Rebar hope pokes
Up and out concrete
Expansion dreams it seems

In cities and villages
All across Mexico
Construction reinvention

Tomorrow’s new patio
Next year’s second floor
The rebar promise of more

We chimpanzees proceed
With all available evidence

Oog said Ogg will attack
Bash Ogg’s brain; now!

Wait, Zegg said, we can’t do that
It’s against the chegg convention

Dash the convention!
Rescind what Zegg said

Restrain her, retrain her with
Extraordinary rendition

My petition for retribution
Is my absolute authority

Find Oog; restrain him
Waterboard retrain him

Truth through torture
Trogg exclaimed

Ugg saw all debasement
From Ogg through to Zegg

And what she exclaims
Remains ———————

What’s acted is redacted
And still remains the same

On the shortest day
Before the new decade
As the sun belt sways
With seasons changing
High in sky is Venus
Bright night beacon

Tomorrow will be longer
Bringing urgent hope nigh
That as the earth tilts
So do we, happily
To greater fortune
And love reciprocal  

May you see clear in 2020
And have dreams realized
With all fears deprived
To all I known and love
Good health, better life:
My card, my Yuletide

It’s called entrenchment
Abrogation and entitlement
Perjury of responsibility

"I solemnly swear
That in all things appertaining
To the trial of the impeachment…

I will do impartial justice
According to the Constitution …
So help me God."

McConnell: I'm not an impartial juror
Graham: won't pretend to be fair
The Fox is in the henhouse

The process is unfair
And fixed from the start
By the stalwart GOP

She hit the wasp’s nest
The big orange piñata
And the angry elephants flew

A slimy smarmy swarm
“Witchey hunt; unfair”
Bouncey baby bawls

Gopers gulp and declare
“Witchey hunt; unfair”
Lockstep in discourse

Not mistreatment
Of the indecent
This impeachment

Forget circumstance and pomp
Now, right now is the time
To finally drain that swamp

20,000 leagues under the sea
While still 8 miles high
80 days to round the world

There and back again
From now to way back when
You, me, us and them

Round the top and
Through the bottom
Mediate the middle

Cross oceans
Ford fjords
Claim Everest

Start to finish
Begin to end
Again

On the road less travelled
Unfamiliar now routine
Strangely, though, at home

A dog crosses the road
With more skill than I
His home is to roam

Magical and mundane
Surrounds us and
Confounds us

A sky too blue
Smells noxious
Tastes renowned

Sidewalks cracked, uneven
Traffic dense, dangerous
Horns, alarms, sounds abound

Boy with penciled mustache
Girl as bumble-bee
Glorious pageantry

Unfamiliar territory
Humble observers we
Embrace the sameness

What goes around
Gets dizzy

All’s well that
Isn’t bad

A fool and his money
Has a lot of fun

Early to bed early to rise
Has no night life

A stitch in time
Is a temporal rupture

What doesn’t **** you
Raises insurance rates

When life hands you lemons
Open a fruit stand

Actions speak louder
With a PA system

The apple doesn’t fall
In outer space

You cannot judge a book
Without a lawyer

The grass is always greener
With fertilizer

An apple a day
Costs $250 a year

We’re not laughing at you
(Yes, we are)

There’s no such thing
As a unicorn having lunch

Money is the root of all
Capitalism

A spoon full of sugar makes
Diabetics

Misery loves
Therapists

Better safe than
In danger

All that glitters
Sparkles

Ignorance is
Trump

The letter will come
Email chimes
Doctor calls

Entropy entirely
No escape
Nobody

So, no denial
Forget delay
Love today

Temperature changed
Spectrum shifted
Brown around town

Look see glance
Walk it talk it
Best you can

Foreign as familiar
Strange the same
The new game

All one everyone
Smiles are smiles
Walking miles

En este mundo
Todos familia
Cada dia

Follow a moral compass
Yours or one divine
Own your needle swings

Abhor hypocrisy
Shun mendacity  
Straight path walked

Don’t defend deceivers
Lest it define you as
Waddle Chump

Be better
Choose another
Jump that ****

My bones ache
My head seeks

The body slumps as
Spirit breathes and

Unhindered soars
And scores

That door has closed
Everything known, practiced, reveled
A short time ago

Ones trusted, loved
Now just another
Long past innuendo

The new unknown
A chasm sprightly trundled
As a newborn idiot would

Has its bright baubles
But leaves one troubled
What mattered whence when

Which involvement mattered
What remembered remains
I don’t think I’ll see again

I’m happy; but why so sad?
I miss my dad.

