strange loop, strange trip

the PA squawks inaudible half-words
psychotic soundtrack to a subway ride
as senseless as the cawing of blackbirds
a vacuous unending phonic tide
was that announcement only in my head?
should I be up and exiting the car?
I struggle with a rising sense of dread
that I've already gone a stop too far
the Problem of Induction intercedes
I can't be certain of the words I hear
there may be no external aural feed
did that arise in mind? or in my ear?
each subway fare's a ticket through the brain
a opportunity to doubt you're sane

short menu

Trump's presidential bid gave hers a lift
no fine distinctions that might turn on charm
to run against this clown's a cosmic gift
we'll settle for the one who'll do less harm
yet many voters threaten to sit out
or demonstrate their pique by voting "Stein"
a luxury they'd have were this a rout
but not when it will come down to the line
a bouffant fascist surfs an angry tide
of Whites who've seen their privilege erode
they back a strongman out of wounded pride
who barely hides his bigotry in code
although she's not the One for whom we yearn
with Bill as coach, she'll learn to feign the Bern

the SeaWolf

Jack London's SeaWolf postulates a soul
distinct from intellect or fleshly shell
that can't be pent up in a box or hole
but may deserve eternity in Hell
a revolution by the Working Class
earns two conspirators a briny grave
and Humphrey doubts he merited a pass
for sitting out the action like a knave
his wealth and privilege can't make a man
but neither can mere grudging toil suffice
it's more the joie de vivre and elan
that elevates a human above mice
a microcosm bounded by a ship
is stage enough to play out a life's trip

unplanned

millenials embracing carlessness
drive up the price of urban housing stock
exaggerating San Francisco's mess
and forcing long-time tenants into hock
Old Europe knows you need high density
to maximize a city's urban joys
but Yanks want private cars to come for free
as if they didn't spew filth, smog and noise
without a plan, we pave farmland for sprawl
and piss away our lives on the commutes
instead of culture, there's the shopping mall
where teens are left to rove in packs like brutes
suburbia's last century's mirage
that dooms our kids to live in the garage

multi-dimensional political space

Procrustes offered wayfarers a bed
forced hospitality for short and tall
the lankier, he'd shorten by a head
and rack the shorter ones against the wall
the Clintons dare not think beyond their box
preferring to defend the status quo
content that if they're villified on Fox
theirs must be the True Path we all must go
but Change is on the wind and in the street
what FDR achieved's under attack
the Great Society's still incomplete
and Trump aspires to roll the last shreds back
Progressives don't come only in one size
the revolution won't be televised

Philadelphia convention

the disenfranchised march from City Hall
demanding that the delegates give ear
the party that should represent us all
insists if we don't pay, then they don't hear
the Bankers' lobby oversees the planks
and underwrites the party ballyhoo
so Hillary expresses hearty thanks
embracing what they wanted her to do
Bill taught her the trick's to triangulate
but he brought charms to bear that his wife lacks
confronting Trump's campaign of fear and hate
she's prone to bore us by reciting facts
until we overthrow this DNC
this can't be the U.S. it needs to be

out with a bang

colliding neutron stars spew gamma rays
that dwarf the output of a million suns
to fuse in such a catastrophic blaze
the universe bears witness the deed's done
a classic orbit's got to radiate
were they not quantized, Bohr's electrons crash
so stellar twins embrace their fiery fate
brief blaze of glory in the final smash
the cosmic strobe discharges in a shot
and angular momentum's all that's left
a gyroscopic stable whirling top
of almost unimaginable heft
short of the mass to cross the Schwarzschild bar
they form a paradoxical dark star

publish or perish

Charles Darwin paused an age to bring to press
the book that threw the Church in disarray
he'd hoped to spare his wife the fuss and mess
she seemed contented in the Good Book's sway
James Hutton'd shown him there'd been time enough
for mountains to erupt and fall to sand
so what's the rush to publish off the cuff
his revolutionary Opus Grand
the Wallace letter kicked him into gear
someone was gonna get priority
delaying further might make him a mere
footnote forgotten by posterity
not money, but the quest for high repute
drives scientists' internecine disputes

