The Christmas card came with
the photo of the family all

nicely slipped into a smaller
than business-size envelope.

There they were — husband,
wife, son, daughter and ex-

change student — all smiling,
neat, trim and slim in between

the folded sheet of accomplish-
ments of the previous twelve

months. It’s hard to package
the messiness.

He has made the following
promises
(yada, yada, yada)
to his following
and he never follows
up on the promises
and his following follows
him to all the following
places
(yada, yada, yada)
dead ends, no exits and
“Do you really think I
would ever invite you
to Mar-a-lago?”
and they just continue
to follow.

*I have spent an inordinate
amount of time writing poetry
about the Occupant of the
White House. I think I do this
not because he is the “other,”
the “alien,” (no pun intended)
and so very different and there-
fore fascinating, but, just the
opposite, because he is such a
glaring example of the worst of
what we are. He is our dark-side
writ large and I think I am explor-
ing us more than him with a warn-
ing sign posted on everyone of
my posts.  And then there is the
whole cult following thing…a part-
icularly disturbing phenomenon
reminiscent most recently of Hitler
and Nazism.

A big, blue hawk sat on
the roof of the cottage
next to ours and the winds
from the south off of the
blue Gulf blew her feathers
back. She flew with the wind.

The company cut loose the undocumented,
but not before the year ended and was cemented,
so the company would get the most
before telling the workers they were toast.
Milk it for what to them the workers were worth
and then toss the workers out into the dirt.
They were fired without company vexation
and now they will face cruel deportation.
Our adopted dog was treated better.
A breeder female, she created litters
and at the (human’s 54) age six
she was given a merciful fix.
Lab rescue took her and then called
and seeing her, we were enthralled.
We have come to love the girl with wavy brown hair
and she audaciously claims the most cushiony chair.
It could be said the demagogue
treats immigrants like dogs
when, in fact, he treats them worse
abandoning them to a draconian system
with a flippant, “Toss them away,” curse.

I used to judge,
“Oh, stupid old men —
they can’t even shoot straight;
they often miss the bowl.”
but, ah, ’tis fate. I can relate
now that I, too, am old.

Bob,
a simple palindrome
not Paladin,
the West to roam.
He was a gun for hire.
Bob? A sort of friar,
but not Friar Tuck.
He’s the same
coming and going
not a quagmire.
He’d like to think
he is complex,
but he is complicated
abbreviated
to a simple palindrome,
the same comin’ and goin’
no matter where
he is roamin’
— without a gun.

“It’s the difference between being in a canoe
and a rowboat. In a canoe, you look forward
as you row, but in a rowboat, you look back
as you move forward. Our way forward is
behind us. . . .”*

Yes, we need the forward-looking canoe,
to help with our need,
but the rowboat and kayak, we need, too;
Take heed, all three we need.

To look forward, the canoe will fill the need;
for the necessary look back, the rowboat will do;
When strong winds the canoe do impede,
the sleek and stable kayak will get us through.

*Chris Haw as quoted in a meditation by Richard Rohr