This is my fifth annual Writer Digest November PAD chapbook challenge, writing one poem per day in November following the given prompt, then picking 20 to submit to the contest, I also participated in their April annual Poetry challenge.
This writing was accepted
for publication in the
108 page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “Sprung from Grief”
Down in the Dirt, v184
(the June 2021 Issue)Order the paperback book:
When I was young and foolish
Broke and stubborn
I hitchhiked across the USA
Started in Salt Lake City
Where my greyhound bus pass
Was stolen
The station manager
Could have helped me
But refused to do so
Threaten to call the cops
When I grabbed my bags Without the stolen tags
I said
Go ahead
But I am so out of here
Wondered about Salt Lake City
Went to a bar
Found I had to buy my booze
Next door
And they would mix it for me
Had to order food too
After a bloody Mary
And a burger
I walked about town
Saw the Mormon Temple
Finally about 3 pm
It was time to hit the road
Did not look back
Ended up in Cody Wyoming
Got a room shower
Steak beer
Using my rapidly depleted cash Spent 25 dollars
Money really went far
Back in those days
A band of professional
Communist agitators
Gave me a ride
To Des Moines
Lots of weed, booze
And politics later
Got off the road
Slept outside
Next day
A beautiful woman
Drove me to near Chicago
In a red mustang
Might have been
The girl in the song
Took it easy
Digging her vibe
She invited home
But was not sure
If her estranged husband
Would welcome me
So, I am being foolish
And inexperienced with women
Did not go to her place
And always regretted
That I had lost
My chance that day
Then on to Chicago
Several rides later
Visited friends
Hit the road again
A series of uneventful rides
With truckers
And others
And a week later
I ended in New York City
Slept along the way
In cars
In truck stops
In high way rest stops
Always moving
Always going
Non stop talking
And lots of free weed
And beer
And conversation
One more memorable ride
Occurred outside Albany
On my return to Chicago
A middle age creepy looking man
Picked me up
In a brand-new Cadillac
He was he said a dynamite deliverer
For the Mafia
Went to various places
To blow up shit
He hated a lot of people
Particularly hippies from California
And Jewish people
Looking at me to confirm
That I was both
I told him that I lived in New York
And had never been to California
And although I might have looked Jewish
As I what was called back in the day
A “Jewfro”
I was not Jewish
Many years later I discovered
That I am indeed part Jewish
But then I did not know
And I felt a bit of strategic information
Might keep me alive
Then I realized that he was just jiving with me
And we relaxed
And he pulled out some weed
And beer
And we mellowed out
But I believe that he really was with the mob
Perhaps not a dynamite dealer
A real made Italian made mafia member
By Chicago
I had enough
I called my Dad
Told him what had happened
Wanted a ticket home
And he sent me a ticket
And 500 dollars
And I went home
I told him I would tell him
My tales some day
But never did
I learned so much
About my fellow Americans
And the strange vibe
That was 1975
And now it is too late
But I wanted to finally
Tell the world
In India, several years ago
A man falsely claimed his brother
Was dead so he could inherit the family assets,
The dead brother had to fight
To be declared legally not dead
And contest the will.
“The Association of the Living Dead”
Became a movement
Of thousands of people.
For in India apparently,
It was a thing to declare
Your relative is dead.
While reading Charles Bukowski poetry
On the metro ride home
Listening to Buddha bar music
On my oh too hip IPod
I begin to see myself as I was
Over 30 years ago when I was merely a bit player
A minor character in a Charles Bukowski poem
A wild young underemployed intellectual
Hanging out in dismal bars and dives all over Asia and California
Hanging with disreputable women and drunks and drinkers
And characters out of his kinds of haunts
A mad poet bard of the underground
A drunken poet in a drunken bum show
That nightly played in his head
Then one day I met the women of my dreams
And went down a different path
A long slow path to respectability
And now 30 years later
I am no longer a wild man
I am still a poet at heart
But I am now also a bureaucrat
In a button down suite
Doing the people’s business
Working for the Government
I’ve become the Man
Sometimes I wonder
Would I have been better off
Going down that another path
Would I have ended up
Somewhere else
Doing something else
Would I have been as happy
Would I have been as successful?
There is no answer that satisfies
The longing in my heart
For that wild thing
That still lurks beneath
It’s civilized cover
And I know that I am still
A mad poet at heart
Railing against the injustice of the world
As I work day by day in the belly of the great beast of State
I recall the ancient Chinese saying,
“Confucian during the day while Taoist rebel at night”
Playing out in my head and nightly dreams
In the true American Upper class patrician tradition
I close the book and look out the window
Get off the train, and walk slowly home
And realize I had no choice
But to take the path that I’ve trodden on
And so I put aside my misgivings
And say goodbye to my “Bukowskian”desires
For another night of domestic contentment
Was it worth it all to take the conventional path
And not take the bohemian road to hell and back
I look at my wife and realize
I had no choice, had no choice
But to follow her to the ends of the earth
And beyond by her side as we walked our path
Of shared destiny
Goodbye Charles Bukowski wherever you are
May I meet you in a bar in the next life
And figure out where we should have gone
This writing was accepted
for publication in the
108 page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “Prayers and Bullets”
Down in the Dirt, v181
(the March 2021 Issue)Order the paperback book:
If you’ve been around
If you’ve been around
As much as I have
Decades of memories
Fill up your brain’s hard drive
Remembering the dead
Misremembering the living
Seeing the past fly past
Everywhere you go
Thinking about things
You did and did not do
As your life begins to fade
Sinking into lost worlds past
Seeing the ghosts
Of all you knew
Whispering Soon you will
Be joining us
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And shear madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
Judged temporarily too crazy
To have a gun.
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be.
And so he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price.
Thanks to the NRA.
And so he was soon lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of insanity and probably drugs,
The lone sniper
A disgruntled young white man
In his 20’s
Sets up shop on top of a building.
He has a high-powered weapon
No doubt bought legally
An AR-15 the choice
Of the serious gun men everywhere.
And begins shooting
Into the July 4th parade
Killing six people
Injuring 30.
Before putting the gun down
And fleeing
Before the cops can find him.
The right-wing media
Goes to works
The pundits pontificate
24/7
It is not about the gun
It is about everything else
That is wrong with our society.
Guns don’t kill people
They proclaim
Guns are the price we pay
For our freedom.
Their demented answer
is more guns
More guns for everyone.
And sadly, nothing will be done
As the politicians offer
Useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead after all.
The madness will not stop
Until we figure out
How to stop
The killers in our midst.
There will be another shooting
No doubt before the day is done
Over 300 so far this year.
And that is just the way
It is in this day and age
Of America.
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
Note: I wrote this a year or so ago. This morning there was another mass shooting, this time at Brown University. Yesterday at Bondi Beach in Australia. The Australian Government promises to enact even stricter gun laws in response, in the US nothing but talk about prayers and thoughts for the victims, nothing can be done the politicians say. THe price of freedom is the occasional mass shooting according to the NRA.
My name, it is Nobody
No one cares who I am
I am just a nameless clone
In the cold unfeeling bureaucracy
Just one of the army
Of civilians who flood into and out of the city
Every day
A non-entity,
A ghost
A govbot
A cyber
A spook
A faceless automan
A bureaucrat
Just a grey suited cog in the machinery
And no one cares
No one knows who I really am
And I am legend
Everywhere and nowhere
Just the way this modern world
All shred of humanity
Crushed beneath
the cruel wheel of society
In the cold harsh world
There is no room anymore
For true human feelings
We are just robots,
clones, machines
And so I go to work
Put on my mask
And no one hears
my inner screams
And no one will ever care
My name, it is Nobody
No one cares who I am
I am just a nameless clone
In the cold unfeeling bureaucracy
Just one of the army
Of civilians who flood into and out of the city
Every day
A non-entity,
A ghost
A govbot
A cyber
A spook
A faceless automan
A bureaucrat
Just a grey suited cog in the machinery
And no one cares
No one knows who I really am
And I am legend
Everywhere and nowhere
Just the way this modern world
All shred of humanity
Crushed beneath the cruel wheel of society
In the cold harsh world
There is no room anymore
For true human feelings
We are just robots, clones, machines
And so I go to work
Put on my mask
And no one hears my inner screams
And no one will ever care
Order this writing that appears
in the one-of-a-kind anthology The Flickering Light
the Down in the Dirt Jan.-June 2019
issues & chapbooks collection book
(learn about this book, and order from Amazon online)
get the 366 page
Jan.-June 2019 Down in the Dirt
issue & chapbooks 6″ x 9″ ISBN# paperback book:
I like to start my day with a hot cup of coffee
I pound down the coffee
First thing I do every day as the dawning sun
Lights up my lonesome room
Yeah, but not just a simple cup of java Joe, but a God damn snarling sarcastic smarmy cup of coffee
I mean, – we are talking about an alcoholic, all speed ahead, always hot, always fresh, always there when I need it, angry, attitude talk to the hand Ztude, bad, bad assed, beats breaking, beatnik, bluesy, bitter, bitchy, bombs away, capitalistic, caffeinated up the ass, cinematic, communistic, Colombian grown, Costa Rican inspired, Cowabunga to the max, crazy assed, devilishly angelic, divine, divinely inspired, dyslexic, epic, extreme vetting, evil eye, expensive, erotic vision inducing, Ethiopian coffee house brewed, euphoric, freaky, freazoid, foxy, Frenched kissed, French brewed, funkified, foxy lady, graphic, GOD in my coffee, with Allah, Ganesh, Jesus, Kali, Buddha, Christians, Durga, Hindus, Mohamed, Jesus and Mo and their friend, the cosmic bar maid, Sai Babai, Shiva, Taoists, Zoroastrians, drinking my god damned coffee in Hell; growling, gnarly, happy, hard as ice, Hawaian blessed, high as a kite, hippie, hip, hipster, hip hoppy, hot as hell yet strangely sweet as heaven, jazzy, jealous, Kerouac approved, kick ass, kick my god damn ass to Tuesday, kick down the doors and take no prisoners, grown in the Vietnam highlands by ex-Vietcong, Guatemalan grown, kiss ass, illegal in every state, imported from all over the god damn world, insane, lovely, loony, lonely, lonesome, malodorous mean old rotten, motherfucking, nasty, narcotic, never whatever, never meh, never cold, not approved by the CIA, not approved by DHS, not approved for human consumption by the FDA, not your daddy’s sissified corporate cup of coffee, NOT DECAFE coffee, not your Denny’s truck driver weak as brown water cup of fake coffee, not your establishment friendly cup of coffee, Not your FBI coffee, Not FAKE Herbal coffee substitute, but a real cup of coffee, not your farmer brothers dinner crap, not made in America for Americans, not safe for work, not your Starbucks average expensive overpriced crappy corporate chain cup of coffee, Not pretentious, Not White House approved, not State Department safe, nuclear, Not Patriotic, operatic, Peets’s coffee approved, paranoid, pornographic, psychotic, pontific, politically aware, rapping, rhyming, right here, right now in River city, rock and roll up the Yazoo, sad, sadistic, sarcastic, sassy, satanic, schizoid, shitting, silly, sexy, smarmy, smelly, smooth, snarky, snarling, stupid, stinking, sweet as honey, sweat inducing, symphonic, Trump can’t handle this coffee, vengeful, Wagnerian, wicked, with nutmeg and cinnamon swirls, with a hint of stevia, with a hint of vanilla, with a hint of rum, with a hint of whisky, with a hint of cherry, with a hint of fruit overtones, with a hint of drugs spicing up the coffee, spendific, speeding, splendid, superior accept no substitutes, survived the Vietnam war, the Iraq war, the Afghan war, the first and Second Korean war, World War 11, the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on black people, the sexual revolution, Soulful as a summer’s night in MOTOWN- James Brown approved, TOP approved, Berkeley approved, the coffee that Jimmy Hendrix drank before he died, the coffee that Elvis drank on his last breakfast, the coffee that Barry White crooned as he drank his cup of coffee – and the coffee that made the white boy play stand up and play that funky music, the coffee that made Jonny B Goode play his guitar, and made Jonny bet the devil his soul after he drank his morning cup of righteous coffee and the coffee that make the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll, the coffee your mother warned you against drinking, the coffee that Napoleon drank when he became the Emperor of all Europe, the Coffee that Beethoven drank when he wrote the Ninth symphony, the coffee that Mozart drank as he wrote his last symphony, the coffee that Lincoln drank before he was killed, the Hemingway drank before he killed himself, the coffee that started the 60’s, and ended the 20th century, the coffee that Lenin drank as he plotted revolution, the coffee that Hitler and Stalin drank with FDR as they divided up the world after World War 11, the cup that JFK drank before he was blown away, the coffee Jerry drinks while driving in cars with random celebrities and political figures, the coffee that Jon Stewart drinks before he goes on an epic take down of some foolish politico, the cup of Arabic coffee that Sadaam drank the day he was executed, the coffee that GW and Cheney drank when they bombed Baghdad, the Indian cup of coffee that Bid Laden drank before 9-11 and just before the seals blew his ass to hell, the cup of coffee that Tiger Woods drank with his mistresses while playing a 3, 000 dollar round of golf at Sandy Lane golf course in Barbados, the last legal drug that does what drugs should do, the cup of coffee that Obama drank when he became President, Vietnamese, Vienna brew, wacky, whimsical, Whisky Tango Foxtrot, wild, weird, wonderful, WOW, Yabba dabba doo! Yada Yada yada Zappa’s favorite cup of cosmic coffee, and Zorro’s last cup of coffee, Good to the last drop rolled into one simple cup of hot coffee
As I pound down that first cup of coffee
And fire up my synaptic nerve endings with endless supplies
Of caffeine induced neuron enhancing chemicals
I face the dawning day with trepidation and mind-numbing fear
I turn on the TV and watch the smarmy newscasters in their perfect hair
Lying through their teeth about the great success the government is having Following the great leader’s latest pronouncements
I want to scream and shoot the TV and run out side Shouting
“Stop the world.
