THE WORM TURNS
Remember
back in the day
when jocks had the locks
and geeks were nerds and nerds
and the nerds were geeks
But today
our computer has a virus
and they’re
like the gods of Greeks
Category: Uncategorized
OILS WELL THAT ENDS WELL
OILS WELL THAT ENDS WELL
There was a young lass from Wasilla
who spudded in as a GOP thrilla
but they soon found their musher
was far from a gusher
a dry hole as a Drill-Baby-Drilla
THE BALLAD OF BARRY BARACK
THE BALLAD OF BARRY BARACK
There once was a Halfro-American boy
his Kenyan father’s glancing blow
and his Mid-West mother’s pride and joy
how diddee how diddee how diddee how do
Raised where two directions are all you can see
toward the mountains and towards the sea
How diddee how diddee how do
And Barry was the white side
and Barack was the black
as handsome as a Tiger
and sharp as a tack
how diddee how diddee
how diddee how do
Went off to Harvard to run the review
and streets of Chicago some real good to do
How diddee how diddee how do
A wise young man with a funny old name
America you’ll never be the same
America you’ll never be the same
How diddee how diddee how do
He didn’t change all prejudice
but he sure did make a dent
and that is how he got to be
the U.S. President
sing
how diddee how diddee
how did he how did he
how do
THE WINGS BENEATH HIS WIN
THE WINGS BENEATH HIS WIN
Ask not who should Obama thank
but who we should thank for Obama
There are a million threads that make up
the quilt of America’s growing up
You could follow one
back to a university
in Tuskegee Alabama in 1881
to its first teacher Booker T. Washington
who hired George Washington Carver,
who lived to see it become
the home of the Tuskegee airmen
who fought with equal skill
and double courage on
two fronts at once
Their performance and sacrifice
inspiring Harry Truman
on July 26th, 1948 to issue executive
order 9981 directing
equality of treatment and opportunity
in the armed forces
And if those weren’t threads enough
The Tuskegee Song was written in 1902
by Paul Laurence Dundar, classmate
and friend of Orville Wright and
set to the tune of Fair Harvard
We thank thee, we bless thee, we pray for thee years
Imploring with grateful accord
Full fruit for thy striving, time longer to strive
Sweet love and true labor’s reward
Yes indeed Tuskegee, we all thank thee
OUT OF AFRICA
OUT OF AFRICA
Our relatively recent relatives
driven north by fear
or hunger
traded some pigment
for access to
vitamin D
No small thing of course
(survival wise)
but nothing to get too uppity
about either
STONES
STONES
Every spring
like a teenager before the prom
frost popped zits
covering the face of the land
and we go picking
DREAMS OF SAFETY
DREAMS OF SAFETY
Over the wall where fires burning
a black cloud rolling
Out of a black cloud rolling
a rainbow beaming
Out of a rainbow beaming
raindrops falling
Each drop to its color
clinging
Crystal gemstones
shining
falling
EARLY MORNING, DECEMBER, CALGARY
EARLY MORNING, DECEMBER, CALGARY
The neighbors called
as neighbors will
To report Roberta
age four
in the front yard
making a snowman
A reasonable thing to do
as quickly as possible
after seven inches
of new wet snow
And dressed adequately
for the task
High boots and warm mitts
and nothing else
A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD
A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD
Two Uncle Milties
lived into their nineties
One had economics as his vocation
one called a laugh an instant vacation
Berle would twirl dressed as a girl
till the water ran out of your eyes
While Friedman freed greed
and won a Nobel prize
I leave it for you to apprise
who was silly and who was wise
MEMORIAL DAY
MEMORIAL DAY
Today we honor
those who chose
if choose they did
to serve and die in uniform
For some cause or causes
made noble by
their dying
And by ennobling
perhaps persuade
Is the next day, or the next
for those who shared the hell
but did not dress so well
And their numbers
oh yes, the terrible
terrible numbers
But we best not
speak of numbers
for in death, one
is the only number
And if we cannot
speak of math
can we speak
of aftermath
Land mines in the ground
mass destruction
in slow motion
Land mines in the mind
a uniform heritage
for those who did
and did not wear
a uniform
A moment of silence now
for us all