TP’s back on the market shelves
Easy to find Purell
Lots of bleach for you to drink
And lots of gloves to sell
Clap Hands

Numbers go up instead of down
Nobody’s staying home
They all go out without a mask
When they decide to roam
Clap hands

Everyone’s invincible
“It couldn’t strike me down”
I’m an invisible carrier
Busy all over town
Clap hands, clap hands

I feel a tickle in my throat
And a little raspy cough
It’s getting sort of hard to breathe
I need to take time off
Clap hands, clap hands, clap hands

NO more clapping of the hands
Now is the time to pray
That you’ll survive this killer big
And live another day
Go wash those hands, don’t clap them.
ljm

For want of the word
A thought is lost
For want of the thought
An idea is lost
For want of an idea
The plan’s unformed
Without any plan
My world is chaos
         ljm

Announcement:

Next Tuesday we will  begin a 19 day
driving trip.  It will start with a 5-day
Laurel and Hardy Convention in
Sacramento, CA and go next to my home
town of Longview, Washington, where
there will be a big annual Jubilee on the
4th of July.  It’s called “Go Fourth” and
it's famous over the Pacific Northwest.
I’ll visit my rogue brother who still lives
there, and later move on to my water
totem, Long Beach - the longest sand
beach in the world and blessedly un-
modernized and citified. From there
we drive to Seattle to get rained on
and visit my sister. Then the long drive
home enjoying everything there is to see
in Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Nevada. I
don’t have a laptop, or e-mail on my
phone so I’ll be out of touch and
relishing it.  But I will be back on 7/14.
I’ll miss you all. Don’t go away.
                                       LJM

My little brush with small dustpan
Is called a Table Crumber.
But I do not do fancy meals
That worry about bread crumbs

Instead it often sweeps behind
The Kitchen cupboard baseboards
For all the bits that fall that way
While I’m preparing dinner.

The standard broom is way too big
To get into those corners
To find the crumbs and bacon bits
That fly off of the counter.

So while its job is alternate
And not in fancy settings
My little brush is valuable
A fact Im not forgetting.
                             ljm

I'm much better at being sad.
I've had a lot more practice.
                       ljm

My mac has had one too many nervous breakdowns and is headed for the hospital this afternoon.  I expect to be without him for 2-3 days while they ream out all the boogey Men and Trojan Horses. I hope it doesn't take any longer. I'm uneasy when I'm away from HP. This is where all my dreams are safely stashed.  Please leave the light on for me.

It is my most sincere and humble wish

That my absence for 3 weeks will not

generate a large Hue and Cry among

Those who cannot exist without my

Daily words of Wisdom and Sagacity

On this site that has become refuge

To so many of us wayward souls.
                                               LJM

Am I the only one who has been unable to access HP for well over a week?  Was it HP - or my cranky ole Mac?
I felt like I had been dumped, naked and bleeding by the side of the road in a rainstorm.  Hyperbole?  Maybe, maybe not. I now know how to identify addiction.  I would seem to be hooked  The writing has piled up, so get ready for a deluge from Lori-Mack.

A daisy can never be an orchid
But an opera can be operose.
  LJM

Calendars say it now is summer
So we gird for a three month war.
The object won’t be victory
We’ve battled this before.

To conquer is impossible
There’s unrelenting heat
That’s burning hot at 3 A.M.
And noon is a repeat.

There never is a cooling breath.
The breeze does not refresh.
It parches what it does not fry
And laughs at shading mesh.

Each day’s a battle to achieve
What little must be done
And hope you needn’t go outside
Beneath that scorching sun.

Mark exes on the calendar -
October is so far away
But that becomes the shining goal
We struggle for each day

We ask ourselves if we are nuts
To wage this war each year
But once the Desert owns your heart
You have to linger near.
      ljm

I’ll never be a track star
Because I cannot run
That doesn’t really matter
Because I have a gun.

I’ll never win a medal
For something I’ve achieved
But I’ll be long remembered
By everyone I’ve grieved.

I’m always sad and angry
My life has not been fun.
But I know how to fix it
With my brand-new shiny gun.

A bully said my *****
Appears to be too small
It’s bigger than the trigger
That will blow away them all

I’m longing to be famous
But my triumphs total none
I’ll aim for bigger numbers
When I unleash my gun

An AK forty-seven
Is the answer to my needs
And I’ll become a headline
Because of my next deeds.

