run down the colors II

Two years, James Mattis managed to persist
explaining to an audience of one:
diplomacy's ill-served by hissy-fits;
what's wrought in wrath is rarely rightly done.
He'd known how badly Powell's name got used
by Cheney and that Cabinet of tools.
And swore he'd be the only one to choose
when it was time to quit this ship of fools.
A lonely voice for clear Intelligence,
the last adult to hold Trump's gilded leash.
Not even Conway clings to faith in Pence
should Congress find the gumption to impeach.
MadDog has pulled the ripcord, bid farewell.
Last rearguard's down! Our highway's clear--to Hell.

useless

Melania explains, as best she can
how "little shrubbery makes house look big"
but grooming just confirms, she's got no man
her Trumpty-Dumpty's quite the porkless pig.
The insecurities that plagued his youth
a hundred analysts can't lay to rest.
His compensations shield him from the truth
within his world, whatever's his, is "best!"
Finasteride impedes his bald-spot's spread
but saps libido from his  porcine life
it's Hannity that holds him rapt in bed;
his ego one-by-one squeezed out each wife.
No satisfaction came with this brass ring;
he'd rather golf than play at being king.

run down the colors

Two years, James Mattis managed to persist
explaining to an audience of one:
diplomacy's ill-served by hissy-fits;
what's wrought in wrath is rarely rightly done.
He knows how badly Powell's name got used
by Cheney and that Cabinet of tools.
And swore he'd be the only one to choose
when it was time to quit this ship of fools.
A lonely voice for clear Intelligence,
the last adult to hold Trump's gilded leash.
Not even Conway clings to faith in Pence
if Congress found the gumption to impeach.
MadDog has pulled the ripcord, bid farewell.
Last rearguard's down! We're in the jaws of Hell.

the spreading stain

OneIndividual is on the hook
although no papers deign to cite his name
Khuzami's citing chapter, verse, and book
and Cohen can't--alone--bear all the blame.
What Congress shirks, may find redress in court
as we learn each corrupt emolument.
The backlash to the Mueller team report
must resonate throughout our government.
'l'Etat, c'est moi!" the modern world rejects
in France, Nepal, and even in Iran.
The sword of Justice thirsts for tyrants' necks;
She's loyal to the Law, but to no man.
"No man's beyond the Law" I've heard it said,
not even presidents--until they're dead.

retro-AG

Bill Barr stood for a president unchained
to trample any statute, or a clause
Executive amok! all unconstrained
by any semblance of the Rule of Law.
No senator who toils to legislate
should so unbalance what our Founders wrought.
The tripod built to undergird our State
must fall, were any pillar bent, or bought.
But Mitch McConnell smirks his turtle smirk.
The only Checks he counts are from his boss.
He took Trump's money, now he does his work
And We the People eat it for a loss.
Jeff Sessions wasn't good, but now I fear
Bill Barr brings our republic's downfall near.

Scot-free

Self-serving pardons of conspirators
for selling missiles to our enemy
strange president, who'd served in a World War
now fought as hard for mis-placed loyalty.
By law, it's Congress gets to spend our funds.
'Though Reagan backed Somosa in this fight,
it's not OK to give deathsquads our guns;
it's not our job to stoke the global Right.
Our fulsome praise of George Bush41
implies critique of Trump, who's name's unsaid.
'Though Poppie dwarfed his cocaine-addled son,
he earns no halo just for being dead.
His cover-up of treason and high crimes
lies unexamined 'til the present times.

Autocrats united

Prince Bone-Saw's Putin's foremost fan and friend;
assassinating journalists' their lark.
Executives who serve their private ends
conspire to keep the public in the dark.
The age of Erdogan, and Trump, and Xi
is hostile to the public's need to know.
This darkest chapter of our history
evokes John Adams centuries ago.
Now, Trump's proposed a Pravda for TheStates
with editorials tuned to his eyes.
Pontificating "Trade Wars Make Us Great!"
rewriting news to promulgate his lies.
There's no way forward from our present mess
if Trump can meddle freely with our Press.

Fat-head

Cartoonists' shorthand for unbridled graft
comedians make mileage on Trump's butt
as corpulent as William Howard Taft,
what's bigly presidential is his gut.
His attributes are hidden from Trump's eyes;
without a mirror, he can't see his balls.
His sycophants just amplify the lies,
four solipsistic echo-chamber walls.
Pure myelin's supposed to insulate,
but there's no signal coming down those nerves.
Trump's never really had to cogitate;
from birth, he's had far more than he deserves.
Convinced he's a rare genius without peers,
Trump's quick to trust the fat between his ears.

BREXIT, or not

Contraction's looming, Downing street concedes
on top of what these last two years have wrought.
Remorse came quick, as voters tote the fees;
John Bull is waxing wroth with what they've bought.
A second referendum'd vote to STAY
but sov'reignty belongs to Parliament
a stark rebuke'd befall Theresa May
were Corbyn competent at government.
Leviathan made Europeans strong;
to quit the Union's logically absurd.
But geriatrics vote, and voted wrong.
Kant's dream of lasting peace must be deferred.
Divided, their world-voice is cut by half;
such useful idiots make Putin laugh.

synecdoche

One High Priest tends the footstool of the Throne
Seraphim guard the contents of the Ark
on Yom Kippur, he'd venture in, alone
while clouds of incense kept him in the dark.
No finite space can hold our God in bounds;
He's not material to file, or bin.
He's no more merely here than up, or down.
But most reliably, He's found within.
Jerusalem, that had been Heaven's gate
was leveled by the Romans long ago.
No priesthood serves the Jews to mediate;
each individual must tap the flow.
A box of gopher-wood, veneered in gold
just held the place for what it couldn't hold.

follow the money!