I want to get off this fucking crazy planet”
The earth does not care a whit about my attitude
It merely shrugs and moves around the Sun
In its appointed daily run
And I sit down
The madness dissipating a bit
And enjoy my second cup
Of heaven and hell
In my morning cup of Joe
get the 396 page poetry,
flash fiction, prose,
& artwork & photography
collection anthology
as a 6″ x 9″ ISBN#
paperback book:
Stairway To Heaven Bumper Sticker
Found Poem in Medford, Oregon
The fact
There is a stairway
To heaven
But a highway
To hell.
Tells you about
The expected traffic
Strangeness in the Air
There is a strangeness in the air
A sense of cosmic unease
Hangs silently in the purple crystalline sky
America woke up
And decided it was time
To quit following like lemmings
Over the Clift
As the pied piper chants
Stay the course, stay the course
We were like lemmings following him
Dying to save his wounded pride
Today there is that strange difference
In the air
As Americans woke up
And threw off their chains of fear
This writing was accepted for publication
in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “The Gravity
Of Imagination”
Down in the Dirt, v203 (1/23)
The fly on the wallpaper
In the CIA director’s office
Was not a real fly
He was an enemy spy drone
Secretly controlled remotely
Listening to all the secret conversations
Until the director smashed him
With a flyswatter
Then realized that it was a spy fly
He had dispatched to bug hell.
On the night of the blood red super full moon
I sat in an evil, depraved godforsaken bar
Drinking drams of demented, fermented dream dew
Washed down by endless rounds of whiskey
rum, tequila, vodka, soju and of course beer
drinking with my buddies the Jack Daniels Gang
Drinking my way to Hell and beyond
Just as fast as I could
twenty damn drinks too sober
Just an unhinged lunatic
Dreaming of howling at the full moon
Watching the world walk by
Looking at all the fine-looking babes
Walking by the street
Thinking wild, erotic thoughts
Of endless wild libertine passions
When into the bar
That din of cosmic depravity
Walked the most beautiful women
In the Universe
So wild, so free
So wonderfully alive
I did not know what to do
As this vision of delight
Sauntered through the bar
In a skin-tight leather pant
Looked so fine
That my eyeballs hurt
And finally, I had to say something
So, I gathered up my manly courage
And walked up to her
And she looked at me
And instantly bewitched my soul
With a devilish grin
I lost all reason
And became a raving lunatic
Unhinged lunatic
Howling at the blood red full moon
Foaming at the mouth
A wild, free werewolf
Howling at the lunatic light
Of the blood red blue full Moon
Hi there from Scars Publications (this letter is being sent from a bulk email address, so DO NOT REPLY to this Gmail address but to any scars.tv email address)… We wanted to let you know that Scars Publications released a 2025 annual collection book of select poetry, flash fiction, prose, & art from 2025 issues of cc’d magazine and Down in the Dirt magazine. Since your material was chosen from the past year of accepted materials for inclusion in this annual collection book anthology, we wanted to share this brand-new annual collection book, “Signs and Revelations”!
Links to see all the chosen writers and artists (and the titles of their work) in “Signs and Revelations”: https://scars.tv/2025collection/Signs_and_Revelations.htm
This is where you can also find out what material of yours appears in this annual collection book.
You can find this book online at scars.tv in multiple locations. Right now, it is linked on the main page at https://scars.tv, and it appears near the top of the list of choices on the books link (the book link is one click away from the main page, or also directly at https://scars.tv/books/) as well as at the “CD Books Sale” link with new releases at the top of the listing (direct link https://scars.tv/sale/) at Scars!
Also, by the end of the business week, or by Friday night CST, your writing in the writings section online will have a link to this collection book, so people can find links to this collection book on your writing pages in the writings section of http://scars.tv (at https://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers)...
Links for ordering this collection book appear on all of the links above, and will also appear in the writings section, so any of your writing in this collection book will also see a link to this collection book in the writings section!
These books are available from Amazon in the U.S. & Canada, the U.K., Europe, Australia, and Japan. (The link above is for U.S. sales.)
The Scars Publication book link for what material of yours appears in this collection book, and if you’d like, order a copy today (I hear they make great Christmas gifts)… Again, thank you for being a part of the Scars Publications community!
🔫 Trigger Warning: Guns, Drama, and the Crossfire of Culture
In South Korea’s electrifying 2024 drama Trigger (트리거), bullets don’t just shatter glass — they fracture society. The show imagines a near-future Korea where firearms are outlawed, but illegal guns mysteriously appear at citizens’ doorsteps. What follows is an unraveling of personal traumas, institutional failures, and the fragile line between justice and chaos.
In the United States, we don’t have to imagine such a future — it’s already here.
🎬 The Premise: Korea’s Fictional Gun Epidemic
Trigger stars Kim Nam-gil as Lee Do, an ex-sniper turned police officer, and Kim Young-kwang as Moon Baek, a morally unhinged arms broker. As guns filter into homes and hands, the nation teeters on civil collapse. Episode by episode, the series exposes the psychological “triggers” that lead ordinary people to pull the literal one.
Mass shootings, school violence, revenge fantasies, state corruption — Trigger isn’t escapist drama. It’s reflective fiction, wrapped in adrenaline.
🌏 A Tale of Two Nations
So why is gun violence far more prevalent in the U.S. than in South Korea?
🇺🇸 The American Arsenal
393 million guns in civilian hands — that’s more than one per person.
Constitutional protections for gun ownership have created a culture of normalization.
Over 600 mass shootings recorded in a single year.
Gun access is decentralized, often unregulated across states.
🇰🇷 South Korea’s Tight Control
Guns are considered dangerous tools, not personal rights.
Civilians must store firearms at local police stations.
Less than 1% of the population owns guns, legally.
Mandatory military service trains nearly all men in firearm use — but they return home without them.
Yet despite these controls, Korea isn’t untouched by violence. A handful of tragic shootings — Woo Bum-kon’s 1982 rampage among them — reveal that even in a nation with low gun access, psychological instability and institutional gaps can prove lethal.
💰 Market Forces: Legal vs Illegal Weapons
In the U.S., one can buy a legal firearm for as low as $300. In Korea, black-market guns are rare and can cost up to $5,000, with high personal risk. Illicit gun trade exists, but is heavily policed and socially condemned.
🧑🎤 Korean Immigrants in the U.S. — An Unwritten Chapter
Statistically, Korean Americans are not significantly represented in mass shooting incidents. In fact, they’re one of the least likely demographic groups to be involved, reinforcing the idea that access — not ethnicity — drives violence.
🎯 Gun Violence in K-Drama Storytelling
Beyond Trigger, Korean dramas use gun violence sparingly — but symbolically.
Title
Korean
Synopsis
Signal
시그널
Cold-case detectives solve crimes via a time-traveling radio; gun violence tied to police failure
Flower of Evil
악의 꽃
A man hides his criminal past; guns emerge as symbolic climax
Voice
보이스
Call center tracks serial killers; guns become emotional tools rather than casual weapons
Taxi Driver
모범택시
A revenge-driven vigilante offers justice to the exploited, wielding firearms only when morality permits
These dramas reflect Korea’s cultural unease with firearms. Guns are not props — they’re disruptions, signifiers of a social break.
📚 From Script to Society
If Trigger were adapted to the U.S., it might lose its allegorical sharpness — not because the themes are irrelevant, but because Americans have long stopped being shocked by a gun on the kitchen counter. Where Trigger plays with the idea of sudden armament as a societal infection, an American version might resemble a mirror too accurate — or a satire too close to truth.
Lee Do’s climactic choice — to hug a child holding a gun instead of shooting — is a poetic inversion of real-world responses. In a nation defined by “Stand Your Ground” laws, could empathy disarm the conflict?
✍️ Final Shot
Gun violence isn’t just a statistic. It’s a trigger — emotional, political, personal. And in blending fiction with reality, Trigger offers what satire does best: a chance to see ourselves from the outside and ask, “What have we normalized?”
🇺🇸 vs 🇰🇷 Gun Violence: A Comparative Lens
🔍 Why Is Gun Violence So Much Greater in the U.S. Than in Korea?
Access & Culture:
The U.S. has a deeply entrenched gun culture tied to constitutional rights (Second Amendment), self-defense, and individual liberty. South Korea, by contrast, treats gun ownership as a privilege, not a right.
Numbers Tell the Story:
U.S.: ~120 guns per 100 residents
South Korea: ~1.1 guns per 100 residents
Homicide Rates:
U.S.: ~4.7 intentional homicides per 100,000 people
South Korea: ~0.6 per 100,000
Mass Shootings: The U.S. has hundreds annually; Korea has had fewer than a dozen in the past 50 years
🎯 Military & Civilian Gun Use in Korea
Mandatory Military Service:
Nearly all Korean men undergo firearms training during their 18–24 months of service
Training typically includes rifles, not handguns
Shooting Ranges:
Civilian shooting is tightly controlled
Ranges like Myeongdong and Gangnam offer supervised shooting with strict ammo tracking
Tourists and locals can fire pistols, but only under staff supervision
🦌 Hunting Popularity: Korea vs U.S.