I saw him last a year ago
I wiped his *** and so

I told him I was proud
I’m glad I said it out loud

Because now I can’t
Nothing to recant

He met the end with dignity
And aplomb, didn’t he?

Lovable lug of a man
Emulate? I’ll try if I can

I thought him an ******* republican
At age 18—then thought again

I left home to be me
Family? I was free!

Young, naive, on my own
I made my own home

Family was for other guys
That umbilical thought otherwise

Because there was another
Yeah, my mother

Always there, always kind
Reminded me of mine

Calls ended with, “Here’s your father...”
A Lake Woebegone bother

“Hello son...” he’d intone
“Hey, pops,” I’d own

Every poem needs a fulcrum
A change always welcome

I’d say before the call stopped
“I love you, pops”

Months, years, eons begun
Finally, “I love you too, son.”

Next defies time, logic and law
A love so deep it fills me with awe

We became good friends
Mutual respect to the end

The loss cuts deep
And so I weep

And you still have
Your mom and dad?

Call them.
Amen.

What I don’t know and
What I want to know:

I know what is important
And suspect the rest

Time tells us which friends
And those not in the end

Safety is illusion
Reality as allusion

Now is not knowable
Instantly fast then gone

Glimpse it askance
And do your best

Apologize for faux pas
And skate the rest

Past is immutable
Unless you can forget

All futures possible so
Imagine the impossible

What I know is this:
“.......................”

With teacher as student
And all the world’s topsy-turvey
Not knowing knight's next move
Although all the board’s a flux
Each step is potential adventure and
Intuition is your only guide
Take the step

There’s this certain joint
Under cars and everywhere
Called a universal joint

A priest, a rabbi, an insurance agent
Walked into such a place
“What’s your special" was asked

“Everything and nothing“
The universe wearily replied
“I'll take two,” they said

The rabbi drank while
The priest blanked
As the whole joint stank

Ever astute, the agent,
Made an impassioned point
To everyone’s amazement:

“Here’s the universal solution —
At a certain point, remember
It’s only entertainment”

It was a fun day
On the Bay of Fundy
When Chris, Jane, Mateo and Juan
Happened to look leftward

New Brunswick looked old as
The ocean shimmered singularly
Porpoises poised ominously and
The captain seemed bereft

"4° starboard, Coxswain!” he bellowed
Before the worst occurred
Juan saw it just before Jane
As the ship ****** accordingly

Beside, the thing from nowhere
The beast that could not be
Krakened enormously
Splitting sea and sky

Mateo was the first to plead,
“Why, oh why, here and just now?”
He beseeched sea, beast, and sky
“Why not?” Crackled the Kracken

The sum of fun on bay of Fundy
Ended that day in mid July
The  flying fish remember
All those who did not die

I might bungee jump that ravine
But I probably shan’t

I could base-jump squirrel-like
And glide far, far down—or not

I might mount Everest—
(I just made a Sherpa laugh)

Swimming with whale sharks?
I would be there, maybe

With an aqualung
Come along, anyone?

I’ve counted to 21 millionteen
More than just once

I’ve swam over 10 kylemeters
With no one watching

I’ve traversed so very many sidewalks
All my heads spin and spin and win

I could climb that shrub
Without carabiners

If I wanted too—
But I won’t

I could scale that wall
Without proper ID, but no

I could leap tall buildings
Sans nose or red cape

But I shan’t…
Shoulda, woulda, coulda?

Put your camera phones down
I’m my own hero, ******

The sun kissed mountains
Greet me to the north
A beckoning mystery

The double domes
Of Templo Santa Domingo
Christened in golden light

Shine below the
Guelaguetza dome a
Spaceship mushroom

I walk the streets in early morn
Beguiled, bedazzled, in love
With our temporary home

I’ve been to where
Beyond somewhat

Floating through it all
Soaring everywhere

Beings familiar seen
The inscrutable not

Take the nectar
As I flutter by

How far should you go
For what you don’t know?
Tomorrow?
Last year?
Marrakech?

Why should you go
To where you don’t know?
To borrow?
Revere?
Make a wish?

Where should you go
To walk it so slow?
Assuage sorrow?
Persevere?
Make a switch?