I’m heading for the school now
Where I’m gonna awe and stun
Gonna mow down all the children
With my brand new shiny gun.
ljm

I learned a brand new word today
And know who it applies to.
I thought I knew pejoratives
As well as a Thesaurus

But this one sounds a bit made up.
I stumbled on it glancing through
A  list of vintage words and terms
I came across this morning.

I’ve said it over many times
Enjoying how it sounds
It kind of rolls across the tongue
And could be used for joking

But it’s for more than just a laugh
And here is what it means:
“A shrewd, unprincipled person
Especially a politician.”

I will not be naming names -
Too numerous to list
But choose the one that you like least
And call him Snollygoster.
              ljm

She stands before the bathroom mirror
Creating several different faces
Tryng to find the one that doesn’t
Make her look so tired and old.

Some of them make her look ill
A couple more look silly.
The one she finally settles on:
A wan and disappointed smile -

Accepted as least ugly of the bunch
It’s not the face she’d hoped to wear
In this the Autumn of her life.
She expected some small trace
Of former beauty to remain.

She tried to make a little sparkle
To liven up her somber eyes
And find the muscle in her cheek
That lifts her lips into a grin.

A sorry rictus of despair
Was all that effort brought her
So she gave up and threw the switch
And slipped away in darkness
ljm

Happy New Year
One and all.
Bet you didn’t know -
Today is my Birthday.  
Yep - I am a New Years Baby.
Happy Birthday to me.
I sing it to myself
Because everybody else
Is too hung over to
Carry a tune.

So…. we will start
A brand new year
Together at HP.
But I feel like
I got nobbled -
I have to start it
A whole year older than
I was on New Year’s Eve,
And you all get to stay
the same age  
As you were last night.
****** bigtime.
       ljm

My mid has drifted, I'm sad to say
You cannot say I'm lying
It's bigger still than yesterday
And that is why I'm crying.
                                ljm

The only child at the Easter Egg Hunt
Lacks a big enough basket
To collect the bounty all laid out
Across the rolling lawn

Those who were not allowed to run
Look sadly from outside the fence
Their empty baskets tossed aside
In hopelessness and envy.

Who painted all those pretty eggs
And who decides who gets to run
Why can’t those other little hands
Collect an egg or two

They can, you say.  Here’s two or three
For each of you, if you applaud
The Golden Child who smiles at all
In sympathy and pride

And tells you you will likely never
Be the one they choose to run
So be content with your two eggs
And never let your green eyes show.
ljm

We’re in a very darkened place.
The Sun is absolutely gone;
An angry wind is howling.
All the butterflies have flown;
The birds are hiding in the trees.

There is no music in the brook.
The lovely Marigolds are dying.
The candles that once lit the way
Have been blown out repeatedly
And not a matchbook can be found.

Random bursts of angst and fear
Throw black paint over hopefulness
And there are no stars in the sky.
We stand stock still and hold each other
Soon to learn which doom is ours.
ljm

Walking is my one escape
From the walls I find around my life.
Watching the sun break through the dark
Over nearby jagged mountains
Gives my soul the fuel to carry on.

Those walks and sunrise vistas
Are the leitmotif of
Many things I write.
They paint depression
Shades of pink and apricot.

I dredge my store of adjectives
To find new ways to capture
All I see and wonder at
Sometimes it turns into a song
That only I can hear me sing.

“Then sings my soul
My Savior God to thee
How great thou art
How great thou art”
There is religion in the sunrise.
          ljm

Are the Supremes gonna sing his song?
The one it took him four long years to write.
The one he and his choir auditioned in half
The states in what’s left of a Country.

Is the Nonet going to sing his melody
Or will they split into several quartets
Or perhaps a trio and two duets
With someone else taking the solo.

Are the Supremes gonna dance to his tune?
The rest of his orchestra turned him away
And the score calls for complicated steps
But he paid for their lessons in dishonest cash.

He provided new choir robes, with no lace collars
Does one size fit all, or are some too tight.
They insisted on black and refused MAGA red
In an effort to counterfeit decorum.

And still the question hangs in the air
Will the Supremes nonet sing his song.
Is the end of the world an impossible thought
Not if the Supremes agree to sing his song.
                          ljm

My name is Clive the Centurian
I deliver my orders stentorian
I may stamp my feet
But it’s silence I greet
So I’m off to the sanitorium
                            ljm

Why is a glitter different than a glisten:
Evil eyes glitter with malice
Gentle eyes glisten with love.
Diamonds glitter, real or not
Opals glisten with a silken sheen,
The sun shining on the ocean glitters
The moon on a quiet lake glistens
Elizabeth Taylor Glittered
While Julie Andrews glistens.
There is no bridging word to use
One puts you in a meadow
And the other on a rocky shore
Which verb do I want to be
I never really could decide.
                ljm

Hell was supposed to be beneath us
Somewhere way down low in the cosmos
As far below as Heaven is above.
That is what I learned in Sunday School.