Now Butina's exploring a plea-deal,
but Mueller's unconvinced of what she's got.
She's known to fake an orgasm and squeal
although the lovemaking was not so hot.
Like Trump's, her credibility's in doubt;
there are no values she won't compromise.
Should she agree to let it all hang out,
we'd want to know who underwrote the lies.
Those rubles funneled through the NRA
have set old allies at each other's throat
corrupting good old-fashioned pay-to-play;
the Kremlin sought to dictate how we vote.
Misogynists still love their orange clown,
whom women now perceive must by cast down.

alternative facts

Trump knows Sean Hannity will have his back
no matter how egregious the mistake.
Each criticism prompts a new attack
about how Californians need to rake.
Finns know his English comprehension's weak
and he'll confabulate to fill all gaps.
But it's the only language he can speak,
so they use little words, in solid CAPS.
Far from the values of their distant youth,
sealed echo-chamber parroting Trump's views
staunch partisans, convinced they own the Truth
subscribe to Hannity instead of news.
Republics need their citizens to care
about the truth, no less than birds need air.

Free at last! III

ten thousand years since glaciers cleft its face
the granite of Yosemite's pristine.
No longer slogging up at Harding's pace, 
this generation likes its climbing clean.
Lynn Hill debuted the new way on the Nose
although deplorables still lean on aid.
Each year, a new "impossible line" goes
and--incrementally--progress gets made.
Now Alex went free-solo up el-Cap;
vicariously, millions share his win.
Between us and young Honnold yawns a gap
meticulously filmed by Jimmy Chin.
Sang-froid! Just skills and chalk and shoes and wall
as we suppress the prospect of a fall

Free at last! II

ten thousand years since glaciers milled its face
the granite of el-Capitan's pristine.
No longer slogging up at Harding's pace, 
this generation likes its climbing clean.
Lynn Hill debuted the new way on the Nose
although deplorables still lean on aid.
Each year, a new "impossible line" goes
and--incrementally--progress gets made.
Now Alex went free-solo up el-Cap;
vicariously, millions share his win.
Between us and young Honnold yawns a gap
meticulously filmed by Jimmy Chin.
Apotheosis! The iconic wall
bows to the hero who would risk it all.

free at last!

ten thousand years since glaciers milled its face
the granite of el-Capitan's pristine.
No longer slogging up at Harding's pace, 
this generation likes its climbing clean.
Lynn Hill debuted the new way on the Nose
although deplorables still lean on aid.
Each year, a new "impossible line" goes
and--incrementally--progress gets made.
Now Alex went free-solo up el-Cap;
vicariously, millions share his win.
Between us and young Honnold yawns a gap
meticulously filmed by Jimmy Chin.
A rock-star owning the iconic wall
as we suppress the prospect of a fall

radio silence

Sean Hannity was "client number three"
in Cohen's practice, known around the world
for heading off a scandal--for a fee--
by paying off an inconvenient girl.
The "taint team" found that privilege applied
to this minority of Cohen's work.
These can't be cited proving who had lied
Khuzami's writ's for big fish, not this jerk.
Six months elapse, but there the story's stuck
no details are forthcoming at this time.
As if the Murdochs couldn't give a fuck;
they'll give no airtime to their own guy's crime.
Sean's scandal won't stay quashed; it's just deferred.
His ethics are no better than Trump's word.

Tuesday night massacre

Jeff Sessions has resigned, and Rosenstein
is personally vested in this loss
while pundits speculate what this might mean,
at number two, he'd be without a boss.
But Trump tapped Whitaker to run the show
until the Senators confirm his man
like Robert Bork, so many years ago
signed off to throw Jaworski in the can.
The Mueller probe would be a lot to lose
the Special Counsel's under the AG
'though Whitaker has good cause to recuse
he's chosen less for guts, than loyalty.
A president afraid of Mueller's facts
just needs to find his Bork to wield the ax.

high stakes

binSalman brooks no rein on what he'd do
his father's only king in name alone.
He's moribund, and seems to have no clue
of what's been going on behind his throne.
Khashoggi dared to criticize the state;
he printed what no Saudi's free to say.
The prince's thugs minced him like fishing bait;
Ankara's sewers flushed the bits away.
Such drama's damaging the royal brand;
investors shun the grisly atmosphere.
There're cousins far more fit for the command,
who know there's more to governing than fear.
When Salman dies, it all comes to a head
and MbS must then be king--or dead.

"empires make their own reality"

Lysenko kept his Kremlin patron rapt
and Josef Stalin wanted to believe
duress would make plants mutate and adapt
environment determines more than seeds.
But crops don't care for ideology;
when seasons are too short, or wet, they fail.
His threats can't countermand biology;
farm folk had none to eat, and less for sale.
Now, politicians sneer at Climate Change.
Again, they'd push the scientists aside
in favor of a policy deranged,
forgetting all the million who had died.
When governments defy reality
our world confronts "to be, or not to be".

Noach M

To differentiate what had been white
God wrought His rainbow out of rain and wrack.
New gorgeous ornament to Primal Light
as subtly different frequencies refract.
Through Genesis, the drumbeat was "divide"
as Dark from light, and He from She was cleft.
So Eve was formed from what had been one side,
and Adam from the tissue that was left.
Now, Noah's told again to multiply
--at least until his seed have filled the Earth.
But what had seemed to all be unified's
revealed--to opened eyes--to be diverse.
Brave new Beginning--mercy tempers laws--
accommodates humanity's strange flaws.