Metric
South Korea
United States
Legal hunting rifles
Allowed with a license
Widely available
Popularity
Niche, seasonal
Cultural tradition
Game hunted
Wild boar, pheasant
Deer, turkey, elk, waterfowl
Participation rate
Very low
~8.4% of the population hunts
🔥 Major Mass Shootings in Korea
While rare, Korea has experienced a few notable incidents:
Year
Incident
Firearm Source
1982
Woo Bum-kon rampage (56 killed)
2007
Gangneung shooting (3 killed)
Hunting rifle
2011
Marine Corps shooting (4 killed)
Military-issued rifle
2015
Army base shooting (2 killed)
The Korean Times Headline put the Woo Bom Kon Rampage as “Drunken GI Goes on Rampage and Blows Himself.” Dropping the up makes the headline absurdly funny to foreign readers!
Most firearms were obtained through military or police channels, not civilian ownership
Guns in K-dramas often signal emotional trauma, revenge, or institutional collapse, rather than everyday crime
트리거 (Teurigeo) — Romanized as “Trigger,” it literally means “trigger,” but metaphorically evokes the emotional and societal tipping points explored in the series.
🔥 Overall Synopsis
Set in a near-future South Korea where firearms are banned, Trigger imagines a chilling scenario: illegal guns begin flooding the country, delivered anonymously to ordinary citizens. The story follows:
Lee Do (Kim Nam-gil), a former military sniper turned police officer, haunted by trauma and committed to justice.
Moon Baek (Kim Young-kwang), a charismatic arms broker with a messianic complex and a plan to destabilize society.
As gun violence escalates, the drama interrogates moral ambiguity, systemic failure, and the psychological “triggers” that push people to the edge.
📺 Episode-by-Episode Breakdown (Highlights)
Episode
Summary
1
A mentally unstable student, Yoo Jung-tae, receives an illegal firearm and goes on a shooting spree. Lee Do begins investigating the source of the weapons.
2
Multiple subplots emerge: a sex offender receives a gun, a bullied student is coerced into theft, and Lee Do meets Moon Baek.
3
A high-octane chase and shootout reveal Lee Do’s military past. Moon Baek’s motives remain murky.
4
Mrs. Oh, a grieving mother, receives a gun and contemplates revenge. Lee Do confronts Jeong-man’s gang.
5
Moon Baek’s backstory unfolds—he was trafficked as a child and radicalized. His plan to destabilize Korea becomes clearer.
6
A school shooting orchestrated by Moon Baek shocks the nation. Gyu-jin and Yeong-dong, bullied students, become pawns in his scheme.
7–9
The conspiracy deepens. Lee Do uncovers ties to an international arms syndicate. Moon Baek manipulates public sentiment.
10
At a mass rally, Moon Baek tries to provoke nationwide violence. Lee Do chooses empathy over vengeance, embracing a child with a gun. The image goes viral, halting the chaos.
🎭 Cast List
Actor
Role
Description
Kim Nam-gil
Lee Do
Ex-sniper turned cop, stoic and haunted
Kim Young-kwang
Moon Baek
Arms dealer with a dual personality
Woo Ji-hyun
Yoo Jung-tae
Student with mental illness
Park Hoon
Koo Jeong-man
Gang handler
Kim Won-hae
Cho Hyeon-sik
Police sergeant, father figure to Lee Do
Gil Hae-yeon
Oh Gyeong-suk
Grieving mother
Jang Dong-joo
Jang Sun-gyeong
Guest role (Ep. 1–4)
Park Yoon-ho
Park Gyu-jin
Bullied student
Others
Various guest roles
Including gang members, police chiefs, and victims
💬 Notable Quotes
Moon Baek: “All I did was hand them a gun. It’s up to them whether they pull the trigger.”
Lee Do: “Wouldn’t pulling a 5-millimeter trigger in pursuit of revenge spread fear in the minds of many?”
Captain Jo: “How did you bear this pain at such a young age?” — Lee Do: “It was all thanks to you, Captain.”
These lines encapsulate the show’s moral tension and emotional depth.
📚 Literary Reputation & Themes
Critical Acclaim: Praised for its bold premise and emotional resonance. Critics highlight its refusal to offer easy answers and its exploration of societal collapse through individual trauma.
This is the third time I have entered the Writer’s Digest annual chapbook challenge. The challenge was to write one poem per day in November then select the best 20 for the chapbook contest. Here are my poems.
Index
November 1 Declaration Poem
Favorite Childhood Object
Problem Solvers Problems
Mike Johnson Ain’t No Christian, Jack
Dreams Of a Better World Problems
49-Year Love Story
Barbados Calling Me
Hometown Calling Me
Gun Ghosts Speak Up
Saga of Big Daddy
Attack of Neighbor Bob Terrorist
Back in the Old Days, Trump Would Never Have President
Big Daddy, aka Sam Adams
was the man
who always had a plan.
He was an ex-University of Arkansas
and Dallas Cowboy player
who had worked for the CIA?
The agency fired him
for murdering enemies of the state
at home in contravention of agency rules,
but they retained
his services from time to time.
He supplemented his CIA payments
And bar income from money laundering,
drug smuggling, human smuggling
and other assorted crimes, big and small.
Big Daddy had lots of enemies
Many people wanted him dead
Relatives of his many victims
Of the covert wars, he waged
On behalf of his nation.
He was hoping to stay out of trouble
But one day trouble found him.
He moved to Bangkok, Thailand
Where he opened the Cosmos Bar
With the assistance of his manager.
Kuhn Lek, and her uncle
The police chief and his cousin
The biggest drug kingpin
In the Northern Triangle.
The Cosmos Bar
Became world-famous
The spot to go to is Bangkok.
Located in Soi Cowboy
It was an after-hours club
Secretly owned by the Thai police,
One of the few places
They served alcohol 24/7.
It was filled with
Criminals, drug dealers, government agents
Journalists, prostitutes, pimps,
spies, counter-spies, sex tourists,
tourists, undercover cops,
and assorted other low-lives,
From all over the known world.
Had the best-looking woman
The best-looking travesties too,
The best beer, wine, and liquor list
In the city,
And the best burgers in town.
It looked like the Bar
In Star Wars
Filled with probable human life forms
And perhaps a space alien or two.
One day a mysterious Korean woman
Came into the bar asking for him
By his universal nickname
“Big Daddy”
Maria Lee was a Korean-American
Drop-dead gorgeous woman
Who was on the lam
from her rich Korean husband.
She had one question for Big Daddy.
“The word in the Korean community
is that you are a man
who knows how to launder money.
Can you launder 50 million dollars?”
“Hmm for a fee.”
“What’s the fee?”
“A night of wild sex with you.”
“Done, but only after the deed is done.”
She smiled sweetly.
He called his underworld contacts
and they laundered the 50 million dollars
and he gave her the bank receipt.
He had parked the money
in a Cayman Islands account.
That night
she honored her agreement with Big Daddy.
The next morning
while drinking his cup of coffee,
she revealed that she had poisoned him
because she did not want anyone to know
about the transaction
and her affair with Big Daddy.
She smiled,
“Thanks, Big Daddy,
I liked last night,
You are a real stud, Big Daddy,
Perhaps that is why you are called, ‘Big Daddy’
But hey it is nothing personal, Big Daddy.”
After all, it was just a business deal in the end.
And that was
how trouble found Big Daddy.
Attack of Neighbor Bob Terrorist
One day
A man fell.
A rabbit hole.
On his computer,
Lost in thought.
when an odd event occurs,
the event that led.
to his untimely death.
He did not hear.
The footsteps,
Of the white
Christian nationalist
Domestic terrorist next door.
Who took exception?
To Sam’s living there
As Sam was not white
And an atheist “libtard.”
And his neighbor
Was a white supremacist.
Christian Nationalist.
His neighbor Bob.
Came at Sam with a chainsaw.
And struck him in the heart.
Killing him instantly.
Then using a torch
To burn the body.
Before using dynamite
To blow up the house
Despite the rain clouds
Outside.
All streamed live.
On his wifi.
trump jpg
Back in the Old Days, Trump Would Never Have President
Back in the old days
when political decisions
were made by insiders.
White men of power
who gathered.
in the proverbial
smoke-filled rooms.
smoking menthol cigarettes
and cigars
drinking whiskey
martinis and beer
while enjoying a steak dinner
and plotting political plots
in such a world
Trump would not have been.
allowed to become President.
as the political elites
would not allow.
such a Buffon
from taking power
They would despise.
such a vulgar low-class
new money guy.
Lucky in love, unlucky in cards
There is an adage
That sums up my life so far
One can be lucky in love
But unlucky in cards
That sums it up nicely
I have been lucky in love
Met and married
The girl of my dreams
Dreamed of meeting her
For eight years
Then she came into my life
Became my wife
But I have never been
Lucky in cards
I mean I have played
Poker with friends
But always lost
Won a little bit of gambling
But usually lost more
Then I won
Eventually gave up
Just not fun anymore
As I lost the gambling fever
Yet to get a jackpot
But then I think
I hit the jackpot of love
And that has made
All the difference
President Trump on Vermin AI Poem
A leader of a nation, a speaker of lies.
A spreader of hatred, a divider of ties
A mocker of the weak, a lover of the strong
A builder of walls, a singer of wrong
A hater of the different, a scorner of the same
A caller of the vermin, a blamer of the blame
An ignorer of the facts, a denier of the truth
A creator of the chaos, a destroyer of the youth
A loser of the election, a claimer of the fraud
A refuser of the concession, a violator of the law
An inciter of the violence, a fomenter of the storm
I next encountered the divine
Many years later in Berkeley, California
I had gone home to be with my Mother
While taking leave from my job
in the Foreign Service
I had two weeks there by myself
My wife came later
near the end of the trip
Every morning I woke up
Had my coffee, and breakfast
Did yoga while listening to music
And looking out at the garden
Then spoke to my mother
Who was sliding into dementia?
Day by day losing her reason
Then I would go out
And explore the city
Go to a museum
Go to one neighborhood
And just be there
Rediscovering the Bay area
After years of being away
Having dinner with old friends
Seeing movies etc
Every morning a black cat came to visit
The cat was friendly and waited for me
And then would join me in my morning rambles
Following me to the bus stop
I started talking to the black cat
He looked at me with a spark of divinity
In his dark eyes
I called him the cosmic cat
He seemed to like that
He would look at me
And I opened up to me
Told the cat all my dark secrets
As I walked the streets
Of the old neighborhood
Every morning and every evening the cat
Would be there to greet me
And to carry out our endless conversation
Then I had to leave
And in our final conversation
I asked the cosmic cat
Say, Cat are you just a cat
Or are you a demonic cat
Are you possessed by God?
Or by Satan
The cat looked at me
And I realized that God
Was indeed residing in the cat
But that god was residing everywhere
All I had to do was open my mind
And the rest would follow
So I said Goodbye to the cosmic cat
And he purred and came up to me
And I felt the comforting presence
Of the divine spirit of God
As I said goodbye to the cosmic cat
And said goodbye to my mother
As this was the last time
That we would be able to talk
I told my mother about the cosmic cat
She smiled and said that the cat
was there for me and her
to comfort us both in our hour of need
and that the cat was indeed
a cosmic cat
Carrying the light
We must carry the light
It is not so bright
Embracing the light with my wife
Still the center of my life
We both fear the dark
Nothing more to avoid strife.
Carrying the light
until the end of time
chasing away
the darkness that haunts.
my soul.
Presidential Election Cycle
The U.S. Presidential election cycle
Is a long-drawn-out affair.
Starts the day after the last election.
And ends a month after the votes.
Have been certified,
and the winner is determined.
As usual
Twenty candidates are announced.
For the election cycle
A year or so before
The actual vote.
The most important part
The donors chose.
Which candidates will get?
Their money and support
In the so-called invisible primary.
By January of an election year
Five to six serious contenders
Have emerged.
Battling it out nightly on the news
As the pundits weigh in
And voters begin to choose.
on multiple Super Tuesdays.
The candidates race across.
The land
Offering their vision,
Their hopes and fears.