If this is true why is Hell not staying home
And minding it’s own business.
Why is it suddenly appearing here
In all  its fiery fury.

Poor Maui, California, Australia and Peru,
Spain and even peaceful Canada
Have been blistered by Hell’s wrath
And struggle to rise up from the ashes.

Have we thinned the walls between Hell and us
So flames can now escape their containment
And let us see what might await us some day
If we cannot change our direction.

If we ignore the planet we were given
And we avoid the rules laid down
If we assume there will be no judgement
And we can worship just ourselves

We’ll find that we’ve left the gate standing open
And the welcome mat for Hell is in place.
ljm

This is obviously a challenge poem.
I hope to obtain a prize.
It’ll be an obligato tome,
A bit oblong in size

I won’t object if you become
Obdurate in your view
Of my obsequious pandering,
Introducing words brand new.

I must admit that I obsess
On words that start o-b
Considering them obnoxious
And obscure as they can be,

But looking at the obverse side
I do not want to obligate
Your absolute attention
To my somewhat obstinate
Desire for intervention.

They tell me I’m obstreperous
But they are all obese.
Their aim is to obtain my skill
And obligate release.

But I am not oblivious,
I’m observant of their ploys
So I’ll oppose this silly game
And not join with their toys.
           ljm

I dug a hole in the seaside sand
But it didn’t fill with water
And the sides did not cave in.

The rain came down
But the sand stayed dry
And the ocean got the drenching.

The seagulls danced
Their tide-line jig
Avoiding my sand cavern

I lined the hole with dry seaweed
And covered it with clam shells.
I crawled inside and hunkered down
At last safe from tomorrow.
ljm

What’s the point and where’s the purpose -
Writing things won’t make them happen.
The stories on the TV set
Are someone else’s version
Of a life we’ll never live or know.

Why keep pressing on when there’s no map
And all the street signs are in Latin.
Satisfaction can’t be gained
When they won’t let you finish
Any project your own way.

Who saw where the pathway turned
And didn’t take the time to tell us.
The hand that mans the tiller is not mine.
I spend my time below the decks now
Ever longing just to see the stars.
ljm

Not the prettiest girl in town,
The smartest or most charming,
But she had what the boys all wanted
And she did not say “no”

Her Birthday was a day past mine
Our mothers were good friends
We celebrated on those days together
I learned we could not double date

Her boyfriend’s friends assumed that I
Would lay me down like she did
But I was saving that for later
“No” was the only word I knew.

The arguments were never fun.
The pill did not exist back then
And boys detested wearing “rubbers”
My fear was equaled by resolve

Our ties gave way with our diplomas
And I set out to find my star
She settled in to create babies
Birthday cards our only contact

The one who finally married her
Was not her baby’s father
She thanked him for his kindness
By giving him three more

They stuck it out through thick and thin
And thin it was most often
She stayed by him and him by her
And so the world moved on for years

One day I heard that she had died
Cancer at an early age
As one last time she laid her down
And slipped into eternal rest

I wonder how our lives would be
Had I said yes while she said no
ljm

What an awesome duty you have on Jan 5.

YOUR VOTE WILL DETERMINE THE DIRECTION OF THE ENTIRE USA FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS.  Wow!

Your election is not really about the incumbents and challengers.  It is about Mitch McConnell. Your election will decide if this one man, elected by one small state, will retain the power to keep legislation             he happens to dislike from ever coming to an open vote on the Senate floor. It will give him the continued power to ignore bills passed by the House of Representatives and lock them away in his desk, never to be debated, discussed or passed by the Senate.

Voting for your incumbents will keep the makeup of the Senate as it is, and give McConnell his power for another four years, so he can hamper progress for Joe Biden, just as he did for Barak Obama.  His Goal once again will be to stymie the President YOU just elected, and limit him to only one term by keeping him from enacting any of his agenda so he appears to be a failure.

