Vayigash N

The Pharaoh dreamed of cows devouring beef
but needs a foreign seer to read the sense.
So Joseph's elevated to be chief.
The land's dependent on his competence.
Now, Benjamin must play his brother's part,
to try the mettle of the elder ten.
Yehudah's had a total change of heart.
The rest--who'd been such louts--might now be men.
The fratricidal fantasies of youth
that strained Joe's loyalties to kin, and clan
were capital, if judge in simple truth
but Yosef haTzadik's a pious man.
The jerks who sold their brother as a slave
had grown to men the latter now forgave.

Genius!

Roy Moore's got issues with authority
enough to give his party's elders pause
he claims a place above society
beyond the writ of any man-made laws.
Steve Bannon'd thought the state was safely Red
and wanted an insurgent to irk Mitch.
But Alabama's not so meekly led,
and balked to play that carpetbagger's bitch.
It's not clear Trump could work with Bannon's zoo;
Steve's proteges report to him, alone.
But as the Senate's shifting towards the Blue,
McConnell's looking shaky on his throne.
As Alabama goes, so goes Trump's world
'cause jerks can't keep their hands off teenaged girls.

Who is my neighbor?

Rubashkin's ethics aren't worth two figs
his cult's estranged from all humanity.
Immersed in regulations as to pigs,
he's blind to sparks of the Divinity.
The workers he's accustomed to abuse--
regardless that he finds their accents odd--
are no less children than his fellow Jews
of Yiddish speakers' universal God.
Isaiah railed against such empty rites
of Jews who sacrifice, and fast, and bow.
As if our brethren, 'though they're Ishmaelites
bore visages that aren't His, somehow.
To be a mensch, one's called upon to care
regardless that the sufferer's a ger.

unfunny

Will Rodgers had no use for "TrickleDown"
as he described the hoax to honest folk
but now, "our" Fed takes guidance from a clown
who doesn't grasp his policy's a joke.
Art Laffer's grand experiment's been tried;
the rich invest in growth to save on tax.
But Trump's advisors somehow can't abide
to build sound policy on stubborn facts.
The benefits our taxes underwrite
are more than Kochs, or Mercers would report.
They lift Society from Hobbes' plight:
life "solitary, nasty, brutish, short"
The "Voodoo economics" Bush condemned
is more than honest research can defend.

Shemot II

The bush is marvelously unconsumed
for Moshe, the whole cosmos in suspense
forsaking life with Pharaoh, who's foredoomed,
he'll have to goad his kin to hie them thence.
 Apotheosis only lasts a beat
and then it's back to court, and noise, and mob
so lacing back the sandals on his feet
he quits the wilderness, and takes a job.
But in that moment, destiny's unfurled
no peaceful dotage with the kids, and wife
to bring this revelation to the world
will take whatever's left to him of life.
To quit the courtly pleasures took a prod,
but tending Yitro's sheep, he came to God.

Yule

Past perihelion, flung back into space

Chileans watch their Summer sun recede

still snugly held in gravity's embrace

a dancer following Sol's stately lead.

Norteños watch days wax, and night-lengths wane

as New Year treads the beard of one grown old.

An axis canted from the solar plane

means days grow longer while our world's still cold.

Nativity got overlaid on Yule

as Saturnalia morphed to sing God's birth.

To face the dead of Winter sober's cruel

while pagans fete renewal of the Earth

As years concatenate another link,

we pass the darkest night with friends, and drink.

Vayigash III

Climactically, the brothers reconcile
once Yosef's satisfied they've grown to men
discarding his disguise, he's done with guile
they've spurned his bait, demurred to sin again.
If precious Benjamin has been ill-used
it's in a higher cause, to heal the rift.
Renewed, the brotherhood that binds all Jews--
although, he can't consent--becomes Ben's gift.
A hope that kingdoms split can reunite
sold as an allegory of twelve sons
who--having feuded--still can get it right
as brothers meant to face the world as one.
Before the plagues smite Egypt and its gods
we've got to make one staff from sundry rods.

solstice

A endless dance of metronomic grace
a tipsy whirl around our common mass
cartoonish pair in gravity's embrace
Apollo barely sways his stately ass.
But Gaia's dancing harder, as the girl
to trace Ezekiel's celestial wheels
a spritely pas-de-deux for a whole world
like Ginger Rogers, backwards, and in heels.
An axis canted far from the upright
defying the consensus solar plane
consigns our drinking season to long night
where fantasies of trolls and goblins reign.
Each solstice, as we're running out of rope,
rebounding day-length gives us cause for hope.

second time as farce

Lysenko's back, and famine's close behind.
New politicians think they can outwit
established science, like they mean to find
a way to separate the stink from shit.
This time, it's Trump, denying that we cause
the droughts, and floods, and deaths by hurricane.
Defying scientists, whose graphs and laws
all point to costs, where all he wants is gain.
America's become a laughing-stock
pariah, while the world works hard to plan
plan-B that circumvents this strutting cock;
the planet's not in awe of any man.
A leader terrified of being led's
unfit to serve a nation as its head.

