Cyrano

deNeuvillet lipsynched the words by night
Roxanne required to steady her faint heart.
The prose and verse that he could never write,
on loan if he would only play the part.
Rostand's too coy to tell what happens next
she's widowed soon enough, as things unwind.
If court, and war, are metaphors for sex
the meeting he exalts is mind-to-mind.
To call this "melodrama" can't be fair,
when Dinklage lends such life-force to the part.
The alchemy to make a stranger care
by any just assessment must be "art".
As Aphrodite giggles far above
strange rivals couple in the throes of love.

one for the books

The memoir some purport Trump means to write
divulging secrets to our detriment,
would be a joke, except that "our" far Right
derides the notion of Good Government.
These "patriots" exult in doing harm
without contrition or a pang of guilt.
As long as they can promenade their arms,
they'll smash what better generations built.
The military school Trump's parents thought
might drum morality into their son
could not deliver what cannot be bought;
he just liked dressing up with sword and gun.
To write a book's a most unlikely deed
for one who struggles pitifully to read.

is there anybody out there?

 communication's hopeless from the start

if I can't prove that you exist at all
and our most elevated heart-to-heart
might just as well be murmured to a wall
deductively, I only know "je suis"
there may be no reality "out there"
if universe could end with "I", not "we"
we're solipsists adrift on unseen air
or each of us Narcissus at his pond
enamored of the visage we project
desiring someone else with whom to bond
or--minimally--someone to reject
to function, we become willfully blind
insisting we can know another's mind

priceless

Letitia James brought first the civil suit;

Discovery's where so much work gets done.
When once NewYork gets paid what's in dispute,
the feds can prosecute the 1001.
The bankers Hillary'd relo'ed to woo
trust their collateral would still be there
if they must liquidate when loans come due.
They want to hold real assets, not hot air.
Assessors jeopardize their very job
to value high to lenders, low for tax.
When they're coerced, or bought to serve the mob
they share exposure for their faithless acts.
Failed president, who'd lost his own homestate
now sweats as those he'd cheated weigh his fate.

Of arms, and the man

No sumptuary laws constrain a king;
Hephaistos wasn't sparing any cost.
Achilles took the field, in epic bling!
His enemies must know just whom they've crossed.
To flee, or fight once they'd strayed near his path
was all the same, before this day is done.
This godling, incandescent in his wrath
consumed them all, like aspic in the sun.
Patroklos stemmed the tide in borrowed gear
but failed to fool Apollo, so he died.
To counterfeit the prince that god held dear
mere armor can't ennoble what's inside.
The wine-dark sea, the burnished bronze's sheen...
Blind Homer conjured worlds he'd never seen.