California loses its finest citizens
…acceptable losses
America loses its drug riddled youth
…acceptable losses
Texas loses its southern border
…acceptable losses
Our manufacturing base auctioned away
…acceptable losses
Native Peoples crying on reservations
…acceptable losses
The electorate abandoned and sold down the drain
…acceptable losses
Our finest and bravest fighting forever wars
…acceptable losses
Our schools now a swamp and our teachers inept
…acceptable losses
We talk to our smart phones and lose all connection
…acceptable losses
Our churches and synagogues bombed and attacked
…acceptable losses
Our freedom of speech now woke and maligned
…acceptable losses
The media profiting from rancor and division
…acceptable losses
Our allies mistrusting and looking askance
…acceptable losses
The dollar a symbol of greed and decay
…acceptable losses
The White House held captive by liars and fools
…acceptable losses
Our forefathers rage in eternities sleep
…acceptable losses
All shared common values rejected forever
…acceptable losses
A world without freedom leading the way
…our future in ashes
(The New Room: March, 2021)
A Borrowed Dream
I had you
once
before I lost you in a dream
A dream that I woke up
from
where you stayed beyond my grasp
Visiting me each
night
in the bartered hours of my sleep
Holding me beyond
hope
ever cradling my fear
Lending me back to
myself
inside this borrowed joy
Until the dawn reminds
again
—I had you once
(To Laura Nyro: March, 2021)
All, Or Nothing At All
I don’t limit who reads my verse,
only who I answer
Each word thick-skinned and armor-clad
all questions zero-sum
(To Nelson Riddle & Frank Sinatra: March, 2021)