how are the mighty fallen

The world takes note of waning influence
as it's described by secretary Gates.
Our course--as set by TrumptyDump and Pence--
like Agamemnon's, can't defy the Fates.
The Kremlin's puppet boasts of what he's won
but meekly does whatever he's been told.
His masters dictate what needs to be done;
"our" foreign policy's been bought, and sold.
Four years elapse--we'd so like to forget!
Trump comes again to face the public polls
Oblivious of Klytemnestra's net
he longs for shiny bling, but grasps just coals.
The yutz whose only joy is to campaign
beholds his second term swirl down the drain.

solipsist

Two swallows loop and swoop and bill and bond,
as if between the twain, they shared one mind.
A pas de deux split by the glassy pond;
this pair are  closest kin, and more than kind.
A mirror cosmos, swapping left for right,
accessible at water's interface.
Insensible to scent, but plain to sight
might fill--like ours--infinity of space.
Each swoop, the partner's there to keep the date,
no straying eye could tease the pair apart.
Narcissus and his true-love strain to mate;
four wings in sync beat to a single heart.
To love the Other like one's self seems right,
but this one's just a trick of bending light.

who's responsible?

At thirty-seven, Cheney should have died;

 that heart-attack was dealt to lay him low.
Blasphemous cardiologists defied
God's will, as if it's they declare what's so.
Since then, the consequences have been dire,
each sign from Heaven answered with more war.
unChristian nation marching towards the Fire,
Has long forgotten what we're founded for.
If masks express unfaith in the Divine,
Dick Cheney should slake Krakatoa's thirst!
America's not going to be fine,
If we go on electing the plumb worst.
The "logic" of the faux religious Fringe
Must make the thinking few rebel and cringe.

tov meod (Sh'lach)

"Exceeding good" the spies described the Land,
evoking Genesis, and that sixth day.
But getting sustenance by one's own hand
instead of manna filled some with dismay.
Adulthood beckons, always with its cost;
our wanderings were catered, stage by stage.
To cross the Jordan, something must be lost
it won't be painless as we come of age.
The Zohar names the manna "bread of shame",
provided without effort on our part.
Once in the Land, we've just ourselves to blame.
The conquest waits for folk of stouter hearts.
God's anger flares, that we'd express such doubt,
but adolescents need to check things out.

Change is gonna come

Mitt Romney's joined the protests in the street
while Trumpty-Dumpty cowers in his hole.
He ego won't acknowledge the defeat,
but even Fox concedes, Trump's lost control.
Bill Barr has raised an army of his own;
(I'd call them "brownshirts", but they're salaried).
Praetorians to prop a stolen throne
to which he'll shortly learn, he's lost the deed.
The People cry for change, but get old Joe,
whose handlers blanch each time he gets a mic.
At best, he'll try reform, but much too slow;
at worst he'll bleat whatever donors like.
Americans for CHANGE still seethe, and wait
for what we called for in 2008.

Blessed is the Match

This latest outrage won't go unremarked
although Chauvin behaved like it's routine.
In giving up his soul, Floyd cast the spark
that may burn down the whole corrupt machine.
The prosecutor might have let this slide
like Klobuchar had many deaths before.
Each piled the kindling up both deep, and wide
when this bonfire goes off, it's gonna roar.
If history tells aught, it tells us this:
that tyranny must be faced down on sight.
But those whose consciences have been remiss,
need someone else to set the world alight.
So desperate to show he's in control,
Trump feeds the conflagration vitriol.

Control Group

This border's battened; Swedes need not apply.
The Danes have purged their pastures of that pox
While Sweden toils to bury all who've died,
their ferries are unwelcome at Danes' docks.
Aggressive testing keeps 'R' values low;
asymptomatic carriers get caught.
Most nordic countries leapt to make it so.
But Swedes delayed in doing what they ought.
In Summer, Copenhagen basks in sun
long after everybody's done with work.
but Swedes find they're excluded from the fun;
the jobs that had been theirs, now go to Turks.
Experimental public policy
sets Sweden far apart--and lost at sea.

somnolent

Joe Biden waits for Trump to self-destruct
instead of putting forward his own plan.
If we're to wait for him, our nation's fucked;
Liz Warren would have been the better man.
Four years ago, that might have made some sense
presuming voters wanted an adult.
But Hillary got nipped by Trump and Pence;
her wonkery came second to his cult.
A party mortgaged to its donor base
can only nominate a narrow range;
diversity's ok for sex, and race.
(But don't expect a champion of CHANGE).
Like Roosevelt against the moneyed Few,
our hopes are vested in Joe's number two.

BunkerBoy

The insurrection that might justify
Deploying US troops on our own land,
is just a figment of Trump's craven mind;
It's not the People who are out of hand.
Roy Cohn had sternly charged him in his youth,
before Sean Hannity'd staked out Trump's ear:
"You'll find no profit in the gospel truth;
To fleece the gullible, cultivate fear!"
Each soldier's duty is to disregard
an order that he understands ain't right.
Each proud militiaman in their State Guard
must weigh the casus belli ere he'll fight.
Our nation's poised again for Civil War.

What's less than clear is what it would be for.