Writing Practice 7 Day Challenge

Poetryezine Publishes Cats

It’s time to get started with the 7-day writing challenge! We’re so excited to be writing with you!

To help you stay strong and finish your word count each day during the challenge, we’ll send you an email with three sections.

The first section is really short. It will just have a link to the day’s form where you can let us know how many words you wrote that day. This will help us keep track of how you’re doing on the challenge, and by the end we’ll be able to let you know how you did. Each day’s form is unique, though, so don’t submit your word count on an old form. Here’s what this section of the email will look like:

Once you finish your daily word count for today, you can enter it here:

Click to enter your daily word count for DAY 1.

In the second section, we’ll have a short writing lesson to help you focus and stay encouraged for your writing that day. Here’s what that will look like:

“Being a good writer is 3% talent,
97% not being distracted by the Internet.”
—Anonymous

Becoming a good writer is hard. It’s not easy to figure out how to write a plot with the perfect twist, characters so vivid they could walk off the page, dialogue with ironclad believability, all with a voice that captures readers and keeps them coming back for more.

Maybe you have days when you think of all you’ve written and wonder whether it’s all doomed for the trash pile. Days when you question whether writing such drivel is worth it, or whether you should just throw in the towel now.

Here’s the thing, though: the key to becoming a good writer is to write.

Wishing you were better won’t cut it. Neither will waiting until some future time when you hope you will be.

That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re doing this challenge. To take one week where we intentionally choose to focus. When was the last time you focused on your writing for seven days?

So close Facebook, Twitter, and all those other pesky internet distractions. Shut the door so you can’t hear the TV blaring in the other room, or the clanking of pots and pans.

Sit down.

And just write.

The last section will be a practice section, just like we have on thewritepractice.com. This will be a short and simple exercise or focus for your writing for that day. Here’s what that will look like:

Practice: It’s pretty simple: Butt in seat. Distractions blocked. Write.

That’s it! So go get writing and we’ll see you in your inbox tomorrow!

Happy writing!
Joe

P.S. Don’t forget to enter your word count for DAY 1 here. Then, if you want to start giving and receiving excellent feedback so you can get more out of your 7 Day Creative Writing Challenge, make sure you join a writing community like The Write Practice Pro. Learn more about the benefits of Pro membership here!

Flash Fiction Day One Seven Day 1,000-word story contest 1600 words

The Human Zoo

Human Zoo

Word count 1,691

Flash Fiction Day One Seven Day 1,000-word story contest

The town of Silver Spring Wyoming is now a ghost town. Something happened to the town 100 and 50 years ago in 1880 and no one really knows what happened there was a dispatch sent by a visiting journalist who wrote that the town has been taken over by men in black suits who had started executing everybody in town using a ray gun of some sort. The dispatch ended apparently with the death of the writer.

A couple hours after the town residents had been killed visitors came to the town and found that everybody had been buried in a mass grave in the middle of the town and they were all burned to death. The only person left alive was the town drunk who told a strange tale about strange creatures coming down from the Sky in a big ship with Ray guns and shooting everybody.  He said a couple people had entered the ship and disappear that afternoon.

One Saturday afternoon, men dressed in black suits and speaking English with a strange accent came into town. They went to the bar and said that they were journalists from a European newspaper and they wanted to interview everybody in town for a story they were writing about Wyoming. They would pay everybody for their time and buy them a drink so over the course of the afternoon the men in black interviewed all 500 residents of the town

Around 7:00 PM a big black ship appeared in the sky above the town and two people were taken aboard the ship the Reverend Henderson, and Judy the town’s school teacher.  Everyone else in town is lined up in front of the city hall.  The residents had been instructed to dig a large pit and the ship flew away leaving Sam the town drunk as the only witness to the massacre as the ship fired ray guns killing everyone and throwing them into the mass grave which was then filled up.

.

Robert Henderson and Judy found themselves naked with strangers from around the world in a large cave cage. There were strange creatures outside looking at them they were just beginning to try to find out who the other strangers were when on the screen in front of them pornographic images appeared. Men dressed in black uniforms came in and poked them and told them start having sex then of course that man and woman grabbed each other and followed their instructions

Afterwards, they sat around and trying to figure out what happened to them Henderson started out by saying

“look why don’t we first start out by asking each other what your name. where you’re from and what you remember before getting here.  I will start,  my name is Reverend Henderson and this is Judy Small the local school teacher in our town in Wyoming in the United States of America, the date is June 19, 1870, so please tell us your name where you’re from and what year it is where you are from. They went around the room. There were ten other people in the room 5 women five men all between these ages of 20 and 40 all naked from 10 different countries including Russia 1890, China 1990, Japan 1946, Korea 1975, Mexico 2020, Saudi Arabia 2020, Israel 1975, UK 1960, India 1875 and Thailand 1890.

Mr Henderson then said

It seems to me that we have been abducted by aliens and we are in a zoo and that the only requirements our jailers have put us is that we have to have sex when they tell us to.  I think that a big mistake has been made and I think we can rectify it. If they refuse to send us back, I think we can negotiate a contract with them as performers they will pay us for our time, they will provide us furniture, a private shower and backroom, a kitchen and food for us to cook, clothing and provide us with coffee tea whiskey wine beer or provide us with the raw materials and let us homebrew

We will work on a farm that they will provide us to grow our own food as well provide us dogs and cats as pets. They will allow us to walk around the zoo into the other compounds freely. We will continue to perform sex as demanded but we got to choose the partners that we wish to have sex with an they will have to pay us a salary and allow us to go into town once in a while to buy provisions and get out of the zoo. Are we all in agreement?

Mr. Henderson went to the door and banged on it until finally one of their jailers came to the door and Mr. Henderson said he wanted to talk to whoever was in charge about their situation. A man dressed in black appeared in their room and asked them well what’s this about?

Mr. Henderson said it seems that you have abducted us and put us into a zoo by mistake. You are requiring us to perform for you but we not going to perform for you unless we have a contract and you provide us a monetary salary, furniture,  private bathroom and shower facilities,. Laptops with access to Google, Netflix Amazon, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, BBC, Mexican, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic TV networks, Kindles with the reading materials of our choice, a kitchen for food for us to cook a garden for us to grow, a fishing pound for us to fish, whisky coffee tea wine and beer for us to drink or raw materials for us to self brew. We will be given access to go into the nearby town to walk around and get out of the zoo, have a meal in a restaurant .

In terms of our performances or performances, it would our daily routines and our sexual interactions but we will decide who and what we have who we want to have sex with.  Oh and turn out the lights and drone cameras after ten pm.

The man in the black suit  said,

“That is fine, but we cannot agree to the private bathrooms in showers add we will assign each night your sexual partners and we will require you to perform sexual activities on camera as part of our zoo experience so get over it, and that activity will involve homosexual contact, but we will only require it once a day from 9:00 PM till 10:00 PM at 10:00 PM . We will turn off the lights and not film you after 10 pm until 6 am.  You will be required to wake up at 6:00 AM and do your normal activities throughout the day each of you also is required to work four hours per day in the human cafeteria that is part of the exhibit where we will be serving earth food and beverages to our customers two of you will work in the kitchen and two, we will work as wait staff so our customers will have a chance to interact with human beings.   The rest of you will spend four to six hours working in the garden, the farm, the distillery, etc, but the rest of the time is yours.

