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.