Let’s do it again!

Frank N. Furter
McFly in DeLorean
Futureman Futterman
Tomorrow’s Legends (thanks DC)
Of course, Mr. T— (thanks H. G.)

Travellers all
From now to not now
From then to when
Barreling back or fro
Future being past

Don’t regret regression
As shaping forward begins
Be present in the present
Bend time’s arrow;
It’s not really written yet

Do it: 24-7-365 wise

Thank you Boxed-in Home Office
For a decidedly devilish diversion
An unexpected beguilement

Conveyed to a time and place
Almost misplaced in memory’s stream
With Wm. S. informing S. Dakota

Whispering to writers
Of language nearly lost
Discourse both dandy and dangerous

Characters familiar
Plot’s circle elliptical
Storytelling respected

Emasculation, no
*******; needing
Ministration: handy
*******
Mitigation
Yah, bruh
Handy dandy
Some vacation
A friction revelation
Whao!

Who will be the next White House resident?
Barack Obama set a precedent

I'm ready for the first woman…
I'm ready for the first Asian…
I'm are ready for our first Latinx…

What about an Amerind President;
Original resident as president?
Wow to that!

Which Hmong among us is ready to run?

Orange cheeto has to go.

“It’s fraught,” he said.
BOOM! Wrong pronoun
They would disapprove

“We should…”
BOOM! Not us…
BOOM! Not me!

They them us
He she we
I myself me

Redefined reassign
People can change
In an instant or a lifetime

Language evolves
Evolution is slow
Give it time to grow

Who to hedge?
Mayor Butigedge?
Camelot with Harris?
All trying to scare us
Bidin’ my time
With this rhyme
Oh! Sleepy Joe
Establishment’s gotta go
Does Bernie Sanders
Really furnish answers?
Can Gillibrand
Instill a better plan
Choose Hickenlooper
Over Agent Cooper?
Is Eric Swalwell
Really ready as well?
Is senate Bennett
Really in it?
With smart I could I hang
Can do, Andrew Yang
There on the end,
Author Williamson
Sometimes chiming in
Hanging in
Add it up, Kamala
Show us the algebra!
Universal health care
Always and everywhere
Here’ a real shocka:
Gotta keep that DACA
We need legislation
To fix immigration
And yes we can
Care for veterans
Tax the rich, *****!
Time to shun guns
Meet the feed need
Help the poor more
All in a home zone
And note every vote
And yo:
Not your embryo

Zippy sez:
“Shark repellent Bat Spray!"
“Shark repellent Bat Spray!"
“Shark repellent Bat Spray!"
At least three times a day day

Between lug-nuts and Valvoline
He shows us the in between
Polka-dotted yellow-red muu-muu
Absurdist existentialist
Shows us how to do-do.

My car has got it’s brain back through
A trick automotive lobotomy hack

It was acting a little manic, the whacked
Human Machine Interface Module part

The screen was seen as a scary
Kerouac consciousness stream

An obscenity screed; a
Muddled fuddled car scene

HMIM installed anew—
Electroshock therapy

Zzzzzzhhhxt-phsssszzxt!
Initiating … initiating … initiating …

“Welcome!
Destination?”

I’m here because I stink
I’m here because I drink

I **** because I eat
I wizz what that I drank

Stuff in; stuff out
Ergo, I’m alive, I think

Pick the wrong apple
Displayed carefully and
All comes tumbling down

Just one impulse
Conceived in love
Turns horribly wrong

Pebbles to meteors
Craters deep
Sleep on it

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

Oh, the quasi-related grace
Of saliva on the toes;
The reds, the blues, the greens
Of pregnancy.

Castration?!

We melt like mosquitoes
Across the heated causeway
In June;

Pepto-Bismarck?
I hate shocking pink.

The “Fake news!" argument
I’m smelling the “Red Herring” fallacy
Put your fingers in your ears
And shout “LALALA, I can’t hear you!”

Does the falling tree make a sound?
Yes.
Does **** smell?
Yes.
Even from bears, in the woods?
Yes.
And from the Pope?
Maybe;
On a long hike, with no other option available

“Fake news” is a majestic confabulation!
And a mind-numbing conundrum
A Chinese finger-puzzle
Hideously, incredibly strategic; but

Sorry folks:
Not true.

Darling!

So good to see you—
And feel you;
Loved by you,
I love you.

I still feel your lips
From this brief visit,
Shadows dispelled,
I thank you!

Back to the front;
But World War D
Is easier now.

