powered

The Ozone layer shields us from UV
absorbing photons in its short-wave slot.
Those photons leave behind their energy;
each daylong hour, the tropopause gets hot.
Earth's shadow cuts that flow off every night;
black-body radiation cools Earth's face.
IR flows out, that had in-come as light
a tepid ember radiates towards space.
Beneath, it's sport to soar the troposphere
where heating's driven by warm Earth below.
convecting thermals get me out of here
be it from foot-launch, or from aero-tow.
The solar fusion-pile supplies the drive
that makes a pilot feel that they're alive.

Aesthetics II

the stuff a science studies is out there,
beyond what strict deduction lets us know.
And colleagues with whom we would like to share
may not exist except that we think so.
Hypotheses must be built in my mind;
external prompts can only hint the way.
in all the Babel I still have to find
what's right when it says both 'A' and 'not A'.
Beyond "I am" uncertainty's the cost;
our arguments are never set and hard.
Without epistemology we're lost
our stoutest edifice a house of cards.
And so my gaze must turn to my own thought
where any other theme may not be aught.

comic relief

The fourth time Parliament rejects NoDeal,
Theresa won't be there to take the blame.
The Boris! Show's brief novelty appeal
is circling ever faster down the drain.
Now even Corbyn's climbed down off his fence
acknowledging most Britons want to STAY.
Ere long, he'll call a vote of Confidence
and Tories--with their fool--must slink away.
'Til then, banks' capital flees overseas;
investors mistrust Boris and his boys.
They're quite allergic to uncertainties,
dismissing Johnson's promises as noise.
Financiers fear this haystack-headed clown
could shrivel London to a rustic town.

It Can't Happen Here

Like Mussolini pumping up a crowd,

Trump's rally conjures Nuremberg of yore.

His  planted BrownShirts got 'em chanting loud

as if they thirst for blood, and for race-war.

No vision of a better USA

no sense all wasn't perfect in our past...

He sells nostalgia for a Golden Age;

historians just shake their heads, aghast.

No innovations from this pompous fool

the hate he preaches wore thin, long ago.

But old Roy Cohn's apprentice is the tool

who'd never win except by a low blow.

The Arsenal of Liberty's been breached, 

and Congress is too feckless to impeach.

populist

Like Mussolini pumping up a crowd,
Trump's rally conjures Nuremberg of yore.
His planted BrownShirts got 'em chanting loud
as if they thirst for blood, and for race-war.
No vision of a better USA,
no sense all wasn't perfect in our past...
He sells nostalgia for a Golden Age
historians just shake their heads, aghast.
The "greatest generation" fought, and bled
to scour such abom'nations from the Earth.
But bad ideas perversely won't stay dead
when they're convenient to clowns of no worth.
Millennials are gonna have to fight
old battle with the revenant far-Right.

puppetmaster

Beneath the haystack Bojo claims for hair
Bob Mercer sees a weak mind he can bend.
A FaceBook ad...a small donation...there!
His puppet heads a slate of better men.
The City's coffers lost a trillion pounds
on fears their banks won't serve the Continent.
A rash decision, made on shaky grounds
resolved outside the halls of Parliament.
Will Corbyn's Opposition seize the day?
Two years, he offered nothing to believe.
But now, he sorta thinks Brits ought to Stay--
at least until they vote again to Leave.
Bob Mercer's puppets dance to suit his whim
and never question what enriches him.

collaborationist

The Adelsons still guard their  monster's back
as if minorities could pick and choose
the victims whom such fascists will attack
and Muslims somehow aren't quite like Jews.
Niemoeller's lesson hasn't registered
with certain members of the donor class.
Allying with a Nazi's so absurd
but Sheldon's shoulder-deep up his own ass.
The anti-Semites' more-than-willing friend
would throw our Muslim brothers off the bus.
It makes no earthly diff'rence in the end
between the bully's current mark, and us.
Casino magnate, proud to be so rich
betrays his people playing Donald's bitch.

transients

Rich Perry's all that's likely to remain
whom Flynn and Pence so grossly failed to vet.
His colleagues one-by-one flush down the drain
who had comprised Trump's venal Cabinet.
Director Coats seems poised to exit next
too often, he's at odds with Trump and Pence.
 He wants to analyze cause and effects,
but Don's allergic to Intelligence.
The Senate wastes its effort to confirm
another Scaramucci for a week
whose hearings take much longer than their term.
No bilge-pump can off-set this roaring leak.
Trump's cabinet's got nothing on the shelf
'cause he'll hire no one smarter than himself.

countless

New residents of Texas will be missed
in next year's census, 'cause their state won't pay
a dime to guarantee a faithful list
regardless what our Founding Fathers say.
No federal provision can compel
a member to expend the people's cash
"unfunded mandate?" They can go to Hell!
The Court ruled long ago on such a clash.
New Texan mostly won't be voting Red;
the GOP prefers to under-count
those districts where their puppet's not ahead
if polls were to reflect the full amount.
Increasingly, "our" second biggest state
rejects America, and seethes with hate.

ramblings

"...they  took the airports!" Trump seems drunk on words.
His staffers scramble to divert the blame
for one more joy-ride into the Absurd.
Oblivious, he thinks it's all a game.
Tomorrow, they'll dismiss it as "a joke"
"of course the president knows history!"
But shit he spews while flying high on coke
affords his critics much hilarity.
Mike Pence must know the 25th by rote
and how succession works--when it's the  case
that there's no time to put it to a vote--
but Trump's more functional than half his Base.
That gig at WalMart doesn't sound so bad
when writer have to serve a boss gone mad.

lala land

"...they  took the airports!" Now he's on a roll.
Trump blithers when he's got nothing to say.
His writers cringe; he's so out of control.
The tranquiler gun's too far away.
Tomorrow, they'll dismiss it as "a joke"
"of course the president knows history!"
But shit he makes up when he's high on coke
affords his critics much hilarity.
Mike Pence must know the 25th by rote
and how succession works--when it's the  case
when there's no time to put it to a vote--
but Trump's more functional than half his Base.
The satirists are drowning in their cups
When Trump's reality's what he makes up.

People's Republic

Hong Kongers vest no faith in chairman Xi
nor Lam, who seems complicit in his goal.
The lease ran out, but civil liberty
still ought--they deem--transcend Beijing's control.
Xi knows iconic martyrs help their cause;
no tankman's gonna thwart his armored might.
But they don't get to legislate their laws;
he means to crush them, but demurs to fight.
Their city took a hit, 2008;
Shanghai recovered quicker from that fall.
But tentacles of Xi's Surveillance State
provoke defiance up against the wall.
George Orwell knew some fates are worse than war;
Xi's new RedBook is 1984.

pass the torch

Joe Biden's neurologically too old;
no voter who's awake should find this strange.
Our current crises need somebody bold
to navigate in seas of ceaseless change.
Liz Warren brings the vigor, and a plan
to teach, to practice law, to save the world...
Miami's shown us who's the better man
'though Trump may underestimate the "girl".
Two dozen others get their say, of course
Kamala vivisected Joe in style!
But soon, it's time to step down and endorse
the one who'll bear the torch the final mile.
The 2020 ballot fits just two;
this woman's turn on top's long over-due.