container for the thing contained

A seamless task, when masons laid the wall
no corner where a side abuts a side.
A single surface circumscribes the hall;
the Oval Office leaves no place to hide.
E pluribus, aspiring to be one
who build each other, rather than compete
but knowing the job's never wholly done
a metaphor in plaster, made concrete.
The staatsbund Kant had hoped would end all war
inspired a league of thirteen colonies
but we've lost sight of what this Union's for
our parties brook no higher loyalties.
Among the stuff Trump threatens to tear down
enlightenment's experimental crown

civic burden

the rhythmic rasp of shovels on concrete
responds to snow new-fallen in the night
the neighborhood converges in the street
this job can't wait until it's fully light
debates abound as to the perfect tool
but steel or plastic, backs bend to the work
the children need a path to walk to school
the common task that no one gets to shirk
as Norman Rockwell  might depict the scene
if he explored a work in monochrome
the trees are bare, snow cloaks the evergreen
the streetlamps barely reach the nearest home
'til spade-work yields to electricity
ennobling labor builds community

Enlightenment Experiment II

Karl Popper bade us wake from Plato's spell
that's been passed off as "truth" since it was cast
an exorcism with no book, nor bell
to liberate us from the hoary past
the Perfect need not always be behind
all strivings forward need not be downslope
the Golden Age is only of the mind
despair's no more our lot in life than hope
perfectibility is in our hands
a reasonable People can decide
establishing the rule of law, not man
with only human reason as our guide
a bold, but not unreasonable thing
to set forth a new nation with no king

Enlightenment Experiment II

Karl Popper bade us wake from Plato's spell
that's been passed off as "truth" since it was cast
an exorcism with no book, nor bell
to liberate us from the hoary past
the Perfect need not always be behind
all strivings forward need not be downslope
the Golden Age is only of the mind
despair's no more our lot in life than hope
perfectibility is in our hands
a reasonable People can decide
establishing the rule of law, not man
with only human reason as our guide
a bold, but not unreasonable thing
to set forth a new nation with no king

values voters

like cancers, Trumps grow on society
instead of mothers' milk, they pump out bile
resources others pay for, they want free
rapacity's their signature lifestyle
they'll steal from anyone outside their tribe
the only social group where they belong
devout Hegelians, they don't subscribe
to any universal sense of "wrong"
"It takes a village" Hillary expressed
her static vision of communal life
but Donald boasts that only he knows best
dictating terms to each successive wife
Roy Cohn laughs last, he took the lad to school
and left the world this antisocial tool

values voters

like cancers, Trumps grow on society
instead of mothers' milk, they pump out bile
resources others pay for, they want free
rapacity's their signature lifestyle
they'll steal from anyone outside their tribe
the only social group where they belong
devout Hegelians, they don't subscribe
to any universal sense of "wrong"
"It takes a village" Hillary expressed
her static vision of communal life
but Donald boasts that only he knows best
dictating terms to each successive wife
Roy Cohn laughs last, he took the lad to school
and left the world this antisocial tool

transitions

without the boob-tube, can kids socialize?
they try for "snarky" but come off as cute
they might be Amish in their classmates' eyes
deficiency in smalltalk leaves them mute
a childhood spent in mountains, surf and streams
builds broader shoulders and expands the soul
that atrophies on endless glowing screens
that don't teach one gross motor self-control
and languages, and instruments to play...
both ends of their brief candle have to burn
there aren't enough hours in a day
for all the stuff they're told they have to learn
the old refrain that Plato might have sung
we learn too late; youth's wasted on the young

societal values

Norwegians' faith in Justice is so sweet
that even for the most horrific crime
if rehabilitation is complete
they'll free a Breyvik when he's done his time
while here, we stock warehouses of young men
expensive boarding schools for doing wrong
they're felons by the time they've left the Pen
who only went in for a joint, or bong
but Sanders was blocked by the DNC
his call for Justice barely reached the Press
discussing what our nation ought to be
deemed less news-worthy than Trump's truthiness
we blow a fortune propagating crooks
who ought to be in school, digesting books

benefits

horizon to  horizon, it's one train
occluding traffic on a dozen blocks
a 19th century transport for grain
leave's drivers fuming, screaming at their clocks
a wiser State would build an overpass
creating jobs and saving all our time
but legislators rarely show the brass
to get such value for the public's dime
the Donald acts like he got rich alone
and infrastructure isn't his expense
but those who've built their fortunes on their own
see less advantage in voting Trump/Pence
societal investments, day by day
give multiples on taxes that we pay

