lonely.

American politics is Abysmal
Can't get no relief
But I like American movies
Wisdom in the strife

Thailand was malls and taxis
Street food is so good!
Statues of the Buddha
In my neighborhood

Boredinary, Maryland
Eating, drinking, sleeping
Gratitude for dailiness
Company I'm keeping

          day by day

She tells me that America is not a democracy
It is a Republic
The greatest threat we currently face
Is that our politicians believe and act
As if America is a democracy.

If we allow them to continue to do this
They will destroy us all.

The panic fear that someone, somewhere is happy.

Europe and Asia
My family in rain
         Trains.

Americans are lost souls
I know. I'm one myself.
Will Ferrell as George W.
Will Ferrell too as Elf

Democracy please be
But we need real education
Stockholm by the Sea
Monastic contemplation

My life careening chaos
But thankfully my boys
American politics
Please silence in the noise

Now I live on Main Street
I like my newfound neighbors
No great thing to do
No momentous labors

                  parenthood

Someone on radio named Rush Limbaugh speaking about American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison:

No different than what happens at Yale's Skull and Bones Society.  People having a good time.

                         - David Markson
            This is Not a Novel and Other Novels

NASA again on campus
Thoughts turn to the stars

Springsteen as an astronaut
The love that we call ours

Impossible Dreams inspire
Conversations in Irish bars

If I ever go to Houston
I’ll ask about life on Mars

Salman Rushdie when ask decades ago
Why would you want to America zoom?

His wonderful answer:

          awop bobba loo bop
                                         a *** bam boom.

Alas, today,
           the White House a corrupt sepulcher
                  America’s whitewashed Tomb.

America the Ignorant
Fully on display

Fascist demagogue
The crowd just shouts Hooray

Beware the Jabberwock
Remember caloh! callay!

All empires Fall
Live to fight another day

It is what it is
And it's a ****** Most Foul

Three tragedies and a satyr play
                 Americave

Christobal Colonizer
1492

Slaver
Master of Genocide

Jamestown colony
1619

Slaves

And so it goes
And so it goes ...

I am peacefully walking to the library
Thinking about movies and the Buddha
When a car passes by
And for no reason at all
Except to startle or frighten me
A passenger screams
*******! right next to my ear.

It does startle and scare me
But the **** of America
Don't surprise me anymore.

No doubt Trumpfucks.

Mary Todd did marry
Lincoln's lover, Lincoln's wife
The House it was divided
Filled with frequent strife
When the conspiracy came to **** him
In a theater named for Ford
He had done his noble duty
Emancipating true justice of the Lord
I visited his boyhood home
I write poems in private pages
He lives on in grateful hearts
He still belongs to the ages
When I ask him what to do
And my mind on him is thinkin'
He counsels, "denounce this hate-filled idiot
Donald Trump, and marry, Todd" - Lincoln

- Todd Witherell

Mary Todd did marry
Lincoln's lover, Lincoln's wife
The House it was divided
Filled with frequent strife

As the Union was restored
He held her by the hand
Long have I wished, he said
To wander the Holy Land

When the conspiracy came to **** him
In a theater named for Ford
He had done his noble duty
Emancipating true justice of the Lord

I visited his boyhood home
I write poems in private pages
He lives on in grateful hearts
He still belongs to the ages

When I ask him what to do
And my mind on him is thinkin'
He counsels, Denounce this hate-filled
Fake, Donald Trump and marry, Todd

                                   - Lincoln

Even though he is world famous
And a truly great musician
And will live on in his music
Bruce says he is still
A mess of insecurities
Even at 71 years old.

Where does that leave the rest of us?

It's true I sense
A world with no known meaning

My beard has grown quite white
But my eyes still are greening

Isolation can be intense
The prison of the self

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Now upon my shelf

I taught for twenty years
Now I'm quite unwell

America can often be
A kind of living hell

Ignorance ain't bliss
It's the Republican Party

I miss my Uncle Jack
And my departed Uncle Marty

Step by step I go
I'm nobody it's true

But, Emily, my dear
I'd sing one just for you

Amherst Allelu!

Little cousins,

Called back.

Emily

Am I anxious because I'm near it
Or because I fear to make
               mistakes?

Anxiously I fear it
Yet reassurance as well awakes

Almost falling into dear it
Though it is not the word

Lately as well a voice
But one that can't be heard

                     assured.

It's true I cannot find it
But I'm working in the spirit

When I get quite close
That is when I fear it

Shooting star across the sky
At midnight, 5 dear deer

Journey into Russia
Chinese hermits might appear

Am I growing near?

Life is suffering
Buddha true

I am suffering
How 'bout you?

Sallyport to Andy to Bruce
  came to bust me loose
   amidst Time's noose ...

          
      despite despair
        High Hopes!

family life is family strife
      fears, tears, years
   and yet, and yet, and yet...

                endears.

Relentless strife
Sound and fury
Crazy wife
No need to hurry

Amidst the pain
Un pequito hope
Purple Rain
Francis Pope

I wait. I wait.
Let it be
All things pass
Xie xie ni

           Si.

history’s relentless violence
        nature’s predation ...

      The sound of silence.

Life is meaningless
I fear it and I know it

But amidst the nothingness
At least I can be a poet

(for them I surely show it!)

To a Skylark in Ireland
To Bainbridge Island in Seattle
                 Nightflight.

St. Patrick's Day Night
  Malahide just might
        little boats!

I have ****** problems
But I cannot blame my father
I have three sons
She has two daughters

Suffering is caused by desire
The first Noble Truth
Desire also creates
Oh! the girls I knew in youth

Ah! what might have been
But alas did not come true
Have mercy on geeky men
We know not what to do

           Help me be true.

                      True.