There once was a
Grand Old Party
Formed against slavery
The Free Soil party

Defenders of the constitution
And the omnibus declaration
First to be President:
Abraham Lincoln

The 20s were the
Republican decade
Harding, Coolidge and Hoover
A decade sadly a century past

A temporal chasm loomed
Until conservative hero
Former democrat Reagan
Trickled up the elephant’s trunk

Take eye of Newt
And two from Bush
Alchemy trickery: viola kazam!
The great bamboozle began

It’s no longer conservatism
No longer less federalism
A horrible takeover
This GOP makeover

Fend for self
Wall off power
Distort report
All else enemy

Walk lock-step
Repeat refrain
Us not them
Say it again

My senator father
Is spinning in his grave
Fox in the henhouse
This Mitch debprave

Today, I am naked
Unburied
Sleuth

Ask me anything
What’s that?
Why, yes; yes I am

Naked is freedom
Uncovered
Truth

I can’t what anymore?
I must conform to that, now?

Weren’t you supposed to help;
Not actively slow and hobble?

Not in the job description:m;
Makes my job more difficult.

I’m a Higher-Ed foot soldier,
Not a draconian decree minion.

Google U. or HSU?
College or corporation?

Take me back to the days of
Mimeographs and over-heads.

Work for free?
Not me.

OK; I will:

I will drone on and on about this and that
and you won't get a word in edgewise.

Droning is fun! You don't have to
check your mouth
or worry about vocabulary;
you just need to keep talking!
You can talk about sheep,
you can talk about skin lotion.
Did you know that lanolin
comes from sheep shear?
But no one yet has figured
a good use for hairballs—go figure!
I mean, the Scottish figured out
what to do with sheep's intestines;
I mean, the Scotts figured, yes,
I'm talking haggis!
But then again,
the Moonlanding was staged.
It's true!
Evidence of soundstages
for that prank can still be found
in Area 53.
But back to Hagrid —
in the Deathly Hollows
he seemed 3 cm smaller
than he did in the first HP movie,
and I'm not talking about Hewlett-Packard.
Can you imagine Carly Fiorina
as president?
I sure can't!
Did you know that you can survive
deep in the redwood forest
by licking the slime of banana slugs
for needed protein
and protect yourself from hypothermia
by plucking hundreds of fiddlehead ferns
and delving deep inside them…

hey, I think my drone batteries jus

I'm talking in poems,
Not taking out loans.

Should I stop?
Listen to rhyme cops?

Limbic brain knows
As expression flows;

Alliteration assignations,
Word associations.

Autonomic metonymy
Brings out the best of me.

Here’s something silly:
This ***** likes CW’s Supergirl!

Sassy, strong and successful
Word: She’s Super!

Simply, Sublimely subversive
Saving aliens from all areas

The color is pearl
With an undercoat of dread
Of what was really said

There is lead in the subtext
Mercury in the water
Novichok? Check.

I wasn’t there
I don’t remember
It didn’t happen

Supreme denial
With poison pen
Here then is


INCANDESCENT

I’m being a cat
Not thinking of this or that

Just taking a nap
In my recliner lap

Slipping into sleep
I begin to purr

To sleep, to dream
To imagine what can occur

A day now gone
6 to 11am through 2pm
Highs and lows
Successes with some "No”s

Elysian sleep awaits
REM put to work again
Memory library awakes
Sorting the daily bits and chits

Discard, discard, KEEP!
Put it front or center
(or bury down deep)
(Free-diving to below)

Anxious awakening …
Sound remembering…
Scratching a high-pitched itch—
Did that really happen?

I love to love it; it is
A privilege to praise
When they go beyond,
It’s a gift to say it

When the work is mediocre
Less they know they can
I rue my job; psychic indigestion
Tired, I herby retire

Birth certificate to
Death certificate
Social Security number

Bank accounts
Student loans
Car after car loans

Marriage certificate
Mortgage lien
Title owners with

Spouse and now
Once a son but still
Much, much more

Bigot spigot on:
Bloviator gladiator
Spewing racist rhetoric:

"Multiracial intersectional
Non-Ableist unpacked transphobalist
Micro-recessive-macro-regressive
Cis-gendered 4th-wave femininizer
**** nonsense!"

—Every Archie Bunker

American
Armenian
Canadian
And Mexican

French
English
Portuguese
And then again

Latvian
Bulgarian
Czechoslovakian
From somewhereelseian

Earthlings crawling
On this speck of dust
Gravity flung around a flame
Trying to make sense of it all

29 years ago I woke up
Nervous, determined
My best man and man
Let me know how lucky
I was am will be

We primped and
Straightened ties, took pictures
By the purple rhody up in front
I got into my little red democrat car
And sallied in my stallion

(No, really! A
Mini-hobbie-horse, a
Leftover Christmas ornament
Bounced my rear view mirror as
I galloped northward)

A cassette played
Philip Glass, no less
Philip Glass, no less
Me in my tux
Wending north:

“Over and over again:
Bravery. Kindness. Clarity
Honesty. Compassion. Generosity”
I try to live these words with you
And when I don’t, I’m sorry

One year shy of thirty
We set out again
Adventurers both
Marking the remarkable
Happy anniversary!

