Second time as farce

Mike Cohen might take Use-Immunity
to testify to what he'd helped Trump do.
With neither candor nor acuity,
the "JohnDean" role's reprised by someone new.
Like magic waters of the river Styx,
he'll immunize himself against reproach.
The echoes of Dick Nixon's DirtyTricks
that had been tragic, this time play as jokes.
The precedent is rarely quite precise,
yet patterns of behavior do persist.
Another roll of history's grim dice,
Trump's "enemies" would overflow Dick's list.
Confronted with Trump's record of HighCrime,
we'll settle for mere Pence. And it's high time.

conspiracy of fools

Mike Cohen paid the bimbo to keep mum.
But now, she thinks it's time we knew the truth.
She's done pretending that she's blonde, and dumb;
conspiring with these pigs would be uncouth.
The lawyer claims the money was his own.
He laundered it; his client's hand's obscured.
A court must prove he didn't act alone;
no jury should accept him at his word.
The privilege to privately confer
with legal counsel, to construct a case
outrageously invoked here, to deter
the Special Counsel getting in his face.
A RICO suit increasingly makes sense
that starts with Flynn, but ends one step past Pence.

the fault is not in our stars

Orion stalks us from the Southern skies
no quarry can escape his sword, and bow
laid bare beneath the huntsman's twinkling eyes,
where there's no figleaf, and no wisp of snow.
High season, when we ought to be on skis
our storms are pounding Florida, and Maine.
The drought that's beating Capetown to its knees
has San Franciscans praying for more rain.
The Winter snows and rains that used to fill
our reservoirs to bridge the Summer dearth,
now flood one state, but give another nil
as we disrupt the cycles of our Earth.
The stars can't sigh; they know this plot too well.
It's how such species make their worlds a Hell.

puerile

Mike Pence sat as Olympic Games began
like Kaepernick protesting some grave wrong
symbolic speech belongs to everyman
and need not disrespect the flag, or song.
His outrage may be feigned, or deeply felt
but still Mike's rightly deemed a hypocrite
White Privilege marks every card he's dealt
while others always play a hand of shit.
As petulant as Trump, but not as fat
he's more inclined to condescend, than boast.
as best he can, he'll channel the big brat
by boorishly insulting his own host.
This peevish pair's our nation's crying shames
as blind as Scrooge to Spirit of the Games.

freak

One triploid crayfish somehow became more,
each generation merging with the next.
Six strands of DNA--not two, or four--
encodes proliferation without sex.
Ballooning populations rarely last
a monoculture's always prone to pop
there's more to dominance than breeding fast;
one virion could decimate the crop.
Darwinian selection's view is long;
it's not enough to multiply, and fight.
Today's hot strategy might turn out wrong;
it's only looking back we'll know what's right.
Parthenogenic rotifers get by,
but sexless arthropods seem poised to die.

glimmers

Fresh snow-melt churns and scours the turbid creek
and crocuses thrust leaves and flower-buds forth
this February thaw may prove a freak
rebirth seems imminent, here in the North.
While Florida, and Texas suffer snow,
our Winter's preternaturally mild
caressed by the warm, moist Southwestern flow,
the grumpiest is presently beguiled.
Tomorrow night may bring another frost,
the jetstream that had veered, perchance will back.
Untimely vernal blossoms may be lost
like sunset's colors winking into black.
Dark months before the skiers' final fling,
imagination grasps at straws of Spring.

Trump's pet

What price did Nunes get for his black soul,
when he signed on to Trump's transition team?
Tripartite government means shared control;
no branch can seize all reins to rule supreme.
His California district's unimpressed;
Trump's shown no int'rest in their almond crop.
If only for what he's by now confessed,
his Washington debacle's got to stop.
Our airbase in the Azores was the prize
that kept his ethnic voter-base entranced.
We'll see how great's their appetite for lies
when they learn just by whom they've been romanced.
This midterm's apt to sweep away his gang.
And then we'll see how many Trumpsters hang.