We walk in darkness —
in the midst of the flashy, glittering life.
Jealousy, covetousness, envy, strife
control us like an animal’s harness.

But we who walk in darkness
have seen a great light —
free of jealousy, envy, strife.
From our necks has dropped death’s harness.

We are free
to live in eternal simplicity —
Christos’ light.

*idea from three synchronistic meditations
delivered to my inbox on the same day —
perhaps themed in light of current political
circumstances.

Does all of this come down to peeing on a bed
or could it be something significant instead?
It all seems so venial
rather than a sin that is total
but Vladie might have filmed the pee-pee
and the occupant was seen to have so small a wee-wee.
And so, he will do everything to keep the tape from being seen
by doing Vladie’s bidding and flushing democracy down the drain
in his attempt at great but completely false and fleeting fame.
What a total depravity shame.

He didn’t shoot anyone on 5th Avenue
as he said he could and not lose a vote,
but he probably thinks he could bring
an AK-14 with an extended clip into the
press room and mow down all the journalists
justifying himself as draining the corrupt
news swamp and sixty-three million American
cultists (a sadly misunderstood and forgotten
lot) would cheer and vow to vote for him in
2020. This guy knows his base even though
he would never consider having such a sadly
forgotten lot to dinner at Sea to Lake or
even over for a Quarter Pounder or an Im-
possible Whopper, which he, the Burger
King if not the American King, thinks
was named after him, “The Stable Genius
Impossible Whopper,” and probably doesn’t
understand why his wife doesn’t refer to
him as such.

If this were a TV drama, it would be fine.
If this were a reality show, it would be benign.
It would be kind of fun to watch the insanity,
except that this is for real and not inanity
but true insanity except that no therapist
has had the chance to interview the
megalomaniac, wannabe totalitarianist.
And so, we are left with a diligent press
to help get us out of this Constitutional mess
in spite of the fact that the wannabe dictator
calls the press fake, false and traitors.
We are in a dangerous situation
and we need to save our nation.
HELP!

“Are we in last throes?”
He asked me about the earth.
I said, “My last throws
were tossed from the outfield of
First Church’s men’s softball team.”

Our government is to promote the common
welfare as well as provide for the common
defense, but the funding is so out of line
for defense, the welfare is totally sidelined.
Gazillions go to protect us from the boogie-man
but there is hardly any funding to eliminate the scary cancer-man.
And so, so many things have not changed
from the estate of Jefferson’s slaves en-chain-ed
to all the obfuscating of fat, old, white men
who haven’t practiced legitimate law since way back when,
maybe back before the slave stands.
And now fat, old, white men obfuscate again and again
trying to keep the welfare of the country
from being promoted time and time again
from the time of Washington and Jefferson
to our time again and again
and it is now our time to stand against the flimflam man
who couldn’t care less about research to eliminate the scary cancer-man
while he keeps trying to scare us about the boogie-man.

Meanwhile, we go about our daily tasks;
Fearful, anxious, we wear smiling masks.
Everything will be okay in the night?
The wannabe dictator sees only might.
While deep inside he cries
Love me, just me, but in such, the self shrivels and dies.
What went wrong, little boy,
Did someone steal your favorite toy?
Or was it much, much worse —
Upon you, some dark evil well-rehearsed?
And yet, and yet, seeing some of myself as I look in the eye.
Fortunate, but for the grace of God, there go I.
Thank you, Mr. Auden. Yes,
May we, for justice and peace, keep the flame alive.

*in homage to W.H. Auden for September 1, 1939
https://poets.org/poem/september-1-1939.