What you should know
To become thorough
Is time’s arrow:
Change gear,
Self enrich

There is no comfort zone
As a ****** alone
Traipsing and tripping
Calles and zocalos

Estranged stranger
Taller, whiter, foreign
Trying to fit not blend in
Stuttering sputtering sentences

Finding right words
Taxing not relaxing
But rewards every day as
Friends show us the way

Tomorrow should be a Monday
It really is a someday
It might just be a one day
It could just be a fun day

I’ll take that petty pace
That creeps in and in and in
And keep my pretty face
Reject the ratty race

So: no; I’ll
Go slow—
A no show
Me, aglow

The line between here and there
Grows thin once a year and death
Smells of copal and marigolds
Those who remember sit twixt
This world and the next to commune
With madres y padres y abuelos y tias
Bathed in candle light; this afterlife
Remembering is festive, not somber
As October moves into November
With those living and past together

:

The way to home
Is to roam; to Rome
And to Singapore
And to so much more

Snap shut assumptions
Pop your presumptions
Be ready to roll
With that airport stroll

It’s today tomorrow
At some Gate 54
Seat 24B?
What are you waiting for’

Life in the dark
Is no walk in the park
The best path forward
Is simply felt

Hold hands as you
Cross the avenue
From what’s sure to
What you thought you knew

Grab a flashlight
Shine towards what’s right
Trip on the cobblestones
As you hobble home

In the dark, the stars shine bright
Take a left at Cassiopeia
Turn right at Orion’s belt
Skip home on a lark, in the dark

I would take you with me
If you could stand my masculinity
As we stumble rumble forward

I’d take a station wagon
With the third row pop-up seats
For all the critter sitters

If there was room,
I’d cram in every mistake
To close or just review

I knew better
I’ll know better
I’ll do better

If there was room
I’d step into it
And hope you'd still love me

This room has a view
Just step through
Us, me, you too

Out of time
No rhyme

Slushing the universe
Nibbling the edges

Moving fast and slow
Steady as she goes

It’s inevitable
The inevitable

Until you find slow
Shift: reverse

Baby came to me last night
Approaching with tentative stealth
A slink around reconnoiter

First a tail **** flirt
A jump up and down
Waters tested

She paws away
But not too far
Then creeps close again

Invisible pounce
Golden eyes tête-à-tête
She’s not sure yet

Then the chin dive
Under beard comfort shown
With sandpaper tongue

I wear my hickey proudly
Baby’s reclaimed me despite
Abandonment issues

Baby came to me last night
Approaching with tentative stealth
A slink around reconnoiter

First a tail **** flirt
A jump up and down
Waters tested

She paws away
But not too far
Then creeps close again

Invisible pounce
Golden eyes tête-à-tête
She’s not sure yet

Then the chin dive
Under beard comfort shown
With sandpaper tongue

I wear my hickey proudly
Baby’s reclaimed me despite
Abandonment issues

Thin line between
This and when
Between what is
And what’s not began

We walk and talk
And stop and look
As periphery beckons
Through subtle margins

Unheard symphonies
Unseen wonders
Almost patterns
Seeming schemes

An ambulance screams
Cars honk and careen
A child sobs and wails
Shadows whist away

When is this?
Where is this?
Where am I?

Awoke in dark
Wall dimly glows
The rest shadows

Here now?
Then when?
Where to go?

Stepped from sleep
All unfamiliar
Observe; think!

Gauze falls
Fog clears—
Here. In my chair.

The twist-tie
Had failed
Again and again

And it fell to us
Not our fault
Not our concern

Yet it exposed us
In an unfamiliar place
Our problem now

Rubber bands? No.
Beaded chain? No.
Thread from patch kit? Ha!

Then came the paper clip
Thank you Samuel B. Fay
The fabric is up now

Not curtains for us
Privacy regained
McGyver reclaimed

I am proud to say
I speak three languages:
Human, cat and dog

There a big difference between
“mmmmm-rrrrrrRRRRR-Ouww!”
And “mmrouwt!”

The occasional
"Mmmrt.”
That’s one contented cat!