If instead, you vote for the challengers, it will realign the Senate. It will  take away the kingly powers of Mitch McConnell, and give it back to the Senate as a whole. You will  give the President YOU elected a chance to enact some of the legislation that will heal our country, save the environment, grow the economy, work toward justice for all, and put an end to our being outcasts in the eyes of the rest of the world

It doesn’t matter which party you are in - if you want any progress to be made in the next four years - If you want to see the programs and ideals that caused you to vote for President Biden come true - you need to vote for both of the challengers in this election.

The whole world is watching.

Being a New Year's Baby, I always grow a year older at 12:01 AM, so I try to stay up to see the effect it will have on me. Tonight will be a big one - adding a 5 to four score and still on the march to glory.
Nobody comes to Birthday parties on January first - too hung over.  But at least I've never have to work on that day. So I watch the Pasadena Rose Parade in my PJ's and drink cocoa toasts to myself.
It's not all that bad.  In fact it's usually pretty good.

My prayer list held a disaster
That was burdened with three more
There has never been a time
I felt compelled to pray for
Catastrophic multiples:
The burned out victims of Hawaii,
The earthquake rubble in Morocco,
Survivors of Libya’s flood deluge
Plus Hurricanes and Tornados
Here in the land that we call home.
And all within the last two months.
So many in such a very short time.
Each one a calamity of people
Where lives and dreams were all destroyed
With loved ones left behind to weep.

Are we seeing here a prelude of
Four Horsemen and Apocalypse?
Have they begun their awful ride?
They carry different banners now:
Not War, but the deadly fires of Hell
Not Famine, but death-dealing floods
Not Pestilence but shaking down tall buildings
Not Death, but gales of immense destruction

Some say there is another Horse,
A Fifth, called Nuclear Annihilation
His banner flaunts the end of time
That snuffs the world before the Trumpet blows.
It’s kicking at the stable door
And we can hear the timbers cracking.

But grazing calmly in the pasture
Is the dappled horse called Six
His banner is the slow starvation
Of everything that supports life.
He need not ride, he only waits
For greed, indifference and sloth
To find the way to **** the earth
And everyone who lives upon it.

Is there any place to hide
Is there anything to do
Any way to make it better.
Can which sacrifice atone
For what we’ve done to our own planet -
What we’ve done to our own lives.
One book seems to have the answer
It’s on the Best Seller list.
Almost every household owns one.
Almost no one ever reads it.
Maybe finally…it’s time.
ljm

This morning a jet from the Air Force Base
Split the sky in two with a contrail
Set ablaze by the rising sun.
It cut a line across the clear blue sky
And disappeared beyond the far off mountains.
I watched it as those razor edges
Yielded to celestial winds
And began the transformation
Into wispy clouds across the heavens.
It wasn’t long until the jet’s invasion
Of the peaceful dawning of the day
Disappeared, and only I
Was witness to its transgression.
ljm

Ruth, you didn’t do us right
You knew that you had cancer
You couldn’t know how long you had
You must have thought Trump wouldn’t win.

And so you took the gamble.
You should have exited the court
Before Obama’s term wound down,
If you were thinking of the nation.

Your ego kept you on the bench
Until it was too late to go.
We all held our worried breath
As we watched your health decline.

Once you saw the damage
That was daily being done
To your beloved country
You could do nothing but hold on.

We know you tried to last him out
To keep some balance on the Court
But even you, with your fierce strength,
Were not a match for what was in the cards.

Ruth, you didn’t do us right.
In the final reckoning
You should have known to step aside
And save us from destruction.
ljm

Falling in love with you was very easy.
You were exotic and beautiful to see.
A gateway to a very different lifestyle
So unlike the sad frustration I had known.

        Staying in love with you hasn’t been as easy.
        Differences we thought were small grew bigger
        And ways to to deal with them entailed much work
        But I never ever doubted that you love me

With a love that also holds a lot of need.
My love for you encompasses my own need
To lead us safely through the shoals of living
And be of use to your life and our world.

        The love that is our true foundation
        Never wavers in the storms of life
        And I’m beside you til the final curtain
        Proving that my love for you won’t die.
ljm

What a wonderful moment this is
No pain to be felt anywhere
And everything working smoothly.
I walk with ease on metal hips
And swing the arm with its plastic rod.
I have no need to *** or ****
And the sunrise is outstanding.
The dogs I meet adore their treats
And every face is smiling.

Perfection is a scary thing.
It never lasts forever
But the memory of it does.
ljm

Every night their cherished homes
Are scattered like spilled toothpicks
Across a wounded land that
Shudders under angry skies.

Every morning raging water crashes in
And floats away the little things
That added pleasure to their living
And leaves behind just soggy sadness.

