heavy

forever falling toward our lambent star
our tides alone acknowledge its vast pull
the lunar mass is not nearly as far
but heaps the oceans up when new, and full
the sum of sine curves, in and out of phase
one morning boats float less, one morning more
and seasides watch the come and go of waves
retreating and advancing on the shore
ten thousand generations didn't get
the simple law concealed in Nature's text
what Newton taught, what schoolboy could forget
the algorithm that makes forms complex
one inverse-square law, cosmic in its reach
keeps minds engaged while gazing at a beach

nemo liber est qui corpore servit

all blood's diverted, as if by a switch
instead of flowing upwards to his brain
the pheromones emitted by one bitch
have driven this old frat-brother insane
a primate's mostly driven by his eyes
but now, the helm's been ceded to the nose
when once the trouser-snake is on the rise
hydraulics rule; it's pressure, checks, and flows
the hair befitting an orangutan
looks frankly silly on our demagogue
although he wears the suits of a grown man
he lacks the moral scruples of a dog
Enlightenment's reprised as parody
a slave to his own body thinks he's free

what lies beneath

despite Jules Verne, the g-field zeroes out
when at the center of a planet's sphere
as airless as the depths of space, no doubt
although the pressure's vastly greater there
but were it hollow, there's no up, no down
no bias to say how to orient
no force marks wall from ceiling, or from ground
the local space-time's perfectly unbent
our biosphere's a scant film on Earth's crust
the deepest-diving whale, and highest bat
can navigate in full implicit trust
that "up" is up, and 'X' and 'Y' lie flat
what anaerobes our core and mantle hold
I'll leave to fiction and to Thomas Gold

brat

campaigning's great but what's up with this gig?
a government's a dreary thing to run
the ClownCar kept it live, and loud and big
but signing Bannon's Orders' not much fun
it seemed the greatest, shiniest brass ring
as he was raised on versions films portray
a glitzy sort of nuclear-armed king
whose enemies get whacked by Michael Bay
now Donald's bored,  and wants another toy
let Bannon run the office day to day
this petulant, uncultured preppie boy
can hear his tee-time calling him to play
if Congress were to finally show some sense
we'd gladly trade this fool in for mere Pence

Terumah

sir Isaac Newton saw the Cosmic scheme
reflected in the tabernacle's plan
a microcosm subtler than it'd seem
as represented to a Bronze-Age man
the candelabrum, sure as Kepler's laws
must correspond to heavens moving spheres
and all of it point to a Primal Cause
as ineluctable as trains of gears
the last redactor deemed  Leviticus
should grace the center of our pentateuch
once revelation capped our exodus
chiasmic structure to our holy book
of all our gripping tales, these seem the least
methinks that last redactor was a priest

latent

the snow retreats, a dormant world's revealed
a thousand mittens that were lost are found
old spores can germinate in woods and field
impatient in the slowly-warming ground
mycelia seem barely to grow old
'though fruiting bodies wither in the night
the life of what we sneeringly call 'mold'
is mostly underground and out of sight
instead of chlorophyl, strange alkaloids
distinguish fungi from the standard crops
and some are worth as much avoirdupois
as gold--if you can get them past the cops
although his colleagues mutters he was odd
Allegro knew that 'shrooms had shown him God

release

a leader whom the folk can't ridicule
is one the German populace reject
it's only in his role as public's tool
a minister's deemed worthy of respect
a healthy psyche can't keep rage repressed
each Winter, citizens give feelings vent
one week of Fasching, everything's expressed
and swept up penitently during Lent
this year, Trump's countenance is everywhere
all Europe's fascinated by his threat
it's only overseas that one could dare
to flirt with what no German can forget
one month 'til Easter, fascism's in reach
high season that our Congress should impeach