Musar

to write is easy, Hemingway explained
to publish is the harder mark to hit
confront a page and open up a vein
then let your agent make them pay for it
the public loves you when you serve its need
for something entertaining, but still real
and all they ask is that they see you bleed
vicariously, it's such fun to feel!
the Academic style can't touch the heart
like simpler diction Hemingway's school chose
Americans don't want to pay for Art
but see ourselves reflected in his prose
escapists cherish books on war and strife
contributing perspective to their life

Glass Steagall

Glass-Steagall's on the platform for one side
and Hillary must jump to play defense
she'll be depicted as the Bankers' bride
if she persists in sitting on the fence
against a candidate as loud and crass
as Trump she hasn't had to take a stance
for many, it's enough she's not that ass
but stakes are high, and can't be left to chance
investment banks risk big gains and big debts
but retail banks must play it more discreet
FDIC's insuring gamblers' bets
once we permit the twain should ever meet
come January, no one checks those planks
but Trump could win if she stands with the Banks

eye of the beholder

Trump's logo failed at the desired effects
provoking nervous laughter from the crowd
two characters in penetrative sex
but no one told the Donald that aloud
he's never one to listen to advice
his cohorts swear his brain-farts all smell great
and he's convinced the coiffure's awfully nice
that fails to shield us from his butt-pink pate
Mike Pence won't over-shadow his new boss
big donors find him easier to back
if they should clash, it's not much of a loss
the media see profit in attacks
his ad-men played their joke on the buffoon
in one ambiguous campaign cartoon

eye of the beholder

Trump's logo failed at the desired effects
provoking nervous laughter from the crowd
two characters in penetrative sex
but no one told the Donald that aloud
he's never one to listen to advice
his cohorts swear his brain-farts all smell great
and he's convinced the coiffure's awfully nice
that fails to shield us from his butt-pink pate
Mike Pence won't over-shadow his new boss
big donors find him easier to back
if they should clash, it's not much of a loss
the media see profit in attacks
his ad-men played their joke on the buffoon
in one ambiguous campaign cartoon

overspecified

Sam Coleridge proposed that we use "it"
because a pronoun need not point to sex
most social functions don't engage one's kit
or secondary hormonal effects
consensus coalesces around "they"
for singular and plural, all the same
for hetero, or trans, or bi, or gay
what's private need determine not one's name
such metadata carelessly attach
to pronouns where it has no relevance
were they ungendered and free to mismatch
we'd get on better at no great expense
a thousand pitfalls yawn each time we speak
for want of the right pronoun that we seek

DeepSee

what jaguars slink where clouds obscure the moon
what serpents tease the eye where ropes unwind
identifier circuits trip too soon
for objects that are only in our mind
our pattern-recognition's over-amped
to find a predator, however rare
presumably a system better damped
might miss the threat the odd day when one's there
a program tuned to dangers long extinct
is patched and kludged to handle urban life
awaiting what's not there, we're on the brink
but 'til it comes, anxieties run rife
still, sober souls take atavistic joys
discov'ring constellations in the noise

when fascism comes to America II

America is flirting with the beast
that ravaged Europe eighty years ago
not learning from their lessons in the least
geopolitically, we're kinda slow
appealing to a fictive Golden Age
the Donald promises to make us great
a tide of angry voters swells with rage
embracing a campaign of racist hate
'though Hillary is "likable enough"
her lawyerly evasions don't inspire
to motivate her voters will be tough
if she can't show a glint of Bernie's fire
our Founding Fathers' bold experiments
put too much trust in our intelligence

