This year,
we found angels
and demons,
heroes and cons,
standing upon and
deep beneath
this world.

Heroes wear blue
Blue like the sky
Keep looking up,we’ll get by

Heroes wear blue
Each one a star
Shinning through the night

Heroes wear blue
So keep doing what you do
I know it’s hard, but we will get through
Whatever colour you wear thank you for being there
So from all our hearts -that’s where love starts
Thank you for being you !

A heartfelt thanks to all going
To work on the front line knowing
You are stepping into harms way,
Risking your lives every day
In caring for, and comforting
All those in pain and suffering.
For the fantastic job you do,
Stepping up when we needed you,
For the sacrifices you make
And the daily risks you take,
The country should never forget
We are forever in your debt.
You are true heroes all of you
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…….

We call them heroes, send them to fight
armed with plastic armor, much extolled valor.
They are isolated inside the veil of gratitude,
Drafted in a terrible war they never asked for.

We call them heroes, our robust knights
who will slay the beast, shield us from its fury.
We try to forget the open secret that they were,
in fact, robbed of a choice, ****** into glory.

We call them heroes without ever knowing
the face behind their masks and elastic bands.
These worrisome times will come to pass;
meanwhile, we stay inside and wash our hands.

Among mankind's best—
Brave, courageous
Heroes who do no harm
Assuaging our fear
With fellow feeling and care
Amidst viral strains' stealthy swarm

Among mankind's worst—
Mean, dastardly
Zeros who do know harm
Stoking pandemic fear
Scamming the unsuspecting ear
With a smiling swindler's charm

Heroes & Zeros
Best and worst of mankind—
What a dichotomy!
We'll keep hoping instead
For a bright future ahead
Daily coping with anxiety


© 2020 by Mark Toney. All rights reserved.

I've been on Earth for 5150 days
And I've come to the conclusion that
people are sick

We have stolen for only ourselves

We have killed without thinking twice

We have persecuted for thrills

We have taken advantage for satisfaction

We have tortured for revenge

We have blown up because of one man's instruction

We have terminated species for space

We have disrespected for payback

We have decimated for attention

We have walked out to lead a childless life

We have betrayed for fictional assurances

We have destroyed planets for Jordan's and KD's

We have airbourned sicknesses to control the population


It's what we're best at.
No one alive cannot check something off of this list
No matter how good our intentions are in this moment
We have humanized ourselves
I don't want to be humanized
I want to change

DPAA Hymn for Fallen Soldiers
by Michael R. Burch

Sound the awesome cannons.
Pin medals to each breast.
Attention, honor guard!
Give them a hero’s rest.

Recite their names to the heavens
Till the stars acknowledge their kin.
Then let the land they defended
Gather them in again.

When I learned there’s an American military organization, the DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency), that is still finding and bringing home the bodies of soldiers who died serving their country in World War II, after blubbering like a baby, I managed to eke out this poem. Keywords/Tags: Fallen, Soldiers, Heroes, Patriots, POWs, MIAs, Stars, honor, guard, medals, honor, tribute, memorial

Mending
by Michael R. Burch

I am besieged with kindnesses;
sometimes I laugh,
delighted for a moment,
then resume
the more seemly occupation of my craft.

I do not taste the candies;
the perfume
of roses is uplifted
in a draft
that vanishes into the ceiling’s fans

that spin like old propellers
till the room
is full of ghostly bits of yarn ...
My task
is not to knit,

but not to end too soon.

This is a poem for the survivors of 9–11 whose families lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks. Keywords: 911, survivors, victims, first, responders, passengers, firemen, police, heroes, terrorist, attacks, World Trade Center, Flight 93, Pentagon, White House

Flight 93
by Michael R. Burch

I held the switch in trembling fingers ... asked
why existence felt so small, so meaningless,
like a minnow squirming feebly in my grasp ...

... vibrations of huge engines thrummed my arms
as, glistening with sweat, I nudged the switch
to OFF ... I heard the klaxon’s shrill alarms

like vultures’ shriekings ... earthward, in a stall ...
we floated ... earthward ... wings outstretched, aghast
like Icarus ... as through the void we fell ...

till nothing was so beautiful, so blue ...
so vivid as that moment ... and I held
an image of your face, and dreamed I flew

into your arms ... the earth rushed up ... I knew
such comfort, in that moment, loving you.

NOTE: This poem imagines the struggle in the cockpit for control of the Flight 93 airplane. The terrorists apparently intended to crash the plane into the White House. The heroic passengers kept that from happening, at the cost of their lives. Keywords/Tags: 9-11, sonnet, Flight 93, terrorists, terrorism, heroes, heroism, courage, bravery, loyalty, patriotism, sacrifice, love