Time's up

Dick's bargain with the Devil's due at last;
no cardiologist butts in, this time.
There's Hell to pay in earnest for his past
and nothing to extenuate his crime.
Unbounded by conventions, or constraints
contemptuous of morals, and of laws
Geneva, he dismissed as merely "quaint"
and tramples on our treaties, clause by clause.
One vote for Kamala can't expiate
his decades waging Class War from above.
Abe Lincoln's party's sold on Greed, and Hate.
despite the Scripture's stark command to love.
His sulfur stench may take years to dispel
For now, we're much relieved that he's in Hell.

may his name be erased

There's silence, where encomia would be;
Dick Cheney'sv legacy's embarrassment.
Five trillion blown on wars lost overseas;
at home, a more intrusive government.
The principles he'd brayed he holds so
dear,
fell silent once there's power in his hand.
entrenching power by purveying fear
moved power from the People to one man.
To preach that torture isn't always wrong
as long as it gains power for the Few/
perverted what it had meant to be strong,
obscuring what real men would never do.
For years, I prayed that any flag half-mast
would signal--finally--Dick's age is past.

It's been a long time coming

Kadyrov reads the omens, and steps back;
he sees his patron headed for defeat.
'Though Putin's apoplectic to "Attack!",
his Chechens stand at ease(if not retreat).
Prigozhin struck too soon, and got rebuffed,
inviting Ramzan to throw off their chains.
But--maybe--Russians now have had enough;
Who might succeed is not for us to say.
with Khodorkovsky living in exile,
they're not retrying Gorbachev's "new way."
They're like to live with warlords, for a while,
this cycle, but just might, another day...
The empire Vladimir had hope would stand
as monument is crumbling with the man.

sycophants

Competitive mendacity's in vogue;
Trump's minions belt out paeans to their king.
Assuring an Executive gone rogue
his high opinion counts for everything.
Dystopic cityscape Curt Yarvin paints
is nowhere manifest down on the street.
He'll make up citizens, and their complaints
until his power-grab can be complete.
The People--past the beltway--ain't impressed,
sashaying past his brownshirts on a lark.
Assembling peaceably to seek redress
democracy lives on in People's Park.
Pathetic courtiers, pushing fictive "facts"
just hope they're not in line to get the ax.

bad faith

Trump cheats at golf; his cultists just don't care.
Integrity's a "weakness" in their books.
He tells them what to think, and what to wear,
and whom to listen to, and where to look.
The pizzeria basement child-sex ring
they'd swallowed at face-value on his word.
But Epstein, and the sordid child-rape thing
they shrilly sweep aside like it's absurd.
The clownish Orange face, and dumb red hat
denote--if you believe--that he's the Man.
You're called a traitor to observe he's fat
and stiffs contractors any time he can.
Deluded they're immune to his attacks
they fantasize that Trump will have their backs.

flip-flop

The war-chest Putin stocked by doubtful means/
looked like enough...until his blitzkrieg stalled.
But now, he's calling up cold-war machines,
and even Stalin might have been appalled,
at so much blood spent for so little gain.
Ukrainians prove quite as tough as Finns;
The paper tiger crumples in Ukraine.
Such wars are quick to lose, but not to win;
Trump's realized that Putin's cause is lost.
The empire of the Czars ain't coming back.
As long as Europeans bear the cost,
He won't restrain Ukrainians' attack.
Increasingly, the Kremlin sulks alone,
and darling Vanya's never coming home.

Games

Trump's noticed Putin plays him for a chump
and doesn't bother hiding his disdain
for such an abject sycophant as Trump.
Now, prospects look much better for Ukraine.
Such armaments as Europeans send
they'll make themselves; they'd be great fools to buy
American; we're not trustworthy friends.
Arms-Makers here will find they're high and dry.
A new World Order, shoving us aside
confronts an undead empire of the czars.
They aren't asking us who lives, or dies
We're not the global arbiter of wars.
A ballsy gambit, Putin played and lost
as usual, civilians bear the cost.