Penelope

Odysseus retired to his own realm
to bask in sunsets with Penelope.
Laid down his oar, relinquished his ship's helm--
let others teach Telemachos the Sea.
Athena's living image, here on Earth,
the wife a king aspires to, if he's wise
a partner of inestimable worth.
Let fools chase Aphrodite's wiles and lies.
Grey gulls scream on Aiaia's wintry shore
as if no Spring could ever come again.
Grave Circe's washed her hands of kings, and war;
there's too  much pain tied to the lives of men.
The poet's hero came unscathed through Troy
by steering always toward his one true joy.

Noach N

A year elapsed, his ark rode out the Flood
distinctions were erased from high and low
to run aground at last, when all was mud.
A new Beginning, where a world might grow.
New Separations! This time, based on hue
like a the first, when God split Dark from Light.
Now, Noach sees distinctly red from blue
no more undifferentiated white.
Erratically, we struggle to progress,
and only information's really gained.
Material subsides back to the mess.
But--incrementally--the world's explained.
Ten generations on, He'll try again
this time, selectively, with chosen men.

1066

All history's contingent; day by day
each choice makes universes twin, and fork.
Olde England might have gone another way
had Hardrada not left his mail at York.
For Edward's heir, both battles came too late;
the fyrd that watched the straits perceived no harm
October found few souls to share his fate;
the conscripts served their time, went home to farm.
The French domesticated their own Norse
they drank more wine than beer, these quondam Danes.
But Norway kept the war-blood hot, of course
full-armed they'd devastate the Northern Thanes.
Whole empires hang upon a change of wind
and whether popes opine one king had sinned.

sideshow

The pundits scold: Liz Warren should ignore
Trump's taunts about heredity and blood.
Evoking Howard Dean's untempered roar
as if she wants to wrestle in Trump's mud.
This DNA result's way over-blown;
Trump owes another million he won't pay.
Exactly what she'd claimed has now been shown.
Now, let real issues sweep this tiff away.
Progressives had a party in the past;
each Roosevelt knew citizens control.
This issue-driven candidate--at last!
Gives us, and not big donors starring role.
The future of America's at stake
while we're distracted by these headlines fake.

Ethics Probe

It's clear to Tymkovich: Kavanaugh lied.
But is the SCOTUS not beyond his writ?
Impartial judges mustn't take a side
still, this whole nomination smells of shit.
Whole years of paper trail are under seal;
Brett's role in torture policy's obscure.
But roommates testify; they know the deal.
That ersatz choirboy's anything but pure.
This Senate winks at lies; it doesn't care.
Leave "indiscretions" buried in Brett's youth!
But now, this nominee's Judge Tim's affair
and solemn oaths oblige him to seek Truth.
The only one who's ditching Brett's his wife;
judge Tim could shackle us to him for life.

Game on!

Her DNA bears out Liz Warren's claim:
her forebears got here many moons ago.
Millenia before Columbus came;
she's not the one we call "Pinocchio".
Trump's folk fled Europe's wars, and poverty.
His mother braved the seas when but a lass
intent on seeking opportunity
to serve a family of higher class.
The race of 2020 pits these twain
in earnest combat for a nation's soul.
She speaks for us, while he fails to explain
why plutocrats should exercise control.
KnowNothing Nativists are on the spot;
to stick with Trump's to vote for what he's not.

Pagliacchi

Trump's coke-fueled rants disturb the few who care;
his rhetoric and diction ain't the best.
Invective can't mask there's no substance there;
beneath that orange hair, he's Kanye West.
Twin Barnums, selling hokum to the mob
as if they'd conjure substance at their word.
Too busy talking to perform their job,
they think themselves above the madding herd.
To craft a paragraph is out of reach
when working memory can't hold one thought.
The measured cadence of Obama's speech
is still not anything that can be bought.
So hard to satirize this goofy town!
Straight news gets laughs just covering this clown.

doddering fool

Chuck Schumer won't confirm Brett Kavanaugh,

but seems withal unbothered by the lies.

It's not for him to execute the law;

veracity's not his to verify.

He'll talk for days (when donors write the bill)

but hardly seems engaged in this dispute.

So much the creature of Capitol Hill

without the filibuster, he's half mute.

The stolen research Democrats amassed

got Pryor's nomination through, unchecked

but as we learned more details of Brett's past,

his case seemed one the Senate should reject.

The Checks and Balances our Founders wrought

presumed the opposition won't be bought.

Fourth Estate

binSalman murders with impunity
since Jared knelt, and kissed his gaudy ring.
This most selective goy fraternity,
grants special access to the Saudi king.
Khashoggi got dismembered; parts were shipped
to sun-bleached deserts, where the birds of prey
make sport of what should lie in some dark crypt.
Piecemeal, the prince's critics melt away.
This White House can't pretend to give a fig
if journalists abruptly disappear
Trump's sympathies lie wholly with the pig;
FreePress is nothing autocrats hold dear.
Niemoeller warned, they'll take us, one by one
if we don't drag their crime out to the sun.

retrograde

Brett's confirmation in the dark of night
comes with a somber robe, fresh off the rack.
But this one has no hood, like his dear white;
he thinks he's incognito, swathed in black.
An undistinguished judge, but for his youth,
may linger thirty years on that high bench
habitually plays games with the truth
and trusts that no one harkens to a wench.
Hard-drinking Southern boy in the grand style--
McKinley might have chosen such a one.
This snarling, unenlightened font of bile
now serves for life, regardless what he's done.
November's midterms loom, but come too late;
our daughters watch us gaming with their fate.