Facts on the Ground

Rejectionism's served the Arabs ill,
for fifty years, the West Bank's occupied.
Israelis claim each spring, and every hill
the Greenline's half-erased and nullified.
The monument to Yasir Arafat
must show he served his ego more than God,
the Settlers won't hand over what they've got
not even to the saint, Salam Fayyad.
A People's right, as author of its fate
is in the UN charter, plain as day
but Bibi's still intent to dominate,
no road, no olive grove's beyond his sway.
Where one controls what two were meant to share,
we've gone too far to reach a peace that's fair.

How are the mighty fallen

If Dershowitz were right, Trump can't obstruct
his justice is administered top-down
but then, our whole republic would be fucked;
our "rights" would be mere boons, owed to this clown.
That Alan's colleagues shun him's no surprise;
their part is not to sing the FarRight's song.
Let Bannon justify Bob Mercer's lies;
their role is to explain why both are wrong.
Three pillars undergird our government
to legislate, adjudicate, and do.
It's not our way to let one president
impose his will above the other two.
The gravitas that comes with HarvardLaw
can't float an argument with such a flaw.

moore's mores

Steve Bannon was invested in Roy Moore
but even Alabama's not that Red.
It's not enough to hold the racist core;
without the women's votes, this party's dead.
McConnell thought his gavel well-entrenched,
but now, his margin's dwindled to one seat
his power over who sits on the bench
depends on Cruz evading sure defeat.
The midterms loom, Pelosi smells a wedge
to split Republicans, and geld their boss.
All candidates will have to sign her pledge
no dating interns! That way's a sure loss.
For Gillibrand, a White House bid comes next
as voters penalize coercive sex.

Miketz

The Pharaoh's sommelier resumed his post
forgetting Joseph in his dismal plight
until--reminded by the baker's ghost--
he elevates our hero to the light.
Another change of clothes, another role
to guarantee there's bread when there's no rain
exalted migrant, settled in control
when all the nation's wealth is stored in grain.
To reconcile the family's on his head,
while clinching Egypt in his liegelord's hand.
The favored son they'd long presumed was dead
must mask his machinations as "God's plan".
The brothers he's not rushing to forgive
now grovel for the bread by which they live.

Intelligent design

For sprinting, we rise up digitigrade
the longer lever multiplies our pace
a transformation of the way we're made
surprising game that hadn't seen us race.
A gut too long for flesh, too short for plants
and sweaty, hairless skin that radiates
requires technology for making pants
and hats to limit heat-loss from our pates.
A compromise design a team might pitch
no wise Designer's write the spec just so
obliged to carve a non-existent niche
where biomes had filled up an age ago.
No God formed in the likeness of a man
would sign His name to such a stupid plan.

grab-bag

Ted Cruz snuck fetal personhood aboard
outrageous subterfuge by dark of night
no proper piece of any tax accord
but meat to his supporters on the Right.
McConnell's bill--unread--came to the floor
the lobbyists who wrote it stayed off-screen.
A party loyal to the Mercers' whore
fell into line for what they'd never seen.
Murkowski, Flake, and Collins each got bought
to reach the reconciliation round.
The scraps of pork that they'd so fondly sought
can't fix a bill so radically unsound.
Our nation's future's underneath the ax
to spare the Kochs a piddling bit of tax.

no longer unspoken

Al Franken quit, Roy Moore pretends he's fine
what women say--to him's--of no concern
to Democrats, they're both across the line.
Republicans see nothing here to learn.
Since Women's Suffrage, nothing's been more clear
one party's hoping they'll just go away.
It's coming to a head this coming year,
both Houses of our Congress are in play.
The mantle almost fell upon Mike Pence
when Trump was taped on Access Hollywood.
But Trumpsters weren't balanced on the fence;
they just don't care their guy grabbed what he could.
Trump still insists that none of it's his fault
but knives are out for sexual assault.

low flight

Cast off the surly bonds of gravity;
embrace the joy awaiting us on high.
It's not enough to live life in 2-D
when once you've realized we're meant to fly.
A kite's a pretty minimal machine
a bargain, amortized on so much fun.
And as a sport, it's almost wholly green;
convection's driven--gratis--by the sun.
Uncircumscribed by stadium, or court,
with little but the wind for us to hear.
Apotheosis in the realm of sport!
We're only bounded by the atmosphere.
A pleasure long beyond the reach of kings
belongs to anyone who'll take to wings.

vayeshev

and Jacob settled, thinking he was done
two names, and thirteen children seemed enough
Our focus turns now to his best-loved son
for whom the family saga's getting rough.
The Leah clan resented Jacob's love
reserved for Joseph and the younger wife.
Where others got a hug, he got a shove
and then conspiracy against his life.
Maturity's late-dawning on these guys.
Their father learns his eldest boy's a creep.
While they repay his trust by spinning lies
as if their brother were not theirs to keep.
Paternity took Judah back to school
to forge the soul of one who's fit to rule.

ya know?

