It started with Covid-19
The likes of which we'd never seen.
We thought we'd be good
but we should have touched wood
as it's turned into something obscene.

So then ****** Hornets arrived
(we thought it was something contrived,
excuse me for thinking)
They told us unblinking
From a horror flick this was derived

He was hoping to win the election
and he just couldn't stand the rejection.
His effort to thwart
was to ***** us in court
but he couldn't maintain an *******.
                                               rc

A dove is just a pigeon
in the politic religion
Cuz pacifism's not a lot of fun
You might not know your pastor is
A fire-fighting arsonist
You know behind his back he holds a gun

Don't fret about his competence
The facts are of no consequence
So long as your agenda is upheld
And celebrate diversities
In ***** universities
There is no need for cultures all to meld

The temperature's not rising
Don't know who you have advising
The winter still feels pretty cold to me
In any case the cause of it
Is farting cows and penguin ****
The rest is just a wild hyperbole

                                       rc

The aged archtop hangs upon the wall
A work of art she still has beauty rare
In shame to this assignment did befall

When dressed in flat-wound strings she's light as air
And man, that girl could really sing the blues
Her heavy bottom tones would strip you bare

Those scars and scratches show she's paid her dues
Much like the one deployed into her keep
With cramp and pain the fingers now refuse

The passion, now regret, to soul will creep
A substitute must find a way to mend
So timbre, note and rhythm still can reap

Although it's hard for some to comprehend
Sometimes your inner music must be penned
                                                  rc

I think about existence
And I look for what holds true.
I feel assured that I exist
But I've questions about you.

The "Row your boat" philosophy
Does nothing for my quest.
If I have dreamed this all along,
Why do I still need rest?

Forget about the tangibles.
Let's give that stuff a pass
And think of love and beauty;
Those things that have no mass.

The mountain seems so beautiful
Against an azure sky.
You might see it as a pile of rocks
Within your pale mind's eye.

Did I invent that beauty just
To fit some need of mine
Or does beauty have an essence
No matter how you might opine?

And what of love? Did it exist
Before it struck your heart?
Well now you know, without it,
Your world would fall apart.
                        rc

Northern California, early morning rain
Nestled in the grand sequoia,
Supine and bed-bound calm
Idyllic solitude for an
Avowed pluviophile
The petrichor caress the sense,
Creates a kind euphoria
To banish clinomania.
Arise, await the night and clear
Eyes star-cast, aurora dreaming
Serendipity is life
                                      rc

I have no understanding
Of just what you are demanding
But I know that you're remanding
Me to hell.
I'm a stranger to the scene
But I'm stuck here in between
And I feel there should have been
A warning bell.

Confrontation is a vandal
(Or more like a Roman candle).
It's so hard to get a handle
On your aim
And what was the ignition
Of this battle of attrition?
To you, is this a mission
Or a game?

You're a ranter and a stamper
When you're not a happy camper.
Who am I to put a damper
On your joy?
When you use your words to threaten
Or to set a trap to step in,
They're a tool and a weapon
And a toy.
                                rc

Transcendental meditation
Redefines imagination
Scarcely an attentive slumber
From the world you disencumber

Portentous is the cold daydream
Constraining not the mindful stream
It just accentuates the strife
This paradox of conscious life
                                      rc

When darkness speaks,
It says, the night is ever long;
But comes the dawn.
When speak the seas,
They say the storm is evermore;
But comes the calm.
                                 rc

When darkness speaks,
It says, the night is ever long;
But comes the dawn.
When speak the seas,
They say the storm is evermore;
But comes the calm.
                                 rc

Privileged pilgrims preaching pious
Cherry-picking epitomes
Poisoned wells are leaching bias
Piped into the servants' homes

Faith is disingenuous
Extracting rented paradigms
Platitudes most tenuous
The death knell of the era chimes
                                       rc

In every population there are fools,
and those who can't accept a fair defeat.
The weaker minded souls become the mules,
incited by repeated lies and tweets.

Psychology en mass is quite the art;
you influence the least incisive first.
(Would anyone call Chicken Little smart?)
Exhorting to the base invokes the worst.

We shouldn't be surprised, yet here we are.
In shock we watched democracy catch fire.
A wound this deep will surely leave a scar,
all caused by one capricious despot's ire.

Can those who would all verity efface,
return from so profound a loss of grace?
                                                  rc

Where creeps the backdoor maestro,
in your selectively disinterested brain,
lessons issued freely leave more questions,
made grander by solicitude and grace.
What of existence and eternal presence?
Posed like mannequins, your questions are

intoned in tones of childhood melodies.