damage control

The Donald hitched his wagon to Mike Pence
to reassure the heartland he's for real
a sop to those convinced he lacks the sense
to keep the Ship of State on even keel
two men who think the State should own the Press
yet disagree on what ought to get said
seem impotent to quell the awful mess
so long to fester, now come to a head
the monster Newt created in his pique
now needs respectability and cash
his handlers have convinced Trump he must seek
a team-mate more accomplished, with less flash
to clean up after such a campaign spree
the party hopes to mop up with T-P

promises unfulfilled

Louisiana cops don't mess around
with niceties of evidence or law
unhesitating to gun a man down
until the video half the world saw
due process is a privilege of Whites
while Blacks get executed in the streets
for stuff as trivial as cracked taillights
lives lived under oppression by the heat
Loretta Lynch may act where Holder talked
to guarantee that rights apply to all
in Sanford as in Furguson he balked
as prosecutor, he just dropped the ball
the moral universe's arc can bend
if we press for real justice 'til the end

narrow appeal

without a rudder, Clinton twists and turns
her lawyerly evasions don't inspire
she wants the votes of those who feel the Bern
but hasn't shown a spark of Bernie's fire
attentively, she heard out Warren's spiel
how we deserve protection from the banks
but in the Senate, she cut a new deal
to earn her Wall Street donors' greenbacked thanks
the General Election won't be closed
it's not enough she keeps the troops in line
as Independents, so the country goes
it's bigger than her rolodex this time
that orange clown could win if turnout's low
(but no one wants to hear 'I told you so')

White Privilege

consider if Brock Turner were less White
caught in the act of raping a coed
instead of Persky letting him off light
before he got to court, he might be dead
a hundred ugly fates befall accuseds
if they're so uppity to drive while Black
unless it's videoed, its just not news
the cop pleads self-defense; he'd been attacked
but Stanford athletes rarely suffer harm
the cops and courts presume they're ruling class
the criminal code's waived down on the Farm
and if there's blame, it's on the drunken lass
White Privilege means more than housing perks
it dooms us to a culture run by jerks

utility function

our fee-for-service healthcare's a bad joke
that makes insurers rich at our expense
providers do ok, but common folk
would only opt for this if we were dense
developed nations recognize vaccines
deliver the best value for our wealth
but here the drug-industrial machine
is optimized for profits, not for health
Joe Lieberman shot down Obama's plan
to keep his Hartford masters in the pink
the Big Insurers bought and owned their man
a contract on our blood, signed in their ink
while Clinton whines we're helpless in our plight
a hundred other nations got this right

ineffable

Jews make a fetish of what we call God
as if we fear to conjure in His name
a concept--if not blasphemous--then odd
because He's One, they can't but be the same
our euphemisms just proliferate
some nouns, some adjectives, some attributes
but all converge to say that He is great
derived from sundry languages and roots
"Allah hu Akbar!" as our brothers say
to prattle on can't magnify on that
our human language must just take away
from what by Nature must be infinite
strange human foible, to invent a sin
to verbalize what only dwells within

Nature and Nurture

dual legacies in proteges and blood
we live in those we've taught and those we've spawned
when tongue and heart are silenced in the mud
to never rise and greet another dawn
a teacher, like a parent never dies
like waves that neve wholly come to rest
constraining future options in their lives
each fledgling goes imprinted from the nest
we're shaped by culture no less than by genes
and each mutates, 'though one goes fast, one slow
'though Dawkins likes us to mere machines
we're not just what we are, but what we know
the time biologists would call a blink
spans generations where we learned to think

Justice, Justice shall you pursue

the Bundys went to prison 'cause they're White
humiliated but withal unharmed
for doing what would get them shot on sight
if they'd been Black and went so boldly armed
the Rule of Law weighs neither class nor race
but prosecutors pick and choose their course
and officers confronting a dark face
too often will resort to lethal force
disseminated Press keeps us apprised
of violence that long had gone unseen
there'll be no change until the burghers' eyes
are flayed by shootings on their smartphone screen
White Privilege corrupts a nation's root
where cops ask questions second but first shoot