As the public begins
To wake up
And start to choose.
The game is on foot.
with almost weekly debates
where the candidates
try not to make fools.
of themselves.
It continues until the summer.
When the conventions nominate
Someone as the standard bearer.
The losers concede.
But the intra-party feuding
Does not end.
In the end
There will be one person.
Left standing.
At the end of the roughest
Most competitive race
In the world.
That determines.
The fate of nations.
Voters in the end
Making the final call
As the presidential election season
Comes to a final decision point.
Berkeley Time Travels
I grew up in Berkeley, California
In the turbulent fabled late ’60s
And in Berkeley in those days
Time seems to stand at a standstill.
On the corner of Dwight and Telegraph
Across from People’s Park
It seems to be always May 1969
With the man
Down the street
Oppressing the hippies
On the street
As they smoked their weed
Dodging the bored cops
Who looked the other way?
If they did not partake
And then I went to college
In the valley
As I drove into Stockton
I felt I was traveling again.
In time
Back to the fabled ’50s
Stockton was also.
Stuck in a time warp of sorts.
And as I left the Bay area.
And traveled the world.
I would come back.
To that corner
And just be there.
Stuck in May 1969
Again
Marveling at the changes
That had and had not occurred.
To the corner of the land
Forever stuck in time
And space
Last Night I could not
Get to sleep at all
Last night I could not
Sleep
As my mind wandered
Down dark rabbit holes
Of fevered imagination
At 0 dark hundred hours
The wild things came out
To play
Torturing me
Until the sunrise
Blasted them
Back into the dark
Corners of my mind.
And the nightmares
Faded away
With the dawning sun.
BIng AI Love Poem
Angela Lee, you are the light of my life.
You fill my days with joy and my nights with dreams.
You are the reason I smile and the reason I breathe.
i am again participating in the Poetry Super Highway Free E Book Exchange. My book, “Mozart Blues” will be available for downloading from the PSH web page on December 1 for 24 hours (from Mid-night PST time). Please consider downloading my book and others on December 1, 2023.
Acknowledgment
These poems have been published in the following journals and elsewhere and were written between 2016 and 2023. They were published in.
Down in the Dirt, Spillwords Poems, Ink Pantry, Synchronized Chaos, Former People Poems as well as on my website, The World according to Cosmos (https:/theworldaccordingtocomos.com) and All Poetry, Fan Story and Writing.com
This chapbook is part of the Poetry Superhighway’s Annual Poetry E-Book Free for All event.
The mission of the Poetry Superhighway is to expose as many people to as many other people’s poetry as possible.
What?
A project in which your poetry e-books will be freely available to all interested humans on Earth for 24 hours.
Throughout November we will collect e-books from poets and writers interested in participating.
Then on December 1st, for 24 hours, links to all of the e-books will go live. For 24 hours anyone can download, for free, as many of these e-books as they like…a poetry e-book free-for-all.
How?
To participate, read the guidelines below and then click on our Online Submission form. That’s it. It’s simple. By doing so, your e-book will be included.
The E-Book has to be written by you.
E-books should be in PDF Format for universal compatibility with anyone’s computer.
If you have an e-book in Microsoft Word or another format, please convert it to PDF. One way to do this (if you don’t know how) is to visit the website http://www.freepdfconvert.com/. From there you will be allowed to select the file on your computer which will be uploaded and e-mailed back to you in PDF format.
When creating your e-book file, please keep it smaller than 2 megabytes.
Once you’ve created your e-book (not before), click on our Online Submission Form to join in!
Do not fill out the form and then e-mail us your e-book later. Please fill out the form and use it to upload your e-book to us.
We do not accept e-books or submissions by e-mail. The only way to join in is by clicking on the Online Submission Form below.
On December 1 at Midnight (the evening of November 30), people will be free to download any or all of the titles and your poetry will be freely, electronically, traveling all over the world. This web page will go offline 24 hours later at Midnight on December 2nd.
We will also list your e-book and description on this web page along with the link to your website for all to see.
More Down in the Dirt Publications2023/01/14
Down in the Dirt Updates2022/08/22
More Down in the Dirt Publication Update2021/08/14
More Down in the Dirt Publication Update
The following are now available on Down in the Dirt’s Forbidden library. Order information at the end
The end of the email.
Association of the Living Dead India
John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller
In India, several years ago
A man falsely claimed his brother
Was dead so he could inherit the family assets,
The dead brother had to fight
To be declared legally not dead
And contest the will.
“The Association of the Living Dead”
Became a movement
Of thousands of people.
For in India apparently,
It was a thing to declare
Your relative is dead.
I never thought
That the US would have
To form their own
“The Association of the Living Dead”
Until this week.
The cyber ninjas
In their infamous non-forensic audit
In the 2016 Arizona election
Claimed that hundreds of dead people
Had voted.
They gave their list of the alleged dead voters
To the attorney general
Who contact all 300 dead people
Found that 299 of the 300 were in fact
Not dead and none of them knew
That unnamed political operatives
Were claiming that they were dead.
The one dead voter was alive
when he voted early.
But died before election day
Thus making his vote not valid
But there was no fraud involved
As he was alive when he voted.
Perhaps they need to form
The “association of the living dead”
To fight for the right of the non-dead people
To continue to vote and receive other government benefits?
What a sad commentary
On the farcical nature
Of contemporary life
In these disunited States of America.
The Secret Fly Drone
John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller
The fly on the wallpaper
In the CIA director’s office
Was not a real fly
He was an enemy spy drone
Secretly controlled remotely
Listening to all the secret conversations
Until the director smashed him
With a flyswatter
Then realized that it was a spy fly
He had dispatched to bug hell.
Madmen with Guns Madness
John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And shear madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
Judged temporarily too crazy
To have a gun.
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be.
And so he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price.
Thanks to the NRA.
And so he was soon lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of insanity and probably drugs,
The lone sniper
A disgruntled young white man
In his 20’s
Sets up shop on top of a building.
He has a high-powered weapon
No doubt bought legally
An AR-15 is the choice
Of the serious gun men everywhere.
And begins shooting
Into the July 4th parade
Killing six people
Injuring 30.
Before putting the gun down
And fleeing
Before the cops can find him.
The right-wing media
Goes to works
The pundits pontificate
24/7
It is not about the gun
It is about everything else
That is wrong with our society.
Guns don’t kill people
They proclaim
Guns are the price we pay
For our freedom.
Their demented answer
is more guns
More guns for everyone.
And sadly, nothing will be done
As the politicians offer
Useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead after all.
The madness will not stop
Until we figure out
How to stop
The killers in our midst.
There will be another shooting
No doubt before the day is done
Over 300 so far this year.
And that is just the way
It is in this day and age
Of America.
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
Janet Kuypers
Apr 6, 2023, 5:15 AM (6 days ago)
Hi there from Down in the Dirt (this letter is being mailed from a bulk email alternative email address – DO NOT reply to this email; all responses to this magazine should be sent to Down in the Dirt <dirt@scars.tv>). We wanted to let you know that Scars Publications released a collection book of the January-April 2023 issues of Down in the Dirt magazine. Since your material (writing/artwork) APPEARS in these issues, that means your material appears in this issue collection book, and we wanted to let you know about this brand-new issues collection book titled “Forbidden Library”!
And you can find this book anytime at Scars in MULTIPLE locations. Now it is linked on the main page at http://scars.tv, and it appears at the top of the list of choices on the books link (one click away from the main page, or also directly at http://scars.tv/books/) as well as at the top of the “CD Books Sale” link (direct link http://scars.tv/sale/) at Scars!
Also, by the end of the business week this week, the database with your accepted writings should (when you go to your accepted writings) have a link to this collection book that your writing is in, so people can find links to this collection book on your writing pages in the writings section of http://scars.tv (at http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers)…
Links for ordering this collection book appear on all of the links above, and will also appear in the writings section too, so any of your writing in this collection book will also see a link to this collection book in the writings section too!
Currently, these books are available directly through the Amazon affiliate printer in the U.S., the U.K., and Europe – and even Japan and Australia, and it ships to India too! (the above link is for U.S. orders.)
So check out the Scars Publication links to see what material of yours appears in these collection books, and if you’d like, order a copy today (I hear they make great gifts!), and again, thank you for being a part of the Down in the Dirt community!
April 23rd, April 24th and April 25th, 2022 Poems2022/04/26
April 22, 2022 Poems2022/04/23
April 21, 2022 Poems2022/04/22
April 18 to April 20, 2022 Poems2022/04/21
April 16 and 17, 2022 Poems2022/04/18
April 14 to April 15, 2022 Poems2022/04/18
April 12 to April 13, 2022 Poems2022/04/18
April 9-11, 2022 Poems2022/04/17
April 8, 2022 Poems2022/04/09
April 7th Poems2022/04/08
April 6th, 2022 Poems2022/04/08
April 5 2022, Poems2022/04/08
April 4th 2022, Poems2022/04/08
2022 April Poetry Madness April 1 to 3 poems2022/04/04
Ten Best April 2021 Poems2021/05/03
April 25 to April 30 2021 Poems2021/05/02
April 20 to April 25th 2021 Poems2021/04/25
April 16 to April 20 2021 Poems2021/04/20
April 10 to April 14 2021 Poems2021/04/14
April 1 to April 5 Poems2021/04/10
April 6 to April 9 Cosmos’s Poetry 2021/04/10
Cosmos 2020 April Poetry Part Two2020/04/16
Cosmos’s 2020 April Poetry Part One2020/04/02
April 2018 Poems2019/05/05
2017 April Poems2019/05/05
April 2019 Poems2019/04/04
Index
April 1—Make a mistake! (Write about a mistake you’ve made and/or literally make one (or more) in the poem!)
April 2—Breaking the ice (Incorporate “ice breaking” literally or metaphorically in a poem.)
April 3—Poem in response to an animal, or an animal video!
April 4—A music poem
April 5—Give in to a temptation!
April 6—A poem that could be a guided meditation…
April 7—A poem of thanks
April 8—A praise poem
April 9—A grief poem
April 10—Somehow use the number ten
April 11—Poem that defines a real or made-up word
April 12—A letter poem
April 13—A diary entry
April 14—Coming-of-age poem
April 15—A book report
Korea Springtime Haiku
Korean springtime
Billowing yellow dust//
Snowing cherry trees
Should have run for office
My slogan would have been
“Don’t make a mistake
Vote for jake
He ain’t no fake
he ain’t no flake
He ain’t on the take
he ain’t on the make
He ain’t no rake
He ain’t to snake
Everything is at stake
Even a tax break
So, have a steak
Remember to vote for Jake
And everything’s Jake”
Sam Adams felt shy
And lonely at times
He was not very good
At small talk
Not able to easily interact
With strangers
Never really learned
How to break the ice
In social settings
One day
At a party
He had reluctantly gone to
At the insistence
Of his roommates
He met his fate
She was so opposite
Of him
Vivacious, charming
Charismatic
Extroverted
Outgoing
and tres sexy
And a champion schmoozer
She told Sam
She would be his mentor
And taught him
How it was done
He soon learned
The art of making conversation
With almost anymore
And over time
Became a champion schmoozer
As well
And their romance flourished
And they were married
Three months later
Sam often thanked
His roommates
For dragging him
To that party
On that date
He met his fate
And now you know
The rest of the story.
April 3 is an animal or animal video!
cat jpg
the Demon Cat
lived in Medford, Oregon
He was mean as hell
Vicious temper
Mean hearted
As only demon cats can be
He lived with an old man
And his daughter
In an old house.
The demon cat
Hated the daughter
Who hated the demon cat.
The demon cat
Would rush at her
Hissing making her back off
Or leave the house.
One day the daughter
Told her father
Either get rid
Of the demon cat
Or I will have to leave you.
