hand and
Shoot straight when he handles it
In a class full of children
Gathered to dance?

20210319.0430

Because of course
He just had a bad day
He's a good boy
He has a problem and
He didn't know how else to fix it
But it was the fault of them
As shouldn't be here anyway
And if they hadn't been doing
What they oughtn't
Then he couldn't've
Right?
Or that's the story that lets
People who look like me
Do horrors
We don't need sewer clowns
But are already worse
And I will never have to worry
That I supposedly
Fit the suspect's description
Even when I actually do--
And, oh, how often I actually do!--
When dappled suids swing on by
Running to excuse another terror
They will call by any other name to excuse their own
Far better a rose, for all its thorns
But neither that nor bread
Save only by the grace of those
Too many have to fear

20210214.0430

I know I am supposed to stop and say

I love you

Today

And that I was supposed to get

Flowers

Candy

A bottle of wine

For her

And for her

And I did make sure they got their gifts

But I still fail to see

How that is different than any other day

20201031.0430

On this day
Precisely equal to
The subject of another one of your false wars
As the Good Doctor put it once
Will you
Still
Say that masks are folly
When you are all too apt to
Cover your own faces in
White draperies
And hide behind a thin line
That must not be very strong if
It needs so much support
Or to hide yourselves among
The feigned emblems and images of those
Whose deaths and dislocations
Have not been enough to satisfy your greed?
Will you still say
It's just a joke
It's just good fun
And will you laugh when
Your own martyrs are lampooned
Bruited about as bunting
More on one day
But not only on the one?

20201013.0430

Alloys are made
In the hope of finding something better
And perhaps one can be found
But it is not this one
An early trial made of low-grade stuff
Advertised as far higher quality than the fact
And left to weather unattended
The rust has eaten it through
And one more shape or strike might
Break it

20201012.0430

We are on occupied land
Taken unjustly and through great pain
That lingers still
No scar over the still-open wound
At which too many pick and think themselves enlightened
And we have the audacity to celebrate the opening of that terror
State-sponsored violence to achieve a political end
But "we have to remember our history"
After all
And "our history" has to be the right one
Because we are supposed to be the right ones
Living in our city on the hill
They never talk about the hill being
Heaped up bodies of the dead
And we can all be grateful that they are not angrier than they are
As they have every right to be

20200915.0430

My inkwell seems too dry at present;
Being spat upon does not make for the needed moisture
Unless it is from much higher up than those expectorating now
Or with a mouth far bigger
If such a thing can be imagined.

20200914.0430

Please close your eyes, O Stupid God, and see
No trace or hint of family or me,
But rest a while, and sleep, and let us flee
Who strive to never bear the knobby crown
That you have put on offer the world round
And that has, heavy, borne many heads down;
We seek no exaltation thus. We thought
We might in time, by doing as we ought,
A swift escape effect, but we are caught
As mice or birds before the watchful eye
Of staring snake, of hawk up in the sky,
And if we move, our lives we may belie.
But still, we may the vulture yet attract;
Who stands between the two is painful, wracked.

20200913.0430

They gather around the small-handed stand-in
That Stupid God sent, the citrus affliction
Painted but poorly and draped just as well,
Horse's ass standing as if centaur's front,
Their golden calf cult-focus, heeding no flame,
No wrath from on high, avenging angel,
But think themselves blessed to have such a one
Standing among the and raving as fevered,
All a-twitter and at all hours
While blood flows in the streets not ending blue lives;
They would play in the puddles and think themselves pure

20200826.0430

It always galls
When someone calls
The work sent in
Not good enough
But it's not all
I must recall
As I begin
Some other stuff

20200824.0430

How does your heart not burn within you
Your blood boil and bubble with fury
Your hand clench and tighten till tendons will crack
Seeing what happens?
Yet you will not even
Lift up your voice against a clear evil
A mill grinds no flour if given no grain
And such silence serves to furnish no grist

20200619.0430

I note the day
Because it is not mine to mark
A reminder that
Though one step was taken
Long overdue
The journey is far from over
And too many drag their feet

20200605.0430

They mouth their lies in calling now for peace
Who have inflicted violence without cease
And seek to glory in abrupt release
Of passions that they claim are all inborn
In them, though they lack fang and claw and horn,
And even those that bear them have forborne
To use them on their own more than they've not,
Putting them to their use when things run hot
And not otherwise, as is oft forgot.
But in the anger that informs them lies
The Stupid God, as should be no surprise,
And they think, fools, who do not it despise,
That none will mark their many acts of wrath
Or think they might prevail on such a path.