Justice, Justice shall you pursue

the Bundys went to prison 'cause they're White
humiliated but withal unharmed
for doing what would get them shot on sight
if they'd been Black and went so boldly armed
the Rule of Law weighs neither class nor race
but prosecutors pick and choose their course
and officers confronting a dark face
too often will resort to lethal force
disseminated Press keeps us apprised
of violence that long had gone unseen
there'll be no change until the burghers' eyes
are flayed by shootings on their smartphone screen
White Privilege corrupts a nation's root
where cops ask questions second but first shoot

scared ya!

dame Thatcher waged crusade for the repeal
of benefits enshrined since Churchill's day
and voters raised on the English NewDeal
were dumb enough to vote large parts away
the rhetoric was "cut it down to size"
but Maggie's cronies got in and waxed fat
the assets that she loved to privatize
were stolen from the proletariate
now Boris wants to scrap National Health
and sever trade ties to the continent
his cronies hoped to multiply their wealth
but now their thatched-head hero may repent
$2trillion vanished overnight
financial markets don't deal well with fright

in the blood

the unit of selection is the gene
that fails or prospers within its context
the organism's merely a machine
for propagation through courtship and sex
so altruism gives theorists fits
when it transgresses consanguinity
biologists engage in wars of wits 
that strain their Ivy League civility
but larger structures can't be wholly hype
societies evolve by their own rules
a Social Science epiphenotype
a fourth-hand consequence of the gene pools
the Nature vs. Nurture fight's recast
but just as unresolved as in the past

war is a racket

A-10s still land where no F-series can
providing ground support both close and low
they'll use dirt roads if there's no macadam
no fighters hang with warthogs flying slow
the VTOL Osprey owns another niche
supporting infantrymen in their ranks
but maintenance remains a royal bitch
it kills more pilots than enemy tanks
when Boeing kept a man in Pentagon
he drafted contracts only they could fill
the bidding process was already won
and you and I would meekly foot the bill
arms makers turn a profit on our wars
what's spent in blood pays interest to those whores

team flying

"kick dust!" he urged, and I did what I could
to mark the wind where Tom proposed to land
his shadow dwindled from me as I stood
in bitterness, and sage and burning sand
one hundred miles to Janie's Ranch from Walt's
395 inspires a pilot's dreams
beside the shriveled river in its fault
seductively, the century mark gleams
 the heated air breaks free and roars aloft
to carry pilots back into the sky
when someone on the ground touches it off
his club mates get to claim it and get high
each valley crossing takes a bit of luck
but Tom just never seems to give a fuck

utility function

'phage Lambda's genome was a trip to map
there's too  much information for the space
until you grasp the genes all overlap
three reading-frames, three meanings for each base
where each mutation must affect three genes
Darwinian selection is impaired
each quantum change is tripled and that means
lethality more often than repair
but evolution needs variety
selecting small improvements from the stack
immobile in thy fearful symmetry
the Red Queen's Race will drop you off the pack
such density in code comes at a cost
improvement opportunities are lost

ta ta

would Texas prompt a second Civil War
by voting to secede just like the Brits
a referendum like Scots made before
might lead to an amicable Texit
and maybe they'll take Clarence Thomas, too
as souvenir of the good times we've had
in all these years, there  must have been a few
though memory's replete with what went bad
so let them go if that's what they think best
Abe Lincoln might have got this wrong at first
we're each a burden on the other's chest
democracy's a farce if it's coerced
no less than Scots, the Texans should be free
if we're not of a single polity

Perpetual Peace

John Bull votes "leave!" and Parliament's aghast
no threat to sovereignty was ever real
but Brussels wants divorce proceedings fast
to get some closure on the Brexit deal
save for the Balkans, Europe's been at peace
three score and ten since the UN was formed
as city-states united to form Greece
diplomacy--not bullets--is the norm
the European Project feeds the dream
that nations could agree to foreswear war
but now that project's lost a lot of steam
that hope's more distant than it was before
a New World Order struggles to be made
but Boris Johnson took us retrograde