if we could
be someone completely different

at least for a while

child to adult  woman to man
asylant to millionaire  president to farmer
human to animal or tree

or vice versa

we can imagine all this
in our phantasies and virtual worlds
yet we are missing essentials

to BE a mouse  a bear  a shark
a president  a film star  a tree
is to feel  think  sense  suffer
live in their alien worlds

maybe even understand

at least for a while

factual or fake
terse or sensationalist
trying to be as objective as possible
shamelessly partisan and polemic

or simply hate speech
esoteric remedies for all problems
cat videos and personal snapshots
on asocial networks

whether we believe it or not
it is difficult to avoid it
in our great age
of real-time digital information

the abundance of unreliables
is almost legendary    
     like hearsay in the Middle Ages
     when wandering minstrels
     spread the tidings
        more or less

a challenge to all people with brains
not yet oversaturated with daily trivia

to decide what to believe

doublecheck

do follow-ups

impervious to experts
untouched by suffering immigrants and workers
heaping vile insults onto all opponents
remarkably ruthless in praising himself
at every inappropriate occasion

a man only in love with his own self
of whom many hope
he'd soon follow
the story of Narcissus
to its classical end

how do I get to know this me?

ask my friends
     or enemies
who I know
     are biased one way or the other?

find myself in meditation
     with a guru
     or just with myself?

what if I discover
     there is more than one me
     that I have many selves?

must I accept
     all of them
or can I choose the ones
     I like best?

life is difficult ..

a whiff of green

promising to bring back
the god old coal mining jobs
drilling and fracking for oil
on federal land
loosening pollution standards

does not really jive
with sudden claims
to work for the purest air
and the best crystal clear water
of the whole world

yet another pathetic attempt
by a pathological liar
to make facts
fit his egomaniacal fictions

that whiff of fake green
does not smell good

right at the center
of a somewhat stormy europe
my little country
     at times
     with a touch of gallows humor
struggles to maintain
the venerable illusion
that Austria remains
as we have thought for centuries
     an island of the blessed

amidst the brexit troubles
the growing voices of dull nationalists
     masking as patriots
authoritarian visions
     of „illiberal democracies“
         even at home

heart-breaking fates of refugees
     unwanted anywhere
spineless politicians
     who change positions
     according to the winds
     of not so presidential twitters

follow deniers of the climate change
     though they are sweating
     through the highest temps
     since measurements began

      etc., etc.

sometimes we may be wise
remembering poetic words of yore
like those of dear John Donne:

„No man is an island“

do we really want
our country imprisoned by a wall
and all the seasonal Mexican harvest workers
locked out?

California and other
southern border states
do not seem so enthusiastic
about this concept

legal or illegal
they need the (wo)man power
to get their fruit and vegetables
to the (super) market

therefore, dear ICE
& other border guard units

get your act together
do NOT separate children
     from their parents    
try to use your brains
      rather than follow your orders

and act
like good Americans would