POEMS 1979 – TODAY

Thoughts Thought While Munching a Soy-Burger in Nature’s Oven, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (1979)

Bearded or bouncy-breasted beautiful (but not both)
they stand with numbers held in eager hand.
To claim their burgers, good if soy,
to feed and watch the show.

They’ll sit and spend a little time, relaxing over tea or wine
I stand in awe of all these bodies fine.
Reared on soy and bared to show
where sun has burnished skin to copper glow

Sequel to Nature’s Oven (1989)

Bearded they were, clean-shaven they’re now
and instead of soy burgers it’s “mesquite-broiled cow”
They’ve all had ten years of “human potential”
they’ve become possessive and quite residential.
They care about health as an adjunct to wealth
but values have shifted; it’s all for one’s self
I miss older times when ideals were much higher
Oh, I’m selling my house can you think of a buyer?

The Nineties

The nineties are done
bull markets still run
and if you’ve sold options
you’re still having fun.

Millennium’s eve is approaching at last
will Y2K kill us or just simply pass?

We wait for the answers
and go on with our lives
who knows where it’s headed
we’re along for the ride.

To Fly (2007)

I asked the hawk if he remembered
his first flight, the crags below
flying up to meet him, until instinct unleashed
his wings, and let him run
on air’s highway.

So too with you I feared to fall
but loving let me risk it all
now having you to fly with makes me strong
and keeps me soaring
far and fast and long.

The End of the Innocence (2008)

The soft susurrus of the gas meters
mine and my neighbor’s
hissing in unison
Remind me that on this cold still morning
We burn. Carbon rises.
And our civilization slips
Ever closer to the abyss

Terror rains (2008)

It’s good sometimes to walk in rain
The air refreshed and streets washed clean
But now the fear that seared our souls
just sticks around and clouds our goals.

We were a brave and fearless folk
Al-Qaeda broke us with one stroke
Evil leaders used this fact
to blind us to their evil acts

Please God let love and kindness rule
and rid us of these rigid fools
before they crush us ‘neath their heels
a nation betrayed for oil deals

Looking Backwards (2008)

When you finally come to see the threads that bind us to the past
Brave Cicero resisting overthrow of the Republic
Even to the death.
Noble Washington declining offers to become the King he overthrew
Then only do you realize how fragile, precious and rare
Are our freedoms and how dire the fact
That now when they are in full retreat
Only bloggers care.

Ode to Jameson’s (~1970)

O’Casey, Joyce and B. Behan
In goblets measureless to man
Their bruised livers overflowed
Wi’ nectar choice to prompt the ode.
Though dead their poetry remains
Sweet verse from liquor in an Irish vein.

The Times We’re In (2010)

We’ve been through boom.
We’ve been through bust.
We need to know: who can we trust?
The congressmen have sold their souls
to Bankers with their big bankrolls
Tea-baggers rant, spew Republican cant
To block all change they shriek and chant.
If the people can’t win this influence battle
We’re up the creek without a paddle.

The Wall Street Elites
Think they have us beat
That they have crushed the workingman
and left him in defeat

If we believe that’s so to Hell we all will go.
Now is the time to tell them all Hell No.

We’ve got to join with others
Sisters, Brothers, Mothers
To end the raids on jobs and pay
and get our rights and keep our say.
So tell them all this ain’t the way
and make them pay for our betrayal.
Now.

Ode to Monte (2010)

Monte is my trusty steed
He satisfies my travel needs
Montero Sport is one great car
Both looks and space he’s just a star
He rolled 100k last week
without a pop, without a squeak
To part with him would cause some tears
I’ve been with him for many years

Leshaynay afar

News item: bones discovered in Ethiopia displaying 3 million year old
Australopithecus afarensis stone tool marks

3 million years ago our forebears were chipping and now we learn the
Earth is tipping
into a new and dangerous age
where oil and such fossil fuels defeat the ice and end the cool
and damp that life needs to survive
while billionaires appear to thrive
Let’s stop the game and fix our planet
or we’ll be fossils soon chipping bones with tools of stone.

Evil is as Evil Does

Only the vilest wicked heartless plunderers
Steal from their fathers and their mothers
The father’s factory was closed
by greedy NAFTA alchemists
Who spun his hard won gold into clay
While taking his livelihood away
The mother’s social security
is attacked by a cat food commission’s deficit purity
I scream enough to stealing all our riches
Let’s get rid of all these sons of **tches

End of the Beginning/Beginning of the end
Our dreams have been die-verted
At-will has been asserted
Our self-esteem’s been hurted
Now they say just move on

get a job and get your groove on
but it’s not so easy-peasey
this lemon’s hard to squeeze-y

So let’s reform the system
and fix the broken pistons
that used to power engines
of jobs and growth and pensions

No more insane outsourcing
with lower pay a forcing
let’s restore our former glory
or that’s the end of story

From a popular old-timey Kid’s song, modified for today’s issues:

O Dunderbeck O Dunderbeck how could you be so mean
to ever have invented the climate-change machine
Now all the rats and long-tailed cats (and millions of other species)
will never more be seen.

they’ve all been crushed by flood and drought from Dunderbeck
(actually Exxon Mobil’s) climate change machine.

The New Order

Baby boomers having busted
find that leaders can’t be trusted
joined by others down on their luck
Trump’ed up charges get them unstuck
votes are counted and they say
Trump is in and night is day
Pundits quail and nations tremble
as his nasty troops assemble
We are going God knows where
Led by a fool with orange hair

Going Off The Cliff

The fool now rules and Senators drool
at opportunities to be cruel
To satisfy their lords and masters
we the people face disasters
Let’s vote these pigs out of their sties
and bring back justice, rout their lies.

It’s Over

I’ve written urgent letters to the papers and my friends
that dark and evil forces have taken over the land.
To undo the damage will prove a daunting quest
As oligarchs just dance and sing and shit upon the rest.

The Pack

Sydney loves to lick the rug
where Trixie ate her biscuit
Poppy loves to snap at bugs
A bee bite? She will risk it
The three are tight
they rarely fight
So now we need to hug them
So many fuzzy faces seen
We simply have to love them.

Time To Recover

We did our time and Trump is done
pandemic’s course is barely run
Biden’s in and Harris too
Can’t come too soon we’re overdue
for truth and science to return
While floods occur and forests burn
Will democracy endure or fall?
The outcome rests upon us all.