Levantine future

John Bolton knows that Sykes-Picot can't stand
there's no shared culture binding Syrians
a country's more than lines drawn in the sand
entrenching a dead empire's foreign sins
The U.N.'s charter proclaims Peoples' rights
to self-determine how to run their state
it's futile for Putin's army to fight
beyond al-Assad's expiration date
Good neighbors can agree to build a wall
that shelters each to grow on his own path
in ways he couldn't were all pent with all
where daily friction kindles into wrath
'til meddling from far-off powers will cease
a region steeped in blood cannot know peace

informed consent of the governed

Republican contenders trust FauxNews
as if the crap it's blaring out were facts
then act betrayed--Ohio voted Blue!
when fantasy and real world interact
the Fourth Estate betrays the public trust
in publishing what blatantly ain't so
to conjure victories up out of dust
that vanish when the tangible winds blow
perhaps the States need our own BBC
not owned by malefactors of great wealth
if we're to truly be Home of the Free
and not subverted by the Murdochs' stealth
democracy requires that we engage
to vote on issues, not just vent our rage

uncentered

'Til Bernie Sanders deigns to educate
a voter-pool less bright than it is hot
they'll act not out of knowledge, but from hate
what socialism is, and what it's not

political discourse has skewed far Right
(as in America we use that word)
like Eisenhower sailed by Marx' light
'though in the wider world, that looks absurd

the wisdom to self-rule eludes us still
to make our State conform to what we want
and pen just laws that work the public will
from polls of polity that's ignorant

dismissing Plato's fear of demagogues
the Donald slings red meat as if to dogs

vayishlach

to Esau, Jacob's no longer a threat

repute and wealth he's built with his own hands

so when on Jabbok's riverbank they met

they're reconciled, each claiming his own lands

it's Jacob that must wrestle in the night

becoming what he wasn't heretofore

to justify his claim to the birthright

the sequence flipped from that in which they're born

Edom surrounds himself with men-at-arms

while Jacob still does his best work in bed

instead of hunting, he tends flocks and farms

and leaves the football parties to Big Red

Vayishlach foresees each living apart

two brothers in two lands, 'though one in heart

CHANGE

Big bankers lavish cash on Hillary
ignoring her campaign-year rhetoric
they trust that--if elected--she'll feel free
to guarantee that their paychecks stay thick

WalMart's director thought she'd face a Bush
whom she'd out-class by simple competence
but now, it's from the Left she feels the push
and can't triangulate or sit the fence

'cause Bernie champions what the People need
a government responsive to our will
while she's beholden to the cult of greed
as WallStreet's agent on capital hill

we need a new TR to break that trust
or capitalism will prove a bust

dark vision

to Donald Trump, the matter's black and white
these migrants don't bring cash to buy his wares
they ought to stay in Syria and fight
or die at sea for all it seems he cares
America was built by immigrants
our universities are polyglot
but Donald calls for building a high fence
to shut out light and air and let us rot
crass demagogue, besotted with the crowd
who haven't learned the lessons of the past
they'll vote for any fool who's tall and loud
and make a hero of this braying ass
Trump's vision is of stasis and decay
the Land of Gold--cut off--withers to grey

z"l

for baseless hatred Bes Mikdash was burned
our b'rit made void, the Land given away
but being human, we still haven't learned
contingent grant withdrawn because we stray

a thousand blossoms bloomed where now there's two
Chief Rabbinates empowered by the State
opining who's a Goy and who's a Jew
who'll tell us whom to wed, and whom to hate

Gedaliah's fast is honored in the breach
reminding us of intramural strife
Yigal Amir just did what others teach
to elevate the Land above a life

millenia of lessons taught, but spurned
and being human, we still haven't learned