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

sin city

a splendid ruin, half-sunk in the sand
LasVegas will amaze an age to come
who'll seek in vain a way to understand
where such outrageous monuments came from
a Mountain Village pitched to lower tastes
a narcissist's dream-vision in concrete
grand architecture optimized for waste
rots bleaching in the South Nevada heat
where nothing's made and only service jobs
lived off conventioneers, and johns, and marks
where justice was administered by mobs
no mere blindfold, but fully in the dark
a game in which the house must always win
sustained a house of cards all built on sin

realpolitik

for Hegel, genocide defines a "win"
where none survives, there's no one to accuse
life's victors can't be too concerned with sin
where stakes are lethal if they were to lose
morality's the refuge of the weak
who'd bind the strong in self-imposed restraint
perversely finding virtue in the meek
misrepresenting martyrs to be saints
a feral world's the prize for one who's strong
as innocent as Nature sketched by Hobbes
unless if fails, no violence is wrong
and justice is administered by mobs
no higher goal than keeping death deferred
permits no meaning in this life absurd

wastelands

Las Vegas will astonish tourist hordes
who'll grasp for logic nowhere to be found
facilities for potentates and lords
half sunken in the sandy desert ground
corrupt incentives nurtured the cash-flow
sustaining the illusion of good jobs
the theft of water from far Mexico
diverted floods of green into the mob
let archaeologists sift through the bones
and ersatz gems and boats in disrepair
where now the desert sandstorm thrums and moans
that there should once have been a city here
a waste of money on comedic scale
will stand an age-long cautionary tale

demagogue

Trump jeers he'll quit and burn the system down
a loser without dignity nor class
the Gingrich revolution made this clown
the pachydermic party's red-cheeked ass
democracy needs everyone in play
to listen and assess, not merely talk
the poorly educated love his bray
no matter that he doesn't walk the walk
Buchanan let dissension fulminate
where nothing got resolved, all points were sore
he'd barely left when it would culminate
in five grim years of bloody civil war
two candidates invested in the rift
while our republic's rudderless, adrift

unplanned

millenials embracing carlessness
drive up the price of urban housing stock
exaggerating San Francisco's mess
and forcing long-time tenants into hock
Old Europe knows you need high density
to maximize a city's urban joys
but Yanks want private cars to come for free
as if they didn't spew filth, smog and noise
without a plan, we pave farmland for sprawl
and piss away our lives on the commutes
instead of culture, there's the shopping mall
where teens are left to rove in packs like brutes
suburbia's last century's mirage
that dooms our kids to live in the garage

Nature and Nurture

dual legacies in proteges and blood
we live in those we've taught and those we've spawned
when tongue and heart are silenced in the mud
to never rise and greet another dawn
a teacher, like a parent never dies
like waves that neve wholly come to rest
constraining future options in their lives
each fledgling goes imprinted from the nest
we're shaped by culture no less than by genes
and each mutates, 'though one goes fast, one slow
'though Dawkins likes us to mere machines
we're not just what we are, but what we know
the time biologists would call a blink
spans generations where we learned to think

freeloader

Brock Allen Turner wasn't socialized
to treat a woman with the due respect
he grabbed whatever seemed good in his eyes
content that he was one of God's elect
Society's not built for such a jerk
it's under-pinned by mutual regard
were all to think like Rand, it couldn't work
and life must be short, nasty, brutish, hard
is he too old to rehabilitate?
and is that likely while he sits in jail?
or must he be some older inmate's "date"
abused in turn as just a bit of tail?
incarceration seems a waste of time
without addressing what begat his crime

archipelago II

each one an island staring at his screen
although they're side by side on the same node
you're never gonna socialize that teen
until he learns to court as well as code
technology can hinder or advance
one's integration in the larger world
but keyboard's can't connect one to romance
or teach one how to woo a pretty girl
a child should move beyond parallel play
to integrate a school- and work- cohort
to care what someone else has got to say
builds teams for life no less than teams for sport
to meet at least one other face-to-face
is still the way to propagate the race   

archipelago

each one an island staring at his screen
although they're side by side on the same node
you're never gonna socialize that teen
until he learns to court as well as code
pornography stands in for social life
although he feels the urge to find a  mate
he lacks the skill to someday get a wife    
but gets the latest apps to masturbate
a child should move beyond parallel play
to integrate a school- and work- cohort
to care what someone else has got to say
builds teams for life no less than teams for sport
to meet at least one other face-to-face
is still the way to propagate the race