[Class already in session]

T: And why not “History”?

[Mean emoji response:
ironic disbelief and amusement]

T: Sharon?

[snick] Well, it’s always been our story

T: Tahjik?

[snick] Never OUR story

T: Well, we study differently now
What do you see?

[snick] she’s helping him
[snick] he’s letting her
[snick] he’s hurt
[snick] and she’s still afraid
[snick] he’s still bigoted
[snick] and angry
[snick] this is incredible

T: Let’s now shift to 2067 and
Watch their co-authored bill pass…

Darling,

The war proceeds apace.

I battle demons;
Sometimes I win.
Therefore for me.
Then again for you,

We circle around ourselves
And find a place to land to
Negotiate peace.

If successful,
We both take off again.

And then,
Whites were gone
Not even then when

No Niña Pinta or
Santa María
No TB for NA

No Auto-de-fés
No pogroms
Nor hollow cost

All brown around town
North South and Central
Native America

Look: on the $20 bill–
Alexander Hamilton
There: a Fredrick Douglas fifty

Jesús? Brown.
Buddha? Yellow.
Tecumseh? Red.

George Washington
Carver? Black.
No white slight, that

We can build walls
Separate families
Deny others entry

Or reclaim beige and
Not run the race
And finally, just behave

The dead remain so
The alive not not so

Pivot divot when
Friends through end

Are still so; with or
Without tuna casserole

Tears, blood, *****, sweat;

These are the waters of a man.

Muscle and sinew, **** and bone;

These are the solid earth of a man.


Seeing, hearing, touching, thinking;

(thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking…)

These are the shifting winds of a man.

But wither spirit? Where is fire?


Lost in the hum of electrical ether?

Warped and worn on the grindstone of work?

Slipping through films of ****** desire?

Fading in a fog of drunken forgetfulness?

Sunk deep into cold unfeeling depths?

Shrunk to the size of a tiny, selfish, wrinkled pea?


All of these.

All of these.



But quick, look to your left—

See it; seize it.

Name it. Claim it.

Invite it back into the circle.

It’s yours, it’s here; it’s never left.

Stand with your brothers and call it back.

Drumming, chanting, singing, laughing.

Gather it around you and don it proudly.

Button it up like a brand new suit—

Looking good, man!


Feeling… better.


Tears, blood, *****, sweat

Muscle and sinew, **** and bone

These are merely the parts of a man.

Dignity, Clarity, Integrity and Strength

These are truly the marks of a man.

Empathy, Respect, Pride and Love

(And Love!)

These reside in the heart of a man

A conscious man

The spirit of a true man.

Cursed, cursed consciousness
Keeps me up at night; right?
Or I’d dive into deep oblivion
Of blessed, blessed sleep

To dream, it seems needs more than
Shuffling off this thinking coil
I need easy entry to Elysium
Get me to the dream gymnasium

Expected bad news
Did not receive it
Relief enormous
After fear ginormous

What a tangled web we weave
Seeing a future we cannot see
Fear is the monster under the bed
The unimaginable imagined

Yield sign versus stop sign:
RR Crossing down and flashing;
Striped bars slowly rise and we
Proceed preciously…

It already happened
As we Rembrandt
The past

Monet mostly
Manet subtlety
We take a turn at Turner

Mix colors wisely
Coruscating joy
Blue, red; touch of green

Deep hue
Dip lightly
Dab the canvas softly

— — —

Human.

— — —

Concentration.

— — —

Camps.

— — —

Human:

Dominant earth species

No sub-species

— — —

Look left; look right

Who do you see?

Humans of

All sizes

All colors

All ages

All here

— — —

All endowed with

Inalienable rights

Among them

Life, liberty, happiness

Despite status

Not 3/4 human

No one illegal

All human.

— — —

Concentration.

— — —

Focus with

Deep thinking

Devising resolve

About human rights

Declared by Lady Liberty

Lifting her golden lamp

To those yearning to be free

Welcome to this shore

Huddled masses.

— — —

Camps.

— — —

Huddled masses

Yearning

Human

Children

Concentrated

Not free

— — —

Not right

Un-American

Unimaginable

Untenable

In-human

— — —

Concentration Camps.

— — —

We here now say with

Concentrated resolve

In English,

“No more!”

En español,

Decimos,

“¡No más!”

“¡Nunca más!

¡Nunca más!

¡Nunca más!”

