For the sake of a spherical
leather football & pride &
power & vanity,

for an ultimately absurd
game of running here
charging there,
& brute force,
touch this
& down that,

all morality ceased,
all those who knew
kept silent ...

all those who could have
helped before more
were hurt
chose not to,

for the sake of pride, power
& vanity,
& a shiny leather ball thrown
around to produce numbers
on a scoreboard.

May you all be cursed till the end
of days & may whatever God in
whichever Heaven or Hell rain
down swift, merciless & unrelenting
judgement.

******* you Penn State.

Young Donald got some
play-time yesterday when
some big grown men
stopped by & let him
sit in the drivers seat
of their big, big truck,
& he even got to toot
the big, big horn,

oh was Donald pleased,

but they cut short the
visit as he was getting
a little too rambunctious
& the big men had to
go back to working
for a living,

Donald needed a little
quiet time in the White
House & some milk &
cookies to calm down,

but oh what an exciting
time he had didn't he!

and the rain pours down
and the people are wretched,
the odds,
oh, the odds!

and a far trumpet announces
and they come
in their elegant cloaks,
their helmets,
their sandals,

each with a bow,
a quiver
of arrows,
and their leader
is regal,
blonde hair
combed tumbling
back,

& We have come
to help the
world of Men
he says
with a smile,

this Elric-like
warrior,
this so, so
appreciated
defender,
who later
will fall
all staggering
from blows,

& with a stamp
of their feet
they all about turn,
androgynous,
similar,
passive,

& they line
the walls
quiet
in the pouring rain,
& the hell beasts
attack
& their arrows
fly & fly
again,

but eventually
all will die
but
they have chosen
their side,

did what they
could ...
acted.

Sweet, sweet tea of the morning
& a glass of old-style
Kool-Aid I insist
cos its summer
& we'll need it,

& then we stroll on out
down Main Street
& over the bridge
just past the station
to the old
Baptist Church,

where I suggest
we rest awhile
just to take
the weight off
our feet,

& we sit all
relaxed & resting
& there's a
slight discomfort,
I can feel it,

oh relax I say
just enjoy
the quiet,

& I feel it myself,
the waves,
the shimmering

& the colors
from the glass windows
shine so brightly
& we talk
so objectively
about this,
all logic
& such,

but then it hits
& you all get nervous
& wonder what
is happening,

& I confess
to the plan
& say just
go with it,
go with it,
all will be well,

& light talk goes on
all thought & surmise
& the figure so sweet
all compassion
& sacrifice
grabs hold
& we still chat
but slowly,
slowly,

& Look at the Windows
I say,
& we gaze so
way up there
and the jeweled
light cascades
all reds,
yellows,
blues,

& from inside
after the chit-chat ebbs,
comes flowing
the grace
& the love
& the power

& the Divine
is with us now,
right here
from us
right now,

& we weep
& God is Love,
& we weep,
& we weep

I carry the void
in my pocket,
its always
right there
that I know,

once I thought
I'd lost it
after getting
so very, very
loaded at a lovely
nearby  bar,

but making tea
the next day
I found it
right back
where it
usually
is,

even the laundry
seems not to
phase it,

it just seems
to jump &
bounce around
& then cleverly
a clean shirt
later, well ha!
there it is.

Real good parties
seem to affect it,
I dig around
& dig around,
yet cannot,
cannot find it,
it might just be
a short-term memory
thing though,

because later,
well, heck,
there it is,
and so
I wonder
oh my
was it there
all the time?

Jimi moans and wails,
the door crashes
as dad arrives
all anger
& growls,

I look up
all a might stunned
beneath the grinning
& rolling,

oh dad
you made it,
& I love you
y'know.

my eyes
like dark voids ...
searchlights,

his face ...
bewildered.

The rich get it good
oh yes they do ...
they don't send their
boys to die in foreign
wars that are usually
being fought in response
to some pressing $ value
for them & their friends
despite all the lies &
justifications coming
your way,


& they own the tv folks
that you & your buddies
absorb & who tell you of
a world that they wish
you to see & by design
also teaches of how others
are coming for you & you
are best off by voting
for another very rich man
who obviously can best
represent your interests
... quite obviously,

& having fooled you into
believing basic compassion
is communist in nature &
that really its every man
for himself in this vicious
world & that coal is good,
& climate change is cooked
up by the biased intelligentsia,
they can continue their base
pursuits & just keep on raking
it in,

& continually stressing that
anyone from this shining city
on a hill can make it big-time
like Riche Rich ignoring of course
basic facts such as class & race
or where you were born & into
which family of what colored
skin they have again succeeded
in their narrative of oh good
god how wonderful are we!
& lets just a keep on with the
way it is cos there's no alternative
really & any its close to Maoism,

& whilst all this is going on
they manage quite stealthily
in a way but perhaps also in
that great American tradition
of the sly feelgood huckster
they get you all seeing Jesus
through a salesman's eyes
as if Christianity was negotiable
in trade-offs & reservations &
justifications for bigotry, bias,
profit & shallow mercantile just
plain someone else making
a buck of you all,

& rich people get the best of
everything don't they really,
schools, hospitals, retirement
plans, all of which they fool you
into voting to cut, cut, cut,
which leaves you poorer folks
worse off & those rich folks
with just more gold coins to add
to their piles in off-shore accounts,
fancy real estate, & investment
portfolios,

its all pretty simple really,
they pretty much own
your *** & you keep
on a handing it
to them
don't you.