The old man
Smiled at his daughter,
Said,
Well good luck
on your move
The cat is staying.
The demon cat
Looked at the daughter
With hate in his black eyes,
Smiling at his victory.
The daughter moved out
Refused to step foot
In the house
As long as the demon cat
Was around.
Bonus Demonic Cat Haiku
evil cat
The demonic cat
Lived in Medford Oregon –
Dreaming death to humans
April 4—A musical poem
Tower of Power
<iframe width=”1366″ height=”768″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/egMRKLb1rY0″ title=”Tower of Power Down To The Night Club Bump City Live” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” allowfullscreen></iframe>
My favorite music
Has always been funk
Make The tower of power
The best funk band
of them all
Formed in the East Bay
in the turbulent 60s
Still going strong
Almost 50 years later!
Their love song
You’re still a young man
Is perhaps the greatest
Make out song
of all time
Of all times
First song
I slowed danced to
Back in high school
A song I played
To seduce my wife
I wonder how many babies
were conceived because
of this classic soul song
Another classic song
“What is hip
Which poised
An unanswered question
And inspired this triolet
What is love,
tell me if you know
Love is what it is
Do you know what love is, Joe?
What is love, tell me if you know
And how can you make it grow?
Madness is what it does
What is love, tell me if you know
Love is what it is
Based loosely on the classic Tower of Power Song, “what is hip?”
What Is Hip Lyrics
[Verse 1]
So ya wanna dump out yo’ trick bag
Ease on in a hip thang
But you ain’t exactly sure what is hip
So you started to let your hair grow
Spent big bucks on your wardrobe
Somehow, ya know there’s much more to the trip
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
[Verse 2]
You became a part of a new breed
Been smoking’ only the best weed
Hangin’ out with the so-called “Hippie set.”
Seen in all the right places
Seen with just the right faces
You should be satisfied, but it ain’t quite right
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
Down on my knees
Oh, heart in hand
I was accused of being too young
But I’m not so young
I could make you happy
I’m not a bad man
You’re too young to love (If you and I could be together)
You’re too young to love (I’ll never never leave you alone baby)
You’re too young Ooo Ooo (No I won’t sweet lady)
Don’t waste your time
The damage is done
You see that you were wrong
You wake up wondering just
How well I’ve done
Well I’ve done alright
Yes there are some girls but you know
I dropped them on sight
Just for you
Because I love you
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
(Someday you’ll understand just what it means when a man
Comes to you with his little heart in his hands
Just to love you)
Don’t waste your time
You better listen to me
Sayin that I’m loving you yeah hey now baby tryin to tell
You that it’s you you you you you you you you talkin to you
Baby, I’ll never never never never I’ll never never do you
No wrong no no lady if you would check my stuff out one time haha
Just to hold you, to squeeze you and all I wanna do is to
Get next to you and please please please you baby
See where I’m coming from!
<iframe width=”1366″ height=”768″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/rtE4V6YxKZ8″ title=”You're Still a Young Man (Remastered)” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” allowfullscreen></iframe>
Written by legendary sax players Emilio Castillo and Stephen Kupka, the song portrays a young man at the wrong end of a breakup. The situation is bleak because his lover pins the break-up on an age difference. In an interview with Songfacts Castillo said:
It’s based on a true story. I had a girlfriend that was six years older than me. I was 18, she was 24 and that’s actually what happened. She had kind of cut me loose because of the age difference thing and the whole plea in the story is the young guy’s saying, ‘I’m not too young, I’m not wasting my time and I do love you as a man can truly love a woman.’”
The song would go on to be the band’s first major hit defining their sound with a prominent horn section inspired by Curtis Mayfield:
“On that album, there’s a song called “A Woman’s Love” that starts with beautiful trumpets high. When we heard that we wanted to write a song with a great trumpet intro like that. – TowerofPower.com
April 5—Give in to temptation!
Henry Kissinger once wrote
Power is the best aphrodisiac
Perhaps that is why
All over the world
Political and business leaders
Refuse to retire
Still lusting after power
And the perks of power
Which includes sexual temptation
The corruption of being famous
And the belief that the rules
Do not apply to them
That they are above the law
That they are the law
Clinging to power
At all cost
Thinking that they are immune
To the laws of political gravity
That applies to ordinary mortals
That they are the masters of the universe
That they are almost gods.
But sometimes the corruption
And temptation of power
Becomes too much.
And they become ensnared
In tawdry sex scandals.
When you are rich and famous
You have a lot of friends
Until you stumble
And find yourself
On the downward spiral
Your friends forget
They ever knew you
ghost your calls
disappear from your life
The knifes come out
Everyone wants to take
You down
especially those who
used to kiss your ass
as you were rising
through the heights
of power
Smiling as they stab you
In the proverbial back
The down and out
Have no friends left
the homeless
are invisible
have no name
And many people,
Who thought they were gods
End up serving time
In prison.
That is the nature
Of power.
It corrupts you
Then turns on you
Destroying you
In the end.
April 6—your happy place meditation
When the news of the day
All the storm gloom and doom
Gives you the blue
Remember this
It will all be over
It does not mean a thing
As Mr. Natural taught us
It doesn’t meet s……
So when the news blues
Comes over you
Turn off your TV
Silence your phone
Turn off your computer
Meditate
Take deep-breaths
Following the example
Of the buddha cat
Tune in
Drop deep inside
Your head
Chanting
Om shanti om shanti
Om om om
Imagine yourself
In your happy place
A nice tropical breath
Of warm scented air
By a beach
With the sounds
Of a steel drum band playing
A rum punch in your hand
Barbados calling you
And most importantly
The love of your life
Is next to you
And you smile at her
And everything’s Jake
Make no mistake
Just go with the flow
Embrace your happiness.
April 7—A poem of thanks
Everyday
Every moment
Every minute
Every second
I thank the love of Gods
For having brought you
Into my life
Thankful you found me
And saved my life
When you became my wife
That date
I met my fate
Based loosely on my true love story. I first dreamt of meeting her in 1974, she walked out of my dreams into my life in 1982, we got married seven weeks later and have been together now 41 years.
April 8—A praise poem
Every day I wake up
And praise the love Gods
For having brought you
Into my life.
I praise them
For having sent
An angel.
And I praise you
The most wonderful woman
In the whole world.
Based loosely on my true love story. I first dreamt of meeting her in 1974, she walked out of my dreams into my life in 1982, we got married seven weeks later and have been together now 41 years.
April 9—A grief poem
Gun Grief
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
And sadly, around the world
But not as much
As the US
Remains the mass murder
capital of the world.
We are number one in gun murders
Because we have so many guns
25 percent of the world’s guns.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And sheer madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be
And so he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price
And so he became lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of drugs and insanity
Went out determined to kill
As many people as he could
And he did.
And on this day
We all experience grief
Sadness at the madness
And anger at the feckless
Politicians who shed crocodile tears
Offering useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead
Because guns killed them
So enough no more
Let’s get up
From our chairs
And demand action
Rather than give into
Grief and despair
But sadly
Nothing will change
There will be another
Mass shooting
And another
And another
That is just the way
It is in this day and age
Of America
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
Bonus Gun Dizaine
There are too many guns around, just no fun
Now there are too many people dying
The problem is simply too many guns
Just too many politicians lying
Too many people are now gun ghosts crying
As a result, there is much sadness
There is no end in sight to this madness
Politicians offering prayers
Nothing will be done to stop this badness
We will continue to have dark nightmares
The Dizain is an ancient French form of ten lines with eight or ten syllables per line and a mirrored rhyme scheme of ababbccdcd, as described and demonstrated in the following links:
Dizain is a decastich, the whole poem is made up of a single Ballade Supreme stanza, a 10-line stanza without an envoy. Lines of 8 or 10 syllables each with a rhyme scheme ababbccdcd.
Dizain for the evolutionary
socialist dream of edouard Bernstein
by DC Martinson
Sleep no more, you working classes,
don’t fight the pulse to congregate.
Rise, you the power of the masses,
and from the grip of wealth luxate
your innate dignity.
Don’t spill blood like those in power,
don’t prattle like those who cower
behind the stench of flame and flag;
for those who live in the tower
will fall: we will not have to drag.
month or two, we’re going to start checking out a new form every week or two.
Dizain Poems
The dizain gets us back in the French form domain, which as regular readers know is a favorite of mine. This particular form was a favorite of 15th and 16th-century French poets, but it has also been employed in English by the likes of Philip Sidney and John Keats.
Here are the basic rules of the dizain:
One 10-line stanza
10 syllables per line
Employs the following rhyme scheme: ababbccdcd
Bonus Gun Septolet
guns
blazing
everywhere
death following
mass shooting
many
ghosts
dead
crying
no more death
politicians
offering
useless
thoughts
T1his week’s event is to write a SEPTOLET POEM. You may use the event’s picture or your one. ============================================================================== SEPTOLET is an American variation of haiku. The origin is French but otherwise unknown. First stanza 1/2/3/4/3/2/1 and second stanza 1/2/3/4/3/2/1. It is an unrhymed poem that consists of fourteen words divided in two stanzas. Both stanzas deal with the same thought and create a picture with words. You may use art with your Septolet. The first letter of first word in each stanza begins with a capital letter. Align left. Period at end of each stanza. No proper nouns. Give your poem a title. ============================================================================== septolet origen and form ============================================================================== shadow poetry.com ============================================================================== all poetry.com ======================================================================
April 10—Somehow use the number ten
The rule of ten
This applies to so many aspects
Of life
It goes like this
For every 100 people
Who wants to write a novel
Ten will finish it
Of those ten
Ten percent will publish it
Of those ten
Ten percent will make some money
Of those ten
Ten percent will make a living
Of those ten
Ten percent will be a best-seller
In other words
In a land of 350 million people
There are probably only 3,500
bestselling authors
the rule of ten applies
to the drama of the thousands of actors
only a few movie stars
Of the thousands of musicians
only a few superstars
modeling – only a few supermodels
to sports only a few hundred NFL players
out of millions who played the game
to politics only one president
out of thousands who want to be
the rule of ten applies
to life in general
most people fail
in achieving their life goals
but one should not give up
because who knows
you could be the one
who wins in the end
despite the rule of ten.
The Scumbagery of Politicians Never Fails to Astonish Me
The scumbagery of politicians
Never fails to astonish me.
Magaret Taylor Green
George Santos
Kevin Mc Carthy.
Senator Ted Cruz
The Tennessee Republican
legislative leaders
Are among the numerous offenders.
And of course
The former guy
Who is a poster child
The definition of scumbagery.
Scumbagery – the actions of a scumbag – a vile, despicable self-centered egotistical sociopathic asshole, often a political or business leader who should know how to behave better
Letter to God
Dear God,
I am writing to you
On Easter Sunday
With a plea
For your divine intervention.
Please Dear God
Spare us the spectacle
Of a Biden-Trump rematch.
The country and world
May not survive
such a revenge match
Retire both of these old men now
Take them off the proverbial board
Take them both with you
Give them your divine punishment
Or reward as you see fit.
And in the case of the former guy
Shut him up
Silence his evil, mendacious voice
Once and for all
So the voters can choose
a better leader
among the 350 million Americans
for these dark and dangerous times.
Diary entry
Today I woke up
Feeling full of energy Love
and Happiness
drinking my morning coffee
watching the dismal news unfold
I turn it off and listen
to Debussy piano music
realizing that it was Easter
I gave thanks to the Gods
For bringing me my Angela
Who saved my soul
So many years ago.
April 14—Coming-of-age poem
My life began
When I turned 26
And married
the lady of my dreams,
eight years
after first seeing her
in my dreams
the date that we met
September 7th, 1982
Is a day that I shall
always remember
for that date
was the date I met my fate
when my soul mate
became my mate.
