I know the media exaggerate
the odd and shocking, but what is this shit
about barbaric acts of public hate
involving women who decide to spit
at people? Words like “inappropriate”
fall short, describing assholes lacking qualms.
While right-wing women shame themselves and hit
at air, the left erect a wall of moms.
(Huitain)
My yard is rodent-rich and bird-endowed,
and harbors skunks and possums frequently,
but we decided deer are not allowed –
they munch too many blossoms. So we built
a gate atop the entrance steps that cowed
the eaters of our salvia and rose.
This morning exiting, I gasped aloud
at scat outside the gate, impressively
off-path, of which a cervine can be proud.
(Magic 9)
Chicago riots, 1968,
made optics the conservatives could use.
Though catalyzed when cops provoked the hate,
it looked like mobs and looters on the news.
Police deceived like Trump; they always claimed
“resisting” or “combative” as they framed
the kids, deploying gas and talking mortar –
those pictures paved a win for “law and order.”
The passing years produced some change – cops get
more weapons than our culture should allow;
they’re trained to fear the citizens they vow
to serve and to protect. But Internet
exists, and everyone can witness how
untrue their claims – we all have cameras now.
(Pushkin Sonnet)
I recognize a cultural motif
concerning breathing. Millions have awoke
to knees-on-necks and choke holds, and the grief
of systematic bias. Victims spoke
forever who were muzzled and unheard,
now constrained to orate through a mask.
Compromised by virus or absurd
denying science, breath becomes a task.
I’m short of breath myself, but that’s because
I smoked too many years; I’m stupid/smart.
Ignoring symptoms, breaking natural laws,
my habits have impaired a vital part.
Of late I’m feeling, over and again,
the benefits of free-range oxygen.
I seldom take prescription medicine,
but after recent implant surgery
(tooth number 4, for core titanium),
the dentist wrote up pain relief and more.
A 10-day course has been my regimen
of purple/pink Amoxicillin caps.
And I was well at first, but 6 days in,
digestion and the pills do not agree.
My burping tolerance is wearing thin.
(Magic 9)
No customary habits can emerge
when custom changes every other day.
I heard we need no mask. Infection’s surge
then made the experts change the words they say.
First respiratory droplets brought the scourge –
they’re now suspecting aerosol array.
No longer are our days what we expect.
It’s Tuesday, right? At least that can be checked.
(Ottava Rima)
Some thought Coronavirus was a flu
like those we knew, and bound to hibernate
when our humidity and warming grew,
but summer’s here and illness won’t abate.
The optimists assert it’s like a cold,
and though our URI’s are not controlled,
they think directed research might prevail
to battle colds and COVID. Yet they fail.
In my opinion, both those views are wrong
(and lacking facts, opinion’s what I own;
it feels like all we have’s a big unknown).
I’ll cleave to science, reason, and a strong
aversion to pronouncements from a throne
(I wish it were November now, I groan).
(Pushkin Sonnet)
The journalists wanna rake over
the evidence Feds won’t make over.
But research is clear
tests would just interfere.
We can’t let the science take over.
They say it doesn’t
flourish in humidity.
We’re blessed with damp air.
The bug is new, and creatures who should lead
are aiming, if they have an aim, to block
emerging facts from notice. They impede
statistics, bury data. It would shock
us but our tolerance to stupid, bad
and venal is beyond absurdity.
Decisions we deplore and deem as mad
have burst the bounds of incredulity.
We know so little. Every clue we get
is masked or filtered like a nurse’s face.
We haven’t figured out prevention yet,
although we wash and hunker down in place,
and try to follow masking protocols
which won’t protect from viral aerosols.
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