I have no affinity
                      for merging consanguinity,
                                               where genes

                          careen
and blood
 leads

  to

  a

  flood
       of not okay

                    ...DNA.

I wanted to marry
my cousin Mary
but

off                    spring

would be a bad thing —

                     causing all to SCREECH,
   
               about the freaks

             who look just like

               our Grandpa Ike
 
who.........

on his own
was quite

                         a see to sight.

                 See?


          Merging consanguinity
          leads to frights
          like our Grampa Ike. 

          Thank God, Mary agreed.

Is it just that we can’t possibly
imagine such a thing — an American
president in cahoots with a foreign
power, an enemy foreign power, a

president who is actually working for
that power against the interests of
the country, what he, in his capacity as
president and the commander-in-chief

of the military, swore to support and
defend? Does such a thought keep
bumping up against incredulity? Is
it just mind-boggling that the person

we elected to defend us against all
adversaries actually is selling us
out to that adversary? And maybe that
very word “selling” ultimately will

allow such a heinous thought to begin
to sink in, in spite of the fact that,
such a thing has never, ever occurred
in the history of our country — a

traitor, a treasonous person, anywhere
but in the presidency. Is there nothing
sacred anymore? Apparently not when
money is involved. Follow the money,

follow the money as he sells the country
up the creek and down the drain. Does he
even know what he is doing? Isn’t it in
the best interest of the country, every

country, all the world to cut the grand
deal? What could possibly be wrong with
that? Apparently, nothing from the per-
spective of someone who doesn’t know

the difference between vulture capitalism
and defending the constitution. Wait, isn’t
the business of America business? Hey,
it’s the way to make America great again.

“Well, when you put it that way…it
makes a lot of patriotic sense. Got
anymore of them red caps? I’d like
to buy some for my kids.”

We get upset over the president’s lies.
I don’t know why.
One study showed a hundred lies
fill our daily lives.
Maybe, when they lie
directly in front of our lives,
our denial gives us the hives.
Maybe we should strive
not to lie
so much in our own lives.
For sure, the president won’t be getting any hives
over all his lies.

The dumbest of the dumb
who cannot do critical this
or that only think they are
incredibly smart while being
super scared of their own
shadow which is always
black thus confirming
their fear and if there is a
dismembering or gutting or
anything they can’t take it
and their brains go into over-
drive and drive them to
cheer and cheer and jeer
and jeer and the super
smart only want to give the
proverbial finger to the
power structure and this is
this and that is that and rat-
a-tat-tat, they love the red hat.

The day bright
with dazzling light
beckoned a seductive invite,
but the light
deceived quite right;
the cold was a fright.
We shivered quite.
Back inside was our flight.
Last laugh to the light,
“Please come out and play.”

Addressing his base, Emperor Donald
Lacked clothes of any kind.
He stood unliveried of any garb.
Someone laughed while sitting behind
While pointing
To his ample cheeks —
The color of ruby, red, Russian rhubarb.

The African-American author used
the metaphor of an old house when

describing the United States. She
loves old houses and has always

lived in old houses but they need
constant attention and renovation.

Right now the United States isn’t
just an old house. It is an old,

haunted house with the ghosts of
our sins inhabiting every nook

and cranny. Another African-American
author described “…vast chasms created

by implicit biases and systemic in-
justices.” The ghosts of those implicit

biases and systemic injustices lurk
in the dark, cavernous rooms ever

ready to pounce and scare the
inhabitants to death. Where are

the Ghost Busters when you
most need them?

*idea from On Being e-newsletter,
1/12/2019

The right-wing birds
had to be heard.
Squawking Rush and Ann
gave the Donald a plan.
Shut the government down
if money for the wall won’t be found.
And so the heartless guy
is punishing 800,000, and why?
Because that petulant child
has gone lunatic wild
to get that about which
he doesn’t even care.
Maybe his only love
is his bright orange hair.

Yes, what a mess and what for?
Not the dignity of seven years and four score.
Concerning all of his legal woes —
an attempt at a diversionary tactic once more?
Who knows?
We spend endless hours
and beaucoup dollars
captivated by
a petulant child who just hollers
to get his way.
What can we say?
He occupies our all and every day.
And what about when he is
gone as he surely will be
someday?
Will we elect another childish lunatic
just for more blithering screeds?
I wouldn’t put it past us.
It is how we live our lives
for looney-tune entertainment is now a must.
It has become our modern-day gyves,
shackles to keep us occupied
and money from our wallets plied.
And so we sit, laugh and watch
while corporations cozy up to the public trough
of tax breaks granted by legislators’ greed and sloth.

For some reason he has settled on
21 point in Helvetica Neue.
Maybe he had been stuck in a rut
and needed something new.
Helvetica Neue came with Page.
21 point moved up a few
from the same old starting point in a starting page.
He used to go to Times New
Roman but that was in Word Document
and moved from 11 to
24 point in the spur of the moment.
It all seems so capricious, too,
because when it goes to Word Press
it’s in a format very new
and gussied up in a Word Press dress
about which he had nothing to do.