superhero

the Golem of Prague
embodied dreams of revenge
for the down-trodden

fences

Without wilderness 
 there are no free-range humans 
 it's all a feed-lot

externalities II

Wake up, polluters 
 what you dump into the air 
you dump onto me

neo-Blakeian

David Suzuki 
 sees the world's connectedness 
 in each living cell

Ropes are like boyfriends 
 if they're too stiff or too limp 
 you can't tie the knot

vignette

choose a longer lens
focus just where the sky's blue
see? the day's lovely!

pastorale

Flocks of snow-white clouds 
 grazing in their blue pasture
 die and leave no trace

the attitude of gratitude

the yoke of heaven
 rides lightly on some shoulders
others live to kvetch

wisdom

Age seems a steep price 
 to pay for experience 
 but that's how we learn

beyond ontology

Machiavelli 
 assumed legitimacy 
 and jumped straight to means

vitamins

Pickled vegetables 
 kept scurvy and pellagra 
 out of Korea

spent

five hours every day
Americans watch tv
 growing stupider

Cartier-Bresson

Iconic image 
 snatched from the current of time 
 photograph as art

separation of powers II

Barack Obama's 
 extra-judicial killings 
 exceed his mandate

extra-judicial

Until he's been tried 
to rub out al-Awlaki 
 might be a murder

reliable

One truth you can trust 

 all the rest is up for grabs 

 politicians lie

a stopped clock

Jeremy Rifkin 
 has peddled fear for decades 
 one day, he'll be right

separation of powers

Barack Obama
still isn't a court of law
he can't mete out death

sens unique

dyslexic drinkers 
 get thrown out of the saloon 
 spit in the 'tips' jar

the illusion of communication

Detailed directions 
 from ambiguous land-marks 
 waste everyone's time

lekking

hormone-crazed turkeys 
in the middle of the road 
strut in the best light

same old rut

A storm of hormones 
addle a buck's brain each Fall 
 yearly puberty

intellectuals

Doug Feith's a moron
 the Right has a name for that:
 "intellectual"

von Karman

Constant wind pressure 
 still pumps a bridge rhythmically 
 shedding vortices

the Supremes

Elena Kagan 
called confirmation hearings 
"a vapid charade"

special detectives

some rely on eyes
to find far-off carrion
new-world vultures smell

strut it

lekking behavior 
 works for turkeys of all sorts 
 check the night club scene

out of bounds

The FISA statute 
 guaranteed our privacy 
Dubya broke the law

unAmerican

as an attorney
senator Joe Lieberman
makes the guild look bad

the Party of no ideas

Doug Feith's a moron
the Right has a name for that:
"intellectual"

take a break

Scalia looks blocked 
 hunting quail with Dick Cheney 
 might make his chi flow

leadership?

George Bush's lap-dog 
sent Britons into Iraq 
Britons sent him home

piratical

Medvedev blusters 
 but Russians set pirates free 
 where there is no law

al-Awlaki

Barack Obama 
 metes out life and death at will 
 to our citizens

imagine

John Lennon's murder 
 in Reagan's America 
 stood for so much more

viral infection

Latent infections 
 with the memes of religion
 fulminate slowly

opiate

Death's grim permanence 
 keeps religions in business 
 to deaden the pain

imperialist

Dick Cheney gambled 
 KBR would rule Iraq 
 there was no 'plan B'

foresight

Bush saw oil profits 
 in colonizing Iraq 
there was no 'plan B'

disengaged

I'm trying to think
but nothing is happening
Do minds have a clutch?

miscalculation

Bare feet, iron will 
 the Pentagon never grasped 
 Ho Chi Minh's resolve

redemption

Redeemed in the fire 
 like scrapped aluminum cans 
 Gollum paid his debts

dilletantes

The party of 'no' 
 holds our government hostage 
 partisan war games

unwelcome

Immortality 
clings to Henrietta Lacks 
 like a parasite

atonement

Gollum's final act
 destroying what he loved most 
 paid for many sins

chthonic themes

Only Earth herself 
 could unmake the master ring 
 forged by Sauron's hand

Classy!

Barack Obama 
 offed Anwar al-Awlaki 
 like some small-time thug

oversight

President Reagan 
 flouted congress' control 
 to fund the Contras

Tea Party

Chronically irate 
 surrounded by idiots 
 in every mirror

none dare call it treason

President Reagan 
sold missiles to the Mullahs 
 against our interests

living in Leiden
der Fliegender Hollander
is stuck on the land