"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.