values voters

lord Byron died in Greece, to oust the Turk
for Shelley, revolution starts right here
advancing rights for those who have to work
against rapacious banks and overseers
romantic poets sought to legislate
the ethics for a whole society
what statutes can't compel or motivate
still necessary if we're to live free
but now, the marketers are in control
Enlightenment's sun's set; we're left in night
where money in the bank's the only goal
amoral arbiters of what is right
where Mammon reigns, there are no other rules
a simple system that appeals to fools

Sleeper

"all natural!" the strychnine package read
"low sodium!" "sincerely gluten-free!"
it's not our fault if users end up dead
this stuff's organic! from an unpruned tree!
a generation self-righteous and sure
mistrusts ingredients in six-point type
embracing what's left unrefined as "pure"
convinced that what's so groovy can't be hype
organic every day they had on Earth
four thousand generations just got by
whatever got them through our times of dearth
and all the better if fat-content's high
the true believers try to live on kale
with supplements refined from brewer's yeast
but I'll take a steak (rare) washed down with ale
and leave the greens to garnish the roast beast
food fashions are endorsed with foolish zeal
then damned another time around Time's wheel

travesty

Brock Allen Turner's paid his debt; he's free
to get on with his life as best he can
his victim's left to nurse her injury
inflicted by this privileged boy-man
judge Aaron Persky cut the kid some slack
as if droit de seigneur were his by right
the sentence he'd have served if he were Black
seemed far to harsh for someone lily-white
the ruling class don't spend their youth in jail
our courts are careful not to waste their time
a fratboy scoring a bit of drunk tail
is barely even treated as a crime
'though Justice should be blind, she's  known to glance
and darker skins don't get a second chance

Re'eh II

some rabbis would emasculate the text
when they don't like the plain sense of the word
distorting cause to get desired effects
although the lengths they'll go to get absurd
the "ger"--they'd tell us--has embraced our creed
not any stranger dwelling in our town
rememb'ring Egypt and our time of need
they'd cut the list of whom to love way down
the European ghetto made them shrink
forsaking the repair of the whole world
survival when the tribe seemed on the brink
bent all our aspirations inward-curled
and yet to love's commanded of all Jews
regardless of the faith some others choose

Re'eh!

Re'eh says carrion's fit for the ger
who plainly isn't counted among Jews
his designation tells us only where
he'll make his dwelling, not which God he'll choose
yet rabbis felt compelled to fix the text
the way a vet might fix an alley cat
to love so freely might have dire effect
affecting even who might get begat
Divrei Torah k'lshon b'nei adom
but language drifted with the passing years
the etymology tells where it's from
but not the layers a word comes to bear
as we were strangers, so we must show love
without inquiring which shul they're part of

contingency II

hair follicles' and sweat glands' fates are chained
the same progenitors make either cell
selecting better cooling for big brains
our ancestors got hairlessness as well
the best of mutants still must find a mate
and courtship choose the new morphology
bare flesh and taste for same cosegregate
if they'll produce a chance of progeny
most changes must be deleterious
if something viable has been our start
that most will die can't too much worry us
selection--not design--is Darwin's art
we culminate contingency's cascade
but in our image our own god is made

contingent

hair follicles' and sweat glands' fates are chained
the same progenitors make either cell
selecting better cooling for big brains
our ancestors got hairlessness as well
four times--at least--the flapping wing's evolved
however inefficient 'tis for flight
the menu's fixed and Darwin merely solved
for something that would work, 'though it's a fight
a screw-propeller wasn't in the cards
for multicellulars like you and me
and Reynold's numbers make the flying hard
flagella only work when they're at sea
this time, a primate triumphed through the odds
another cast of dice....cephalopods?