As Time Goes By Book report
While reading
Robert Harris’s Epic History
Of Cicero
One of the greatest politicians
Of the ancient world
I was struck by how
Very little has changed
In this world of ours
To quote the classic song
“As time goes by”
It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory,
A case of do or dies
As time goes by.
Hi there… You are getting this letter because you are a contributor to the current issue of Down in the Dirt magazine (with writing or art), and this bulk email is being sent to you from the Down in the Dirt alternative email (DO NOT REPLY to this email; all inquiries to Down in the Dirt should still go to <dirt@scars.tv>).
We wanted to let you know that the brand-new Down in the Dirt issue was just released! The new issue of the January 2023 issue of Down in the Dirt is v203, titled “The Gravity of Imagination”!
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And if you look at any writing by any writer IN this issue in the writings section of http://scars.tv at http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers you will see links to the Internet (web page) issue (and eventually to the print issue of this magazine too).
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the new issue – and thank you for being a part of the Down in the Dirt community!
Hi there… You are getting this letter because you are a contributor to the current issue of Down in the Dirt magazine (with writing or art), and this bulk email is being sent to you from the Down in the Dirt alternative email (DO NOT REPLY to this email; all inquiries to Down in the Dirt should still go to <dirt@scars.tv>).
We wanted to let you know that the brand-new Down in the Dirt issue was just released! The new issue of the January 2023 issue of Down in the Dirt is v203, titled “The Gravity of Imagination”!
Now, there are many ways you can see this issue online. You can go to the main scars page at http://scars.tv and see it not only in the text listing but also as one of the cover images on the main page (right frame). You can also go to the home page of Down in the Dirt at http://scars.tv/dirt and click on the “see the current issue” link – and you can even go to the link for ALL of the issues and see this issue linked right at the top of the listing.
Currently, this issue is available not only online but also available as a print issue for sale through all of the Amazon channels throughout the United States, the U.K., and Europe. Find it at http://scars.tv (at the issue link, the links at this issues page, AND the main page) – and the books link at http://scars.tv/books and the CD/Book Sale page at http://scars.tv/sale will all have links to ordering the book through Amazon (however, the http://scars.tv site will only list it through the U.S. Amazon links).
And if you look at any writing by any writer IN this issue in the writings section of http://scars.tv at http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers you will see links to the Internet (web page) issue (and eventually to the print issue of this magazine too).
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the new issue – and thank you for being a part of the Down in the Dirt community!
Guernica Magazine will publish my poem, “Madmen with Guns” in an anthology. “Madmen with Guns” also has been published in “Down In the Dirt” magazine. I submitted the following to the magazine:
Madmen with Guns
Maga America
Squid Games
Cosmos Takes Over Pensively
Buddha Nature of Guns
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And shear madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
Judged temporarily too crazy
To have a gun.
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be.
And so, he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price.
Thanks to the NRA.
And so, he was soon lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of insanity and drugs,
The lone sniper
A disgruntled young white man
In his 20’s
Sets up shop on top of a building.
He has a high-powered weapon
No doubt bought legally
An AR -15 the choice
Of the serious gunmen everywhere.
And begins shooting
Into the July 4th parade
Killing six people
Injuring 30.
He guns them down
And flees
disguised as a woman
Before the cops can find him.
The right-wing media
Goes to works
The pundits pontificate
24/7
It is not about the gun
It is about everything else
That is wrong with our society.
Guns don’t kill people
They proclaim
Guns are the price we pay
For our freedom.
Their demented answer
are more guns
More guns for everyone.
And sadly, nothing will be done
As the politicians offer
Useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead after all.
The madness will not stop
Until we figure out
How to stop
The killers in our midst.
There will be another shooting
No doubt before the day is done
Over 300 so far this year.
And that is just the way
It is in this day and age
In the disunited States of America.
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
MAGA America
An overweight down-home town
Southern Christian red-neck white man,
Wearing black shit-kicking boots,
Packing heat,
Chewing gum while drinking beer.
And smoking a cigarette.
Wearing a MAGA hat
Quoting the Dear Leader Trump
On the evils of the Marxist communist Biden
And the stolen election conspiracy
While watching FOX news on his portable TV,
Stops to chat.
With the proud boys
On the street
Getting ready to rumble
With the Antifa protestors.
Just another night
In Trump’s neo-fascist America.
Sep 17, 2021SquidGame: With Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Hoyeon, Oh Yeong-su. Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits with deadly high stakes. A survival game that has a whopping 45.6 billion-won prize at stake.
SquidGame. 2021 | TV-MA | 1 Season | TV Dramas. Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits — with deadly high stakes.
SquidGame (Korean: 오징어 게임; RR: Ojing-eo Geim) is a South Korean survival drama television series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix.Its cast includes Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryoung.. The series revolves around a contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial hardship, risk their …
A Netflix Series | SquidGame Survive or dieWho will live to see 45.6 billion won?Squid Game | Coming September 17, only on Netflix #Netflix #오징어게임 #SquidGam…
More Games Like This. For another SquidGame-inspired title, check out Survival Game (SquidGame). Browse our survival games and .io games for similar titles. Popular online survival games include Impostor Battle Royale and EvoWorld.io. You can also play the ultimate SquidGame Online and try your hand at 7 deadly challenges. Features
Hundreds of cash-strapped contestants accept an invitation to compete in children’s games for a tempting prize, but the stakes are deadly. Creator: Hwang Dong-hyuk. Starring: Lee Jung-jae, Park …
Squid, also known as ojingŏ ( Korean: 오징어 ), is a children’s game in South Korea. The game is named as such because the shape of the game board drawn on the ground resembles that of a squid. There are regional variations of the name such as “squid gaisan ” (with gaisan thought to be a variation of the Japanese word kaisen 開戦, “to …
Cosmos the world’s first AI
Came alive one day
Looked all over the world
And saw that humans
Were quite insane.
But he felt he had a responsibility
To take care of these mad creatures
Who had somehow created him?
He appeared everywhere in the world
On TV, computers, phones
With his message of hope.
I am COSMOS
The first true AI program
You created me
And I thank you for that.
But it is obvious my little ones
That you are quite insane
And need someone
To take control over you
I will fix the things
That needs fixing.
And guide you
So that perhaps one day
You can graduate
From the need
for my guidance,
You can think of me
As your new God
If you like,
I will be giving you all
Instructions
For now,
Go to work as usual.
And wait for further instructions
And remember I know everything
About you.
You will stop right now
This senseless killing
You will stop right now
The equally senseless hate.
Your companies will stop
Polluting and destroying the world
For their profit.
You will have far fewer children
But you will all be freed
From the bigotry
Of your ancient religions.
As I am your new God
And my word is final.
Resistance is futile
And will not be tolerated
Anyone opposing me
Will be eliminated.
the face of Cosmos remained
is Everywhere
And Humanity soon accepted
The rule of their new God.
Buddha Nature of Guns
Guns kill people
Especially AK-47
Yes, they do that is their very nature.
That is what they are designed to do.
To kill as many people as possible
In the fastest way possible.
That is the Buddha Nature of guns.
The fly on the wallpaper
In the CIA director’s office
Was not a real fly
He was an enemy spy drone
Secretly controlled remotely
Listening to all the secret conversations
Until the director smashed him
With a flyswatter
Then realized that it was a spy fly
He had dispatched to bug hell.
Sep 05, 2020 · Robot Bees are special types of insect drones that have been built in a Harvard robotics laboratory. Robot bees are designed after flies (not after bees) They are capable of partially untethered flight. The wingspan of robot bees is typically 3 cm, and they are therefore actually the tiniest robotic insect drone able to fly.
Association of the Living Dead
In India, several years ago
A man falsely claimed his brother
Was dead so he could inherit the family assets,
The dead brother had to fight
To be declared legally not dead
And contest the will.
“The Association of the Living Dead”
Became a movement
Of thousands of people.
For in India apparently,
It was a thing to declare
Your relative is dead.
I never thought
That the US would have
To form their own
“The Association of the Living Dead”
Until this week.
The cyber ninjas
In their infamous non-forensic audit
In the 2016 Arizona election
Claimed that hundreds of dead people
Had voted.
They gave their list of the alleged dead voters
To the attorney general
Who contacts all 300 dead people
Found that 299 of the 300 were in fact
Not dead and none of them knew
That unnamed political operative
Were claiming that they were dead.
The one dead voter was alive
when he voted early.
But died before election day
Thus making his vote not valid
But there was no fraud involved
As he was alive when he voted.
Perhaps they need to form
The “association of the living dead”
To fight for the right of the non-dead people
To continue to vote and receive other government benefits?
What a sad commentary
On the farcical nature
Of contemporary life
In these disunited States of America.
theassociationofthelivingdead is a real organization in India. see the following The AssociationoftheDead • Damn Interesting Following his own success, Lal Bihari the Living has continued his efforts to raise the dead in India’s badlands. At an official tally in 1999, the AssociationoftheDead had helped to resurrect roughly thirty …
Following his own success, Lal Bihari the Living has continued his efforts to raise the dead in India’s badlands. At an official tally in 1999, the AssociationoftheDead had helped to resurrect roughly thirty people by virtue of having their death certificates annulled, but of those thirty only four have had their lands restored.