privileged loser

Trump countermands McGahn, says there're no bounds
on what the FBI investigates.
The Senate gets to hear what can be found
before Brett Kavanaugh can learn his fate.
Anita Hill strode forth, and said aloud
the man Bush nominated was obscene.
She got ignored, but held her head up, proud
of speaking truth to the OldMan machine.
Four women, this time 'round, cannot forget
the beer-slick frat floors and the way he stunk.
They risk opprobrium confronting Brett
to spare our High Court from this snarling drunk.
McConnell draws his head back in the mud
one more Trump nominee looks like a dud.

without representation

McMorris Rodgers lives in Washington
but not the state--she only knows D.C.
and how the yucky sausage-making's done
but not what citizens believe, and need.
Three independent branches was the plan
but Congress shirked its rightful given role.
This government's in orbit of one man
a tyrant wielding absolute control.
She stokes Trump's politics of baseless rage
at immigrants, contemptuous of facts.
But votes against our cries or living wage,
deluded by the Norquist war on tax.
A woman bought and paid by Management
contemptuously scorns constituents.

plutocracy

Jeff Bezos bought WholeFoods, and raised the wage
'though prices there remain way out of whack.
He's not insensitive to shoppers' rage;
this billionaire, at least, gives something back.
Melinda Gates convinced her loving nerd
to join with Warren Buffet, doing good.
Inheriting such wealth would be absurd
if they're to raise a son, and not a pig.
But Murdochs, Mercers, Adelsons...adore
pursuit of Lucre like it's its own end.
Like Jonny Rocco, so intent on "more"
they'll leave a legacy, but not a friend.
Democracy, or Mammon's ours to choose.
as Madison's republic's ours to lose.

uninformed consent

The FBI pretends to ask around
to reassure the Senate Kavanaugh
won't trip on other corpses no one's found;
he only needs to clear the bar they saw.
His schoolmates volunteer to testify
but agents don't return their urgent calls.
They've got their orders; only a blind eye
regards this evidence, although it galls.
"Consent's" a farce if it's not based on facts
this FBI's been ordered not to see.
Trump's DoJ talks big, but then it acts
indifferent to arrant perjury.
'Til patriots take arms, and seize the streets
McConnell's proud to go on stealing seats.

Blue wall

Progressives claimed Wisconsin for their base
the lab of Franklin Roosevelt's NewDeal,
'til Kochs backed Walker in the StateHouse race;
what can't be bought, they're not too proud to steal.
Norwegian farmers built a welfare state
where abolitionists formed ranks for war
to keep the Union whole, and free, and great
where none'd go hungry while the Few grabbed more.
Since CitizensUnited, donors rule
dictating how the rest of us should live.
This governor's the capitalists' tool
returns are thousand-fold on what they give.
When Hillary's campaign gave it a pass,
the Badger State was handed to the Ass.

impartiality

The Powell memo advocating war
between the Classes came to light too late.
Had senators known what he thought before,
the Right's agenda might have had to wait.
Collective rights of Labor to be heard
when Management possesses all the tools
depend on how courts understand each word;
their special pow'r's interpreting our rules.
Now, Kavanaugh's proposed for Powell's bench
his writing have been hidden from our sight.
He snarls to think some academic wench
should drag his sordid past into the light.
Who vets Trump's nominees? Roy Moore's own clerks??
They seem--consistently--to go for jerks.

judicial temperament

McGahn's been charged to straitly circumscribe
the witness list, if not what each can say.
It isn't "tampering" where there's no bribe;
a clever lawyer tends to get his way.
The Powell memo called for stealth attacks
that--when it leaked--were damned as really crass.
But once confirmed, he needn't face such facts,
ensconced for life within his ruling class.
The due regard that Garland never saw
McConnell lends this one appearance sake.
Although the date's for him to set by law
he'll pause to salve the conscience of Jeff Flake.
We've bought a week in which the FBI's
investigation documents Brett's lies.

mind, unbounded

Sir Isaac Newton knew no Trinity
was rooted in his bible in the Greek
but-lest his books be all deemed heresy--
such things he'd write about, but dared not speak.
Instead, he made the cosmos correspond
to God's own tabernacle for His ark
that He'd called forth, by word, not magic wand
a box of Light, carved out of primal Dark.
Imputing physics to the ancient text
its Bronze Age authors had no way to know
strange, pious physicist to retroject
his insights to an era long ago.
Great alchemist! The last of all his kind
transmuted not base metals, but the mind.

simplistic

Brett Kavanaugh's the darling of the Right
who'll holler "murder!" if one would abort
a brain-dead fetus ere it see the light.
A monstrous misfit for our highest court.
When life begins' not easy to define;
philosophers--if wholly honest--can't
show legislators any clear bright line,
since most conceptions fail, and don't implant.
Each pregnant teen must live with the effects
of getting raped, and bear the public shame.
But Brett smirks at his own coercive sex;
in his world, only victims carry blame.
McConnell's fealty to Trump's complete
if he delivers one more stolen seat.

the company he keeps

Trump's sympathetic to Brett Kavanaugh
their ethics are alike, and bigly loose.
Too White to toe the line, or heed the law,
they'd normalize gross sexual abuse.
McConnell wants this rushed without delay
as if--if we knew more--we'd turn him down.
The guy who snatched Obama's seat away
now wants to rubber-stamp this arrant clown.
A lifetime tenure on our highest bench
must be denied if what he's said's untrue.
The penalty for ravishing a wench
could shoot him down in flames  (hashtag #MeToo)
This vote--for Susan Collins--looms up big
as women everywhere reject this pig.

