New Poem: EM

 after the scythe cleared away too much staff

 pivoting to Plan B with specious polling

 allowing the worst to return or think about it

 babbling about freedom, giving out wedgies

 just like high school bullies spraying insecurity

 using bandwidth to post pix of guns and diet soda

 saying hey they’re talking about Twitter Bird again

 as the wounded satellite crashes to Earth

 creating a desert where information and connections 

 once united a fragmented world

 before you spent your billions 

 to dent something you’ll never understand 

New Poem: TEXAS, THEIR TEXAS

 Keep Texan children from thinking

 For themselves to make it easy for

 Parents to not explain sins of the past

 Or teachers too, for that matter

 >

 Deny non affluent women the right of choice

 Restage The Handmaid’s Tale as modern-day Western

 >

 Unemployment checks to feed families during pandemic?

 Utter waste of money and time

 Make them Beat The Clock to avoid starvation 

 >

 Unthinking children grow to subservient adulthood 

 The eyes of a chosen few Texans are upon them

 Making sure they stay peasants

 Waving the state flag

 Hating taxes 

 And whoever else they’re told to hate

 

New Poem: POEM OF CLUBS PART TWO

 yes, it’s true:

 one time I was in a coffeehouse 

 where a distinguished regional poet

 read a poem mocking young people

 who turned their foreign cars into Art on wheels

 >

 he used the term “rice burner”

 and the poem’s intro ended with the punchline 

“It’s just a fucking Honda”

 >

 what did I do, you may wonder

 I kept my mouth shut afterwards 

 because the distinguished poet

 once included me in an anthology he edited

>

 and I felt I still owed him something 

>

 and I’m ashamed of my cowardice, my complicity 

 wanting too too much to belong

New Poem: IN CHEROKEE COUNTY

 In Cherokee County,

 Asian women are murdered

 By a goateed White man

 Trying to explain away his crime

 As sex addiction to be purged by slaughter 

 >

  The Captain at the press conference 

  Tries to explain away the murderer’s crime

  As a very bad day

  >

  Of course, the Captain doesn’t resign

  Instead, the Sheriff’s department issues

 A press release about how yesterday was a

 Very bad day indeed for the Captain

 And please regret the heartache his words caused

 >

 Please regret the loss of eight lives, Sheriff,

 By showing your Captain the door 

New Poem: FAREWELL 2020

 farewell 2020

 the year where someone scratched

 the tone arm hard across the favorite record

 with a rrrrrrrrrrrppppp sound

 and everything changed

 >

 farewell 2020

 the year where the Republican adage 

 government is best that governs least

 proved to be a deadly lie

 leave it to the states made everything worse

 >

 may 2021

 be the year where we don’t read these words:

 we don’t have 60 votes

 full vaccinated immunity not until 2022

 no federal charges filed against Donald Trump

New Poem: LEAVE THE ROOM PERMANENTLY

 be mindful of your aging friends/as they repeat all the things their parents and grandparents once said/know when to leave the room permanently when they won’t change/talking about lies and Trump and people who are smug because they know more than they do and global warming being a hoax and Black Antifa building public housing next door and again Trump and Joe Biden being the demon from THE OMEN shape-shifted into an old man and Trump again again as the straight-talking savior who kicks liberals to the ground makes them cry then tears out their balls in a way Ted Cruz would approve of

 as you leave the room permanently/remind the people who are no longer your friends/how Ted Cruz had to lose his balls to support Trump in 2016/and that they are racists urinating toxins into the American bloodstream/and these toxins kill as deadly as COVID

don’t smell their smoke anymore/leave the damn room and drive and keep driving 

Contrasting ways of dealing with racism in America

A few minutes ago, I was picking up the day’s mail near the swimming pool at the condo complex and happened to overhear a young mother talking to her children about racism and why it is a bad thing.

Last night, my YouTube homepage brought up a video from actor John Schneider— forever known as faux-Southerner Bo Duke in THE DUKES OF HAZZARD TV series which ran from the late 1970s into the 80s.

Clicked on the video and watched Schneider ruminate about one of the series’s location shoots near Lake Sherwood in Westlake Village CA.

Then, he brought up the renewed discussion of the Confederate flag-decorated General Lee car—which, after Dylann Roof’s church massacre, caused DUKES reruns to be pulled off Viacom’s TV LAND.  Cue the tantrum John Schneider threw at the time:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dukes-hazzard-star-rips-tv-806339

But times pass and momentary lessons dissipate.  So Warner Bros. TV allowed Amazon’s IMDB channel to carry DUKES beginning two years ago.