Holistic types disdain to analyze
like seeing doesn't need them to mentate.
A world--not in the mind--but in the eyes
would leave the spirit free to meditate.
As if reality were common fare,
plunked down upon the plank at which we dined
full-formed, and uncontentiously "out there"
and not constructed in each thinker's mind.
Descartes made clear, four centuries ago
this murky matter of "reality"
how precious little one can strictly know
despite our fondest quest for certainty.
For bedrock rules on which all life depends,
reductionism's how one comprehends.

who counts

Emanuel proved ineffectual
coercing Congress to Obama's will.
It's cash, not threats that grants a player pull;
Chicago's games don't play Capitol Hill.
His vision of a world post-partisan
relied on folks to whom such things appeal
But Gingrich coached his choir in unison.
Barack was never gonna get a deal.
The senator from Hartford played his role,
defeating his own party by a hair.
His donors own his soul, and kept control
of what Americans "choose" in healthcare.
The Universal Care the world enjoys
can't buck the tide of Donors' cash and noise.

decline

Trump whines America's no longer great
and shirks our customary global role
espousing politics of fear, and hate
this limbic president lacks self-control.
The Germans lead the world in Human Rights
and Xi JinPing sets policy on Trade.
But Trump's still on the playground, picking fights
to prove to daddy that he's not afraid.
Our century of influence was fun
when we could fight our wars across the seas
but  after what our voters gone and done
our proud republic's sinking to her knees.
The orange president and VP pale
just illustrate anew Why Nations Fail.

Chayye Sarah III

Rebecca's heavy lifting at the well
showed Eliezer this must be the one
a coded way for his lord's God to tell
him here's the bride to bring his master's son.
Yitzhak's been silent, since we saw him, bound
expecting that his father'd take his life.
He's not to travel, tethered to the ground
but providence must bring him the right wife.
His father looms heroic in his eyes;
his sons will seek adventure in the world.
but Yitzhak's less the player, than the prize
still trusting dad will get him the right girl.
Reluctant actor on his own life's stage, 
we never see him wholly come of age.

vayeitze II

When Jacob emigrated towards Haran
Rebecca sent him fleeing for his life
his brother's bent on vengeance for the con
let Isaac think he's gone to meet a wife.
The man who'd lurked in camp, now works outside
his only shelter's heaven's starry dome
but nights are warmer with his double bride.
Without a  house, he yet contrives a home.
The stolen blessing never seems to work;
his uncle cheats him every time he can.
A score of years in service to that jerk
grew callouses all over our "smooth man".
Yeshuran, who'd been crooked can go straight
when first he's overcome his brother's hate.

cracks

Bob Mercer's washed his hands of Bannon's man
and Adelson's disgusted with Roy Moore
big donors are allergic to the Klan;
they don't align with Trump's White racist core.
The pedophile that preys on teenaged girls
displays no token of his villain's part
no comic opera mustache that he twirls
to flag his lack of empathy, and heart.
McConnell figures he can spare one seat
but needs to show Kentucky he's upright.
A candidate so damaged should be beat
(at least if his opponent's also White).
The Senate Democrats are on a roll
but still need two more seats, to take control.

revenge

Hariri's back, Beirut can speculate
what had allayed the fear that made him quit.
Hezbollah's still a martial pseudo-state
that keeps a list of enemies to hit.
Assad--who whacked Rafiq--is still at large.
It takes no genius to connect the dots.
but now, his capo Putin's taken charge
Bashar may not be free to call the shots.
Saad, himself, may answer to Riyadh;
the Lebanese arrangement's byzantine
its linkages are only known to God
our spies do what they can, from what they glean.
Assad's a fool to stick to the old tune
Hariri thinks himself the star of 'Dune'.

famous for 15 minutes

binSalman struts his hour upon the stage
as if the kingdom just awaits his plan
so confidant that--at his tender age--
the world acknowledges that he's the man.
His cousins weigh his slender resume
and mark both Syria and Yemen red.
Those ventures manifestly did not pay
unless you monetize the heaps of dead.
binMuqrin's helicopter got shot down
all hands were lost in empty seas of sand.
But throngs of cousins still could claim the crown;
it's nearly bottomless, this royal band.
King Salman's old, and evidently ill
with regal legions to contest his will

power play

binSalman treats his office like a toy,
to kill one rival, and beat others down.
Appalling powers to vest in a boy
who's next in line to bear the Saudi crown.
Mansour--we think--perceived his cousin's plan
and so, was marked as one who had to die.
His pilot sleeps beside him in the sand;
their helicopter fell out of the sky.
ARAMCO's IPO's been cast in doubt
the public trusts him less than his close kin
who're smuggling the ryals they've gathered out;
investors aren't pumping money in.
Too eager to establish a great name,
he's lost sight of the purpose of the game.

post-Mugabe

Mugabe's party's showing him the door
but he's still disinclined to quit this race.
He likes his chances in a civil war
and never showed George Washington's good grace.
A revolutionary gone to seed
too often clings to power by diktat.
No longer servant to the People's need,
the aging Comrade's now the autocrat.
The neighbors know a coup's bad precedent
the military brass must know their role
if they can overthrow a president,
they may not need a vote to take control.
A revolution's an unruly thing
too many officers want to be king.