You will be able to walk about the rest of the zoo compound freely except of course entering the predator species cages.  We did go back in time, so we have dinosaurs, saber tooth tigers, wooly mammoths, and other extinct species and species from over 100 different worlds in our zoological compound.   We do have a few other intelligent species living here under conditions like yourselves,  Once a week you will be given passes to go into town, but you must be back by nightfall as we will not pay for your lodgings.  Each of you will have an implant put in that will contain your financial, biological, and health information that all citizens of the federation must wear. It also contains your employment records, your political activity rating, and your social status.  A few other humans are living in our world serving as advisors to the foreign ministry on all things related to earth.  They will be coming by to talk with you all from time to time.

our customers are from around the Galaxy. You, humans, are fascinating creatures to us that is why we kidnapped you here, the people in your communities were all killed to prevent knowledge of our existence from leaking out.

however, for the good of the galaxy, your species is under quarantine as we have determined that your species is clinically insane and too violent a species to be allowed to join the rest of the federation.  We will be monitoring your societies from afar and we will be monitoring you as well.  We took from earth copies of everything that your world has ever published and that is part of the library of the federation which you will have access to as well.

ss to your US in America and networks etc is costly but we were throwing them for free we will also throw in for free access to the collective networks and Internet services

We will require you just to study galactic languages each day for one hour per day in an online platform that is pretty much oh and we will allow you to make your beer wine whiskey and that would be sold too at the human café.

that is all have a good life.  And so life in the human zoo began for the inhabitants of the late planet earth.

Daily Poems

Vietnamese Street Scenes Found Poem based on internet musings of William Walton

I  have recently acquired
The habit of eating breakfast
On Phan Chu Trinh street
In Vuna Tau

That habit acquired more out of necessity
Than choice
Due to an abrupt
and not wholly unwelcomed
Change in my relationship status

My local female friend
ceased to share a domicile
I was forced to move elsewhere

I moved from the alleys
of Pham hona trau
on one side of town
To phan chu Trinh
on the other side of town

an area populated by many foreign residents
otherwise known as ex-pats
on this street

at a certain hour in the morning
until noon or so

a vendor sells freshly made hard-boiled eggs
peeled, and fresh Vietnamese ice coffee
I order as is my habit two of each

There is an assortment of foreign nationals
Some of whom have Vietnamese wives

A few of these individuals are French
One is Belgium, two are fellow Americans
And several are Australians

One of my better friends is Jorma
From Finland
He is 68 years of age

Most of them are my age
And are retired like I am

We usually converse over coffee
In the morning

The other day we talked about
Russian-Finish war of in 1940
And watched an interview
With a former bodyguard of Stalin

We talked about the tone poem
Composed by the French composer Sibelius
Entitled the Swan of Tunoel

Jorma told me the title referred
To an old Finish myth
About a swan that carries the soul
Of the deceased across a river
Into the afterlife

Like Charon
Who carried the deceased
Across the Hades river in Hell

I met a man from Iceland
Born in 1941
He is married to a Vietnamese woman

Over coffee, we talked
about the Icelandic language
And old Norse
And its connections to ancient Anglo-Saxon
Hence to early modern English

Being a polyglot
Speaking Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese
German and some Chinese

I was fascinated by the conversation
And now I know a few words
Of Icelandic

Anyway, we had a fascinating conversation
This unanticipated encounter occurred
After two hours of aqua running
and before a weightlifting session

In many ways living in phan hu trinh street
Is an improvement
Over that of Pham hona trau

More opportunities to socialize
More foreign nationals
Less cramped
And better fengshui

The location of Phan hu trinh street
Is a lucky one
Wedged between a mountain

And the deep blue sea
The street is comforted
by the evening ocean breezes

My studio apartment here is a big improvement
I tried my best to maintain a good relationship
With my ex

But the end of the affair
Has led to many new possibilities
And many new romantic pursuits
Yet to come

The feather on the grave

A bald eagle
Flies over the mass graves
Of the corona ghosts

Leaving behind a feather
In tribute to the dead

 The corona ghosts demand to be heard

President Trump
Your 11 am is here

Tell me again who is he and what does he want
Hmm he is Joseph Smith and says that he wants
To give you 5 million dollars to your PAC

Mr. Smith is ushered in.

He says
Mr. president I represent 310,00 Americans
an exclusive group
And we have a message for you

Who do you represent again?

The 310,000 thousand corona ghosts
And our message for you is this

General Corona is coming for you
Today is your last day
As you will have a relapse

It does happen
from time to time
And since you had refused
to take the vaccine
You are still vulnerable

Welcome to hell my friend
Welcome to Corona hell

Day two Flash Fiction

Congressman Jake Lee

Jake Lee retired from the US government, returns to the Bay Area at age 65. He and his wife buy a condo downtown Berkeley. Jake soon get involved in various causes and am soon a practiced demonstrator and show up everywhere much to his wife’s Angela’s amusement. He is arrested a number of times and his expose on how protestors are treated by the criminal justice system generates tremendous outrage.
Jake’s writes a daily blog on my various causes called Cosmos’s Corner. And he publishes to great acclaim his novel, “the Great Divorce.” His novel is praised by the right and the left as a prophectic vision of the future. In his novel, a charismatic preacher unites the Christian right in a self-declared crusade. They demand a constitutional convention to declare the formation of the Christian States of America. They also set up a shadow government called the committee that did not exist that brought together Christian leaders, business CEO’s, top military officials, top government officials, top media figures who are united by a desire to set up a new government that would respect traditional Christian values, including enacting a national morality act that would criminalize drug use, alcohol, gambling, prostitution, pornography, abortion except to save the life of the mother, same sex marriage, recogniction of transgendered rights including banning the procedure in the U.S., and a radical downsizing of the U.S. government. Marriage would be recognized as the union of one man and one woman who were born male and female who desire to raise a family. Couples who do not to want to raise children or adopt children would not be allowed to get married. Co-habitation without marriage would be illegal. Hotels, apartments would be allowed to discriminate and refuse to rent to co-habiting people or to gays and lesbians. Discrimination against LGBT would be legal, including firing people who are LGBT and banning their service in positions which require a national security clearance. Only Christians who do not drink, do drugs, or use pornography would be given clearances.
And withdrawing from most international organizations including kicking out the UN. They would also rename the United States the Christian States of America via holding a Constitutional convention. The new constitution Constitution 2.0 would implicitly recognize the U.S. as a Christian homeland, establishing the Christian faith as the official faith of the United States, requiring non-Christians to register, banning immigration of non-Christians and deportation of non-Christians who are illegal aliens. They would also ban birthright citizenship requiring that at least one of the biological parents be an U.S. citizen at the birth of the child.
The novel hits a raw nerve. The right adopts it as a clarion call for a second civil war, the left also adopts it as a call for the West Coast, and the East Coast to succeed. In the novel, ultimately after a short but brutal civil war, the West Coast declares themselves independent with a new capitol in SF. California is split into five new states, – SF, LA, San Joaquin Valley, North Coast, and Eastern California east of the mountains. They join Western Washington, Western Oregon, British Colombia, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado in the new Federation. The east coast declares independence as well with the capitol in NYC and uniting Canada, and the Great Lakes including Chicago. Illinois is split into two states downstate and Chicagoland. Texas, New Mexico, Oklaholma. and Northern Mexico forms the Texas Republic. Florida declares itself to be the Capital of the Caribbean, and Utah joins Idaho in forming the Desert Republic.

After publishing his latest episode, he runs for Congress and am elected at age 67! He runs on the slogan, an update of the Superman theme – “Fighting for Truth, Justice and the American Way!” His team wars superman shirts and slogans. Jake is tireless campaigner going door to door throughout the district and meeting with any group that is willing to meet with him. He also hosts parties at his house bringing together activists from across the district.
And he soon become the thorn in the side of the Federal Government as he continues his crusade to point out injustice wherever he sees it. He publishes a daily outrage of the day pointing out corruption, incompetence, and malfeasance throughout the Federal government and local governments alike. His daily outrage goes viral.

