Our House

While papa is out doing remarkable things 

the do-nothing children 

hatefully accuse him of grandstanding 

and threaten to burn the house down.

*

Don’t worry, be happy,
government shutdowns are no big deal,
but if the news media shuts down,
oh my god
then we are truly leaderless and doomed.

 Distraction is our Reality

If you are NOT distracted
you are NOT living in the real world.

*

I hate that senator half as much 

as I hate the media 

who gives him

nation wide coverage 

and I keep asking

what’s the difference between terrorists 

who hate our government 

and want to shut it down 

and obstructionists 

who hate our government 

and threaten to shut it down?


"Well", says the idiot
with the gadget to his ear,
"let me put you on hold".

Inner Impasse

If you have half a brain, 

like me, 

you won’t dignify with truth 

such stupidity 

yet it’s so hard to contain 

outrage and outcry 

when you know in your heart 

none win with a sigh.

*

When you live in ‘tea party’ land
you take no stand,
you just shut your mouth and sigh
a lot
and quietly remember
all you were taught
about the fall of great empires
when you were young.

Gun control talk

is just a dog chasing it’s own tail, 

around and around it spins 

for what reasons no one can tell.

*

Soon these mass killings will be an everyday occurrence 

and we’ll accept them as easily 

as we accept rising prices and dysfunctional representation. 

Face saving murder and destruction
is every bit as ‘unconscionable’
as the acts they deem ‘unconscionable’.


* * *


A moral high road  

cluttered with advertisements,  

propaganda crap,
phony hopes and used condoms 

is hardly a high road. 

More like a slight incline 

circling to outline 

a pit filled with mass deceptions.


* * *


 Scare us with war talk
then loosen the dogs of speculation
sitting on high, draining us dry,
then tell us again
what's right and what's wrong.

Dark River 

On a far river bank I see 

knee high boots crushing skulls. 

On the other far side I see 

strange perversions lurking, waiting

for the times to change again,

and on a dark river I go

dead center adrift, bewildered I row 

but somehow know 

the worst is still yet to come. 

Rebooting the Fear

There’s nothing like a big, scary apparition

to help justify 

a surveillance program fit for a government 

hell bent on

convincing it's people it’s for their own good.

* * *

The enemy is within
but they point over there.
The signs are clear
but they know not where.

So the best thing to do
they openly declare
is lock up all the doors
and get out of there.