Matter over Mind

His shaven skull and leering smile
Are graven in the national mind.
It’s Jared Loughner’s way to rile
Those mourning whom he left behind
On Tucson’s wretched Saturday.
His joy is other folks’ dismay.

What Could be Worse

His congresswoman fights to live
Despite his efforts otherwise.
Deranged, he’s one you can’t forgive
Unless you’re looking through his eyes
At some insane grotesquery
That few if any want to see.

Not so Black and White

To clean up “Huckleberry Finn”
By scrubbing nigger from the book
Would put an idiotic spin
On Mark Twain’s open-minded look
At racist 1840s views
Of Huck’s and slave Jim’s river cruise.

O Captain Our Captain, Your Trip is Done

Some like to guide by force of will
While others by example lead.
Both work successfully until
A boss no longer sees the need,
Like Captain Honors out at sea,
Who banked on popularity.

Hard-Luck Stories

Pack up all their care and woe,
There they go,
Plunging low,
Beebe blackbirds.
That is where in Arkansas,
Newton’s law, means last caw,
Bye, bye, blackbirds.

Gods Below

My New Year’s wish 2011,
For U.N. delegates and heaven,
Is, by this time 2012,
Belief in one God we’ll all shelve.

A polytheist pact would note
That, much more than Jehovah smote,
Extremist deadly plots have swirled
In Allah’s name around the world.