And he becomes famous for his witty “Jakecisms “

He has a standard apology for when his comments touch a raw nerve.

“ I am sorry that some people took offense at my comments. I did not mean to offend anyone, but if the truth hurts that is too bad.”

He and his wife becomes famous for their get togethers at their Capitol Hill house and becomes a top destination for upcoming politicos and journalists alike. During these salon meetings all sorts of deals are made uniting the left wing of the democratic party and he is soon seen as the leader of the left wing populist wing of the democratic party.

He is loved in his district and hated across the country, called by conservatives the “Most Dangerous Man in America” which he uses as a catch phrase for my campaigns. And his universal nickname is “Super Jake” referring to his endless energy, and enthusiasm.

He serves ten years in congress and finally retire at age 77 when he runs for Governor on a pro-Californian Independence ticket as his prophetic novel on the “Great Divorce” begins to take shape. Shortly after his election, he declares California independence and joins forces with Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, and British Colombia in forming a new nation, The West Coast Federation.

And he serves as the first president holding meetings during the second constitutional convention that codifies the Great divorce avoiding a second civil war.

Day Two Poems

2020 the annus Horiblus comes to an End

January

Jan. 22
“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
— CNBC interview

First cases reported
Cruise ship turned around
China travel ban

February

Feb. 10
“Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”
— New Hampshire rally

Crisis becomes apparent
Europe in crisis
US not far behind
The President continues to downplay the crisis

March

March 28
“WE WILL WIN THIS WAR. When we achieve this victory, we will emerge stronger and more united than ever before!”
— Twitter

National lockdowns begin
Unemployment craters
Congress passes inadequate measures

April

On untested and dangerous treatments for the coronavirus

“I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.” Speaking to reporters at the White House on 23 April.

President discontinues daily COVID crisis task force briefings
As he makes a fool of himself
By opening his mouth

May

When: Friday, May 29
The claim: The WHO ignored “credible reports” of the coronavirus’s spread in Wuhan, the Chinese city that first reported the new virus, including those published in TheLancet medical journal in December.
The truth: The Lancet said it did not publish such reports in December. Its first reports on the virus’s spread in Wuhan were published on January 24.
The crisis deepens
Thousands die
In the first wave

President and his minions
Proclaim that by July
The economy would be roaring back
Olympics postponed for one year

June

When: Wednesday, June 17

The claim: The pandemic is “fading away. It’s going to fade away.”
The truth: Trump made this claim ahead of his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when the country was still seeing at least 20,000 new daily cases and a second spike in infections was beginning.

President resumes his mass spreading rallies
Hermain Cain becomes the latest Corona ghost

July

“Now we have tested almost 40 million people. By so doing, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless.” South Lawn speech at the White Houseon 4 July.

The president continues to insist
That the US has more cases
Because the US is testing more
Total nonsense of course
But to his lemming like followers
Makes perfect sense

August

When: Thursday, August 27
The claim: The U.S. has “among the lowest case-fatality rates of any major country anywhere in the world.”

When: Thursday, August 27
The claim: Trump “launched the largest national mobilization since World War II” against COVID-19, and America “developed, from scratch, the largest and most advanced testing system in the world.”

When: Thursday, August 6
The claim: A coronavirus vaccine could be ready by Election Day.

The truth: The timeline Trump proposes contradicts health experts’ consensus that early 2021 is likely the soonest a vaccine could be widely available.
None of these statements are true

The Republican convention is held
At the WH
After Florida and North Carolina refused
To allow the full scale convention to take place

Speaker after speaker made wild crazed speeches
About the dangerous left wing mob rule
That Biden and Harris would unleash
As they turn the U.S. into another Venezuela
Promising the best is yet to come
As 200 thousand corona ghosts
Look on

September

When: Tuesday, September 29
The claim: “We’re weeks away from a vaccine,” Trump said at the first debate.
The truth: Redfield has said a COVID-19 vaccine may not be widely available to the American public until the summer of next year. Two of the three drug companies working on a vaccine have said they hope to have only initial clinical-trial results by the end of this year.
The corona virus are not yet ready
The president demands that they release the vaccine now
Before it was purely tested
The FDA refuses

October

During the final presidential debate between Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden, the two spoke about the ongoing pandemic, when Trump said, “It will go away and, as I say, we’re rounding the turn.”
“We’re rounding the corner. It’s going away,” Trump added.
As the president declares this
Thousands lie dying every day

The October surprise
Is that the president

and the first lady
All come down with COVID

November

Even now, the president, eager to claim credit for an imminent vaccine, is reportedly planning to host two dozen indoor Christmas parties that will again flout his own government’s public health advice. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, has similar plans, according to the Washington Post.

The president refuses to concede
Claiming massive voter fraud
Files 60 court challenges
Loses every one of them
Holds up the transition for two weeks

December

Dec 6, 2020President Trump’s lawyer and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has been pressing the case that the 2020 election was rife with fraud, has the coronavirus, Trump tweeted on Sunday.

But the president remains silent
As the virus runs out of control
3,000 people a day dying
Just like 9-11 happening every single day

And so the year ends
Thousands dying
Millions unemployment
Millions facing homelessness

But the vaccine is starting to be delivered
A little too late
But perhaps the proverbial light
At the end of a dark tunnel

Landmark, lost nose

In a landmark case
The judge declared
That my nose
Had been lost
Due to a clerical error
I was doomed
To live without my nose
Lost in inner space

Lonely Corona Christmas

Around the world
This Christmas will be unlike
Another other
That we have experienced

With travel proscribed
People staying low
Many parties cancelled
Many people having a virtual
Christmas celebration

While the Corona ghosts
Haunting our holiday celebrations

The Fire Burns Out of Control

The Fire burns out of control
Millions of Tree burning up
Afterwards
A Stream of water
Flies down the mountains
Seeming to take down everything
Trimming things in its wake
As animals Swim in the flood
People breathing though their open mouths
Leaning their arms
Against the dead trees
Present in the moment
The world ended

h2 style=”text-align: center;”>My love Mini-monoverse

my love
my dove
my true love
my god love
wearing glove

my dreams
my screams
it seems
my themes
it deems

Day Three

Day Three flash fiction

The Khan Take Over the World

One day the alien overlords arrived without notice.  They took over the world in a whirlwind offensive.  They landed their ships everywhere and took power. They executed millions of people, particularly targeting the leadership class.  The aliens were giant spider-like creatures.  The soldiers were rodent-like creatures that were biped, and incredibly brutal.

here were essentially four classes of aliens – the overlords who were giant spiders, the mechs who were fighting robots but AI creatures, the skitters who were the worker bees of the aliens, and the human slaves and slaves from other races. All in all, there were about ten different types of aliens living on earth.

The aliens took over the airways.  The commander of the alien forces spoke to the world.

My name is commander zero – you will soon be learning how to speak galactic standard but for now, you can call me that.  We are the Khan and are the master race of the galaxy.  You are the tenth planetary system that we have conquered.

We have a deal to offer you, humans.  First, if you accept that we have taken over the world and agree to follow our rules including learning galactic standards, we will allow you to live.  But if you resist, you will be exterminated.  It is your choice.

In our world, we do not tolerate dissent, but we also have a system of local representative assemblies that pass laws and approve budgets and provide some oversight, but the Emperor is firmly in charge.   The press is free to report the news but with controls over sensitive data.   Everyone must work.  There is no welfare.  If you do not want to work or have anyone to take care of you, you will be sentenced to a mining colony, or referred to a social cleansing board.