our son of a bitch

Obama urged Mubarak to just go
Egyptians long for freedom, same as us.
But Clinton feared to lay a strongman low
and threw Mohammed Morsi 'neath the bus.
el-Sisi butchers Muslims in the square,
but Saudis back him as a force for good
as if barbarity were somehow fair
when they're confronted with the Brotherhood.
A Clinton never fails to compromise
when wealthy donors want to bend a rule;
Riyadh's not challenged on its grossest lies
when policy's enacted by their tool.
Our empty hymns to Liberty fall flat
when we embrace convenient autocrats.

flippity flopper

Paul Manafort's in terror of the mob
Ukrainians, like Russians, want him dead.
To rub him out would be a trifling job
to grab the million rubles on his head.
Defenestration looks like it would hurt
and death by alpha particles seems grim.
Before he spills team Mueller all the dirt,
it's likely they'll be coming after him.
Protective custody may be the deal
to ward off Kremlin poison, gun, and knife.
Where no morality moved him to squeal
the lowlife nonetheless pleads for his life.
That prison cell's his best bet to stay safe
'til plastic surgeons grant him a new face.

nuanced

Patrocles decomposes on the bed
while Hector sprawls, unspoiling on the floor.
Old Priam pleads both sides should tend their dead;
there's time enough next week for waging war.
Two enemies can bond in mingled grief.
The hero's human here, far from the fight.
His whole career--'though glorious--is brief
he plays the gracious host for this one night.
The poet's sympathy's half with the Greeks
but Troy's defenders tug his heartstrings, too.
The lifeblood that from either body leaks
bears no simplistic label "red" or "blue".
The text that educated Greece's youth
bows less to jingoism than to Truth.

bad blood

To cheat the gods, Laomedon showed nerve
if not the sharpest wit of all his clan.
In time, immortals get what they deserve;
their legal system's not like that of Man.
The Trojans thought Earthshaker's on their side,

but gods who'd laid their stone walls, course, by course
would laugh and wash their hands when gates swung wide
to gather in his votive wooden horse.
Vicissitudes tectonic, or of war
recycle masonry back to the ground.
Prime real-estate, where pirates row ashore
invites the proudest gates to tumble down.
One deity for horses, 'quakes, and sea
finds humor in the ambiguity.

cherchez la femme

Fair Helen ran off with some pretty boy,
invoking Aphrodite as excuse.
The repercussions hit not her, but Troy;
breached hospitality offended Zeus.
Three goddesses believe the prize was theirs,
but hormone-addled Paris got to pick.
His nobler brother Hector tastes despair
because the little putz thinks with his dick.
Did Menelaos really earn his fame?
He's still remembered only 'cause she split;
it's as the cuckold that we know his name.
That shoe's forever his, because it fit.
Had Homer picked, Athena would have won.
But wisdom literature's not much fun.

cat-fight!

The Stormy Daniels book is selling big
the dirt she's dishing doesn't hide in code.
No subtle ornaments adorn this pig;
Trump's genitals look like a wizened toad.
The reader burns to see what's coming next,
as each delusion's punctured, scene by scene.
There's only disappointment in the sex;
there's nothing in this guy that isn't mean.
Debating on his level's not an art
they teach at Princeton, or the finer schools.
His "eloquence" is that of a good fart:
all noise, without the substance of a stool.
McMaster's exposé's still years away.
But Stormy basks in sunshine, and makes hay.

"on good behavior"

McConnell thought he'd rush Brett Kavanaugh
through Senate confirmation in a day.
But shoddy vetting missed a grievous flaw,
and those who've known him have a lot to say.
The Jesuits aspired to educate
young Brett to value women for their thoughts.
But fratboys desperate to get a date
were satisfied with intimacies bought.
A judge insisting children go to term
with pregnancies incurred against their will
may yet find that he has a lot to learn
to satisfy the ladies on the Hill.
Murkowski/Collins hold a winning hand
if they dare to insist this ass gets canned.

new! improved!

Melania's cheekbones don't seem to fit
where they've been grafted on Kellyanne's face.
Her surgeon's working on some scary shit
transplanting features wholly out of place.
He thinks himself the Chosen One of God,
a new Picasso for the latter days
disdainful that you'd call his artwork "odd"
as Kellyanne embarks her cubist phase.
Next month, a shorter nose, a fuller lip...
a laundry list of things to dart and tuck
kaleidoscopic visage--acid trip!
But under the facade, the brains still suck.
Titanium implants? Or carbon mesh?
What lies beneath her painted, undead flesh?

sun rise, sun set II

The greybeard kneels to clasp Achilles' knee
proposing both sides pause to tend their dead.
A vision, what the hero'll never be;
old age won't thin the tresses on his head.
Diminished to out-live his therapon,
his destiny's fulfilled with Hector's fall.
There's Neoptolemus when he'll be gone
to devastate the city and its wall.
Undying Thetis grieves for such a son
who'll never get to hold his  little boy.
She's done with mortals' trifles "lost" or "won"
that grandson joins him on the pyre of Troy.
He'll die without a grey hair, or a scar
eclipsing--briefly--every other star.

sun rise, sun set

The greybeard kneels to clasp Achilles' knee
proposing both sides pause to tend their dead.
A vision, what the hero'll never be;
old age won't thin the tresses on his head.
Diminished to out-live his therapon,
his destiny's fulfilled with Hector's fall.
There's Neoptolemus when he'll be gone
to devastate the city and its wall.
Undying Thetis grieves for such a son
who'll never get to hold his  little boy.
Committed now, to see his project done,
that child's dispatched to seal the fate of Troy.
He'll die without a grey hair, or a scar
eclipsing--briefly--every other star.

