magnum est res tacere

Longs centuries, the Brits loved what they've had
content to cite tradition, day by day.
Still, written constitutions ain't so bad
if they'd but deign to try the Yankees' way.
The haystack-headed clown of Downing Street
runs roughshod over Opposition faint.
His code of conduct's grossly incomplete
reliant on his fictive self-restraint.
But in the crisis, wise heads ought to pause.
What court dares intercede where there's no crime?
"great cases" we're reminded "make bad laws"
Yet innovation's urgent at this time.
should Britain--by great luck--survive this clown
the cure for such an ill's worth writing down.

parlous times

This latest antic in the BoJo show
might be a hoot if stakes were not so high.
He dared to ask his sov'reign to prorogue
without a guarantee that she'd comply.
Her Majesty signed off, they'll be on break
until October's run full half its course.
Scant opportunity to fix mistakes
as Britain's prospects sag from bad to worse.
Were Corbyn less unpopular by half,
this present Parliament would boot the clown.
But Corbyn as Prime Minister's a laugh;
the multi-party system's broken down.
Yanks dared the world to top Trump's flair to fail;
the British gamely answered "hold my ale".

urp II

Methanogens detox ungulates' gut
by stripping hydrogen out of the chyme,
that forms when fermentation's firmly shut
from oxygen (if only for a time).
What's once produced is belched into the air
to trap IR--'though UV shines right through.
A threat to which we're slow to grow aware
as we poach in our man-made greenhouse stew.
A million years of symbiotic bliss
recycling cellulose into prime meat
could make a sterile Venus out of this
blue planet as it traps more of our heat.
Our steak in worlds to come's ever more dear
if we must buy it with our atmosphere.

Pass the Torch II

Joe Biden's neurologically too old;
no voter who's awake should find this strange.
Our current crises need somebody bold
to navigate in seas of ceaseless change.
Liz Warren brings the vigor, and a plan
to teach, to practice law, to save the world...
Miami's shown us who's the better man
'though Trump may underestimate the "girl".
Two dozen others get their say, of course
Kamala vivisected Joe in style!
But soon, it's time to step down and endorse
the one who'll bear the torch the final mile.
The 2020 ballot fits just two;
Liz Warren's turn on top's long over-due.

pirate king

Macron holds Bolsonaro to his word;
the Amazon must photosynthesize.
To scorch the planet's lungs is just absurd;
without the rainforest, our species dies.
Such conflagration's more than law allows
whole tribes are perishing among their trees.
But ranchers, eager to export cheap cows
would liquidate a word's patrimony.
Pariah nation, shut out in the cold
no European's gonna buy its beef.
Their trade agreement's getting put on 'hold'
until Brazil repents and ousts this thief.
The human species' running out of time
for fascist who see profit in such crime.

Ekev III

transactional theology's a crock;
God's not a butler, coddling your desire.
No human logic--much less Mr. Spock--
finds Springtime rains in goats consigned to fire.
Societies of angels need no rules;
Karl Marx explained the state itself away.
But to accommodate both saints and fools,
we still need codes, and people must obey.
When Job got tzurres that he'd never earned,
compounded by three friends who thought they're wise
God scoffed at what these three thought they had learned;
their victim-blaming schemes he labeled "lies".
Adults who spurn Ekev's stark quid-pro-quo
when raising children, still profess it's so.

Ekev

The quid-pro-quo of Deuteronomy
dissatisfied Job's author, long ago.
No purpose and no teleology
explains why innocent kids suffer so.
First-person testimony from on High
confirms our hero's righteous in all facts.
False friends seek reassurance in their lies
who--were they honest--ought to have his back.
To bring his sons, flocks, herds, back from the dead
strains one's credulity--it's more than odd.
But what's canonical can't be unsaid;
within the b'rit, we're stuck explaining God.
So Jews must re-interpret static words
imbuing sense into this life absurd.