Every afternoon the smoke filled skies
Make breathing in a dangerous thing
And leave scorched nothingness behind
To proclaim the power of that inferno.

Every dawning brings new hope
Like Manna from the Bible shining on
The plans and dreams of those
Who aim to vanquish all the tragedies

And make a tiny corner of the world
A cleaner, better, safer place to be;
Kinder to the injured spirit and the broken soul -
A healing, hopeful ointment for a wounded planet.
ljm

I have loved and been loved by many
But you have now become my final love.
I loved and lost until I found my way to you
And knew that at long last I’d found my home.

I gave away vast portions of my beauty
And let bits of my soul be cut away.
I came to you in hopeless, faded tatters
And you considered that I was a treasure.

No need have I to seek a shiny new love
Or look for something with a brighter flame.
Yours is the love that I will hold forever
Content within the glow that we create.

There is a vintage saying that describes us
Written by a poet in the past.
It says that you are not my first love
But in my heart I vow you are the last.
   ljm

Am I the only one on HP
Who is finding it impossible
To parse the Byzantine new
System Eliot-the-Great has
Foisted on us in the name
Of becoming available
In your back Jeans pocket
Wherever you may be?
LJM

Where would we be had Al Gore been elected-
If Florida and the Supremes hadn’t blatantly cheated
To get their boy into the White House.

Would these 20 years past still have been wasted,
Bowing down to the Miners and the big Oil Cartels.
Would the heat of the Earth have continued to grow
At a pace that promised and guarantees doom.

Or would saner minds maybe have listened
To scientists with just one agenda in mind
Trying to stop the drumroll of destruction
And preserve this world God gave us to live on.

I don’t have an answer - do you?
ljm

Maggots are crawling in the
Dying body of America.
Fed by lies and subterfuge
Left untreated by those
Who’s only interest is their paycheck.
And those who sold their souls for electors.
      ljm

This is my first breviloquent poem.
Hope you think it’s a little bit eloquent.
                 ljm

Circumsance newly provides us
With a lissom visage of hope -
A sturdy twig to hold onto when
The hurricane begins its howl.
     ljm

You can’t conflate two nothings
Into something of great worth
You cannot have true progeny
Unless you first give birth.

You cannot wear the laurel crown
Unless you win the race
You cannot be a beauty queen
Without a pretty face.

You cannot swell yourself with pride
And call yourself a hero
If all the actions that you laud
Have added up to zero.
      ljm

This country is in dire straits
The great unwashed now
Outnumber the intelligencia
And truth and facts
No longer rule the day.
The gates are swinging open
For the Robber Barons to hold sway
As Gaia begs for mercy.
Everything is up for sale
Including honesty and souls.
The sexiest thing obtainable
Is power in it’s crudest form.
No female DNA is safe.
Children learn it all by five
And **** themselves by ten.
The One Percent hold all the cards-
The rest of us use credit
With totals we can never pay.
Everything is Monetized
Except unwanted children-
No one’s solved that problem yet.
Now adults can choose their gender
And switch it any day they choose.
Families are multicolored
And a Peacock is a service bird.
Rainy days do not get saved for,
College loans are never paid.
The Holier-Than-Us are ruling
In their God promoting way
Wearing masks of indignation
To cover their own iniquity.
Even though the sun still shines
The rain pours down, the snow piles up-
It’s one endless epic storm
As Six-pack Joe heads off to work
To earn almost not quite enough.

Will we crumble - will we thrive
Only if the voters rock the boat
And throw the pirates overboard.
ljm

I pass a bush on my morning walk
A big round bush with dark green leaves
Trimmed to be symmetrical.

Today it called as I walked by
Demanding that I turn and see
The first red blossom of the Fall.
The bravest and the quickest one-
Point-bloom for the rest to follow.

As richly red as burgundy,
It seemed to shout “I’m here!
And you can take a moment from
Your busyness to savor
This free gift I’ve made for you.”

Humbled, I stood very still,
Accepting beauty for my soul.
          ljm

I reach for her love and am handed back anger.
I learn all the dance steps and what I should wear
But the Prom invitation never comes in the mail
And I’m scolded for lack of attendance.

My pen has been poisoned by her hateful words
It trembles and writhes in my shaking hand.
The ink blots and smudges are all shaped like teardrops
And the letters assemble to only spell pain
        ljm

I see the horsemen on the top of the hill
Surveying the evil below them,
Holding back their anxious steeds
Until the clock ticks down to zero
ljm