4-25-20
To, “First do no harm”
if only politicians had
to make that pledge
Feel free to include your thoughts on the topic in the comments.
politics
A Fable for Our Time
Once upon a time there was an evil orange, and the orange thought he was the best fruit ever. He thought he deserved things the other fruits didn’t. He lied to all the other fruits and got them to make him their leader. (Because in fables fruits do have leaders.) Then he made crazy proclamations and all the fruit argued. Some though his words were brilliant; some thought they were crazy and hateful.
He even decided to build a fence around the orchard, and got many of the fruits to hate and fear the fruit from other orchards. And while all the fruits were busy arguing the Original Orange sneaked around changing things to bring him more of everything.
Some of the apples noticed the sky was changing and a big storm was coming. They tried to tell the others. Meanwhile, some of the grapes noticed that the Original Orange had a rotten spot and it was growing larger. When they tried to tell the other fruit, the Original Orange said they were just sour grapes who were fake and could not be trusted. Then he said it was an apple that was rotten and soon it would ruin the whole crop.
No one knows why so many of the fruits in the orchard believed the Original Orange, but while they were arguing with the fruits that didn’t, a big storm was indeed brewing. So, when the terrible storm came no one was prepared. Violent hail and rains knocked all the fruit to the ground and the whole crop was ruined; even the greedy Original Orange who thought he had everything.
* A bit of prose for you, now that NaPoWriMo is over.
24
Pride sits
on a broken throne
in its hands, a tiny
shiny blue alphabet
Pride howls
alone on its throne
in the wee
hours full of bluster and bite
Pride clings
to its slippery throne
ringed by
angry fires
listening to the fiddler
Another for National Poetry Month, the subject is from Real Toads, where they suggested we write about the seven vices or virtues.
23
Ah,
gotta love
the modern life –
the tweets of a twit
or the magic of
micro-po
one-four-oh!
Keep it simple, stupid,
small and statesmanlike
or not…
This is for Real Toads where the suggestion is to try a 140 character, Twitter-sized poem.
Circus
-Image by Carter Goodrich from the cover of the New Yorker, October 30, 2017
follow
the yellow-haired clown
through
the house of mirrors
see yourself
and the world
distorted
beyond recognition
then ride
the roller coaster
into the dark
try to
knock down
the impossible, weighted
bottles
the insufficient
ball
falls to the ground
with a dead-cat bounce
This is a Quadrille (44 words) containing the word “bounce” written for De at dVerse.
Curtains
it is the best of times
it is the worst of times
the market is up
integrity down
a nation stands by as
it is shamed, scammed and flimflammed
used and refused
is this insanity
to keep us from seeing
the man behind the curtain
or are we being led
to the precipice
in earnest?
This is a fashionably late entry for the amazing Hedgewitch and herFriday 55 at Verse Escape.
Nightmare
Days are dark
waters are rising
yet the world is burning
as we are being led
140 characters at a time
into the mouth
of the fire
False prophets promise
haven as they
steal the ground
from beneath our feet and
deport
our dreams
Turns out
the small-fisted, would-be emperor
is both naked and blind.
This is for Hedgewitch’s memorial FF55 at Verse Escape.
He Said – She Said
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”
― H.G. Wells
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
-Nelson Mandela
“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.” -Walter Cronkite
The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history. -Carl T. Rowan
Wordless Wednseday – Dark Days
Pax/ Pox
Every screen
shows us
death
a bombing
and a shooting
and another
and many others
Atrocities abound
And we-
we bleed, weep and keep
watch
Moved beyond words
almost
showing our best
Until
the arguments start
Who has the greatest
loss
and who is
at fault
whose policy failed
who can we punish
Our finest impulses
are buried in
shrapnel, bile and fear
In Other Words 