Powerbroker

Mugabe's out, four decades past his prime.
The people sniff the air of liberty.
His revolution, frozen out of time
forgot Zimbabweans yearn to be free.
The generals insist they've staged no "coup"
Their fight is only in the public's cause
by rooting out corruption by "the few"
they'd reinstate a government of laws.
George Washington achieved what he'd aspired
to do. His battles had been fought, and won
eight years in office, then he just retired.
A gracious exit when his role was done.
Mugabe's legacy's now cast in doubt
his dowager's been bested in a rout.

high stakes

binSalman feared a coup was in the cards
but figured he'd forestall it by his wits.
He placed his royal cousins under guards
as non-consensual guests at the Ritz.
Democracy's not fostered by the gun.
He's seized their assets, not their loyalty.
His claim's unsure as Salman's youngest son;
most princes can post more securities.
Aramco's IPO is looking grim
as Saudis smuggle assets out the door.
The kings economists can't lie to him;
the nation's wealth's increasingly off-shore.
The odds are long for such a petro-state,
that bets its fortune on one gambler's fate.

one wheel in the ditch

Republicans repudiate Roy Moore
he's not the man to hold Jeff Sessions' seat.
The prospect of him preaching from the Floor
in full Klan panoply, with hood, and sheet,
has Senators aghast. He's not with us!
We're loyal, but he's not what we had meant.
That creep belongs on Billy Bush's bus.
It's hard enough to back our president.
One Predator-in-Chief's a lot to hide;
he left his prints on Miss Teen USA.
We'll have to shove this Good Old Boy aside.
Pray Luther strange can make him go away.
No party loyalty like days of yore
the GOP's engaged in civil war.

Diplomats

Trump "never said" that Kim is short, and fat
although his twitter-log attests he had.
Embarrassingly, our chief "diplomat"
is less than competent, and may be mad.
The dotard North Koreans love to tease
can't tell the nightly news from "Game of Thrones".
The broadest farce, and crassest parodies
routinely go too high to catch his tone.
The jab that's age-appropriate at ten,
--a bit of snark to even an old score--
when traded by these nuclear-armed men,
could set our planet on a path to war.
The tiff that ends the last hope for World Peace
should not be over which brat's more obese.

Game of Thrones

binSalman's cousins found he was unfit
and judged Mansour would make the better king.
binMuqrin's helicopter took the hit
and aviation fails, without a wing.
The Yemen quagmire has no end in sight
yet Lebanon's a place he might prevail
fourth times the charm, to prove his army's might
but nothing he's launched yet has failed to fail.
An autocrat the Kushners'd recognize
has gathered all State powers in his mitts
dissent's dismissed--officially--as "lies"
for dissidents: Free Lodging at the Ritz!
So many princes! It's not clear just who
must save Arabia through a new coup.

changes

leaves skitter on the duckpond's frozen face
the trees re-clad in snow before they're bare
the seasons whirl at an abnormal pace
it's Winter before Autumn's fully here.
the GulfStream wavers, Iceland holds its breath
without it, what could keep the cold at bay
can geothermal spare them from slow death
if heat's transported somewhere far away?
More moisture's carried in the atmosphere
as heat's trapped by exhausts from car, and cow
old vegetation patterns, year by year,
seem ill-adapted to the here-and-now.
Trump still thinks Climate Change may be a hoax; 
his talking points are written by the Kochs.

Times change

Since Robert Frost, the poets' realm's grown small
their library's contracted to one shelf.
Where Milton sang of Eden, and the Fall,
the Modern's world's no bigger than the self.
Miranda craved an Art that's got more range
let haiku-masters keep theirs neat, and terse.
While others whine, he'll engineer the change;
this generation's primed for rhyming verse.
Millennia, t'was poets ruled the stage,
from ribald comic highs, to tragic lows.
His Hamilton's the wonder of the age,
eclipsing treatments done in plodding prose.
Each year, some forms gain favor, some forms lose.
Tomorrow, something new may please the Muse.

...some to abhorrence

Saad Hariri knows Assad full well
'though justice in this world is looking bleak.
Bashar deserves a special place in Hell
for blowing up Prime Minister Rafik.
'Though Mehlis nailed his assets to the wall
the Syrians demur to give a hoot
The playing-field is theirs, as is the ball,
from Kurdistan to beaches in Beirut.
The Russians grant him Syria, alone
with military hardware, not just words.
He'll live another season on the throne
and spend it murdering n-thousand Kurds.