We will be setting the mining colonies on your moon and in the desert regions of the world.  Anyone who is too disabled to work or too old to work will be exterminated unless their family members are willing to take care of them.  Those people will be referred to a social cleansing board for final status determination.

We do not recognize religious dogma.  In our experience, there are no Gods in the world.  We will be closing all your religious institutions, all the artwork will be confiscated, the buildings will be converted to other uses.  Priests and nuns will be executed on worldwide TV starting today. We will start with the Pope. We will also destroy your religious monuments and broadcast that as well.  Starting with Rome and Mecca.

We will take a lot of the artwork from your museums back to our capital city where they will join other artwork in our colonial art museums.  We will also send back animals to the galactic zoo.

Most of your books will be destroyed.  Only works published in the galactic standard will be permitted.   We will take over your television networks, radio, and computer networks and everything will be broadcasted in the galactic standard.  You will all have one year to learn it. Everyone will have to look galactic standard.  All other languages will be banned after one year.

Now starting next week everyone will be assigned jobs. Your corporations will be taken over by galactic corporations.  You will all be given salaries in galactic standard credits. Your prior currencies will be abolished.  Your banks will be taken over and people will have their local currencies swapped out with galactic credits so most of you will not lose too much money.  We do not want to destroy the economy but there will be some disruption.

Most of you will be relocated to the cities.  The countryside will be either farming zones, mining zones, or forestry zones.  Most small towns will be abandoned.  Simply not efficient to have all these small towns.

Most of you will commute via public transit options.  Private vehicles will be reserved for the elite.

We will rebuild your electric grid and covert your power to renewable energy sources so global warming will be solved.

Your farms will grow galactic standard crops and galactic standard livestock although we will grow local fruits and vegetables and we will grow coffee and tea which we will export back home.  And we will export your alcoholic beverages.

Gambling is illegal.  Pornography is illegal.  Drug use except for prescription drugs is illegal.   Abortion services will be illegal.   Consensual sexual relations will be legal.  But homosexual conduct will be illegal.  Marriages will be recognized as the union between a man and a woman.  What you do in your sex life will be your business except for homosexual conduct.

Five years later, commander zero gave his annual state of the union speech.  He started by saying

We have made a lot of progress.  Most of you have adopted but some of you still refuse to accept the fact that we are in charge and some of you are still resisting, and some of you are engaged in terrorism.  That must stop now.

So, we have an offer to make.   Those of you who refuse to accept the new rules will be offered refugee in Africa.  Africa was supposed to be a mining colony, but they would allow humans to live there if they mined and do other work for the aliens, but the humans would be allowed to govern their affairs. A limited number of humans would be allowed to live in the rest of the world as traders, and businesspeople but subject to the laws of the aliens.

Many of you will continue to work and some of you will remain slaves. The slaves would be allowed to breed and provide a second generation of slaves.  The aliens would not enslave any other humans provided that the Humans kept their end of the cease-fire and kept themselves to Africa.

The humans would have 24 hours to decide. If the humans refused, they would release the virus and kill off any remaining wild humans.

The 2^nd Massachusetts militia takes the alien offer and is transported to West Africa. Other flights arrive and there are eventually 50,000 humans left alive in West Africa and perhaps 50,000 human slaves in the alien dominated rest of the world.

The alien’s airlift supplies and the humans set up farming communities and some go to work in the mines that the aliens set up across Africa.

But most of Africa reverts to a wilderness.

Some humans end up serving as hunting guides for aliens who like to travel to the African bush for recreational hunting.

Some free humans live on in the alien world as traders, businesspeople, and spies and there is a larger slave population.

The dream that someday humanity would kick the aliens off the world never dies.

Corona Christmas Morning

On a Corona Christmas day
In the center of the room of the house
Lies friends and family now corona ghosts

Love Magnet

 Ever since I met you
So many years ago
Your love was like a magnet
Drawing me to you

Making me come to you
Your body a magnet of love
Lust and mad passionate desire

 At the Casino of the Damned

The dice tumbled
the table leaned forward
withheld breath.

Watching the players
Play at the casino
Of the damned

The winner gets a reprieve
The losers  condemned
To hell

The winner rolls 6
The lucky number
To avoid the sentence

Wish We Could Delete Last Year

 Wish we could delete
Last Year

Sam Adams Vs. the Social Cleansing Board

the summons

Sam Adams was worried. He could not sleep. He got up at 4 am and wrote in his journal and tried to cope with the dread that was overwhelming him. He had received the summons yesterday that he was to report to the social cleansing board for a review on whether he would be allowed to continue to be on the “automatic permit list “ or would be referred for “final status determination.. Sam was a retired Federal worker trying to live on dwindling savings.  Sam had Alzheimer’s and was rapidly depleting his life’s savings. Two years before he had been released from prison, one of the millions of ex-political prisoners. His crime? Authoring anti-government poems just before the beginning of the Christian States of America, right after the second civil war. Unfortunately for him and his millions of ex-prisoners, his side lost the war. He wanted to flee to the United Provinces and settle down in California but lacked the money to move. And getting a job at his age, with Alzheimer’s and his political rating was proving difficult at best.  And he lived all alone after his wife had been deported during the “troubles”. All of which added up to a 90 percent probability his last days were approaching.

Under the new rules imposed by the Christian Republican party in the newly established Christian states, all citizens over the age of 18 were on the permitted list if they met all of the criteria. He tried to think about why he was being referred to the board. Perhaps it was because of the recent crackdown on social deviancy. Millions of homosexuals, transgender people, atheists, drug users, alcoholics, and non-religious people had been rounded up and eliminated according to the rumors. Perhaps someone had fingered him as a possible deviant. He fit the stereotype, no children, known drug user, known alcohol user, suspect politically, atheist, and now Alzheimer’s patient. And he was not racially pure having some black blood, some Asian blood, and some Jewish blood. And he had married across the racial divide which was now illegal. In the Christian States, one’s racial purity was everything.

The story was that if you flipped and named names you would sometimes be spared for now, and if your info was correct, you could be rewarded. Of course, those who flipped were not too fortunate, as the State would open a file on them, just to be sure. Someone had flipped on him, that was probably the story, or someone could have heard that he was an ex-political prisoner, or the fact simply that he had Alzheimer’s’. could be sufficient. The Christian State considered the disabled, the elderly, non-whites, gays, and dissidents to be “disposable” marginal people, “useless eaters” that had to be eliminated.

He had no children. He was not so secret an atheist and had been involved with the dissident movement as a poet and blogger.  He had spent five years as a political prisoner at the start of the Christian Revolution. He was determined to make a stand and denounce the whole rotten system before the board although that would probably seal his fate.

As an Alzheimer’s patient, he could no longer work. His wife had died the year before while he was in prison after she had been deported to her native Korea. She left him some assets, but he had little idea how to manage his finances and he was behind in his rent and had received an eviction notice which had probably triggered the visit by the “social cleansing staff” who recommend a final status determination. But it was just as likely he was on the list because someone flipped on him. Perhaps his crooked lawyer who he owed money to had turned him in.  Could have been anyone. Everyone was constantly told to be on the lookout and say something if they saw something suspicious.  There were spies everywhere.

Last time the soldiers came for him at midnight. Always at midnight, Sam thought.  The soldiers came took him away from his wife and locked him up for two years. They deported his wife because she was born in South Korea, and stripped her of her American citizenship.   He was not allowed to say goodbye or contact her.  He heard she had died shortly afterward. He spent two years in hard labor in the desert near Las Vegas and was released into Las Vegas.