Where to start with dog?
“thnff-sniff-sniff-snichff-iff”
Your **** as judge and jury

If they judge you worthy
With a **** of their head
Or clear-eyed happy panting

Or happy claws
Kneading your nethers
Throbbing, purring

Or the “schlourp, schlourp, schlourp”
Of their tongue where they dare
You have made it as a human

Enjoy their approval as
Human held in esteem
Strive to come back as one of them

Tricky bits, those
I have two of them
Bigger than some of yours

Superfluous on me
But some fun; a
Vestigial giggle

Perky, saggy
Voluptuous or
Removed

Tricky bits, those ****
Used to objectify
And advertise

===================
STANZA REMOVED
STANDARD PRACTICES
KEEPING YOU SAFE
===================

I wish I knew the joy
Of those milky bits
**** for little tots

Every mamma everywhere
Feeds who comes next
Every mamma, every mammal

Tornadic winds
At its periphery
Reached the conifery

Whether ambuscade or
Circumjacent to
Chaos ensued

Her again?
Or him in gray
Growing stronger

I take a pledge
To support Buttigieg
In all his future pursuits

It’s a thrillah
To support Kamila
And her justice crusades

Elizabeth Ann can
It’s guaranteed
and warranted

He’s a looker,
That Booker
Way to fly high, guy!

Hit or hold?
Time to fold and
Lose the Beto

I don’t feel
The Bern, sir; not
Not throwing away my shot

You as placeholder?
Take it slow, Joe
Steal the show

Can I take you to the poem?
He asked again

We can dance to
The stanza

Spend time with
The rhyme

On the dance-floor
(As metaphor)

Are you into me
Like, as, a silly simile?

It’s synecdoche
Your  dance with me

For your sacrifice you get
An *** and a half
Your ***** donkey

A cat-n-a-half
Wild, unpredictable
Somewhat lovable

A dog or two?
Royally loyal
To you

Fish?
No
So?

Chicken?
**** yes!
The rest?

A horse, of course
In your corral
Stable.

My pops was a Reagan man
As far as the G-Ole Party can

The vote: went with it
But he called him “Idiot!"

Iconic ironic elephant
Don’t be inelegant

Just fire the Man and
Make a stronger stand

My hero paid me
Compliments
Last night

Wait!
That was what
I wanted to do!

My friend,
What a gift!
Our confluence

Here I sit in my
Emotionarium

Right next to my
Imagintarium

Down the block from the
Duldrumations

And other sullied
Sorry situations

I’m a Happy Jack without
LSD or smack

Because for three seasons
(The had their reasons)

Fevered schemes
Were clever dreams

Yes, allegory, but thankfully
A well rounded story

Manage your own estate
No one else really cares

We work sometimes together
Or better yet: laugh together

We even feign interest
We might even “like!"

Then home to solo corners
Our own personal concerns

The importance of self-love:
Definitely not underrated

One percent
Or two percent
Blah, blah, blah or
Da! Da! Da!

No blame, James
No shame games
Need a new course
Hop a new horse

Gallop to the rest
East might be best
Set mainsails
No named fails

Forget *******
Just try and be in it
As we brave
And tackle

The big waves

I did things
Rewind remind

I went back and forth
In space and in time

Memories in cotton
Mostly forgotten

A dream cocoon
I’ll wake up soon

“Rise up!”
Said Cpt. Janeway Mulgrew to
Every woman everywhere

“Rise up!”
Said Lin-Manual Miranda
You have to take a stand!

“Rise up!”
Every woman every man, all
The freaky people in the band

“Rise up!”
Wise up!
Wake up!

“Rise up!”
Get involved
Be evolved!

“Rise up!”
With 20/20 vision as
We take back our land

Freshmen,
(Her, him and they,
And all other
In-between iterations!)

Welcome to
CSU Northmost!
Furthest on the
Northcoast!

It used to be
Hills, Stairs, Umbrellas
Before corporatization

We had a radio station

No more:
Sacramento weather
CSU Chico news
Welcome to Jefferson!

Local news? No.
Community calendar? Whoa!
"Here’s what’s happening in
Yreka California…”

We hope you enjoy
Your time here
In the Northern Quadrant
Our quad-county area

We used to be HSU
With a KHSU and
A funky community vibrancy.

Welcome to CSU Northmost!

my first gun
was a bb gun
it had begun
second was pellet

then at ten, sleek 22
later, louder shotgun
beware clay pigeons!
can’t take memories away

i had to take
a driver‘s test to
be a regular driver
well regulated

ammendment:
background checks
psych evaluations
no weapons of war:
an assault on us all

Spasms happen
“Hic! SHNICK! Hic…”
Gone when?

A bed asleep?
On the morrow?
Maybe Tuesday?

(Oh god, please
Not three weeks
Like that last time!)

Head back
Nose closed
Backward water

Paper bag
In out, in out
Breath control

Hot rock yoga
Pose 27-a
Release barking frog

Hopping one foot
Turning left then right
Through the night

Nope.
Lil’sips;
Quick as quick