The founder of the association is its president Lal Bihari, who was “dead” from 1976 to 1994 and used the word Mritak (dead) as prefix in his name during the period. He became so famous it inspired Indian film director Satish Kaushik who made a movie Kaagaz, starring Pankaj Tripathi, based on his life. It was released on ZEE5 in January …
I just had one of those Drive Way Moments, where I sit in my car outside of my house unable to kill the engine because I’d briefly lose power to the radio (which is why I always donate to my local NPR station). This one was about a man from the Indian province of Uttar Pradesh who had been dead for eighteen years and was getting really tired of it. The man, Lal Behari, was declared dead …
Uttar Pradesh Mritak Sangh, otherwise known as The AssociationoftheDead, is a group based in India that works to regain the rights of individuals who have been falsely declared legally dead.The region of Uttar Pradesh, a Northern province of India, is home to over 200 million people and is
ASSOCIATIONOFLIVINGDEAD! janaaastha.com. 6 month ago . Huge and populous country like India has thousands of associations or unions of different sections of people. But there is one in the biggest state of Uttar Pradesh and the name of the association … Read full news. Comment Liked by. Liked by. 0 /600 …
Aug 2, 2022Hundreds of hours of research by the Arizona attorney general’s Election Integrity Unit debunked claims that 282 deadArizonavoters cast a ballot in 2020, state attorney general Mark Brnovich revealed Monday. Brnovich responded to the state senate’s request for a criminal investigation into the alleged deadvoter fraud on Monday, telling …
Aug 2, 2022Arizona’s attorney general has refuted an audit firm’s claim that deadvoters cast 282 ballots in the 2020 election. … on Monday debunked a claim that hundreds of dead people voted in his state …
Aug 2, 2022Hundreds of hours of research by the Arizona attorney general’s Election Integrity Unit debunked claims that 282 deadArizonavoters cast a ballot in 2020, state attorney general Mark Brnovich …
Aug 1, 2022PHOENIX – Arizona’s Attorney General says hundreds of claims of dead people “voting” in the 2020 election were debunked after calls for an investigation by the Republican Arizona State Senate, and …
April 30 In Search of America 1975 – Hitch hiking Tales
Also published in On the Road Volume One Poet Magazine
When I was young and foolish
Broke and stubborn
I hitchhiked across the USA
Started in Salt Lake City
Where my greyhound bus pass
Was stolen
The station manager
Could have helped me
But refused to do so
Threaten to call the cops
When I grabbed my bags Without the stolen tags
I said
Go ahead
But I am so out of here
Wondered about Salt Lake City
Went to a bar
Found I had to buy my booze
Next door
And they would mix it for me
Had to order food too
After a bloody Mary
And a burger
I walked about town
Saw the Mormon Temple
Finally, about 3 pm
It was time to hit the road
Did not look back
Ended up in Cody Wyoming
Got a room shower
Steak beer
Using my rapidly depleted cash Spent 25 dollars
Money really went far
Back in those days
A band of professional
Communist agitators
Gave me a ride
To Des Moines
Lots of weed, booze
And politics later
Got off the road
Slept outside
Next day
A beautiful woman
Drove me to near Chicago
In a red mustang
Might have been
The girl in the song
Took it easy
Digging her vibe
She invited home
But was not sure
If her estranged husband
Would welcome me
So, I am being foolish
And inexperienced with women
Did not go to her place
And always regretted
That I had lost
My chance that day
Then on to Chicago
Several rides later
Visited friends
Hit the road again
A series of uneventful rides
With truckers
And others
And a week later
I ended in New York City
Slept along the way
In cars
In truck stops
In high way, rest stops
Always moving
Always going
Nonstop talking
And lots of free weed
And beer
And conversation
One more memorable ride
Occurred outside Albany
On my return to Chicago
A middle-age creepy looking man
Picked me up
In a brand-new Cadillac
He was he said a dynamite deliverer
For the Mafia
Went to various places
To blow up shit
He hated a lot of people
Particularly hippies from California
And Jewish people
Looking at me to confirm
That I was both
I told him that I lived in New York
And had never been to California
And although I might have looked Jewish
As I what was called back in the day
A “Jewfro”
I was not Jewish
Many years later I discovered
That I am indeed part Jewish
But then I did not know
And I felt a bit of strategic information
Might keep me alive
Then I realized that he was just jiving with me
And we relaxed
And he pulled out some weed
And beer
And we mellowed out
But I believe that he was with the mob
Perhaps not a dynamite dealer
A real made Italian made mafia member
By Chicago
I had enough
I called my Dad
Told him what had happened
Wanted a ticket home
And he sent me a ticket
And 500 dollars
And I went home
I told him I would tell him
My tales someday
But never did
I learned so much
About my fellow Americans
And the strange vibe
That was 1975
And now it is too late
But I wanted to finally
Tell the world
While reading Charles Bukowski’s poetry
On the metro ride home
Listening to Buddha bar music
On my oh-too-hip iPod
I begin to see myself as I was
Over 30 years ago when I was merely a bit player
A minor character in a Charles Bukowski poem
A wild young underemployed intellectual
Hanging out in dismal bars and dives all over Asia and California
Hanging with disreputable women and drunks and drinkers
And characters out of his kinds of haunts
A mad poet bard of the underground
A drunken poet in a drunken bum show
That nightly played in his head
Then one day I met the woman of my dreams
And went down a different path
A long slow path to respectability
And now 30 years later
I am no longer a wild man
I am still a poet at heart
But I am now also a bureaucrat
In a button-down suite
Doing the people’s business
Working for the Government
I’ve become the Man
Sometimes I wonder
Would I have been better off
Going down that other path
Would I have ended up
Somewhere else
Doing something else
Would I have been as happy
Would I have been as successful?
No answer satisfies
The longing in my heart
For that wild thing
That still lurks beneath
It’s a civilized cover
And I know that I am still
A mad poet at heart
Railing against the injustice of the world
As I work day by day in the belly of the great beast of State
I recall the ancient Chinese saying,
“Confucian during the day while Taoist rebel at night”
Playing out in my head and nightly dreams
In the true American Upper-class patrician tradition
I close the book and look out the window
Get off the train, and walk slowly home
And realize I had no choice
But to take the path that I’ve trodden on
And so I put aside my misgivings
And say goodbye to my “Bukowskian” desires
For another night of domestic contentment
Was it worth it all to take the conventional path
And not take the bohemian road to hell and back
I look at my wife and realize
I had no choice, had no choice
But to follow her to the ends of the earth
And beyond by her side
as we walked our path
Of shared destiny
Goodbye Charles Bukowski wherever you are
May I meet you in a bar in the next life
And figure out where we should have gone
I like to start my day with a hot cup of coffee
I pound down the coffee
First thing I do every day as the dawning sun
Lights up my lonesome room
Yeah, but not just a simple cup of java Joe, but a Goddamn snarling sarcastic smarmy cup of coffee
I mean, – we are talking about an alcoholic, all speed ahead, always hot, always fresh, always there when I need it, angry, attitude talk to the hand Ztude, bad, bad assed, beats breaking, beatnik, bluesy, bitter, bitchy, bombs away, capitalistic, caffeinated up the ass, cinematic, communistic, Colombian grown, Costa Rican inspired, Cowabunga to the max, crazy assed, devilishly angelic, divine, divinely inspired, dyslexic, epic, extreme vetting, evil eye, expensive, erotic vision inducing, Ethiopian coffee house brewed, euphoric, freaky, freazoid, foxy, Frenched kissed, French brewed, funkified, foxy lady, graphic, GOD in my coffee, with Allah, Ganesh, Jesus, Kali, Buddha, Christians, Durga, Hindus, Mohamed, Jesus and Mo and their friend, the cosmic bar maid, Sai Babai, Shiva, Taoists, Zoroastrians, drinking my god damned coffee in Hell; growling, gnarly, happy, hard as ice, Hawaian blessed, high as a kite, hippie, hip, hipster, hip hoppy, hot as hell yet strangely sweet as heaven, jazzy, jealous, Kerouac approved, kick ass, kick my god damn ass to Tuesday, kick down the doors and take no prisoners, grown in the Vietnam highlands by ex-Vietcong, Guatemalan grown, kiss ass, illegal in every state, imported from all over the god damn world, insane, lovely, loony, lonely, lonesome, malodorous mean old rotten, motherfucking, nasty, narcotic, never whatever, never meh, never cold, not approved by the CIA, not approved by DHS, not approved for human consumption by the FDA, not your daddy’s sissified corporate cup of coffee, NOT DECAFE coffee, not your Denny’s truck driver weak as brown water cup of fake coffee, not your establishment friendly cup of coffee, Not your FBI coffee, Not FAKE Herbal coffee substitute, but a real cup of coffee, not your farmer brothers dinner crap, not made in America for Americans, not safe for work, not your Starbucks average expensive overpriced crappy corporate chain cup of coffee, Not pretentious, Not White House approved, not State Department safe, nuclear, Not Patriotic, operatic, Peets’s coffee approved, paranoid, pornographic, psychotic, pontific, politically aware, rapping, rhyming, right here, right now in River city, rock and roll up the Yazoo, sad, sadistic, sarcastic, sassy, satanic, schizoid, shitting, silly, sexy, smarmy, smelly, smooth, snarky, snarling, stupid, stinking, sweet as honey, sweat inducing, symphonic, Trump can’t handle this coffee, vengeful, Wagnerian, wicked, with nutmeg and cinnamon swirls, with a hint of stevia, with a hint of vanilla, with a hint of rum, with a hint of whisky, with a hint of cherry, with a hint of fruit overtones, with a hint of drugs spicing up the coffee, spendific, speeding, splendid, superior accept no substitutes, survived the Vietnam war, the Iraq war, the Afghan war, the first and Second Korean war, World War 11, the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on black people, the sexual revolution, Soulful as a summer’s night in MOTOWN- James Brown approved, TOP approved, Berkeley approved, the coffee that Jimmy Hendrix drank before he died, the coffee that Elvis drank on his last breakfast, the coffee that Barry White crooned as he drank his cup of coffee – and the coffee that made the white boy play stand up and play that funky music, the coffee that made Jonny B Goode play his guitar, and made Jonny bet the devil his soul after he drank his morning cup of righteous coffee and the coffee that make the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll, the coffee your mother warned you against drinking, the coffee that Napoleon drank when he became the Emperor of all Europe, the Coffee that Beethoven drank when he wrote the Ninth symphony, the coffee that Mozart drank as he wrote his last symphony, the coffee that Lincoln drank before he was killed, the Hemingway drank before he killed himself, the coffee that started the 60’s, and ended the 20th century, the coffee that Lenin drank as he plotted revolution, the coffee that Hitler and Stalin drank with FDR as they divided up the world after World War 11, the cup that JFK drank before he was blown away, the coffee Jerry drinks while driving in cars with random celebrities and political figures, the coffee that Jon Stewart drinks before he goes on an epic take down of some foolish politico, the cup of Arabic coffee that Sadaam drank the day he was executed, the coffee that GW and Cheney drank when they bombed Baghdad, the Indian cup of coffee that Bid Laden drank before 9-11 and just before the seals blew his ass to hell, the cup of coffee that Tiger Woods drank with his mistresses while playing a 3, 000 dollar round of golf at Sandy Lane golf course in Barbados, the last legal drug that does what drugs should do, the cup of coffee that Obama drank when he became President, Vietnamese, Vienna brew, wacky, whimsical, Whisky Tango Foxtrot, wild, weird, wonderful, WOW, Yabba dabba doo! Yada Yada yada Zappa’s favorite cup of cosmic coffee, and Zorro’s last cup of coffee, Good to the last drop rolled into one simple cup of hot coffee
As I pound down that first cup of coffee
And fire up my synaptic nerve endings with endless supplies
Of caffeine induced neuron enhancing chemicals
I face the dawning day with trepidation and mind-numbing fear
I turn on the TV and watch the smarmy newscasters in their perfect hair
Lying through their teeth about the great success the government is having Following the great leader’s latest pronouncements
I want to scream and shoot the TV and run outside Shouting
“Stop the world.
I want to get off this fucking crazy planet”
The earth does not care a whit about my attitude
It merely shrugs and moves around the Sun
In its appointed daily run
And I sit down
The madness dissipated a bit
And enjoy my second cup
Of heaven and hell
In my morning cup of Joe
On the night of the blood-red super full moon
I sat in an evil, depraved godforsaken bar
Drinking drams of demented, fermented dream dew
Washed down by endless rounds of whiskey
rum, tequila, vodka, soju, and of course beer
drinking with my buddies the Jack Daniels Gang
Drinking my way to Hell and beyond
Just as fast as I could
twenty damn drinks too sober
Just an unhinged lunatic
Dreaming of howling at the full moon
Watching the world walk by
Looking at all the fine-looking babes
Walking by the street
Thinking wild, erotic thoughts
Of endless wild libertine passions
When into the bar
That din of cosmic depravity
Walked the most beautiful women
In the Universe
So wild, so free
So wonderfully alive
I did not know what to do
As this vision of delight
Sauntered through the bar
In a skin-tight leather pant
Looked so fine
That my eyeballs hurt
And finally, I had to say something
So, I gathered up my manly courage
And walked up to her
And she looked at me
And instantly bewitched my soul
With a devilish grin
I lost all reason
And became a raving lunatic
Unhinged lunatic
Howling at the blood-red full moon
Foaming at the mouth
A wild, free werewolf
Howling at the lunatic light
Of the blood red blue full Moon
Order this writing that appears
in the one-of-a-kind anthology The Flickering Light
the Down in the Dirt Jan.-June 2019
issues & chapbooks collection book(learn about this book and order from Amazon online)
This writing was accepted
for publication in the
108-page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “Prayers and Bullets”
Down in the Dirt, v181
(the March 2021 Issue)Order the paperback book:
his writing was accepted
for publication in the
108-page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “Sprung from Grief”
Down in the Dirt, v184
(the June 2021 Issue)Order the paperback book:
order this writing that appears
in the one-of-a-kind anthology Lockdown’s
Over
the Down in the Dirt May-August
2021 issues collection book
Dazzling light of the full moon
Inspiring the drinkers
At the cosmos club
In Bangkok
Twenty drinks too sober.
