good trick

Chiroptera diversity is rich
let feathered dinosaurs rule sun-lit sky
they dominate their own nocturnal niche
the benefits of flapping flight are high
so bats have specialized to stay out late
when no one sees the dinner that one hears
like wee cetaceans, they now navigate
by waves spewed out the nose, and in the ears
the arthropods who took to flying first
and seem determined to feast on my blood
die by the millions to slake bats' fierce thirst
a roost's a blessing in the neighborhood
the hands apes use to do so many things
Charles Darwin reconfigured into wings

spoiled

Bill Weld knows Donald Trump's unfit to lead
and not because of spurs on his wee heels
he lacks the steady hand our people need
to guide us through a parlous world's minefields
his folks sent him to military school
but Donald never even quite learned that
no officer's above the Golden Rule
he left as he'd arrived, a pewling brat
a multi-party system might increase
the chances we could get what we want most
but if we granted Trump the White House lease
our hegemonic era would be toast
so Johnson's third in what's a two-man race
to spare an international disgrace

James Comey

director Comey made his bid for sway
by publicizing Huma's unread notes
and pundits scream the race is back in play
as if there're lots of undecided votes
John Ashcroft's boyscout stopped Gonzales cold
when he proposed to do that which is wrong
but working for Loretta Lynch got old
and pressures from the GOP were strong
a Hatch Act violation's no small crime
and as a lawyer, Comey knows full well
if Clinton wins, he could be serving time
for trying to sell all of us to Hell
J. Edgar Hoover played by no one's rules
but now, the Bureau's used by party tools

changes

this vulgar, stubby-fingered orange clown
may do what Iran-Contra never could
to bring a major party crashing down
might do our nation's politics much good
a multi-party system might increase
the chances we'd get what we really want
but still, the flow of money'd have to cease
and candidates drink at the public font
this year, the oligarchs can't get behind
this crass, trash-talking artist of the deal
begrudgingly, they cede they wouldn't mind
a moderate republican in heels
the Democrats have their own wars to fight
but there's no man left standing on the Right

re-reading

Aristotelian God can't know regret
to wipe a planet clean beneath a flood
nor wager Job's well-being on a bet
but who am I to judge His taste for blood?
what glory could He gain in Pharoah's fall
if all of Egypt were his tools to use
a funny sort of Deity-of-all
mysteriously partial to the Jews
the text is fixed, too sacred to repair
but Tanaaim work hard to make it fit
perfection that the reader can't find there
midrashim stitch together, bit by bit
RAMBAM excuses verses he finds odd
to find a record of a perfect God

holism II

to reify the wave, you break the sea
and ask each part to make sense on its own
as if it's somehow possible to be
an insular phenomenon, alone
a language conjures objects up by name
imposing bound'ries on our mental maps
but why two minds should divvy it the same
one must fall back on faith to fill the gaps

emergent qualities defy Descartes
and chief among them is this thing called "mind"
that isn't found in any smaller part
(some argue that there is no "thing" to find)

there may not be a bottom to this well

as bootstrap problems go, this one's from Hell

holism

to reify the wave, you break the sea
and ask each part to make sense on its own
as if it's somehow possible to be
an insular phenomenon, alone
a language conjures objects by their name
imposing edges nature never knew
but why two minds should divvy it the same
is too obscure for wise men to see through
emergent qualities defy Descartes
and chief among them is this thing called "mind"
that isn't found in any smaller part
(some argue that there is no "thing" to find)
an understanding of the system's whole
may not be had from each component's role