In 1854,
Ordered by an idiot,
Six hundred British cavalry,
Unprotected, charged
Well-placed Russian guns
That simply mowed them down.
They may have wondered,
Yet they thundered
Into that famous
Valley of death, because
Theirs was not to reason why,
Theirs was but to do and die.
Along with Yeats,
I used to think
We spiraled up and down.
I’ve read too much,
And lived too long,
Seen too much infamy—
I learned a god,
Upset by men,
Drowned every land-based thing
Except those on an ark.
And then invented holy war
That killed all living foes.
Another avatar, Allah
(Benevolent, and merciful),
Defined a special holy task
That cut the heads from infidels.
History, alas, is no spiral—
Just a dark flat line,
Vertical, dropping
Straight down.
(4/16/13)
Light, in all its varied forms, creates sheen—
Sometimes welcome, as when it seduces
A diner’s eye as she contemplates, keen
To taste, the surface of her chocolate mousse.
Sometimes it irritates, when bright headlights
Flash across the dim, cataracted eyes
Of ancient drivers, make things much too white
And threaten to induce a quick demise.
Today, down at the paddle tennis courts,
A young woman wore a skillful outfit
So provocative, each man’s eye was caught
By sheen reflected off her ample tits.
The afternoon sun painted those pristine,
Oval breasts with a sheen I’d never seen.
(4/4/13)
I went down to the courts to find Lorie
Because an error marred his tax returns.
Stressed and embarrassed, profoundly sorry,
I fixed my mistake but suffered concern.
So I went to find him. Sat on a bench
For two long hours until he arrived.
I waved him to me, he waved me away.
I shouted “come here right now.” He contrived
To ignore me again. I disrupted
The game, entered the court, gave him the stuff
And left. For two days now, primed to erupt,
I’ve seethed, contemplating his rough rebuff—
Composing vicious rebukes in my head.
I wanted him to dredge his fertile mind,
Explain his contempt; but—mellowed—instead,
Discovered the reason. He was deaf, blind.
He lived in a parallel universe
Different from mine, and his was crimped, cursed.
The physics seems odd, but how else explain
That inexcusable and rude disdain?
(3/29/13)
Frankly, old age is a pain in the ass.
Just standing up engenders fat-knee creaks—
And the rich experience you’ve amassed
Does not assuage sciatica’s grim shrieks.
Still, despite my pain, inability,
There is an upside. When I was strong, young,
Driven to amend instability,
Politics freed my wallet and my tongue.
I mourned our spiraling world, dark, berserk—
I dreamed a world at peace, unbigoted.
I spoke and voted, volunteered to work,
Till age intruded, frayed that youthful thread.
That cesspool Middle East? Our next mayor?
Iran? Truth told, I just no longer care.
What troubles me? What most affects my mind?
The household mess my death will leave behind.
(3/28/13)
There was, we’re told,
A big bang once—
The origin
Of all there is.
Armageddon,
A weird book says,
Will mark the end
Of life’s tough quiz..
This sturdy rock’s
Been through a lot
Survived those wars
Outlived our sins.
Tsunami’s gush,
Volcano’s ash,
Or asteroids
Will do us in.
It’s not god’s will
We need to fear
But shoddy work
That’s underfoot.
We’ll end some day
Like dinosaurs.
And our big bang?
A whispered poof!
The cosmos, though,
Will still be there,
And other suns
Will light and heat
Some shoddy rocks
That wait their turn,
Endure their fate,
Suffer defeat.
(3/24/13)
The earliest writings we’ve ever found
Go back five thousand years—words of advice,
Most often, or flood comments, expounded
By some mythic kings, revealing life’s price.
Unsurprising how ancient an idea
Taxation is! Gracing Hebrew Bibles
With some random priestly lines here and there—
Funding temples, armies—often tribal.
But times change, and a few lines just won’t do.
We must build roads, aqueducts, patronize
The arts, pay governments that grew and grew—
New taxes raised for thoughts not always wise.
Who dreamed ‘twould come to this—a buzzing hive
Of rules and regs, amendments that off-load
Sixteen thousand eight hundred forty five
Pages: our IRS taxation Code!
(3/23/13)