charlatan

This hurricane we're warned is bigly wet;
the Carolinas brace to take the blow.
Pat Robertson insists he'll turn this threat,
but those who aren't stupid pack, and go.
Delusional, to think he'd stop a storm
but true believers lavish him with cash.
The powers that no man of woman born
could bring to bear, they want to think are Pat's.
Coercing scripture to mean what he'd please;
 for years, his exegeses have seemed odd.
but now he wants his donors on their knees;
he really seems to think himself a god.
The bible says such warlocks must not live
but some think heaven's theirs, if they just give.

omens

Thus hurricane, we're warned, its bigly wet
whole towns will flood, some houses will be lost.
Insurers have already made that bet;
no individual need bear that cost.
But actuaries only see the past
not all things are as constant as they'd seem.
Our climate's changing, and it's changing fast.
Tomorrow's not regressing towards the mean.
South Florida's subsiding in the sea
and Bangladesh will be too wet for rice.
Saskatchewan may grow more grapes than wheat;
but that's conjectural--we're casting dice.
The Fermi paradox has been explained;
they've each flushed their own biomes down the drain.

Agon III

Sing muse, of Achilleus and his ire
the only male immune to Helen's charm.
She's fair, but not the type to light his fire
and Paris never did him any harm.
No oath obliged him in the Greeks' dispute; 
to court the Spartan heiress, he's too young.
The kin of Ganymede are smokin' cute

and like their  famous horses, nobly hung.
Nine years, the booty dangled out of reach
the oak hulls rot, the linen sails lie furled.
Our hero with his boyfriend strolls the beach
'til Agamemnon gives him back the girl.
The Western Canon's greatest epic text
makes no pretense that War's not twin to Sex.

lying to congress

Chuck Schumer won't confirm Brett Kavanaugh,
but seems withal unbothered by the lies.
It's not for him to execute the law;
veracity's not his to verify.
He'll talk for days (when donors write the bill)
but hardly seems engaged in this dispute.
So much the creature of Capitol Hill
without the filibuster, he's half mute.
The stolen research Democrats amassed
got Pryor's nomination through, unchecked
but as we're learning more about Brett's past,
his case seems one the Senate should reject.
The Checks and Balances our Founders wrought
presumed the opposition won't be bought.

advice and consent

Brett Kavanaugh broke oath; he testified
he'd had no knowledge of judge Pryor's case.
But now we learn not only had  he lied;
the cover-up was done to save his face.
The monarchists we cast off long ago
went underground, but never more than slept
resurgent now, and primed to run the show
since Democrats have proven so inept.
Executive amok would own the Court
the vision not of Madison, but Koch
a system we fought proudly to export, 
in Washington is manifestly broke.
Unstable as a fireside powder-keg,
no useful stool can balance on one leg.

the man in full

Laomedon stiffed gods who'd built his wall
wise fool! to think he'd never have to pay;
his heirs and children wept to see them fall.
Immortals--in due course--will have their way.
Tythonis took a goddess for his wife
and only later realized the truth
it's burdensome to have eternal life
unless that contract grants unending youth.
Odysseus kept Circe at arm's-length
although for years the twain had shared a bed.
Penelope's bond showed the greater strength;
this hero's heart's at home, where he first wed.
The first exultant in Man's mortal lot
the heir of Sisyphos knows what he's not.

polypoietes

'Twixt Scylla and Charybdis forced to steer
back home to Ithaka from such a trip
there's no way to stay altogether clear,
but sacrificing some, he saved the ship.
Another day, the boat herself went down
all hands were lost, 'though he himself was saved.
Athena wouldn't let her man-toy drown
but crewmen met an early wat'ry grave.
So proud to stand between his sire and son
against the suitors' vengeful next of kin!
At home, at peace, this hero's battle's won.
War's epic ends with this irenic hymn.
The only victor of the siege of Troy
came home to loving wife, and now-grown boy.

twin tales

Two heroes meet where only one can live
Achilles cut down Hector in his prime,
then asks old Priam that he should forgive
outrages when he wasn't of sound mind.
Two heroes meet, one's purely bred of man,
the other's only half of mortal stuff.
Each glorious in doing what he can,
unbending, 'though their lots in life be tough.
Two heroes meet, but only one goes home.
Achilles' tomb's uncounted leagues from Greece.
While Hector nestles in his natal loam
Peleides in exile knows no peace.
Two heroes  meet, their epic's twelve nights long
undimmed by death while still we sing their song.

shake-down

He paid his premiums, and exercised
and trusted his insurer had his back,
not dreaming what he'd purchased was a lie
until his all-but-fatal heart attack.
He'd never read his policy's last clause--
the fine-print all alone comprised a book--
Insurers' lobbyists write their own laws
ensuring that they're never on the hook.
But someone wanting no part of this mess
erased the last two zeros on this job.
The racketeers know if they get bad press,
they could be prosecuted as a mob.
A bill that can be slashed to placate scribes
invites abuse by those who'd chase a bribe.

damned right I feel faint

The doctors called it "vagal syncope"
"we're unconcerned; it's  just a neural quirk
but--since you're here, we'll take an EKG
you'd better plan to take the day off work"
The ambulance ride's daunting to afford
Americans routinely come up short.
No bleeding here; the EMTs look bored.
The billing's for another day (in court).
The UniversalCare the FirstWorld's got
we're told "is not for us" because we're free.
But bankruptcy's too often free men's lot; 
insurers profit on insanity.
What Truman ran on back in '48
might yet save $trillions--at some far-off date.