Las Vegas was a different town now that the casinos had left town. All that was left were back-office operations, and underground booze and pot operations, and underground casinos.  It was a hotbed of political dissent and there was an underground railroad to California, which was not part of the Christian states. Sam had been preparing to leave which was a crime and perhaps that is why he was on the list.

The hearing would be at 10 am. He was meeting his lawyer at the hearing board, but his lawyer was not too optimistic. He told Sam, “it does not look good for you.  You need to be ready. Likely the board will rule against you.”

the Permit Criteria

His lawyer went over the basic criteria for being on the automatic permit list:

For Males

Age 18 to age 70
White race
Married to a white woman with children
Must be either working, in school full time, serving in military duty, or working in prison if convicted of a crime.
Homelessness was not allowed. If unemployed and or homeless, would be referred to the social cleansing department unless you had a relative who was willing to take care of your needs. The same thing applied to people with disabilities. Unless one had money or relatives to take care of one, being disabled was not permitted. Alzheimer’s and dementia were also on the list. And Sam’s political dissent and history of atheism would be held against him.

Since there were no pensions or social security anymore and no government-provided health care, one must have sufficient assets through one’s work, or savings or through one’s relatives to provide for one ‘s needs. If not you would be sent to the social cleansing board for final status determination.  Sam’s pension was insufficient as the Christian States had liquidated social security, Medicare, and pensions and all other social spendings as such spending was seen as making people too dependent on the government.

For Females

Same basic rules applied but if one were married, and had children one would be on the permitted list if children are older if the spouse’s income is sufficient one would be on the list.  If single or divorced, and homeless one would also be subject to social cleansing unless one’s relatives would willing to sponsor you. Since there were no pensions or social security anymore and no government-provided health care, one must have sufficient assets through one’s work, or savings or through one’s relatives to provide for one ‘s needs. If not you would be sent to the social cleansing board for final status determination.

For Aged People

Additional requirements for the age applied – you were expected to take care of your basic needs through employment and savings and the help of relatives. If you were evicted for non-payment of rent or judged to not have sufficient assets left to sustain your basic needs including medical care, you would be referred for final status determination. And Alzheimer’s and dementia were also factors that were considered negatively in the social status determination by the board.

For all people, additional requirements applied.

Sexual deviancy, drug use, alcohol use, gambling, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality would result in immediate referral to the social cleansing board as all were banned conduct that could result in final termination. Being a member of a prohibited religious class could also be grounds for referral as would a pattern of not attending Christian services. Finally, if one had been arrested for political crimes one would be marked forever.

Sam’s Rating

Mr. Smith the lawyer pointed out that Sam’s social rating was not good.  Sam knew that his rating was a D meaning that the government would be watching him all the time, and it would be difficult to get a job. Only the A’s and B’s were guaranteed to be on the permit list.  To be an A, you had be to a true believer, had to be white, had to attend church regularly, and had to be employed naturally. To be a B same thing but you could be a B if you were a minority, or had engaged in alcohol or drug use under the old rules. C meant that there was something wrong with your background, you were an atheist, you were a minority, etc. D means that you were a serious threat to the regime. E meant that you would be terminated. F met you were terminated as it met Failure to survive, and family members of F were also labeled F as they were usually terminated at the same time.

Being associated with banned political movements, including reading banned materials could also lead one to be referred to the social cleansing board as all were grounds for either termination or criminal prosecution if under the age of 70. If over the age of 70, one could be terminated just for being old.

The board has three choices – granted the temporary status extension, referral for termination, or referral to criminal prosecution.

The termination would be carried out quickly. There would be an optional funeral at your Church, then the execution through the method of your choice – firing squad, beheading, electric chair, or gas. The default was gas where you were put in a room with up to ten other people and put to sleep.

Afterward, your body would be cremated in an electricity generating plant with the ashes turned into fertilizer products. There were no burials allowed unless one was rich enough and connected enough to request a burial exception. Most people did not qualify.

the Hearing

The hearing started. The presiding Judge, Judge Miller was a stern face white man in his 70’s and a true believer. He was sent to Las Vegas to clean it up as Las Vegas was the wild west, a hotbed of dissent, illegal drug use, illegal prostitution, and illegal casinos. It was also near several political prisons so many ex-cons lived there. The Judge was the chairman of the Nevada state committee that did not exist and was a senior official in the Federal committee that did not exist that brought together government, business, and church leaders to coordinate government policies and that secretly ran the Christian States of America.  Probably a score of A thought Sam.

The judge announced that he had reviewed Sam’s file and was shocked that Sam had escaped final termination. He said that the previous board had erred in simply sending him to prison. He should have been eradicated as a social evil, as cancer that needs to be removed from the pure body politics. Sam and his ilk sickened him. Sam was a free thinker, an atheist, a mixed-race mongrel, married to a non-white and was therefore guilty of crimes against the white race which was a crime. The Judge was determined to see justice done.

He asked Sam a series of questions. Sam’s answers sealed his fate.

Sam, what is your occupation?

None for now.  worked until age 60 as a diplomat under the old regime.

You realize that under the law you must be working, in service, in school, or prison? Or have sufficient savings and assistance from relatives to sustain your needs.  Are you currently working?

I can’t find a job due to my age, my Alzheimer’s; and my political record.

That’s irrelevant. You are just a lousy atheist piece of shit. You deserve no sympathy. And have none from me.

Are you white?

No, I am a mixed-race, part native, part Asian, part black.

I see you were married to a non-white and had no children. Good for you we would not want to see more mongrel children. Such children should be eliminated at birth in my opinion and will be starting next month when we begin enforcing the racial purity laws.

What was your crime? Let us see reading prohibited writings, keeping a journal, publishing an anti-government blog, authoring anti-government poems and stories. Did you serve two years at hard labor?

Yes

Do you still write?

Yes, every day but I no longer publish on-line.

Good. No one would want to read that trash anyway.

Do you go to church?

No

Do you believe in God?

No, I do not believe in an imaginary man in the sky.

One more anti-religious statement from you will result in an immediate ruling of termination.

Do you drink?

If I can find it yes

Do you gamble

Yes, when I can

Do you support the Christian Republican Party and the Christian States of America?

No, I do not.

Okay, I have enough for a ruling. Sam Adams, you are hereby sentenced to the termination. Tomorrow at 7 am you will be turned into electricity and fertilizer. Take him away.

Next, please.

At midnight there was a knock at the door. A black man appeared and said he was a friend and he was being smuggled to California. Sam rejoiced and went with his new friend and reached SF in the morning, escaping death for the 23rd time in his life.

Today’s Poems

Dear Santa

What I want for Christmas
and for the new year too

Is simply this
Goodwill prevails

Our leaders get together
Working together to restart
The damaged economy
Getting the virus conquered

Allowing travel to resume
Conquering health care reform
Dealing with climate change
Rebuilding our strained alliances

Working out a deal
To solve
both the North Korean problem
And the middle east problem

Resolving our racial divides
Bringing the country together
Making sure black lives
All lives matter

Ending the politics
Of personal destruction
In short,  Peace and goodwill
Will finally prevail

And most importantly
Donald Trump shuts up
quietly going into retirement
Ending the worst presidency ever

And finally
Another year for me
To enjoy the love of my life
Falling in love with her every day

Tell the Grimm reaper
My time is not yet due
That is all that I want
For Christmas and the New Year

 My Love Beckons Me Haiku

My love beckons me
Every day I fall in love
Padded with her love

 Humid Summer Days, Dry Winter Nights  Haiku

Humid summer days
Give way to dry winter nights
stay at home with love

 World Economy Teters on the Edge Cherita

The world economy

Teters on the edge
Declining Imports and exports

Global trade ending
Is this the end
Of the globalized world economy?