— — —

Have you ever met the snark?
Teeth and claws of slease?
His breath smells of
Odious innuendo
Cutting comments
Mean bon mots

The snark is short
Only three foot two
On a good day. Always
With a grimace visage
As he tap-shnicks, taps-shnicks
Ambling his way toward you

Hit the button for the
Crosswalk cross light
Red seconds count down as
Weird whooping sounds
White man walking! Get
Safe on the other side!

A scratch of me is from him
Carved from current’s flow
Glows in setting sun

Life as summation
Illumination of
Striations cleft

The bereft
Must instruct
The rest

Tuesday, November 29, 2016,
living room, Freshwater.
4:12 AM: I woke like any other morning
which means my eyes opened
my voluntary muscular system switched on.
This time.
Slowly.

But it wasn't like any other morning.
I woke up in the living room,
lying on the floor
next to Gunther, my dog.
He's not doing well.
He's old
and I spent the night with him.
Mostly.

5:24 AM: Woke up again next to Gunther,
cold and sore after disappointing moist dream;
went upstairs to bed for another 165 minutes.
Whatever 165 minutes later is:

Woke up, got out of bed,
dragged a comb across my head.
Somebody spoke and I went into a dream.

7:12 AM: Drove to work
knowing how many holes you need
to fill the Albert Hall:
12,347,023. Plus or minus.

8:47 AM: during my morning constitutional,
I noticed:
Catastrophic Trouser Failure.
Colleague saw me leave the
East Genderless Restroom
in the basement of House 54 at
8:53 AM with stapler in hand.

I moved cautiously through my day
not wanting to rip my metallic stitches.

9:12 AM: Over the last 7 1/2 minutes
I have flicked 17 ants off the top of my desk.

2:40 PM: After carefully maneuvering around campus
and getting through my day without exposure,
it was time to go home—but not quite yet.
The file uploaded that my students needed NOW
was corrupted and inaccessible.

Workarounds ensued.
Another day at the office.

3:54 PM: The black army has arrived.
My desk is aswarm—
anticipating their conquest—
my desk has fallen.

4:47 PM: Arrived at home.
Used PBS to relax.

9:03 PM: Moved on to Brandy.

Better.

Sunlight slants at crazy angles
Gold light flooding
Through windows
Winter‘s herald

It’s a cold beauty this
First deep frost a
Jagged white carpet
On the green and brown lawn

Autumnal peace
Blankets the valley
As we reflect
And give thanks

Stanley and Zolda
Kitties before tragedies
Knew nothing of opera
As they came home with us
For their beginnings and endings.

"She walked up to me
And she started to purr
With her big gold eyes
And her dark grey fur,
Oh! My Zolda!

Zoe-El-Dee-A, Zolda"

Magnificent Stanley!
Tiger of Freshwater;
Fishbowl yard too small
Wandered far afield—
Too far too soon.

Zolda kept close
Big Buddha girl.
Queen of hearth and home
Friend to two big dogs
Tolerant of cats after cats.

Tristan and Isolde
Chose us as many would.
Stanley taught us tragedy
Zolda rests in peace.
A tale of two kitties.

Feeling pathetic.
Can’t get that feeling back.

“Alexa, play Latin music”
“Alexa, play Rhythm and Blues”

“Alexa, find Wait, Wait”
“Alexa, play KNHM”

“JPR News and information
From Tune in”

Not Sabor Latinx
Not The Place

A Noh space
Weird weekend disgrace

You don’t speak for all,
President Butterball

Fallacies, fantasies,
Homespun homilies

Disingenuous dissidence
Worse than any immigrant

Look at the unsaid
Fears inside our heads

We ride a crash course;
An apocalypse horse

Stop this farce
Disembark

Holy Higgs, boson!
Jiggs went back in time!

He wormed the tunnel
(The time travel funnel)

Who knew Hulu’d
Sulued so sublime?

MC Escher drew it
Unshure the best way through it
Down is up
Around is down
Gravity hilarity loops
Infinity turns and hoops
Puzzling faces, birds and places
Morphing yin to yang
Ending is beginning to
Circle around again.


A muscle in my metacarpal twitches
A metallic smell pervades the air
I think I hear a high-pitched whining
Hairs rise on my arms and neck

Heart rate slows
Thrumming in my ears
Pores perspiring
Pupils dilating

Something’s coming…
Or someone…
(Or something wrong?)
What!

Flight or fight has me
A finger twitches and
Eyes flicker
Stay or go?

STAY!
STAND!
BALANCE STANCE!
PREVAIL!

Every moment
We can be a hero
Not without risk
Fraught with risk

But to be a hero
To do the right thing
To care about something
Without risk of reward

Every moment we choose
Nothing or everything
Toss the dice, win or lose
Toss the dice—

Truth to
Millennials
Is hard

Grandfather talk is
Lost on them

I do my best
As "honored elder"
To bestow what I know

Maybe they figure it out
Themselves

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