 The day that Putin leaves, and takes his gang,
we'll shrug to see Assad's whole family hang.

changing fashions

Since Robert Frost, the poets' realm's grown small
their library's contracted to one shelf.
Where Milton sang of Eden, and the Fall,
the Modern's world's no bigger than herself.
Miranda craved an Art that's got more range
let haiku-masters keep theirs neat, and terse.
While others whine, he'll engineer the change;
this generation's primed for rhyming verse.
Millennia, t'was poets ruled the stage,
from ribald comic highs, to tragic lows.
His Hamilton's the wonder of the age,
eclipsing treatments done in plodding prose.
Each year, some forms gain favor, some forms lose.
Who knows what offerings may please the Muse?

Vayera P

When Tantalus served up his only son
Olympus shuddered at the very thought.
That's not how sacrifices should be done;
the favors of the gods were not so bought.
They resurrected Pelops to a tee;
Poseidon loved the lad, from toe to head.
Who--for his part--expressed his piety
performing nightly in His water-bed.
The text of Genesis reworked the plot,
and Gospel writers made it something new.
One God replaced the whole Olympic lot.
This pagan Greek's recast as pious Jew.
The angel staying Abraham's raised knife,
renewed a pagan myth to vibrant life.

The time has come...

Indictment Monday! Mueller tips his hand.
Already, Papadopoulos has pled;
He'll open for us on the witness-stand,
to contradict what Sean and Sarah've said.
Paul Manafort took $Millions from Ukraine
to prop the Kremlin's puppet on that throne.
Evading taxes on that tainted gain
could earn a nine by twelve cell of his own.
You squeeze the little fish, then work up higher
to implicate lieutenants near the top.
If Papadopoulos wore Mueller's wire,
he'll earn more lenient treatment from our cop.
"The time has come" the walrus said "to squeal"
Sam Clovis heads the queue to cop a deal.

revolutionary

five centuries since Luther took up quill
and gave der Deutsche Welt what had been Greek
a common diction that they're using still.
He standardized the way that Germans speak.
Like Aleghieri, but without the rhyme
his dialect because the standard one
for Northern Europe to the present time
the printing press prevailed, without a gun.
Linguistic union needs no troops, no State
and even Catholic Austria joined on
vonBismarck's project of a later date
had deep foundations he could build it on.
Before a flag gets raised, or anthem sung,
identity seeps in, with mother's tongue.

Lech l'cha

Two sides of beef stand witness to the b'rit
our patriarch sprawls tripping on the sand.
Where Avram chased off vultures from the meat
his seed would hold clear title to the Land.
A toothless promise, murmured in the night
no rainbow seals the end to death by Flood.
The Promised Land must still be won by fight,
the covenant's not sealed, except in blood.
The dream that Herzl swore was not a dream
was wrested from the Ottomans' defeat
a remedy for peace-time too extreme
took war and devastation to complete.
Yet Makhpelah's not his, 'til it's been bought;
the Conquest--foreordained--must still be fought.

b'reishit N

A serpent guards that garden in the East
where we could picnic, free from thorns, and ants.
Until, conversing with that subtle beast,
we found a need for modesty, and pants.
Uncounted worlds of angels, singing praise,
left Him unsatisfied, and oddly bored.
So our account conceives, in seven days
a "very good" device to please the Lord.
The Tree of Knowledge let God off the hook.
Without freewill, He can't be wholly good.
Theodicy's there in the op'ning book.
It's we that chose to not do as we should.
Let theologians categorize sin;
morality, like God, must dwell within.

M & A

When neutrons stars embrace, it's not by chance
their orbital decay was foreordained,
a single mass, where lately two had danced
but on the balance, much that's new is gained.
The warp and weft of space-time resonate
and LIGO duly notes this distant gong.
Once what was excess got to dissipate
the term for gravity proved far too strong.
Neutronium's its own potential-well
accounting for a lot of mass, perhaps.
But small amounts just blow themselves to Hell,
and bigger wads make BlackHoles, by collapse.
As wonders of the universe unfold,
it's kilonovae that bequeath us gold.

used

To show the president he's got his back
John Kelly went on camera, and lied
a virulent, ad hominem attack
on anyone who'd take the widow's side.
LeDavid Johnson served his country well
his wife deserved a prompt condolence call,
explaining what's at stake in the Sahel,
for which her husband had to give his all.
This White House failed to even keep a list
of GoldStar families to be consoled.
A nation's outraged at the widow dissed,
but Conway's betting it can be controlled.
John Kelly clings, where better men would quit.
It's unbecoming, eating Donald's shit.

helter skelter

the locomotive tethered to my arm
thinks he could take that squirrel in a race
without a yip of warning or alarm
he's stretched out at a gallop, giving chase.
Were I but on a skateboard, or on skis
his energy might save me from some sweat
but running helter-skelter through the trees
I'd like a drogue-chute to arrest this jet.
A fleeting circuit of the local park
to stretch our legs a bit, perchance to train
him not to lunge at squirrels, or to bark
at times, I'm like a puppet on his chain.        
he's eager to impress me that he's good
could I but make myself well-understood.

echo chamber

When Eminem and Limbaugh've jumped the ship
there's no alternative from which to choose.
Trump's minions have to wake to this bad trip
they scan in vain for cheerier fake news.
An epistemic universe so shut,
their minds are battened, locked, and barred, and trussed.
The New York Times ain't gonna make the cut; 
they know just whom they don't, and whom they trust.
Reports are "fake" if they're not from the team
the tribal narrative's just for the base
insisting their delusion's not a dream
eyes firmly shut against this scary place.
More opiates sedate them, day by day.
But this dystopia won't go away.