Seeing the Cosmic Dog in the Morning Light

In the morning Light
I Breathe deeply
Following the shining light
Of the dawning sun

Sighing and Gasping
With baited breath

While I hear the Bark
Of a dog outside
my open window

Showing the face
Of the Devine spirit
Within the cosmic dog

 Always a good idea

Drinking wine
While listening to music
With my wife
The love of my life
When She says
Pour me another glass
Of wine my dear

I said
Always a good idea
And we drank some more

 Falling in love
With every sip

As I looked at her
And she looked at me

 The next glass of wine is for love,

 Then I clearly said
The next glass of wine is for love
smiled in unison

Day Five

Reverend Jimmy Jones Launches the Christian Revolution

Word count: 1776

Reverend Jimmy Jones is about to make a speech at a campaign rally in which he will announce the launching of the Christian revolution. He hopes that the Christian revolution will galvanize the evangelical community and the remanence of former president Trump’s base throughout the red states of the country.  President Trump had died a few months ago but before he died, he endorsed Jimmy Jones and announced that he supported the call for a constitutional convention and the formation of the Christian States.  The Trump children were all aboard the movement as well and working with his newly named Christian Republican party.

The Christian Revolution would lead to the formation of the Christian States of America after a short civil war, which split the country into new countries the Christian States of America with the capital at Omaha, renamed New Zion; The Florida Caribbean Federation encompassing many of the islands of the Caribbean including Puerto Rico, the Virgin islands; the Northeast Federation including the new state of Columbia DC, with Canadian provinces; The French American Federation which consisted of Québec Haiti Martinique Guadeloupe and Louisiana with the capital in Québec; the Native American Federation which consisted of the biggest Indian reservations across the United States and Canada with the capital in Oklahoma; The Pacific state federations which consisted of The West coast states, and British Colombia with the capital in San Francisco and including Five new California states, and parts of Northern Mexico including Baja California; one of which join with Eastern Oregon in Eastern Washington to form a new state called Jefferson which joined the Christian states;  the Utah Republic which included Idaho, and allied with the Christian States, the Texas Republic which consisted of Texas New Mexico and northern part of Mexico, with the capitol in Dallas and allied with the Christian States, and The Pacific island Federation which consisted of Hawaii Guam American Samoa Micronesia and the Philippines with the capitol in Honolulu, allied with the Pacific States and NE Federation.

Reverend Jones addresses the campaign rally

“Today I am announcing then I am running not just for the presidency not of the United States of America and the new nation to be called the Christian States of America which will unite the United States and parts of Canada and new Mexican Mexico who wish to join the new Federation; I am calling upon the states to call for a constitutional convention which will draft a new constitution which we can call constitution 2.0 which was explicitly declare that the United States of America is no longer and will be replaced as a successor state, the Christian States of America. The Christian States of America will be governed along the lines of what the founding fathers had decreed in other words the federal government which will be relocated to Omaha well play a much smaller role in the Federation then focusing on foreign policy military issues national security and coordinating national economic policies but most power will revert to the states. The Christian states will be a Christian Homeland and Christianity will be the official religion of the state. Only Christians would be allowed to work for positions that require national security clearances because the national security clearances will now have a morality screening only people of good moral character will be allowed to work for the federal government, work for state governments and work in school systems

Most regulations will be eliminated as the Christian states will revert to a policy of fewer regulations, less taxation, and fewer burdens on the public and businesses including eliminating minimum wage laws.

And there will be a national morality law that will be based on traditional Christian social values. The law will outlaw sex outside of a traditional marriage defined as a union of one man and one woman who intend to have the children together.  Homosexuality will be banned, anal sex will be banned, transgenderism will be banned, transgender reassignment surgery will be banned, prostitution will be banned, abortion will be banned except to save the life of a woman and marijuana will be banned, alcohol will be banned, gambling would be banned, pornography will be banned, the internet will be monitored and controlled as will the media and entertainment businesses. Sex and violence will be banned in entertainment products including games, TV, movies, and live theater.

The federal government will enforce these regulations nationwide, but the states will oversee prosecutions as these regulations will be enacted in every single state; the states will be allowed to add additional requirements but not fewer requirements. Constitution 2.0 will explicitly recognize the Bible and traditional Christian principles as part of the governing documents of the new Federation.  It would also include the Declaration of Independence, the original constitution, including the bill of rights, and the Magna Carter.  The new constitution will also explicitly recognize Christianity as the state religion, modifying the first amendment accordingly and authorizing discrimination against minority religions and atheism, and requiring federal government positions to be open only to Christians.

There will be a new body which will consist of the leaders of the Christian churches who will have an advisory role in overseeing governmental policies to make sure the government policies are not in conflict with Christian principles. Non-Christians will have to register with the local police whenever they move their residencies. Atheism will be banned. Non-Christian churches will no longer receive any tax benefits. Easter Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Monday will be a national holiday as well and spring break will be renamed Easter break and the Christmas winter break will be renamed Christmas break.

All schools will be required to teach the Bible as part of their curriculum Local schools would no longer be run by the government but will be run by church foundations but with government funding

Looking abroad the new Federation will withdraw from most international agreements will kick out the United Nations and international organizations as they are interfering with national sovereignty

There will be mandatory national military or government service return after service is completed the government will pay for college education or tech training for those who complete their three years of service. The three years of service would also include both women and men and there will be no exceptions made whatsoever everybody will have to serve.  Service will take place between one is 18 birthday and 25^th birthday, with annual lotto drawings determining the start of service.  Once your number is drawn you will have six months to report for service which will last up to three years, the first year would be training, then two years of service.

Finally, we will launch a revolution a crusade so to speak to take back America city by city-state by state we will force the local governments to recognize the new Christian rules and regulations including of course banning bars and banning alcohol sales, strip clubs, prostitution, and other sexual services

We will start this in my hometown of Little Rock AR. With your help and the help of the American public, we will fulfill the dream that I had the prophecy that I had, or Gabriel came to me and told me that I had been chosen by God to lean the American people back to the Christian Church and with your help and God’s will we will prevail and America will become a canoe Christian paradise the shining city on the hill that we all knew know is in fulfillment of God’s will, and that Americans are the new chosen people. God Bless America goodnight

The next day Reverend Jones convened the first meeting of what became known as the committee that did not exist committee did not exist formed a shadow government consisting of the top leaders of the government the top leaders of the Christian churches the top leaders of the Senior military officials’ national security officials and senior political operatives of all sorts, the CEOs of major corporations all of which were united by the desire to ensure that the Christian revolution went forward and that corporations would play their role and ensuring that they would not be engaged and selling products that promote sin, and they would work with the government of the Christian States of America to ensure that all policies are both biblically sound,  and economically sound

We will ensure that big businesses get what they want fewer regulations, including outlawing labor unions, and the minimum wage, and of course fewer taxes Finally, the committee that did not exist would oversee the development of a dossier on every American in the country which would be kept under close guard and used by the leadership of the Christian States to make sure that people fall in line.  The dossiers would leak to destroy political enemies.

Everybody in the country would be rated as either

A trusted true believer

B trusted

C wavering

D hostile

E so hostile that they must be eliminated

40 percent will be either A or B and would be in the elite upper class of society.

The committee that did not exist would overseas the operations of a militia group call the army of God which would carry out operations that would not be officially linked to the government but would carry out governmental policies During the transition to the Christian States of America they would go into towns and shut down bars and shut down strip clubs things like that, and they would also supervise getting out negative information on their political opponents

Some would say that the Christian Federation is a fascist movement and Reverend Jones said that was fair it was a fascist movement it was bringing together elements of traditional Christian thoughts, big businesses, and key governmental allies.  The Christian States of America will usher in a period of great prosperity and power for those in the upper echelons of society, while the lower classes will work hard since with the elimination of welfare there will be no social safety net and criminal laws will be strictly enforced.  Being a homeless bum on the street will be not an option, as homelessness will be a criminal offense. All prisoners will work for corporations.

