the eclipse

(tanka)

wouldn't it be funny

if the eclipse didn't happen

and we all found out

scientists just made it up

like they did global warming

*

but everyone knows
it is going to happen
cuz science says so

yet some, like our president
believe science is a hoax

getting old is weird

i know all these other old people who say they have copd

they say it like they think they're special or something,

like they belong to something, like they're apart of the team,

like they are team players taking their pills for the team

i don't know what copd stands for cuz i mute all commercials,

especially the pharmaceutical kind they bombard us with

through out the evening news or other prime, old people shows

to suggest all old people play along like it's a kind of game

like sickness is a game we can all play and enjoy like the people

who rollick in those commercials and with the right help, 

good god, you too might find yourself surrounded by loved ones

who are always so damn happy you bought the right pills 

don't know what it is

(tanka)

i don't even think

it can be called a human,

it's too different

i suspect it's alien

from another dimension

-

two dimensional,

up and down but has no depth,

a cartoon human,

a life size cardboard cutout

that looks real but lacks feeling

apocalypses are fun

end of the world movies always conclude

on a positive note,

  

a vaccines discovered, aliens are defeated,

people regain their senses

and strong, goodhearted, hero types lead

everyone into a glorious,

hugging and teary eyed happily ever after  

but not much is ever said

about the backbreaking task of rebuilding 

another soon to end world

cuz that isn't all that much fun i suppose

baby boomer blues

(tanka)

you worked all your life

at some run-of-the-mill job

just to make ends meet

yet you are somehow convinced

your life is better than most

-

like a slave you worked

and you followed all their rules

only to find out

you were played for a dummy

by a system that doesn't care

the helpless majority

(tanka)

i don't want to write

about our failing system

but i can't break loose

from the despairing feeling

if i don't, i help it fail

-

but that's not to say

the words i write mean a thing

cuz the sad truth here

i like most have no control

over what is said and done

our children's children's children

(haiku)

someday they'll look back

and analyse what happened

to america

and why it gave up

it's claim on the future good

so damn willingly

and how it could trade

it's sense of truth for folly

and love doing it

they will read and gasp

at how easy it was fooled

by clowns and tv