And, at the end of the YouTube video, Schneider references the new controversy and sends out a dog whistle to people hard-wired to watch the show in a reality-free vacuum: “Don’t let anybody tell you what to think!” and inviting commenters to agree with him.

And the comments tend to be of the “Southern pride”/“if it offends you, don’t watch variety including a head-scratcher which contends that around 1980 the Conferderate Flag was recontextualized as a symbol of Southernness and country music.  Plus the usual get over it liberals insults.

The big takeaway from this: most of the older generation won’t drop their views on race, racism and continued refusal to re-evaluate dubious life lessons learned from parents, relatives, friends co-workers, clergy, etc.  They’ll watch Fox News and OANN and bathe in trash talk about black victims of police violence and cry buckets over police officers balking at more responsible, less warlike behavior.

So it’s up to the younger generations—the demonstrators and the children listening to their mother at the swimming pool— to move America forward and keep it from again becoming, as Gore Vidal once said, “the United States of Amnesia.”

New Poem: THIS SUNDAY MORNING

in churches throughout this nation
there will be hymns prayers Bible excerpts
the Lord's Prayer will be recited
a special performance from the choir
then the pastor's 20 minute sermon
>
how many ministers will gather their courage
take the risk of some members walking out in disgust
if the sermon is about President Donald Trump
and how un-Christian behavior
such as racism and anti-Semitism
demonizing foreign refugees
plus far too much rendering unto Caesar
are moral diseases infecting the mind and heart
>
what will parishioners see and hear this Sunday morning
Jesus will be watching with great interest

Revised Poem: THE COVINGTON BOY AND HIS AFTERMATH

supposed good boy

from good family

visiting nation's capital

wears his big red

I'm-with-stupid-leader cap

stands toe to toe

with man of different race/religion

boy's face wears superiority smirk

as his stature rapidly shrinks

while the man staying true

to his spirituality

is the real Great American

>

but the story does not end there

zealous conservative adults use bad boy

as symbolic nuclear weapon

aimed at The Washington Post and CNN

to cease those discouraging facts about

the leader who shouldn't be leading

and who, in a more courageous world,

ought to be playing golf for years

in a country-club prison

far from non-security cameras

restrained from orchestrating perpetual hate

in generations old and young

Revised: THE COWARDICE POEM

here’s to the people who look the other way

when someone is encouraging the crowd

to close their eyes to simple decency

and support wholesale deportation

plus persecution of children and teens

over which gender they identify as

and what bathrooms they use

>

here’s to the television news channels

on the left and the right

who look at neo-fascist “campaign rallies”

as ratings opportunities--

waiting until old-fashioned newspapers

do actual reporting

before asking questions--

but not saying “fascism” or “lies”

because it displays a lack of “balance”

>

here’s to the people on social networks

who “don’t want to get political”

when friends and family

post ugly remarks and bigoted jokes

in loud support of their favorite prejudices

>

how will you cope with

the future you helped create

by doing the same old things

in the same old ways?

Donald Trump must not be anyone's President.

Phonetic pronunciation of a recent Donald Trump catchphrase aimed at African-Americans and other now-unlikely potential voters:
WOT DUH HEHLL DO YOO HAHVE TO LOOOZ?

Quite a bit, as last night's frightening, invective-filled, violent-imagery-laden speech in Arizona (after a muted pass at looking Presidential in Mexico) proved.

The Donald Trump Rorschach Test.

The campaign began with language advocating a "wall" to bar entry of illegal/undocumented Mexican immigrants.  Today, it got uglier: a raspy Donald Trump desiring to bar another race/religious group (containing many law-abiding, non-extremist Islamic citizens of this and other nations) from entry into the United States.

Here's the Rorschach Test question:
Do you consider Donald Trump's remarks:
A. Fascism
B. Hate speech
C. Bigotry
D. Reminiscent of Nazi Germany
E. Communicating in conservative "talk radio host" language
F. A passive-aggressive wish to be driven out of the 2016 Presidential race
that he may have--at first--entered just as a way of expanding the Trump Brand
G. Upping the "outrageous remarks" ante when he believes his poll numbers are slipping
H. A "tough" rebuttal to President Obama's measured Sunday night televised speech
I. An ominous forecast of a media focus-pulling third-party candidacy To Be Announced

From 2005: POST-HURRICANE POEM about Katrina.

POST-HURRICANE POEM

As Orwell said, “some people are more equal

than others”.

Kanye West found that out when NBC censored him

for speaking the “inappropriate” truth about

George W. Bush not caring about black people.

He found it out again when he performed a song

at another telethon and the microphone just happened

to malfunction for part of the first verse.

The people of New Orleans found that out when they

were left to fend for themselves for days,

in overcrowded shelters and praying to God that someone

would take them off the roofs of their flooded homes

before death arrived.