Designs on your attention,
all claim the moral higher ground.
It seems that the naive attempts
to disambiguate the ancient texts,
serve only to cement a modern bias,
parting not the reeds of lemongrass's fakery,
parsing not the deeds of the felonious among us,
no quiet comprehension in the noise and messy chaos;

intoned in tones of childhood melodies.

Suppose a gift of kindness to yourself.
Embrace the finitude delusion.
Pretend that one day this will terminate;
in absence and in darkness will be peace.
Surrender to your ardent vernal mantra,
to gently row and row and row your boat,

intoned in tones of childhood melodies.
                                                   rc

Just in case you hadn't noticed
Existence is a paradox
Don't mean this as a metaphor
But I am really in a box

I haven't been around that much
Just in case you hadn't noticed
Been buried under all this weight
I've been somewhat less than focused

I don't mean to be a bother
But my skelebones are showing
Just in case you hadn't noticed
Frigid winds of time are blowing

I'm breaking up but that's a break
From this sameness and psychosis
I'm right here if you look for me
Just in case you hadn't noticed
                            rc

hateful rhetoric
opinions flow like lava
unmoderated
                        rc

Spontaneous crystals form
in bitter cold.
Stunning fractal shapes are seen
in microscopic lens.
The landscape is so modest.
                                 rc

The narrow path,
the straighter course,
would save us grief
but roadway turns
permit the journey's climb.
                          rc

A fiddle fern will hide
from strongest light
to blend the deepest greens
and play the highest notes
of nature's sonatina.
                            rc

Moments past are gone
but for memories
arranged in treasure boxes.
Such tempting plunder
for the unkindest thief.
                             rc

I haven't always lived in grace
No dignified aplomb
I might have cheated in the race
To medicated calm

I feel I've had more love than woe
(There might have been a miscount)
I hope it's uttered when I go
"At least he nailed the dismount"
                                   rc

So here you are, another year gone
I won't ask you what the plan is
I remember you telling me years ago
"I don't even buy green bananas"

It seems like your strategy (such as it is)
Has ended up serving you well
You've been so many places, done so many things
And have so many stories to tell

If the idea here is avoid disappointment
The plan falls a little bit short
No life is perfect, things happen to us
(Don't mean to be such a spoilsport)

You raised kids through the sixties I needn't say more
There's no need I should be specific
We got past all that and we all settled down
But we still have a flair for dramatic

You've done really well, I'm so proud of you Mom
Your the best of what this clan is
You set the example, I think that I too
Won't even buy green bananas

                                    rc

With silver pins and silken down
Down to bracken take the lead
Lead grey sky to bind the wound
Wound this place no longer treed

Nature now extracts a fine
Fine the dust in bitter wind
Wind a veil to stave a tear
Tear the heart of those who've sinned
                                            rc

Icy crystals form
in absolute precision.
Warms your frozen heart
                                rc

Sing-song deal-making stoners in a tower
Ping-pong favourable circumstances sour
Hip-hop, rabble-rousing beatniks gettin' wealthy
Big, fat, silk-suited hippies lookin' healthy

Not gettin' rich if you're pullin' 'round a rickshaw
Clip-clop marching through this crazy mental jigsaw
Never ending placement on a silver teeter totter
If you're gonna swim, you gotta move to deeper water

Pitter-patter, rapid, measured footfalls on the pavement
Shadow slipping always kept in boundless, rapt amazement
Chest a-flutter from the garish, neon ticky-tacky
Don't be sayin' what you saw; they'll think that you are wacky

Tick tock times a-wastin'- better get a move on
Dodging 'round the traffic to avoid the lot that you've drawn
Crazy little, topsy-turvy microcosm fantasy
Live the modern moral life that comes without a guarantee
                                                       ­                     rc

When brothers and sisters display their ambition,
Disquiet begins with an overlapped mission.
Not likely are they to conceive coalition,
As free competition's the price of admission.

With hindsight perspective, the point of ignition,
Was broken commitment and lies of omission;
That turbulent fireball, conscious volition,
Set flame to the nexus of love and tradition.

The holidays come with attached contradiction,
And multitudes gather like rats in a kitchen.
Their greetings exchanged in colloquial diction;
The better to manage their vasoconstriction.

Relations, though sweetened, still lack in nutrition,
Society weakened, you'll rise through attrition.
                                                       rc

The street, good friend, is pocked and hard
In answer to your question.
My feet are black, my lungs are charred;
No boots to pour my flesh in.