Rev. Jones concluded,

With your help, we will achieve the Christian revolution and fulfill my promise to Gabriel that I would bring North America back to Christianity.

Day Six

 Ghost Trial 

I am surrounded by Ghosts of my past
I have outlasted so many people
My Father, My Mother, My sister
and sister and friends from my past life

They all appear in my dream
And they put me on trial

One by one they testify
My father and my mother
Talk to me while I sleep

My father talks to me at length
About his life
His battles and his dreams for me
Unfulfilled when he died so young

And My mother
Crying always crying
As she tells me that
I never cared for her
That I ran away from her

Unable to cope with her
constant demands on me

Just wanted me
to pay attention to her
And be there for her
And I fled from her

And numerous friends
that have died
Surround me reminding me

Of things that I did
Or not did
Or that I did not attend
their funerals

And my sister too
Chimes in

Berating me for not
being there for her
And ignoring her
And emotionally
neglecting her

Nightly these ghosts
Will not let me be

As I toss and turn
And they fill my head

With their remonstrations
Until the sun comes up
And chases them away
With its cleansing light

Man plays games with his lover

A man meets his lover
in a bar

Playing a game
That they had played before

Imagining that
they were strangers
About to make love
for the first time

He whispers in her ears
All the things he wanted to do
To her that night

She smiled
Said she would give him
What he wanted

And they went
to their apartment
Made love until dawn

They had breakfast
And laughed again
At the absurdity
Of it all

I  drink a cup of hot cocoa

I drink a cup of hot cocoa
In the Snuggery by the fireplace
I step outside
Putting on my mittens
Braving the frosty cold night
Looking at the evening stars
Watching the poor
Walk by asking for alms
I give them money
Go inside
Sitting by the evergreen Christmas tree
Wrapping presents in red wrapping paper
Waiting for Christmas morning delights

Sitting by the creek

Sitting by the creek
Turning on the old socket
Wiping tears away
with a damp tissue

Day Seven Flash Fiction

2024 Elections – End of the world Mood Overcomes the U.S. and the World.

A strange mood sweeps the country just before the 2024 elections.  Many people on the fringes are convinced that we were entering the end times as prophesied in Biblical, Islamic, Hindu, and Mayan traditions.  Various end-times prophets appeared with terrifying visions of the coming nightmare.   The internet was overwhelmed with visions of the coming end of the world.   Dire warnings were all about – from the scientists who were saying daily that we had passed the point of no return on climate change, to conservatives warning that the socialist radical left plot to destroy America was in full swing, to the left’s fear of incipient fascism in America and the world, to fears of another pandemic, to fears that the new normal would mean a lifetime of poverty for Americans.  Thoughts about the decline of America were everywhere as were warnings of a coming civil war.

One of the best-selling books of 2023 was the Great Divorce which was all about the coming second civil war.  Millions of people were convinced that a second civil war was inevitable

Reality seemed just as dismal as one natural disaster after another occurred.  Monster storms that did not seem to end as the Hurricane season was the worst on record, following the worst winter of recent history in the Winter of 2023-24, the fire season in the summer of 2023 were also the worst in recorded history as the entire west coast burned up and several cities including Medford, Oregon was destroyed.  The fires lasted until early December when monster winter storms swept over the land leading to massive mudslides, hurricane style winds whipping up the never-ending blizzards that shut down most of the west coast over the Christmas season.

In October, a new variant of COVID swept out of China = a new variant that was immune to the COVID vaccine.  The economy had barely recovered from the ravages of the last pandemic and millions of people faced another stay-at-home order just before Thanksgiving and the holiday season.

Then spring barely happened as most of the world went into an intense drought with high temperatures before the monster storms occurred.  Volcanoes and earthquakes, more than in recorded history added to the chaos.  And a massive sunspot knocked out all communications and air travel for two weeks.

Then the political storm in Washington hit and politics became even dirtier as the Republicans nominated Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee who ran a hard Christian campaign promising to turn America into a Christian nation just in time for the rapture which they predicted would end the year.

Then Joe Biden dies in the springtime of 2024 and Kamala Harris runs for the seat and is nominated but must pick a hard left partner.   The two parties are bitterly divided as is the country.

Half the country is demanding a new green deal, half think that the democrats are evil socialists who are determined to destroy the country.  The Republicans run the hard-right campaign promising to rename the country the United Christian States of America, including a call for a constitutional convention to codify the new status as a Christian nation.  They also applaud the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe V Wade, Gay marriage, and gay rights.

They also demand that the new constitution explicitly recognize the rights of Christians, that religious minority must register with the government, and outlaw atheism.

They demand that the US enact a national morality act that would outlaw sex outside traditional marriage, outlaw homosexuality, abortion, prostitution, transgendered status, alcohol, marijuana, gambling, and legalizing discrimination against the LGBT community

Donald Trump ran on a platform that the 2020 election had been stolen from him and on a platform of revenge against the enemies of American freedom. He also calls for the U.S. to kick out the United Nations, withdraw from the WTO and most international agreements.  And to bring the troops home once and for all. And of course, to build the war, and eliminate most immigration.  He also endorsed the calls for a new war on drugs, banning alcohol, and gambling and making the U.S. a Christian-only nation, vowing if he were elected to refuse to hire Muslims, and atheists and calling for the firing of atheists, and gays from government positions.

The mood in the blue states was that the country was already split into two lands, the coastal blue states, and the hinterland.  Many people had fled the red states after the supreme court decisions led to enactments of laws banning homosexuality, abortion, and same-sex marriage.  Many social conservatives had fled the urban coastal regions in search of a simpler, more Christian based live in the hinterlands.

45% of the public support these demands, and 45% are bitterly opposed.

The country seemed on the breaking point, as 60% of the public were saying that they saw a civil war as a possibility, and 45% agreeing that it was time for the U.S. to split up into new nations.

Harris herself endorsed the call for a constitutional convention to settle once and for whether the U.S. would remain united or split into parts. The governors of the Western States and the governors of the eastern states got together and endorsed a call for a constitutional convention and a great divorce.   They were joined in these calls by the governors of the new states, Colombia (DC) VI, Puerto Rico, Guam, America Samoa, Micronesia, Sequoya (Oklahoma) Chicagoland, Downtown Illinois, NYC, and NY state.

One of the bestselling books of 2023 was the Great Divorce which was all about the coming second civil war.  Millions of people were convinced that a second civil war was inevitable.

Harris wins the popular vote by 5 percentage points but loses the electoral college and the Senate as the Christian right was fired up at the prospect, they would get what they wanted more than anything else – an American theocracy.

Truly we were living in strange times.

Time Poems

2009 Berkeley Time Warp 

April 3

Time travel is possible
I do it every year
When I return to Berkeley
And go to the corner of Dwight
and Telegraph

Down the street from People’s park
I enter a time wrap

And find myself in 1967
It is always 1967
With the sweet smell of pot
In the air

And the merchants selling
Tie die tea shirts
And talking shit

And the students walking by
And the older generation
Walking by in nostalgic memories

Of when it was the 60’s
and everything seemed possible

We would change the world
And then Nixon came

And the world turned ugly fast
and furious

And we have been on a dark trip
ever since those days

But in Berkeley
At Dwight and Telegraph

The 60’s live on
Long live the 60’s

 Stockton Time Travel

When I was going to college
in Stockton, Californa
In the 70s

It seemed as if every time I went to Stockton
I was going through a time and space wormhole

And emerging on the other end
In an Ohio farm town circa 1959
Then returning to Berkeley
And arriving in the mid 70’s

Except for Telegraph Avenue
Which is always stuck in 1967.

