Arms Race

Seismometers show Kim makes more than noise
he's bought technology from Russia's past
an adolescent with a grown-up's toys
thinks WorldWar III could be a total blast.
The dotard on his far-off Yankee throne
perceives it as a personal offense
his manhood shrinks with each Pyongyang nosecone
contesting out death-cult predominance.
Sage diplomats recoil to hear the twain
trade threats like little boys raised on a farm.
It's not apparent either one's quite sane
but each is armed to bear for grievous harm.
Our world's beleaguered by contempt for truth
as much in dotage as in reckless youth.

Vayera N

The voice of God? Or some demonic wraith?
commanded Avraham to bind his son
where Reason balked, he carried on, on Faith
although his seed's invested in this one.
He'd saved his nephew from the fiery rout,
but dared not go to bat for his sole heir.
It took a Shakespeare to ennoble doubt
and lay a hero's vacillations bare.
The man who charged his Maker to play fair
won't stay his own hand when the task is hard.
The skepticism Hume would bring to bear's
discarded by the mystic Kierkergaard.
But who of us'd endorse the zealot's zeal
without assurances what he'd heard's real?

Jonah

Three days asea, without a brig, or barque,
once he'd been jettisoned to quell the gale
pent up, like Noah's livestock in the dark,
dour Jonah had no mate to share the whale.
Unwilling to defy God face to face
but shirking his commission as a Jew,
seems disappointed sinners could find grace
Assyrians deserve God's mercy, too.
An angry man, who'd thrill to see them burn
chose ringside seats from which to watch the show,
seemed disappointed strangers' hearts should turn
more pious than his kin who ought to know.
Once called, no prophet ever slips God's leash,
be he in Nineveh, or in Tarshish.

sapphire

a whisker grown of Al₂O₃
stays just as gracile as it's getting long
anisotropic growth in just one-D
but on that axis, it's ungodly strong.
Molecularly, it's a whole new class
from aggregates one might pull off the shelf
its strength per weight surpasses fiberglass
each bond aligned with load, all by itself
the homolytic bond strength's hard to beat
aluminates adhere both snug, and fast
a fancy aggregate used in concrete
resistant to an earthquake, or bomb-blast
composites tough as abalone shell
might yet survive when Earth's been made a Hell

Sharky's end II

The snares of logic Saruman deployed
when Fangorn'd pent him up in Orthanc's tower
by light of day, were easy to avoid
mixed company had bled them of their power.
King Theoden remembered Hama's fate
who fell defended Rohan, and his liege,
his mutilated body at the gate
the last atrocity of Helm's Deep's siege.
'Twas Wormtongue, did for Sharky, in the end.
His last companion in an ill-spent life
a beaten cur's untrusty as a friend
and rhetoric's no proof against a knife.
Deranged arch-mage aspired to be a king
corrupted by long study of the Ring.

Sharky's end

The snares of logic Saruman deployed
when Fangorn'd pent him up in Orthanc's tower
by light of day, were easy to avoid
mixed company had bled them of their power.
And Theoden remembered Hama's fate
who fell defended Rohan, and his liege,
his mutilated body at the gate
the last atrocity of Helm's Deep's siege.
'Twas Wormtongue, did for Sharky, in the end.
His last companion in an ill-spent life
a beaten cur's untrusty as a friend
and rhetoric's no proof against a knife.
Defrocked ex-wizard tried to con a king
corrupted by long study of the Ring.

Tanur Akhnai

"It's not in Heaven!" Joshua replied
we rule with the majority in court
the canon's closed, and duly sanctified,
so Eliezer's case was cut off short.
What's supernatural is of no note.
And God himself can't sway the argument.
The rabbis here-assembled get to vote
and points are scored on Torah precedent.
And yet,  where there's no chesed, justice fails.
To excommunicate a sage is bad.
The grievance festers, with all that entails
when Eliezer davens shachrit, mad.
Asserting dominance left one man dead
although he'd been the council's rightful head.