I love Johnny Mathis.
Seemingly every year
PBS drags out a special
About Johnny Mathis
And I get weak in the
Knees hearing his
Velvety sounds. I am
Escorted back to high
School and first loves
And, even without two
Glasses of wine in the
Evening, I start to cry
As I hear “Wonderful,
Wonderful,” and then
I sigh until I think of
My fiftieth high school
Reunion where I saw
Reality for itself and
I knew Johnny Mathis
Would never have
Shown up.

There is no litmus test on
standing for the National
Anthem for patriotism.
There is only the First
Amendment right to free
speech which should be
applauded by all Americans
except we are so ignorant
of basic rights that we are
willing to deny those rights
and ultimately deny our
rights which leads us to
the hell of trampling,
screaming, wailing, gass-
ing, incinerating, destroy-
ing, killing, annihilating
as most anyone in Germany
could simply inform us of
today.

Wanting to tame his instincts
toward road rage, he drives
overly politely and it makes him
feel good and so he beeped that
a driver backing up in front of him
could continue. She did without a
thank you and then put the vehicle
into drive and drove right through
the stop sign intersection without
so much as a gentle tap on the
brakes to even hint at obeying the
law. And so it goes in today’s Wild
West mentality in America in all
respects as this is just a simple
but potentially deadly reminder
of what could be the death of
democracy.

We boast we are 99 and forty-
four-one hundredth’s % Ivory

clean, but ninety-nine and 99%
of humanoid history is unclean

and violent and a few are try-
ing to live up to something

higher, a higher calling, but
for all the effort and postur-

ing, humans are not doing a
very good job of “moving on

up,” as the TV sitcom said,
in a humanitarian sense,

to that higher calling, but
the few will never stop

witnessing to the calling and
protesting the 99 and 99

hundredth’s %.

He thought, I have racist inclinations
But I try rationally to account for
Endemic and systemic reasons for
The plight of minorities and ask

Forgiveness for my fears and
Prejudices and pray that my
Head knowledge drops lovingly
into my heart. “I am a violent

Man Learning to be non-violent,”
Said Cesar Chavez and so with me,
He thought to himself. Then he
Thought about the (p)resident of

The United States and how he
Indulges his prejudices and his
Bullying and posturing of violence,
And he thought of the present

(p)resident’s base and, for all the
Reasons offered up on social media,
Their blind, visceral, near orgasmic
Fascination with the (p)resident,

And then he thought that there is
A xenophobic, nativistic Black
Hole in the Amerikan universe of
Endemic And systematic prejudice

Sucking people into fear, ignorance
And unbridled violence, the hell
Into which only Jesus is unafraid
To venture and heal. We must follow.

Calling all artists, members of the 
club, 
		please bring your art for the juried show, 

(oh no, no pottery or other 3-D pieces),

except if it is not very large, 
		in which case maybe, 

(oh no, actually in which case not any {zero, none} are welcome)

because we have moved to a much 
		bigger and 
				better 
						gallery 
but there are dancers during the week 

			and they may 
			knock over 3-D pieces 
				on kiosks, 

so please wonderful members, 
just keep your art at home; 

we think you will just love 
the new gallery; it’s so much 
nicer than being in the reception 
area, 

                            DON'T YOU THINK? 

Don’t forget to join us for the 
reception and awards presentation

	yummy appetizers and ever so 
	fine wine.
	Sincerely,
	Your art loving planning committee 
                       making art available to all

The blood sucking leaches
leach onto the biggest blood

sucker of all time and suck
the blood out of the system

saying glibly that it is all
for national security. These

are the people who want
smaller government meaning

smaller for everyone of color
and women and more profitable

for them. Instead of looking
to fix a dysfunctional system,

they seek to perpetuate the
blood sucking sick system,

cough and say, “See, we are
allergic to them,” — them

being their brothers and
sisters and all those who

came from the womb of Eve,
children of God and not

blood sucking leaches
except if your name is

Cain, who even unbe-
knownst to them was

loved unconditionally
and, therefore, included

and so too, are all leaches
inspite of themselves which

has something to say about
unconditional love and

gives hope for the justice
that comes from that love

as hard as that grace is
to understand and even

harder to accept.

The September sun beat down
like a fire-breathing dragon
burning the leaves fire-engine
red, leaving bathers burnt worse
than at the end of a four-day
Fourth of July holiday. Forty-
Two North soared past ninety
on its way to an Indian Summer
that didn’t need a killing frost
to scorch the earth. Global Warm-
ing sounded like a sweet, innocuous,
anachronistic euphemism coined
by a doddering, old, sentimental
fool when Global Sweltering And
All Seas Rising might do.

We took down the canopy
	because the meteorologists 
predicted thunderstorms;
	then we entered the travel
trailer for the evening. Dawn
	broke clear as crystal. 
Forecast foiled again. Perhaps
	meteorologists should stick 
to predicting meteors. Or, 
        maybe not. Maybe
I should be more grateful they 
        get the big stuff right
most of the time.

We are expanding “America First”
with fear, fear of anything not familiar
to those who have lived with privilege
coming from Europe. We are going

back to fight or flight with fear
dictating and exceeding our self-
congratulatory sophistication that
we need to posture us vs. them with

us being in power but motivated by
fear and anger and little white boys
and girls wetting their pants and cry-
ing bloody murder for someone to

change the dirty diapers. We haven’t
had scapegoats since Jesus was the
ultimate scapegoat for all of humanity
so all of humanity could live in unity,

justice and peace, but tell that to
the Christian, evangelical working class,
white, privileged (yes, that’s right,
privileged because all whites are

privileged in comparison to all others)
whites who just point at blacks, browns,
yellows and reds and cry bah, bah, bah,
all the way home and look forward

to the white St. Peter to greet them
at the pearly gates and welcome them
in to meet and greet the white god at
which time they will be introduced to

the joke on them and that their white
god actually carries a pitch fork,
wears a black cape and has pointy
ears, ironically someone who they

don’t recognize as anyone they
know but who says, “Oh, my
children, I am your daddy. Well
done thou good and faithful

servants; enter into your reward.”