justice deferred

Saad Hariri knows Assad full well

'though justice in this world is looking bleak.

Bashar deserves a special place in Hell

for blowing up Prime Minister Rafik.

'Though Mehlis nailed his assets to the wall

the Syrians demur to give a hoot

The playing-field is theirs, as is the ball,

from Kurdistan to beaches in Beirut.

The Russians grant him Syria, alone

with military hardware, not just words.

He'll live another season on the throne

and spend it murdering n-thousand Kurds.

The day that Putin leaves, and takes his thugs,

Assad's whole family hangs, and the world shrugs.

visions

Isaiah shows the Lord on high, enthroned
grew bored of choirs of Angels singing praise
and judging it not good to be alone,
created one more world, to pass the days.
the One who offers bad, as well as good
presiding over Day, no less than Night
who brooks no rival in His neighborhood
the Author both of Darkness, and of Light.
More prophets sang us each their proper song;
Hoshea still embraced his faithless wife.
A dozen voices riffing on what's wrong
polyphonous guides to a righteous life.
Ezekiel's whole revelation's odd;
his bicycles join in, extolling God.

fifteen minutes of fame

One hangry vegan, strapped for revenue
confirmed what we'd concluded long before.
To gun down engineer-staff at YouTube
neurotic dame forgot we're not at war.
The videos she thought would change the world
were algorithmicly deemed indiscreet
by filters set to guard our boys, and girls,
who don't need abs of steel, but thrive on meat.
The right to bear a musket, sword, or knife
should not apply where moral growth's gone bad.
There's more than protein missing from her life;
it shouldn't take a court to judge she's mad.
Adults don't bring small arms to business fights
nor murder humans over livestock's rights.

yesterday's darling

If Trump loves Pruitt like he loved Mike Flynn,
it won't be long before he's likewise fired.
Trump's only (mostly) loyal to close kin,
and kissing Donald's ass, a tool gets tired.
The Cabinet's a never-ceasing churn;
New confirmation hearings never rest.
They'll plead with Mueller, pairwise, or in turn,
to be replaced by someone Trump deems "best".
Italians know this downward arc full well;
the writing's none too subtle on the wall.
Corrupt administrations doomed to Hell
may bribe the media, but can't not fall.
No loyalty vouchsafes his staunch oldguards;
Bob Mueller's blowing down this house of cards.

formal constraints

One hundred forty syllables suffice
for those who'll spend the effort, and the time
to choose each word with effort (not with dice)
within constraints of meter, and of rhyme.
Communication takes two of a kind
whose inner lexicons contrive to synch
but certainty that there's another mind
rests more on faith, than arguments one'd think.
Elizabethan sonnets set one norm
for Dryden, Shakespeare, Coleridge, and Donne.
Ideas run wild, while hewing to the form.
But some seem unconvinced this could be fun.
Some other life, I may be one of those
content to dream in monochrome, and prose.

what lies beneath

The mumbo-jumbo Robert Mercer sells
can't reconcile his claims of grand results
the maths beneath the whistles, and the bells
betray that his veneer conceals a cult.
Practitioners of Nixon's dirty tricks
stoke files like Hoover's, fat with kompromat.
While facile charms of Alexander Nix
let clients lie about just what they've bought.
Bob Mueller knows the statutes, and they're clear;
campaigns are circumscribed in space, and time
if strategy's made anywhere but here
this may be yet another Trumpish crime.
From Michigan to Kenya, and Nepal,
an empire of deception's poised to fall.

grow up

ad-hominem attacks on David Hogg
may yet cost Ingraham her FauxNews gig
enabler to her puerile demagogue
betrays which one's in service to the pig.
The Parkland students haven't compromised;
no donors veto what they get to say
'though Laura's made a living selling lies,
old donors are now pushing her away.
A generation shattering taboos
is unintimidated by her snark.
They're wise to bottle-blondes, and bogus news
and toothless bitches valued for their bark.
A bully targeting this gawky teen
may learn Americans are done with 'mean'.