Noach II

Each clockwork cosmos, pure, and fair, and just
was found deficient; none could clear the rod.
And yet this compromise, wrought from their dust,
proved somehow satisfactory to God.
Free-will lets monotheists off the hook.
Although there's Evil, God can still be good.
While revelation's there in His good book,
it's willful man that won't act as he should.
The line of Adam must ride out the storms
although our violence screams to the skies,
to build again society, and norms
where no one does what's good in his own eyes.
Repackaged Gilgamesh, and snakes, and mud
lay ethics on old stories of the Flood.

machinations

Who knows what Kellyanne believes at heart?
She'll advocate for Mercer's darkest whim.
To practice law, one has to play the part
and Robert's hired her mouth to speak for him.
Sincerity's the key in politics
for which a frontman's weighed, and bought, and sold.
The public hated Spicer's nervous tics.
When you can fake sincerity, you're gold!
Not long ago, she would have sold us Cruz
dissecting Trump the grifter that he is.
But Mercer calculated Ted must lose
And Donald fitted better with his biz.
A useful puppet, cloaking Mercer's hand
sings hymns to Trump--until Pence gets her canned.

misappropriation

Trump's cronies take their flights high on the hog,
in love with perquisites that come with rank.
The tone's set by their spendthrift demagogue;
our public coffer's just their piggy-bank.
Inspectors General work overtime
accounting for each new extravagance.
Each military flight might be a crime,
but no one dares call "bullshit" on Mike Pence.
Incessantly, Trump's cabinet posts churn;
the Senate confirmations never end.
We'll each be Secretaries in our turn!
Their ethics, only Conway could defend.
The scandals that would sink another ship
bespeak the iceberg; we've just glimpsed the tip.

infrastructure

Cell-service revolutionized world trade
leapfrogging infrastructure that's not there.
Before an optic fiber cable's laid
the data's in the 'cloud, sent through thin air.
MaBell's a lap or more behind the pace.
As long as banks use checks inscribed in ink,
we're scarcely even players in this race; 
our global ranking's only gonna sink.
World economic order on its head.
The late adopters claim the top reward.
Our century of influence is dead, 
too late to cut the corporate 'phone cord.
Nigerians reap billions in sham deals;
Americans share photos of our meals.

links

Vacation beckons, Donald quits this town,
away from the humidity, and heat.
The toll of so much "winning"'s got him down.
At golf, his "friends" accept, he's gonna cheat.
The drive he slices into the pro-shop
goes unrecorded, there's another ball.
His caddy sets a tee, with it atop.
To mention it would be the height of gall.
But back in Washington, Bob Mueller's team
is prospecting among the gold for dirt.
Already, Flynn's shown more than just a gleam.
We're keen to hear what Carter Page may blurt.
The links this Special Counsel documents
could spell the downfall of a president.

limits

Of those who look imploringly to Pence,
scant few embrace his Hoosier Christian cult.
The rest hope for a whiff of competence;
the Oval Office calls for an adult.
Our twenty-fifth amendment's grand of breadth,
but noticeably lacking in details.
Transition's clearer when there's been a death,
but no one's sure what ousting Trump entails.
That "fucking moron" Tillerson can't stand
may yet have allies on Capital Hill.
To strip him of his office, and command,
McConnell'd have to show uncommon will.
The horrors of a Pence presidency
at least fall short of launching WWIII.

the First

Not even Limbaugh can salute this mess
our media unite, from best to worst
when Trump assaults the Freedom of the Press
for Rights enumerated in the First.
The court ruled Peter Zenger must go free;
it can't be "libel" to point out frank flaws.
If we're to practice real democracy,
to punish Truth makes mockery of laws.
To date, this latest tantrum takes the cake.
Trump's stubby hands would strangle empty air.
But it's his budget numbers that are fake;
and CNN just made the figures square.
Elections are a sham, if we must choose
without free access to unfiltered news.