"I know all about flippers"

Trump's sweating; his whole White House reeks of fear
now David Pecker took immunity.
The files of kompromat he bought so dear
serve Trump trussed prostrate on the headsman's tee.
The doorman's tale, Geoff Chaucer might have penned
sly satire of false claimants to high class.
We roar, to reach the moral; at the end
Trump's victims live to bite him in the ass.
A higher-order predator's in charge
team Mueller snaps up high and low at will.
No clue's too small, no web of lies too large.
They snack on those who live by catch-and-kill.
No honor binds this partnership of crime;
the last to flip's the perp who'll serve hard time.

empty

The stream of consciousness through Donald's head
flows one way only, like the river Lethe
He purges instantly what he's just said;
each thought's ephemeral as last night's breath.
"Write-only memory"'s a CS joke.
Capacity's unbounded in this bin.
Retrieval--on the other hand--is broke;
he'll never pull up what been once put in.
No lasting bonds--wham bam!--each one-off date
the parting--for her part's--the part that's sweet.
New teams of lawyer must repudiate
his empty promises and racist tweets.
No memory, no vision shades his Tao;
dementia traps Trump wholly in the Now.

Eulogy

Obama'll give McCain a eulogy;
the two had grown to know each other well.
Among the issues on which they agree
the current president should go to Hell.
Prince Harry snubbed him on the wedding list
invoking Peleus as precedent.
His day he won't share with that egoist;
the orange clown will never be a gent.
Pariah in the diplomatic world
in seven decades never made a friend
without a fee, he's never got a girl;
there'll be no words of praise at his own end.
McCain's passed on; let others fight the fight.
We wish him godspeed into that good night.

Truth is not truth

The stream of consciousness through Donald's mind
portrayed in fragments in his hasty tweets
defies historians who'd hope to find
beneath the smoke, a trace of fire, or heat.
If one would speculate, there's just a hint
of what's the truth that motivates this liar.
That stream of consciousness' yellow tint
betrays what makes his basest synapse fire.
Reptilian drives for warmth, or mate, or meal
extend no further than his progeny.
Each one-night-stand's an unrelated deal
and nothing adds up to a policy.
His starlight promises, each dawn forgets;
Trump's lawyers hope to prove that it's Tourette's.

unindicted co-conspirator

Mike Cohen pled, like any two-bit mob-
ster, gagging witnesses to guard his don.
A detail of the consigliere's job
who earns his pay by dumping last week's blondes.
The news rocked Trump's whole propaganda corps
where no one'd shown concern for Cohen's plight.
His un-indicted co-conspirator
now sees his peril, if not yet the Light.
John Dean came 'round abruptly, like St. Paul,
forsook his wicked ways and crooked boss;
as sovereigns, we must atone this Fall
by sacking Trump's enablers for a loss.
The sword of Justice lifts, to come down hard.
Khuzami's laying waste this house of cards.

Agon III

Sing muse! Achilles awesome in his ire
remained immune to Helen's vaunted charm.
She's fair, but not the type to light his fire
and Paris never did him any harm.
Unlike the other kings, he'd sworn no vow

to court the heiress, he's not yet of age.
He's told he's dying young, but can't know how

but Destiny requires a broader stage.

Nine years, the booty dangled out of reach
the oak hulls rot, the linen sails lie furled.
Our hero with his boyfriend strolls the beach
'til Agamemnon gives him back the girl.
The Western Canon's greatest epic text
makes no pretense that War's not twin to Sex.

show-time!

McGahn means to charm Mueller, and walk free
his co-conspirators can go to Hell.
Once he's secure in Use Immunity,
what prosecutors ask, he's gonna tell.
The cleanest rat who swims in Trump's latrine
won't hesitate to leave him in the lurch.
He'll settle to reprise turncoat John Dean
if he can't be heroic as Frank Church.
Mike Cohen's pled, he will cooperate;
a pardon now would seem meant to obstruct.
No matter Breitbart tries to obfuscate,
--save Mattis--this administration's fucked.
Trump's circus can't protect its patron clown
this big-top's burning bigly to the ground.

Agon II

Sing muse! Achilles awesome in his ire
remained immune to Helen's vaunted charm.
She's fair, but not the type to light his fire
and Paris never did him any harm.
No oath obliged him in the Greeks' dispute; 
to court the Spartan heiress, he's too young.
But Priam's boys by all accounts are cute
and like their  famous horses, nobly hung.
Nine years, the booty dangled out of reach
the oak hulls rot, the linen sails lie furled.
Our hero with his boyfriend strolls the beach
'til Agamemnon gives him back the girl.
The Western Canon's greatest epic text
makes no pretense that War's not twin to Sex.

ki tetzei

Without a shovel, no camp kit's complete
'cause God goes with us, when we march to war.
A scandal to besmirch His awesome feet
by inattention to the basest chore.
In war, like peace, the Chosen must conform;
in this world, we're the agent of God's Hand.
Josiah's seventh century reform
affirms our lease agreement on the Land.
The deuteronomistic quid pro quo
like everything else, shapes our rules for war.
But most important's the internal foe
when combat's understood as metaphor.
To d'rash the parashah  as mere p'shat
reduces Torah to be what it's not.