The time travel wormhole collapsed
As Stockton over time
Became an outer suburb of Sacramento
And the greater Bay Area

But the valley remains
A different time and space
Than the Bay Area

And so time travel is still
The way to go
When going to the valley
From the city

Berkeley 1975

Growing up in Berkeley
In the late 60s
and early to mid-70s
Was such a trip

Berkeley and the Bay Area
Were already becoming
Almost a separate country
From the rest of the United States

And Berkeley was already
Such a diverse place

My high school had over 4,000 students
From over 150 countries
And had openly gay students

And even transgendered students
Decades before that became common
Elsewhere in the country

My best friends were Jewish, Irish, Bl
ack, Half Black Half White
And I had some Asian friends as well.
And I was the Student body president

I belonged to no particular clique
Rather floated between different groups
And that is why perhaps I was a success

Berkeley taught me so much
And being there
Taught me so much

I lived through such a turbulent time
The black panthers
The black revolution
The sexual revolution
The anti-war movement

We had tear gas days
And we used to hang out

On Telegraph watching the riots
Or watching the street preachers
On more peaceful days

And boy did we enjoy
Cheap eats

Ocsar’s Burgers
Pizza
Chinese food
And hot dogs

And sneaking over to CAL
To crash Fraternity parties
And get some free drinks

Life was interesting
In that day

And I will never
Forgot

The life lessons

I learned in the streets
Of Berkeley in the ’70s

Berkeley Street Scene 2015

Coming back to Berkeley
Every year since I left
Remains me how much it has changed
And how little it has changed

The essences of Berkeley
The reasons why I keep coming back
Remains the same

It is a zany, wild, and crazy city
Filled with energy, enthusiasm
And big ideas

The University remains
The center of the town
But Berkeley was always more
Than a college town

It was a black suburb of Oakland
And still is
It was an Asian American suburb of Oakland
And remains to this day

It was a welcoming place
for gays and lesbians
and still is

And of course,
it was a student hangout
For Cal students and students from all over
And still is

It was a regional hangout
for high school kids
And still is

BHS rocks
And it was a commuter stop on the BART
For white-collar workers from the city
And still is

It was a working-class town
And some of that is still there

And a center for movies
And the arts

And the food mecca
and coffee mecca
for all the foodies
in the Bay area

And boy is it still the mecca
For good food

Food from almost every ethnic group
In the world
If you can’t find it Berkeley

Either in the stores
Or the hundreds of ethnic joints
You won’t be able to find it

Anywhere else in the U.S.

Over the years I tried
My first Thai
My first  Chinese
My first Cambodian
My first Vietnamese
My first Mexican
My first Indian
My first Russian
My first Cuban
My first French
My first Italian
My first Greek
And my first New Californian cuisine

And my first Mc Donalds
And Burger King

And of course
Who can forget
Their first Peet’s coffee?

And who can forget
Tilden Park

Inspiration Point at sunrise
And Wildcat canyon?

One day while glazing at the sunset
Over the bay bridge

I declared that Berkeley was the center
Of my universe

So I end this love song
To Berkeley California

Truly the center
Of this man’s universe

 Seoul 1979

When I arrived in Seoul
Back in the day in 1979

Seoul was a grim city
Big, polluted, overwhelming

Filled with Koreans
And nothing much to do

Other than eat Korean food
And drink Korean booze

Tourist sites were none existent
And foreigners were few and far between

The GI’s stayed in Itaewon
And there were few other foreigners around

And there were very few places in town
To eat non-Korean food

Just the fancy hotels
The base and Itaewon

But Seoul had it’s charms
It grew on me over the years

And gradually became less grim
Less forbidding

And less foreigner unfriendly

When I left Seoul in 1984 it was changing
before my very eyes

And when I came back in 1988
it was a different city

And those were the days
Of the Olympics
and Seoul’s emergence
As a modern city

 Seoul 2015

Seoul is so different now days
Very little of the old Seoul remains

The Kangwhamoon area downtown
Still exists as a warren
of alleyways
Between big buildings

Filled with restaurants and shops
But the old tabangs (tea shops)
With the tabang girls
Are long gone

The karaoke bars and girl bars
Are still there going strong
But coffee shops and fancier restaurants
Are everywhere

And foreigners are everywhere
Seoul is no longer a city just for Koreans
It has truly become a world city
Must to the dismay of the traditionalists

Parts of the old Seoul remain
and the mountains and parks
have become very popular indeed

there has been a resurgence in Korean Buddhism
and in traditional arts and crafts
and traditional foods as well

nowhere more than in Insa dong
the Mecca of traditional Korean culture
these days

Itaweon has become
the heart of the expatriate part of Seoul
with people from around the world

gathered together
along with the young and hip
Koreans

And there is even a gay quarter now
unimaginable in the old days

Seoul has changed
For the most part fo
r the better

But I still miss
the Seoul of my past
And will mourn its passing
As I get older

Along with the city
That I have adopted
As my second hometown

Hope for the New Year Fan Story Haiku

Hope for the new year
will it be better than ever
delete this last year

Images of Pearl Harbor

Images of pearl harbor
Still shocking
After so many years

A day that will live
In infamy

The images of these ancient crimes
Continue to haunt us
After all these years

Images of 9-11
The images of that day
Fills my head

Still haunting me
After all these years

But what fills me with dread
Is that every day
We are living another 9-11

As the coronavirus
Continues to surge
Across the land

General corona leading his army
Of virus bots
As millions get sick
Thousands die

Every day
The invisible enemy
Is here

And our commander in chief
Is AWOL

Time to Stop

Time to stop
Imaging these images
Of death

All around me
Memories of pearl harbor

Memories of 9-11
Images of COVID
Ravaging the land

Time to stop
These images
From haunting my life

Blood Red Moon Over Ruins

Coldness fills my heart
Strange feelings fill my soul
I see a blood-red super blue moon
Lighting up the ruins
Of our civilization
Everyone is dead
Humanity a distant memory
Is this our future
I am filled with such dread
As the coldness takes over,

Ancient curse comes to Life

An ancient curse
Comes to life
Vampires arise from the death
Leading an army of zombies
Hundreds of demons come
Pouring out of the new
Gateway to hell
That opens up

Coffee Pot Mini Flash

On a cold night in the middle of the winter at midnight, an old man drops by a 24/7 dinner and orders a burger, fries, and coffee.   He notices that the diner has an old fashioned coffee pot and asks about it.

The owner comes out.  He is a friendly old black man,

“You have a question about the coffee pot?”

“Yes just curious.  It looks like an antique. Does it still work?”

“Yes, that is my great grandfather’s coffee pot and we have been making coffee from that pot for over 150 years in this restaurant which was my grandfather’s restaurant.  The menu is from his day as well.  The apple pie is my grandmother’s secret recipe. But I am most proud of the coffee. Because the coffee though is magical.  Anyone who drinks of it will be given one more year of life.   Do you want a cup of this magic brew?”

“Why not?  I don’t have too much time left to live.  I see ghosts all around me and I am afraid that I will be ending soon.  So bring on the magic coffee.”

He has a cup and stands up and drops dead.

A Man falls asleep underneath the clock

A man falls asleep
Beneath the ticking grandfather clock

Underneath the Christmas tree
Waiting for Christmas

The End