lesser son of greater sires

the tracks of theropods lead straight to birds
unbroken lineage of DNA
if "dinosaurs" are gone, that's merely words
they flit among us to this very day
the Alvarezes found Iridium
that's otherwise uncommon in Earth's crust
and speculated where it had come from
to mark the K-T bound'ry in the dust
few specialists were up to such a test
most species went extinct, but some made do
when worlds collapse, an opportunist's best
positioned to transmit its genome through

a kingly line's diminished much, of late
T. Rex's heir lies roasted on my plate

incidental

investigations of the Russian mob
caught Donald's phone-calls incidentally
the FBI was doing its own job
but stumbled onto global treachery
the case they'd worked long years to document
of rubles laundered, and influence bought
was complicated by this president
a bigger criminal than they had sought.
Whose hands are clean, whom no one could besmirch?
Who'd risk their reputation on such rocks?
In all our Senate, there's not one Frank Church
and none could fill the shoes of Archie Cox.
The world's appalled at Spicer's daily gaffes
but through the whole debacle, Putin laughs.

Hume II

Hume knew there's none to watch Descartes' stage-set
homunculi recurse in futile chains.
Two hundred years before a neural-net
he grasped the problems such a thing explains.
No test will prove the soul John Searle long sought
there's nothing indivisible to find
determinate as digits 'one' and 'nought'
dumb parts add up to constitute a mind.
As sure as Turing's universal host
there is no little man behind the screen
Searle hunts in vain for his Cartesian ghost
for want of faith in Darwin's wet machine.
The consciousness that tells me that "je suis"

emerges as an abstract entity

Give me but a place to stand...

Hume knew there's none to watch Descartes' stage-set
homunculi recurse in futile chains
two hundred years before a neural-net
he grasped the problems such a thing explains.
No test will prove the soul John Searle long sought
there's nothing indivisible to find
determinate as digits 'one' and 'nought'
dumb parts add up to constitute a mind.
As sure as Turing's universal host
there is no little man behind the screen
Searle hunts in vain for his Cartesian ghost
for want of faith in Darwin's wet machine.
The consciousness that tells me I'm a fact
'though reified, remains a thing abstract.

stepwise

the tracks of theropods lead straight to birds
unbroken lineage of DNA
if "dinosaurs" are gone, that's merely words
they flit among us to this very day
the Alvarezes found Iridium
that's otherwise uncommon in Earth's crust
and speculated where it had come from
to mark the K-T bound'ry in the dust
few specialists were up to such a test
most species went extinct, but some made do
when worlds collapse, an opportunist's best
positioned to transmit its genome through
that turkey fed and slaughtered to your specs
shares ancestors in common with T. Rex

res cogitans

sir Francis Crick spent decades chasing "mind"
a physicist outstanding in his mode
while Dennett claim's there's no such thing to find
we're emulators, running Darwin's code.
Emergent properties that fooled Descartes
in Dennett's view, may not exist at all.
To reify a "mind" like "brain", or "heart"
kept theorists pent in a fictive wall.
Each unit neuron seems determinate
a switch that throws as ions go, and  come 
but what emerges in the aggregate
subjectively, seem more than naught-or-one.
'Though Consciousness assures me that "je suis"
that anchor's dangling in the deep blue sea.

sad schemer

Flynn offered Gulen's head up on a plate,
to prove his fealty to Erdogan.
three stars can't hide that he's still second-rate

but thinks himself a mafiosa don.
No oath of office, no morality
sets bound upon the loony schemes he'll plot.
He's unconcerned with illegality
if there's a sleazy fortune to be got.
No vetting winnowed chaff out of this wheat;
team Trump repackaged swamp and called it "wine".
Corruption from the top-down's now complete. 
But Breitbart tells the rank and file it's fine.
Now if we were to extradite Flynn's boss
democracy would count in no big loss