Agon

Sing muse, of Achilleus and his ire
the only male immune to Helen's charm.
She's fair, but not the type to light his fire
and Paris never did him any harm.
No oath obliged him in the Greeks' dispute; 
to court the Spartan heiress, he's too young.
But--legend has it--Trojan boys are cute
and like their  famous horses, nobly hung.
Nine years, the booty dangled out of reach
the oak hulls rot, the linen sails lie furled.
Our hero with his boyfriend strolls the beach
'til Agamemnon gives him back the girl.
The Western Canon's greatest epic text
makes no pretense that War's not twin to Sex.

sensei

Triassic pterosaurs ruled Utah's skies
once dragonflies relinquished air-control
diminished from their former seagull-size
while their forbears metamorphized to coal.
Long teeth attest big fish comprised its meal
a minnow'd swim back out between the gap
big pectoralis tugged on sternum's keel
to generate the impetus to flap.
A soaring primate claims to innovate
what long before by brutes had been well done
but Utah's still the bomb to aviate
bird brains can't rule alone in having fun!
Once lithified, the oracle bones last
two hundred million years, to tell our...past.

choices

Paul Manafort will sing, or he will hang.
The pardons Donald wields can't exculpate
choice co-conspirators, nor his whole gang
when their convictions are by New York State.
This SpecialCounsel segregates two piles;
he'll prosecute far fewer than he could.
No DoubleJeopardy impairs the files
he slips to AG Barbara Underwood.
Paul'd be in Sochi, if he had his wish
not pent in prison like some common crook.
If he won't implicate the bigger fish
his caviar-stuffed goose is bigly cooked.
An A-league prosecutor knows the ropes
methodically to roll up tin-pot dopes.

rolling up the mob

Paul Manafort will sing, or he'll do time
Trump's pardon power can't affect a state
conviction if he's guilty of the crime
a cell in Ossining will be his fate.
His guilt's not seriously in dispute;
no Santa's list has ever marked him "good".
Team Mueller's got one file to prosecute,
and one for AG Barbara Underwood.
Four passports (!) marked him as a risk for flight
to live off tainted assets stashed offshore.
But Mueller's clipped those wings; he'll have to fight
or join the Special Counsel's WhiteHat corps.
Paul's well positioned for our fervent wish
to buy a lenient jag with the big fish.

something sinister

The king proposed the two confer alone
so Ehud followed Eglon  up the stair
to cast the tyrant from  his privy throne
while bodyguards below were unaware.
He died without a gurgle or a shout
the double-edged shiv lodged behind his spleen
while Ehud passed where never man'd come out.
The OCCUPIED sign still barred this latrine.
A jealous God, renowned to hold a grudge
brings forth a hero when His flock's oppressed
where there's no king, He'll designate a Judge
a stop-gap good enough, if not the best.
No rulebook circumscribes the field of play
for asymmetric warfare, to this day.

loss

God scolds Job's friends for claiming to be wise
as if they'd mastered what no Man can know
profering succor in half-truths and lies
because some greybeard mentor said it's so.
Our fondest hopes invested in our herds,
and flocks, and children playing in the sun
confronting loss seem utterly absurd
each time a life is so  untimely done.
Intoning eykhah yearly, on the floor
we call to mind the remnant who survived
the persecutions by the worlds of yore
to garner strength for us, today, alive.
If there's an answer, it's community
Eli, eli, lamah azavtani?

Re'eh

Re'eh makes clear, the ger is free to eat
the chazerei the other nations do
the laws of kashrut circumscribing meat
don't obligate him as they would a Jew.
It's we who feel the obligation's bite
to love him as we would one of our own
be he an atheist, or proselyte,
or worshipper or idols carved in stone.
The pharaohs treated refugees as things
to buy as concubines for so much grain.
But we, who deign to serve no earthly kings
must empathize with every Other's pain.
The inward-focused shtetyl-Jew can't shine
the Light unto the Nations that's divine.

"advancing in a new direction"

Now, Cuba honors private property;
incentives still move humans when we act.
While Trump wants a Command Economy,
contemptuous of History, and facts.
Dictating what a Kansan gets for oats,
or what a lobsterman in Maine should earn,
indebting us to banks to buy Red votes
and there's no nobler purpose to discern.
The latest flailings from the orange dolt
two centuries of progress in reverse
until Republicans join the revolt
our children's prospects fade from bad to worse.
Undoing what Enlightenment's best made
our decadent republic's retrograde.

command economy

Our Founding Father feared a Populist
would raid our Treasury to bribe his friends
to re-elect him, and his faction's list.
So only Congress gets to tax, and spend.
"Democracy" to them portends mob-rule
and all the terrors of the Paris mob.
They meant to spare us from this orange fool
who's so mal-educated for the job.
Yet Trump wants to dictate the price of oats,
and soy and pork should jump at his command.
And farmers ought to trust him with their votes
like Mao's believers bought each Five Year Plan.
Command Economies that we eschew
get spun for Trumpsters like they're something new.

Watergate's shadow II

Bob Mueller's unsheathed Use Immunity;
Paul Manafort's brief candle's burning down.
A million places that he'd rather be
were he not shackled to this orange clown.
The five who feared to self-incriminate
would face contempt should they seek to defy
the Special Counsel, acting for the State;
they'll rot in jail if they don't testify.
The stonewall Lawrence Walsh could never crack
won't stop Bob Mueller and his all-star team.
The Fifth amendment won't turn questions back
since this great innovation of John Dean.
The slickest lawyers millions can afford
can't stave off Lady Justice's fell sword.

Watergate's shadow

Bob Mueller's unsheathed Use Immunity;
Paul Manafort's brief candle's burning down.
A million places that he'd rather be
were he not shackled to this orange clown.
The five who feared to self-incriminate
would face contempt should they seek to defy
the Special Counsel, acting for the State;
they'll rot in jail if they don't testify.
The stonewall Lawrence Walsh could never break
won't stop Bob Mueller and his all-star team.
The Fifth's no haven that a perp can take
since this great innovation of John Dean.
The slickest lawyers millions can afford
can't stave off Lady Justice's fell sword.