poems

are not merely empowered to separate us from discerning fact and fiction.
They separate us from debate; civic discourse; meaningful conflict;
From coalition-building; compromise; concession.
They separate us from each other.

Communities seem quaint
Common ground, a shifting place
Quicksand beneath one’s feet
We are all swamp things now
The eyes ogle, waiting for us to falter — for sport

Our shelf lives grow ever shorter
While billionaires transfuse the blood of the young
The youth don’t want my mid-life crisis
It bores them so
My tone grates on America’s next greats

Ideologies wage the fifth world war out on the vast placeless social media savannah 
Faux fantastical beasts feast upon felled paper tigers
One can only hope the most outsized egos
Are the biggest dinosaurs
When the meteor comes

Read more 

Without the doing of some thing brand inappropriate 
Something unmonetizable 
Unclickable 
Untraceable 
Untradeable   
| 
If i don't rend the cloth of this Culture Fit soon 
i will die 
Like the coral 
Like two-thirds of the wild 
Like the humans on the edge of a rising shoreline 
In a ceaseless world 
With iceless poles 
And icy proles   
| 
As the planet heats, 
Civilization chills; 
Swallowing our red or our blue pills; 
Interned into camps of grievers and shills 
| 
Grieve i do and for the West 
Our president the Bigly Best! 
We'll come and go at his behest 
Put down your Freedom of Info Requests 
Baby, you just ain't seen nothin' yet 
| 
Joe Walsh got his balls out, and his musket too 
The Lefties dream of Saskatoon 
We're all gonna get that Change real soon 
You'll see when fascism hits High Noon 
| 
We'll finish tearing ourselves apart 
In the streets and in the dark 
Can no longer recreate in this park 
Leslie Knope didn't fit the part 
| 
She had the mighty audacity 
To take purview over Benghazi 
Once Bush and Blair left Qaddafi 
Those GOP goons would never get off me 
| 
My God, all the emails 
The Chaffetz' anemic security details 
At least we're swaddled by all this retail 
Black Friday's never been so beyond the pale 
| 
Pale as a ghost 
White as a sheet 
Our New Balance host 
Circle jerks its meat 
| 
Of all the PUAs and all the Teas 
Even the most mundane of these 
See the female as a tease 
Hang the browns up in the trees 
We're all strange fruit upon our knees 
| 
Ain't no more reason to appease 
Already done killed off all them bees 
Turnt up the thermostat a few degrees 
TVs blaring back our postmodern sleaze 
| 
Found ourselves a favorite scapegoat 
And a good long length of real strong rope 
The corruption will be all excised 
By the 'tubes chock full of Russian spies 
This revolution will be televised 
As America just dies and dies
Read more 

i relied on you  
as the harbinger of truth  
and you never gave me my due  

wanted to dance  
and sail off to France  
but you called me back here from the blue 

i understand now  
it was all just a row  
we were slated to have from the start  

if i followed that path  
its inexorable math  
would lead me closer too far to my heart 

cheated with coin  
like most prone to join  
we can't turn away from the chrome  

left on our own  
we haunt pursuit of our bones  
never expecting we'd end up alone 

did what you said  
ended up in bed 
with all the white ghosts of my youth  

i should have gone far  
drove away in some car  
than come back and face this truth 

that we're all just a friend  
who'll be left in the end  
always to fend for oneself  

if you're nice to what made you  
some grace then may fade you  
else then you're left out on your own  
your own  
your own 

if you can climb out of there  
find some nearby stair  
you've got a clean shot at the throne  

but miss your chance  
to strike out & dance  
you too could be left so alone 

i cling fast to you  
like drowning men do  
when they're desperate to suck in some air  

but we'll both go down  
with spectacular frowns  
preventing each other's aware 

it don't matter now  
been too long anyhow  
since anyone cared what we do  

i'll just stick here for now  
in this fantastical row  
'til i see a path out of this gloom 

was meant for much more  
but got lashed to the door  
could never pass Go! once that took,  

try as i might  
through each horrored night  
i could never get free of that hook 

it sticks in your mind  
won't believe what you'll find  
the truth spills out plainly one day  

when we least expect  
some camera crew leapt  
at the chance to reveal what we say 

it wasn't my fate  
& i'm still super late 
in taking my place on the stage  

hold back the crowd  
they're cheering so loud  
& i'm on my way still from this cage 

let the spotlight so shine  
on what's yours & what's mine  
it hardly makes sense anymore  

but they told us we're cool  
& deserve to still rule 
& they still come around to our door 

don't leave us now  
we're OK anyhow  
don't need that whole world for our due  

i'll just use what i have  
and we'll be depraved  
but i'll love to be stuck here with you
Read more