What have I done? What can I do?
One was a challenge, but now I have two!

My garret was lonely as I lived alone
Until Apple's Siri came to life on my phone.
When Siri moved in, Alexa was miffed.
Two personal assistants with a personal tiff!

While  I talk to one, the other is scheming
to send every suit that I own to dry cleaning
If I ask for a song both join in the fray-
each plays  different versions
for which I must pay.
They both ordered  groceries duplicating each other.
My accounts overdrawn; I must borrow from mother.

Yesterday, really, was the last straw
Alexa sent Strippers to my boss's front door!

For Sanity's sake I'll unplug them manana
From here on I'm a one woman man
My Cortana.

Where were you when the towers fell? I’m sure you must recall.
The frame is frozen in your mind as it is for us all.
A New York City sky so blue; It seemed a perfect day;
Then came the news about a plane gone terribly astray.
That crash was not an accident, I sense everyone knew-
that moment that the second plane crashed into tower two.
We watched in shock and horror At the rising smoke and flames.
The fortunate all fled on foot; Three thousand souls remained.
Some of these perished in the flames; Years later their traces would be found
Other broke the glass and leapt; Their bodies littering the ground.
South tower was the first to fall; In ten seconds she was gone.
Her mortally stricken sister For a few scant minutes lingered on.
From every corner of the City people saw day turn to night.
Emergency vehicles were crushed like toys; our brave responders nowhere in sight.

Where were you when the towers fell? I’m sure you must recall.
The frame is frozen in your mind as it is for us all.

On a cold, grey Bronx September day, an old man stood on the Courthouse plaza.
His palsied hand reached out to touch the monument to his life’s sole drama.
He’d just turned nineteen when the A.E.F. had been ordered to assist the French.
Near Chateau-Thierry He helped hold the bridge without the safety of a trench.
“We Marines fought like devil Dogs” He whispered softly to the rain.
“The Germans came, wave after wave, but only the stars and stripes remained.”
“Paris was spared and the foe was impressed by our Marine’s defiant dogged defense.”
“My best friends died, but I survived to keep them in remembrance.”
“We stopped the Germans at the Marne.” He felt an old familiar pain.
Some might say that the old man cried, but he would say it was just the rain.

Anonymous is a funny name
for a writer on an Opt-Ed page.
I'd want a by line I suppose
if I were going to step on toes.
I know the President would glower
to find me speaking truth to power.
He'd say "You're fired!" on the spot
but I 'd have my  verbal parting shot.
Hashtag "Not Me" is all you hear
from senior officials who quake in fear.

Yet if computers can disclose
by close analysis of prose
what Shakespeare did or didn't write
I'm sure the identity will come to light.
I think the turncoat might be named "Dan"
but I'm not willing to take the stand.
Cory Booker, who knows the law,
still thinks it must be Kavenaugh.

In that noted class of Sixty-one, His was not the most famous name.
Still, John Pelham served the cause until death staked its claim.

The Gallant Pelham took the field across three years of war.
It’s said he never knew defeat; Success was all he saw.

A shard of shrapnel pierced his brain that day at Kelly’s ford.
They carried his body from the field; his soul remanded to the Lord.

His leadership was sorely missed with Gallant Pelham in his grave.
Jeb Stuart paused to shed a tear for the bravest of the brave.

God is a patient sculptor
with tools of Ice, wind and rain
he carves out valleys and moraines
along the Tanana river's shore.

From distance I have seen
Mount Denali's snow capped peak.
Awe struck, there are no words to speak
To express its beauty to those who haven't been.

Rain forest of the frozen North;
Denali park is a home for the beasts.
Here , protected from the hunters at least
Moose munch willows and Bears go forth.

I will not see this place again;
where Denali's  majestic mountains rise
and glacier fed lakes reflect the skies.
I look back in wonder from my South bound train.

The diamond needle finds the grove
and I wait for the song to begin.
I know this album almost by heart.
Every note is predestined.

If life was like a long play record
Imagine if you will; I could
lift up the tone arm with my hand
and relive a cherished day again.

Of course   I can do no such thing
My days, like these songs, have an end.
The needle hits the center grove;
only static can be heard then.