Sometimes when I am bibulous
An easiness can feign.
Without that drunken impetus
The maggots roam my brain.

On dry days dust will bloom and choke.
The grit abrades my teeth.
The wet turns dirt to greasy yolk
And fouls my skin beneath.

With body sores that ooze and stink,
No comfort can be found.
My sanity is past the brink.
In pathos I am bound.

You see I'm hideously scarred
And make a sour impression.
The street, good friend, is pocked and hard
In answer to your question.
                                                rc

The roads in religion are swervy
The nutters are really quite nervy
They say god plays a part
In all life from the start
To me seems a little bit pervy
                               rc

As you get close to “the day”
Your tensions are holding at bay
But some might allege
That you're right on the edge
You're just one figgy pudding away
                                       rc

I think about the little stuff,
The things you cannot see;
Invisible, but sure enough
A drop contains a sea.

Motes are distant galaxies,
Impossibly beyond,
Through interstice a strategy
To span the gap is spawned.

Perhaps a better microscope
Could help us see within,
A kingdom for a misanthrope
The tenets underpin.

Many of us think that there
Is life in outer space
And maybe they are well aware
Of human kind's disgrace.

It's infinitely likely that
Humanity's demise,
Will come from unknown places at
The nearest reach of size.
                              rc

(not a metaphor)

Some think the caterpillar spins
A little sanctuary
And in two weeks a butterfly;
A tiny luminary,
Emerges all in perfect shape;
A little feat of magic
But let me tell you that's not it
The truth is much more tragic.

What happens in that little house
Is nothing short of frightening.
(Honestly, I looked it up
It's really quite enlightening)
The pupa just digests itself
Right down to primal soup
Then, still alive, it has to cause
It's stem cells to regroup.

Then it grows and grows again
Into a butterfly.
The nature is amazing;
The science can't deny
So when you see a butterfly
Do it's pollination bit,
You should remember that this bug's
Been through a lot of ****.
                                   rc

The very term evokes esteem
And images of love and nature
What mere gathering of words
Can adequately form a portraiture

Fierce protection, love defined
Imparting lessons, devoting guidance
Policing conflict, bite your tongue
The inner screams emerg as silence

The push and pull on random tack
Can drive into a crazed distraction
But comes immeasurable strength
Creating reason from abstraction

Respect and reverence don't suffice
As no spoken language could
Describe the spirit we perceive
As is manifest in Motherhood

                                   rc

A country, in turmoil, a long time ago
Sent all of its tyrants away.
The citizens suddenly freed from their woe
Were left in a state of dismay.

“Freedom”, the concept, was new to these folk
After all the abuse they'd been through
Oh yes, they were glad to be free of the yoke
But they didn't know quite what to do.

Then somebody said, “We need someone in charge
To make sure the trash is collected.
He needn't be more than a p'liceman at large;
Someone we all feel is respected.”

“But how do we choose” was replied in return
“In a way that is fair to us all?”
If only there could be a way to discern -
The answer was somewhat banal.

“We could all cast a vote for the one we like best -
But just how do we narrow the field?”
“We'll pick one from the east and pick one from the west”
Their destiny there-on was sealed.

Both of the candidates chosen were men
(This was long before folks were enlightened)
And both of the fellows knew how to pretend
And thereby the contest was tightened.

One of the guys felt that he should appeal
For a kinder and gentler state.
So he helped the downtrodden, and greased the loud wheel
In the hope that the folk take the bait.

The other guy saw that the hillbilly caucus
Outnumbered the saint wanna-be's.
His cunning campaign became vastly more raucous
As he worked on their fears and unease.

Now, it's not up to me to reveal who succeeded
As that would be cocky and rash.
Suffice it to say that they got what they needed -
But nobody picked up the trash.
                                                            rc

The partly frozen lake
Still quite spry alive
****** and late mallards
Temporarily reside

Shared open water spare
Disorder oft ensues
Waterfowl in panic as
The ****** glide amused

Bare-***** branches bent
By early Autumn winds
Nature's karma paying
For sultry summer sins

Sun days in November
So modestly are doled
Joy is where the shadows form
And winter is forestalled
                               rc

One summer day I had a dream
Of cloudless skies and clotted cream
With flowing fields of ripened grain
And you were there, bereft of pain
Your soul not ready to redeem.

Within your eyes a distant gleam
Was speaking more than voice beseem
This fleeting contact 'cross the plain
One summer day

A slip of joy has stitched the seam
That split our lives eternal stream.
Would ever sleeping be insane
Not suffer life's unending bane
To hold the mem'ry of this dream
One summer day
                              rc