New Poem: SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL BLUES

 Should I buy, buy, buy

 Semiquincentennial crypto, crypto, crypto, crypto, 

 as in coins, no relation to Supergirl's doggie 

 Should I stand, stand, stand, stand, 

 stand in the streets of Manhattan?

Waiting outside, outside, outside, outside. 

Madison Square Garden, 

as Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce

hijack the upcoming Fourth of July. 

and make it all about a super duper, extra special 

wedding celebration of themselves, their individual brands 

and soon to be their married couples super brand

Should I, should I, should I, should I, watch

video of Donald Trump talking about Teddy Roosevelt,

and a bunch of men dressed up as Rough Riders

Just like the people dressed up in bib overalls

watching hillbilly fascist Andy Griffith

playing Lonesome Rhodes in A FACE IN THE CROWD

Should I, should I, should I, should I watch video 

of the empty great American state fairgrounds? 

And watch that with Donald Trump asking fake RoughRiders

Do you have a 401 K?

playing in the background of my mind

Should I do that? Must I do that? 

I'd rather just look outside at the fireworks display 

and remember the great experiment of democracy 

with all its virtues and failings 

especially the failings of stolen land genocide and racism

And then remember the gains civil rights, women’s rights 

and people that came to America 

to achieve better futures for themselves and others,

and have done the very, very best 

to make America, something more beautiful and united

than the Trump and Stephen Miller acts of terror and destruction 

I just hope, against hope, that the experiment called America

will survive and improve in time for the tricentennial,

 a long ways away,

 2076.

DONALD TRUMP’S GREATEST AMERICAN STATE FAIR HITS

1. Algae Stay Away From My Reflecting Pool

2. Iran War So Far Away From Me 

3. No Asylum For You

4. It’s My Party (Lesley Gore cover)

5. I Feel Fine (Beatles cover)

6. I Vote By Mail But You Can’t 

7. What I Think About Bill Cassidy (Explicit Content Advisory)

8. America Do Exactly As I Say

New Poem: SCOTT PELLEY REQUIEM

 yes it was going to happen

 Black Thursday was the original cannonball 

 heads metaphorically removed

 change ordered for the appearance of change

 for the apparent pleasure of Skydancer Son of Oracle 

 (and I’m old enough to remember other newsmagazines 

 morphed  to more profitable true crime shows

 but CBS already has 48 Hours)

 so when Bari stayed away on purpose

 that Nick and Bari’s flunky could display

 copious amounts of hyper-thin skin

 the words YOU ARE TERMINATED FOR CAUSE

 were chiseled on the Black Rock walls

 later, we may see a few not worrying about job security 

 willing to sacrifice themselves, saying I Am Scott Pelley Too

DONALD TRUMP’S GREATEST FREEDOM 250 HITS

 1. Don’t Stop Me Now 

 2. Au Revoir Trump Kennedy Center

 3. Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?

 4. Where Have All The Musicians Gone?

 5. I Didn’t Shake The World Today (Burt Reynolds cover)

 6. My Health Is What I Tell People To Say It Is

 7. Handshake Blues 

Paul McCartney’s Dungeon Lane isn’t quite what it’s marketed as

THE BOYS OF DUNGEON LANE is alright, not great—par for the course of late-period Paul McCartney solo albums.  Due to Sir Paul’s now-advanced age, Paul-does-no-wrong fans are being extra protective and sticking their collective fingers into pairs of ears worldwide.

DUNGEON LANE was hyped as McCartney taking an album-length look at his childhood/early teen years in Liverpool.  Less than half the album is devoted to this subject matter.  The rest includes standard love songs, two musical numbers apparently created for the now-dormant IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE musical, the okay intended-for-live-performances Come Inside and a thankfully non bombastic closing song Momma Gets By, a distant cousin to Lady Madonna which digs a little deeper lyrically than most of what precedes it.

Andrew Watt, who’s now his generation’s answer to Don Was in the 90s (producer who tries to make heritage acts modern-friendly), produces sympathetically, with nods to Rick Rubin, Jeff Lynne and 60s George Martin—plus recording Paul’s voice to obscure the upper register quaver now unavoidable in his live shows.

Here’s my Spotify playlist of Paul looking back on his youth:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/067gJQ0mMOoErDKld0jFqs?si=l9vcLB5HQNawpzZeU6dgAQ&pi=R2rXk8S_Q9qct

KASH PATEL AT PEARL HARBOR

 is he FBI or an influencer in Fed’s clothing

 let’s put aside the alcohol and Olympics fanboying

 go right to Pearl Harbor where government employees

 people doing hard jobs, writing to loved ones on the mainland 

 soldiers/sailors who died and are permanently entombed 

 and in the great beyond, they shake their heads wondering why

 this unqualified clown is snorkeling where their remains lie 

New Poem: BILLION DOLLAR BALLROOM

 carry that photo like a shield

 default to the dream to avoid reality

 stuck in a war you can’t end easily 

 >

 when did you buy the White House

 when did you rename it D.C. A Lago

 why are you so vain feckless destructive 

 will this extravagant ballroom display

 TRUMP in golden neon on the roof 

New Poem: COME APART TOGETHER

 six injustices danced their mess around 

 Inside chambers of not so Supreme Court

 dig up and reanimate Jim Crow

 Roberts and his Feckless Five ruled for disorder

 Clarence pulled up the Black vote ladder

 Trump Court saying this is what it is now

 we made it harder to fight 

 what you mere citizens believe isn’t right