Powell's heir

Rex Tillerson's got no use for his boss
what he constructs, that fucking moron breaks.
The anti-Midas, turns all things to dross
and barters rare originals for fakes.
He's only stuck it out this long for Mike.
But--for is part--he wants governor Pence
to do more than stick fingers in the dike
and testify to Trump's incompetence.
The 25th Amendment's all the rage
as scholars grasp at any floating straw
to save us from the latest Trump outrage
the remedy's untested, but it's law.
Reluctant Brutus weighs his loyalties
as our republic totters to her knees.

setting the low tone

The neoNazis marched in Charlottesville
not Whitefish, where they'd just made empty noise
Their packmates were emboldened to the kill
who, each alone, are pewling frightened boys.
The local cops demurred to do their job
and shut their eyes in studied innocence
complicit with the scum who formed the mob.
Let others leave their 'prints on violence.
The Trumpanzeees with tiki torches strut,
rhetorically inflated by their man.
As intellects, they'd never made the cut
but bars are lower in the Ku Klux Klan.
Six months! Trump's minions set a record low
regressing to the dark years of JimCrow.

red-shift

ben-Uziel could roast a bird in flight
if it flew by while he was deep in prayer
his comm-link's collimated hot and tight
too bad for anyone intruding there.
With Moses only, God spoke face to face
and he concealed his beams behind a veil
for no one since him has that been the case
more often, calls rejected, e-texts fail.
"no more than one"'s the formula that Jews
agree for God, but He won't intervene
within the laws of nature, we can choose
but what's divine is neither heard, nor seen.
Attenuated with the passing time
God's messages grow dim (but they still rhyme)

Military Advisors

Until this government falls in Niger
our Green Berets kill with impunity
no reason's given for our mission there
uranium deposits must be free!
The racket Smedley Butler warned us of
has tentacles throughout Capital Hill
procurement and Arms Makers hand-in-glove
set policy against the People's will.
Imperial pretentions have a cost
and vassal peoples dream dreams of their own
the Marshall Plan's good feelings are long lost
now legions want to tip us from our throne.
the Dulles/Eisenhower plan for Pax
is incompatible with current facts.

Medea

from Iolcos, Jason rode the West wind's breath
across the wine-dark seas, unplumbed and wide.
his uncle hoped he'd meet a nameless death
and wasn't charmed to meet his foreign bride.
Medea, for her part, returned his hate
and schooled his mindless daughters what to do
if their dear dad were to rejuvenate
they'd have to serve him meekly up in stew.
But Corinth was the capstone on her life
Euripides immortalized her role
when Jason showed up with his trophy wife
she balked at life where others had control.
a proto-feminist avant-le-mot
from 2.4 millennia ago.

Cops of the World

Three GreenBerets were ambushed in Niger
they're quite as dead as if they'd gone to war
America's surprised to learn they're there;
we've yet to hear just what this mission's for.
Eight hundred bases pock the planet's face
without accounting for our SpecialOps.
Damned Yankees act as if we run the place
but no one designated us WorldCops.
Combatants--to be lawful--need a war;
freelancers get no bennies if they're shot.
'Though Erik Prince believes each man's a whore
our troops in uniform are proudly not.
Without a policy, we're walking jokes
reprising bitter lyrics from Phil Ochs.

zot haBracha

Contented goat-herd, tending Yitro's flock
demurred promotion to a bigger job
he'd fled the verdant delta for this rock
idyllic break from court, and from that mob.
Reluctant poet, 'til he found his tongue
relied on elder siblings though the years
but when--at last--his final song was sung
he's made the Heavens and the Earth give ears
The humble servant to a higher will
who'd lead the People where he's told to go
to plead at court, or hear a case, or kill
because an inner voice compelled him so.
No dynasty of sons, no earthly shrine
his legacy's in words of the divine.

stochastic progress

Cetaceans galloping beneath the waves
preserve a land-based quadrupedal gait
as upright Man so often still behaves
like ancestors more fit to brachiate.
Old subroutines are cheap to rearrange
as duplicated genes are free to drift.
Among the clunkers, each time we make change,
collectibles are there, for us to sift.
Conserving features more like the sublime
absorbing bound'ries play the longest odds
repeating throughout eons of Deep Time
produced the physiognomy of gods.
Until biologists learned to do math
it took a genius to discern life's path.

echoes

the Whigs embraced Zach Taylor, and he won
the White House for them, then abruptly died.
Their party's back was broken, spent, and done
Republicans became "the other side".
They've had their own run since the Civil War
but now, their season's over on the stage
their wreckage is a platform for Roy Moore.
Progressives dominate the coming age.
Can Democrats avoid this fate as well?
Have both big parties doomed themselves to split?
The Wasserman machine's consigned to Hell,
and Tom Perez has not been worth a shit.
The Russians paid good money for their clown
who may yet bring our whole republic down.

b'reishit N

FirstLight, created ere the moon, or sun
was stored away--for those who can--to find
each spark redeemed, a sacred battle won
perceived not with the eyes, but with the mind.
The written word made history's first mark
preserving poetry of those who'd died
sustaining what might gutter in the dark;
what had been deep could also, now, grow wide.
But is it metaphor? Or the BigBang?
black-body of a cosmos screaming hot?
A pre-galactic, thermal birthing pang.
Perhaps we'd better read it as p'shat.
FirstLight could cast no shadows in our cave
'til Wilson thought to look in microwave.

