for a price

whores and Senators 
 service the insurers' greed 
 at public expense

out of touch

left to careerists
 politics becomes corrupt
 like sex among pros

partisan blinkers

Katrina's victims 
weren't George Bush's donors 
 so why would he care?

busted

Serial numbers 
on the deceased's breast implants 
fingered her husband

consume!

Why would you fix that? 
you can buy a brand new one 
 you're American

half-blind

To enforce the law 
you must be looking backwards 
 unless you're Orwell

tell-tale

Wearing hats indoors 
 men betray their deep terror 
 of creeping baldness

with a asterisk

New land speed* record!

the Brits rule the world again

*if you just count steam

the campaign for "No"

Cultivating fear

Armey dupes his own backers

to reject progress

Paleodictyon

Sea-floor sediment

preserve hexagonal tracks

left by enigmas

enduring legacy

GE's PCBs

still leach into the Hudson

as decades flow past

content avalanche

shouts, coming from the mountain

ground-level wisdom

out

flying sierras

that meadow looks inviting

how did I get here?

listless

flaccid flags hang

awaiting signs of lift

none come calling

immersion

two weeks back-country

now Heathrow evokes Milton

Pandemonium

intimidation

Twitter gets creepy

now Dick Armey follows me

I feel so unclean

Pennsylvania

Two corrupt judges

sold juveniles' liberty

now they'll face judge Grim

tactical position

Seduce the centrists

woo them with health-care co-ops

stifle health reform

crippling debate

Reagan never learned

the plural of anecdote

still isn't data

demagogue

artificial rage

stoked by Armey's FreedomWorks

muddies the debate

bad math

Rahm's calculation

calls the blue dogs "democrats"

despite how they vote

insulation

Fifty years later

Snow's "two cultures" talk and talk

but neither listens

blood

revenge fantasies

seem weirdly pornographic

on the silver screen

no mandate

Scant voter turnout

vitiates the election

in Afghanistan

retrospect

the older I get

the better I used to be

in the retelling

burning man

it's gone commercial!

You should have been here last year!

still they bring their friends

toasted

One hundred meters

under five point six seconds

a Bolt from the blue

values voter

Nourish the children

take power from userers

godless communist

resonance

haiku like gemstones

wait to catch just the right eye

strewn on the seashore

enduring mystery

New smell receptors

younger than the memories

still push the buttons

discipline

Some lazy 'poets'

dismiss both rhyme and meter

as too much trouble

merit

Stripped of youth's luster

middle-age reveals you face

as you deserve it

cold deli

Flirtatious waitress

stops short of real affection

I don't get the tongue

Power:

slowly, like Tolkien

you can conjure whole new worlds

one word at a time

red

Fresh from the garden

tomatoes burst in my mouth

red satisfaction

seasonal itch

Against the oak stump

the lizard shimmies and grinds

sloughing off dead skin

spindrift

Tattered rags of cloud

stream from each mountain's summit

last season's prayer-flags

mythmaker

new Miyazaki

can't escape the same old ruts

you know: "boy meets fish..."

Chernovetsky

in his skimpy briefs

Kiev's mayor puffs and struts

to catch Putin's eye

sunk costs

Once armies are paid

their leaders will contrive wars

to defray the cost

back to earth

the free 'copter ride

even when the CHPs don't charge

isn't worth the cost

crimes and their cover-up

since the Reynolds case

"State Secrets" has been a sham

to hide shameful acts

values

healthcare's out of reach

while we squander our budget

prolonging dying

transported

transitions are rough

"it's like being drunk" he said

"from the water's view"

back

stygian airport

brings you back to your work-life

all vacations end

please remove your shoes and mask

demonic airport

welcoming vacationers

spews out working stiffs

too politic

counselling restraint

in the pursuit of Justice

Rahm Emanuel

cheated

Of Zeus's cuckolds

unhappy Tyndareus

was left no male heir

in re Medellin

Freed from all restraints

the Roberts court set a course

for dystopia

ritual lament

Same lament each year

burning man is overblown!

still they bring their friends

choose well

Too many choices

face shoppers from market shelves

but not happiness

S/N

Subtle tinnitis

swells to shake the universe

in the still of night

souvenir

vitrified playa

attests to antics long past

like fading snapshots

entropy

Textile moth larvae

wreck havoc on weavers' art

like Alzheimer's placques

repression

Desperate mullahs

hurl charges of heresy

to stifle dissent

secrets

Since the Reynolds case

"state secrets" has been a sham

to hide shameful acts

values

Healthcare's out of reach

while we squander our budget

prolonging dying

the knife, not the hand

Panetta postures

promising spies won't be tried

but it's not his call

who governs?

Ignorant voters

rely on lobbyists' ads

to know what to think

LA values

with each new drought year

LA clamors for water

but keeps its green lawns

spooky action at a distance

three Rings of Power

fought the Darkness to a draw

'til the One was found

non potestis servire et mammonae et dei

Iran holds its breath 

 who holds the troops' loyalty? 

 Teheran, or Qom?

centrifugal force

Once the GIs leave 

 Iraqis can get to work 

killing each other

dupe

Ahmad Chalabi 

 sold George Bush the fantasy 

 he wanted to buy

bivouac

Ants clamber on me 

 lilliputian surveyors 

scouting for a meal

standing army

idle monocytes 

 long billetted in the spleen 

 mobilize at need