Those of us watching TV at home have found out

that hard-news lapdog Ted Koppel was willing

to put just about all of the blame for Louisiana’s misery on the Governor

and the New Orleans mayor and let the White House skate away

from the emasculation of FEMA and the cutting of funds to strengthen the levees.

But Ted got to be embedded with the troops in Iraq-

and he can’t dare be rude to the White House

and lose Access to power.

We’re also finding out that a state with a Republican governor

-my former home state of Texas-

doesn’t have difficulty getting a more rapid

Federal response to hurricane threats.

Of course we can’t risk losing the refineries.

The refineries are important;

all the rest is merely collateral damage.

And we’re now finding out that the people from Houston

and the rest of South Texas that can afford to drive are

coming home to check on their property-defying a

“voluntary” order to return in orderly fashion.

Presumably, Federal troops won’t make them return

to their previous temporary residences.

Last of all, we found out that some moral cretin

I won’t name here credited God with clearing what he

termed undesirable people from New Orleans.

Perhaps he wants New Orleans to be rebuilt

as a gentrified theme park with the poor replaced by

grossly underpaid guest workers from Mexico

on 6-month-only work visas

and no African Americans

unless they’re people like Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Larry Elder or Allen Keyes-

people who are eager to distance themselves from the poor

and suffering and say that the misery of the Underclass

is the sole fault of the Underclass.

Some people ARE more equal than others.

And global warming will be an important part

of the New World Order

determining who will live and who will die.

New poem: CHARLESTON

Young man with bowl haircut

Takes an hour to wrestle with

Evil compulsion vs temptation

To embrace Good and become friends

With nice strangers he meets

At Bible study

Before worrying about losing face

> 

Battle flag is objected to

Only after hideous murder spree

Makes Republican leaders think

What about the Optics?

What about the Election?

How to keep courting the Bigot vote?

>

Governor Nikki tries balancing act

Assuring racists they can still fly Battle flag

On their own private property

While deciding it’s Time to declare Battle flag

Public eyesore

Calling for state decision to be made soon

> 

Take the Battle flag

Bury it in a coffin

Use the same padlock

That sealed it

To the state flagpole

And everyone pray in unison

To go forward

> 

And stop the nostalgia

For slavery

For self-pity over Reconstruction

For Klan terrorism

For Segregation

Let the madness disintegrate

And never rise again

New poem: OKLAHOMA

no Southwestern nasal twang
just a friendly warble
before a multitude of sins emerge:
hard verbal open-hand smacks
righteous scowls
legislative malfeasance
racist Fraternity chants
>
plus rich men who have no business
playing volunteer deputy
then leaving the USA
for rest in the Bahamas
after the accidental taking
of a human life
>
it gets harder to know
which Oklahoma residents
who claim they're "good country people"
are truly worthy of the phrase

Living Colour - Funny Vibe: A song forever relevant.

The private Paula Deen overwhelms the public Paula Deen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/dining/paula-deen-is-a-no-show-on-today.html?smid=tw-nytimes

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/19/paula-deen-uses-the-n-word-7-shocking-details-from-her-deposition.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paula-deen-defends-use-n-572562

From the Food Network's PAULA'S HOME COOKING web page (still online as of this writing), this description:
"With small-town life as her inspiration, Paula Deen brings uncomplicated and delicious home cooking to a series dedicated to the American traditions. Whether it's her stories or her recipes from her country kitchen, Paula has always had a gift for lifting spirits."

Now, here's most of the comment made by June Pagan on DEADLINE.com's Comments section under the updated article about Paula Deen and loss of endorsements (plus the Random House book deal):
"Discrimination on any level is not to be tolerated let alone endorsed. The Food Network and any business that is ethical should not be supporting any business that treats it’s employees like second class citizens. It is not right for employees to have to endure racial slurs and pornographic material in the workplace. Obviously ,the employees were afraid of losing their jobs. Paula Deen is a Southern cook who hit a stroke of luck by getting picked up by the Food Network. They gave her fame and she should have passed on that opportunity by making sure that all of her and her co-partners in business supported the people that supported them. Making uncomfortable statements, jokes and exposing them to unfair treatment was and is disghusting, low class and unacceptable."

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS ON

Updated version of my 2007 poem THIRTY YEARS ON--regarding the high school graduating
class of 1977, of which I'm a member.

Peaches Geldof and her Confederate flag T-shirt.

http://gawker.com/5529871/uh-oh-peaches-i-think-you-crossed-the-line

I believe Nathanael West's famous line "Few things are sadder than the truly monstrous." from THE DAY OF THE LOCUST serves as an apt caption for the photo above.