Olam haBah

the "Open Secret" Wolfson won't explain
is there for those with sitzfleisch to discern.
Vain author! treats his readers with disdain
defying them to persevere and learn.
The deuteronomistic quid pro quo
describes a world where justice pure gets done
a fiction, where perhaps we'd like to go
but manifestly foreign to this one.
The Book of Daniel innovates reward
that no one heard at Sinai where we stood
a stiff-necked people took commandment hard
expecting blessings (were we to be good).
The spark is consubstantial with the Whole;
Our God's the integral of human soul.

Disaster

To waive the Jones Act, Trump's unhesitant
when Texans or Floridians want help
but Puerto Ricans have no president;
he thinks those islanders eat poi, and kelp.
No part in what he thinks would make us "great"
too healthy-looking for his orange tribe
restoring services would have to wait
until he get a kickback, or a bribe.
What profit's in it, if a foreign boat
alleviates their suffering, or loss
'til Puerto Ricans get the right to vote
they're barely citizens to the big boss.
An island sinking in a sea of debt
is something Donald wishes we'd forget.

Russo III

Symbolic speech, like Kaepernick employed
enjoys robust protection by the First
Amendment; laws that ban it must be void.
Allegiance is a farce, if it's coerced.
But in the workplace, laxer rules obtain; 
employment can depend on staying mute.
The contract's all about mutual gain
and Management wins when there's a dispute.
A lot of teams could use his good right arm
but none dare face Trump's tantrums and his ire
while Donald warns attendance would take harm
if Colin were the quarterback they'd hire.
Trump wants Black athletes quiet in their place
but still pretends he didn't run on race.

Russo II

Symbolic speech, like Kaepernick displayed
enjoys robust protection by the First
Amendment against laws that might be made.
Allegiance is a farce, if it's coerced.
But in the workplace, laxer rules obtain; 
employment can depend on staying mute.
The contract's all about mutual gain
and Management wins when there's a dispute.
A lot of teams could use his good right arm
but none dare face Trump's tantrums and his ire
while Donald warns attendance would take harm
if Colin were the quarterback they'd hire.
Trump wants Black athletes quiet in their place
but still pretends he didn't run on race.

Russo

Symbolic speech, like Kaepernick displayed
enjoys robust protection by the First
Amendment against laws that might be made.
A pledge of loyalty can't be coerced.
But in the workplace, laxer rules obtain; 
employment can depend on staying mute.
The contract's all about mutual gain
and Management wins when there's a dispute.
A lot of teams could use his good right arm
but none dare face Trump's tantrums and his ire
while Donald warns attendance would take harm
if Colin were the quarterback they'd hire.
Trump wants Black athletes quiet in their place
but still pretends he didn't run on race.

Vayera M

The voice of God? Or some demonic wraith?
commanded Avraham to bind his son
where Reason balked, he carried on, on Faith
although his seed's invested in this one.
He'd saved his nephew from the fiery rout,
but dared not go to bat for his sole heir.
It took a Shakespeare to ennoble doubt
and lay a hero's vacillations bare.
The man who charged his Maker to be just
won't stay his own hand when the task is hard.
The skepticism tempering Hume's trust
discarded by the mystic Kierkergaard.
But who of us'd endorse the zealot's zeal
without assurances what he'd heard's real?

container for the thing contained

A seamless task, when masons laid the wall
no corner where a side abuts a side.
A single surface circumscribes the hall;
the Oval Office leaves no place to hide.
E pluribus, aspiring to be one
who build each other, rather than compete
but knowing the job's never wholly done
a metaphor in plaster, made concrete.
The staatsbund Kant had hoped would end all war
inspired a league of thirteen colonies
but we've lost sight of what this Union's for
our parties brook no higher loyalties.
Among the stuff Trump threatens to tear down
enlightenment's experimental crown

broken tripod

Tripartite government, as sketched by Locke,
presumes adults fulfill their proper roles
but our democracy's put on the block;
big donors outbid citizens, and polls.
Since Buckley v. Valeo, it's gone wild,
 a "right' to buy high office guaranteed!
All culminating in this orange child
whose only principle's his endless greed.
Our First Amendment guards symbolic speech
for Kaepernick, as surely as for Kochs.
But now, the ante's wholly out of reach
no voice is given to the common folks.
A legislature failing at its job
sold off our proud republic to the mob.

bluffing

Just fifty votes'd suffice to reconcile
this version to the one the House has passed.
But Democrats ain't gonna cross that aisle,
and senator Murkowski's standing fast.
Trump needs a token victory to show;
Republicans nurse doubts he's one of theirs.
The easy wins he promised long ago
look empty as Atlantic City shares.
A charlatan needs sense enough to quit
and try to find another sort of job
before the marks catch on he's peddling shit
and he gets torn to pieces by the mob.
A smarter politician'd blow this town
before his house of cards comes tumbling down.