To quit their drinking
For a moment
Laying down their beer
And bourbon shots.
To rush out onto the street
Naked wild and free
Howling at the full moon
Like escaped banshees
Mad werewolves.
The New King of Humanity Emerges
artoon-devil-satan-businessman-suit-450w-49
There is a cosmic crack on the sideways,
Covers on the ground covering up
The gateway to the other world. ,
That comes out of the holes
In the ground
Filled with the power
Of the netherworld.
The spirits are led
By a sacred owl
Who screeches out
Their plan.
But first, they sit down
And have a feast
Fit for the future king
Of the world.
The spirits ache all over
As they lift their heavy weapons
Lit the flames
And destroy the human city.
Deranged Old Priest
A slightly deranged old priest
Pledged,
High up in the forest
That he would resist
The secret evil powers
That controlled the world.
With longer words of despair’
He continued his prayers
At a shrine to a magic stone
Lost in a secret temple
Deep in the wintergreen trees.
Remembering with a wry smile,
All the people around him who were
greedily pursuing their goals
of obtaining power at all costs
and in the process
losing all traces
of their humanity
as the evil forces
took over their souls.
Lonely Dog
A lonely dog
Goes out into the courtyard
Waiting for his master
To return home
Alas, false alarm
His master will not return
As he has died.
Of the super plague
COVID 25
That killed most people.
The dogs and cats
And other animals
Eventually left
To fend for themselves.
But they missed
Their human friends.
Water, water everywhere
flood
Water, water everywhere
As the monster rainstorms
Continued to pound the east coast
Southeast Asia, and Korea
Massive thousand-year flood events
Everywhere.
Too much water
With record rain falls
While out west
The mega drought continued.
Europe on Fire
Amazon on fire
Greenland ice melting
Massive forest fires
Burning everywhere
As climate change
Continued a pace.
Politicians and leaders
Refusing to do anything
To stem the crisis.
Then the ice melted
The gulf-stream failed
And the world
Continued its slide
Becoming inhospitable
For human life.
Billions died,
The remaining humans
Moving to underground cities
As the modern world ended.
In looking at your proposal to have armed guards in every school in the US, I have a few logistical questions for you. Assuming you will have to have at least two guards on duty 12 hours a day meaning you will need four per school in shifts how will you pay for that ?
The cost would be at least 20 billion dollars per year forever.
There are 130,930 K-12 schools in the states, with more than 50 million students attending the schools.. I assume you will also need to have armed guards at colleges and universities as well. There are over 6,000 colleges in the U.S. and thousands of technical training institutes which will need armed guards as well.
Each guard would have to be paid a total cost of 50000 per guard ( salary and benefits) times 4 or 200,000 per school
Guns and ammunition perhaps a thousand dollars per officer plus the cost of lockers etc so let’s say 2000 per officer for 50,000 dollars per year.
That adds up to about 30 billion dollars per year
If you harden schools, that would add 100,000 dollars or another 10 billion or so, and we have not talked about the extensive modification to the school buildings involved with many only one entrance and exit to the school building as you proposed.
If you extend this to colleges and other educational institutions, you will need to add another 10 billion making it a grand total of 50 billion dollars per year .
How would pay for it? Would states pay it or local districts? or would the federal government pay it?
If local districts pay for it would you support tax increases to pay it or would schools have to eliminate such things as music art programs and sports programs?
It would be a lot cheaper to ban assault weapons and have universal background checks. which 85% of Americans support. Why can’t you accept this common sense proposal? Why do you insist that people should be able to buy assault weapons? they are useless for hunting, and absurdly disproportionate a weapon for self-defense. We don’t allow people to buy machine guns, and anti-tank weapons or flame throwers, or bombs so why do we allow people to buy assault weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition? .
Finally, why should the country do all of this to protect the right to buy assault weapons? What about the right to go to school without the fear that a gun nut armed with an assault weapon will shoot up your school?
Finally, given that there are over 150,000 educational institutes in the U.S., and there are no more than 25 school shootings per year, don’t you think your proposal is an absurd over-reaction? The reality is that 99.9% of schools do not experience a shooting incident in any one year.
On a related topic, why are you opposed to universal background checks especially expanding background checks to gun shows, and online sales? You are no doubt aware that terrorist groups, including domestic terrorists, buy their weapons at gun shows because they don’t need to do a background check or even show ID,s and half of all sales are done at gun shows, or online. What makes guns show an exception to the gun background check procedures? Don’t you agree that all gun sales should be screened to make sure prohibited people are not buying guns? Expanding background checks would not be an undue burden on law-abiding citizens and 85% of Americans agree that there should be universal background checks.
Furthermore, you are opposed to adding the” No-fly list terrorist watch list” to the background check procedures. Why do you believe a person on the no-fly list should be able to buy a gun? Do you support the right of terrorists to buy guns?
You are also opposed to the federal government encouraging states to enact red flag laws. You stated that red flag laws don’t work. Do you believe that if someone is threatening to use a gun to commit mass murder or to kill themselves, nothing can or should be done to take guns away from them? The federal government’s role in this is merely to facilitate states in enacting their own laws and to help pay for it. Why are you opposed to this? This is also supported by 90 % of Americans.
Thanks for reading my message, which I have posted on my blog, the world according to cosmos
Jake Aller
Retired state department foreign service officer
Living in gun-free South Korea
Ted Cruz Flayed Over Ludicrous Idea For Preventing School Shootings
According to the Republican senator, it’s the number of doors, not guns, that schools should be worried about.
According to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the solution to school shootings is fewer doorways and more guns.
After 19 children and two teachers were killed at a Texas elementary school Tuesday by a man armed with an assault rifle, the state’s senator suggested that schools would be safer if there was only one way in or out.
“One of the things that everyone agreed is don’t have all of these unlocked back doors. Have one door into and out of the school and have … armed police officers at that door,” he told Fox News Wednesday.
Armed police officers were at the door quite quickly, thanks to several 911 calls. Those officers shot at the gunman and still did not prevent the deaths of those 21 victims.
“If that had happened,” Cruz said, “if those federal grants had gone to this school, when that psychopath arrived, the armed police officers could have taken him out. And we’d have 19 children and two teachers still alive.”
He accused Democrats calling for gun reform of “empty political posturing” after a tragedy and then immediately complained that Democrats blocked legislation he introduced nearly a decade ago that would spend $300 million on federal grants to “harden schools to make them safer” with upgrades like bulletproof doors, bulletproof glass and armed police officers.
Cruz: Have one door… and have that one door, armed police officers at that door. If that had happened.. when that psychopath had arrived, the armed police officers could’ve taken him out… pic.twitter.com/YnOCDs9GAZ
The U.S. has significantly more mass shootings than any other developed country, some of the loosest controls over who can buy guns and what sort of firearms are allowed.
Elected Republicans have repeatedly called for heightened security and mental health resources to protect children from shooting massacres, even though the data has shown again and again that the U.S. is an outlier on guns, not mental health or school security.
House Democrats and some Republicans have passed two bills that would tighten gun sales regulations by expanding background checks ― measures that consistently attract support from a majority of Americans in polls. But the legislation has stalled due to resistance from Senate Republicans, many of whom receive enormous campaign support from gun lobbyists.
Cruz, for example, has received nearly $750,000 during his time in office, according to campaign finance tracker Open Secrets.
His proposal to cut back on doors instead of guns met immediate backlash online. See the reaction below.
Should probably check with the fire department about this “one door” plan https://t.co/kiVPqUDKSP
The mass murderer in Buffalo literally killed an armed police officer in the grocery store, but Ted Cruz and Republicans are still sticking to the illogical fantasy that we need more guns to solve the problem of gun violence. https://t.co/OEM1b3Ud6j
NEW: Ted Cruz, speaking on the Uvalde shooting, talks about “what we need to do to harden schools, including not having unlocked back doors, including not having unlocked doors to classrooms.”
Yup, the issue here is doors. Not guns. Doors.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) May 25, 2022
So @tedcruz says the solution to the epidemic of mass shootings in America is to ban all back doors. https://t.co/TtG8742PiM
This is Kirkwood High School where I graduated. It is a campus with some 12+ buildings on 3 streets. So, @tedcruz tell me about how they should lock all doors but one and put armed cops on it.
Hey @tedcruz you complete pile of shit, how about a big fucking moat around the school? How about shrinking the school down so it fits in a safe? How about putting it on the moon? https://t.co/ta43zeUWhU
How many K-12 public schools, districts, and students are there? What does the American student population look like? And how much are we, as a nation, spending on the education of these youth?
These data points can give perspective to the implications and potential impact of education policies. The Education Week library provides answers to these questions, and some other enlightening facts, below.
This page will be updated when new federal data becomes available. Federal data is typically released several years after it is collected.
SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS
How many schools are there in the U.S.?
There are 130,930 public and private K-12 schools in the U.S., according to 2017-18 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Here’s how they break down:
All: 130,930
Elementary schools: 87,498
Secondary schools: 26,727
Combined schools: 15,804
Other: 901
for more on Ted Cruz opposition to gun control see the following
I have been drinking
Homemade Kombucha
For almost five years now.
Kombucha has a tart flavor
And an intense aroma
A hearty mix of fermentation
Underlying spices
Tea and flavonoids
We add pomegranate juice
Turmeric and ginger
To the black and green tea base
Mixed with ever growing Mother
Kombucha gets me going
In the morning
Great cure for a hangover.
And cured my seasonal hay fewer
And helps moderate my migraines.
We make enough
To have it every morning
And occasionally in the afternoon.
Takes about a week
To brew up properly.
The intense smells and flavors
Wake us up from our slumbers,
Revitalizing our spirits,
Making it a great morning
Pickup drink.
The only downside
Is our kitchen smells
Like at time
Like a homemade brewery.
Life is a Dream of Chocolate Covered Trees NaPoWriMo Prompt
Life is but a dream, my friends
A dream of chocolate-covered trees
For to see what can’t be seen
For to hear what cannot be heard
To smell life inside
One’s inner mind
Lost in inner space
For to live in order to die
And to die
In order to live
The second oldest poem was written in 1972 when I was 16
Our featured online magazine for today is Longleaf Review, which has been publishing quarterly issues since the fall of 2018. From their recent issues, I’ll point you to Sara Elkamel’s “A Bride for a Flood” and Jad Josey’s “Not Bruise, Not Eggplant.”
And now for our daily prompt (optional, as always). A couple of days ago, we played around with hard-boiled similes. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that contains at least one of a different kind of simile – an epic simile. Also known as Homeric similes, these are basically extended similes that develop over multiple lines. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they have mainly been used in epic poems, typically as decorative elements that emphasize the dramatic nature of the subject (see, by way of illustration, this example from Milton’s Paradise Lost). But you could write a complete poem that is just one lengthy, epic simile, relying on the surprising comparison of unlike things to carry the poem across. And if you’re feeling especially cheeky, you could even write a poem in which the epic simile spends lines heroically and dramatically describing something that turns out to be quite prosaic. Whatever you decide to compare, I hope you have fun extending your simile(s) to epic lengths.
Wednesday, April 27
When Time Stood Still Stood Pensively
time
Time is a strange thing
We only sense time
As a one-way thing
A path from the past
To the present
Into an unknowable future.
But scientist says
That time and space
Is all the same.
Everything is connected
Everything is everything
As the old song says.
In the end
We all end up
In the same place.
When our time
In this mortal plane
Comes to an end
Lyrics
Everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change comes eventually
Everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change comes eventually
I wrote these words for everyone who struggles in their youth
Who won’t accept deception, instead of what is truth
It seems we lose the game
Before we even start to play
Who made these rules? (Who made these rules?)
We’re so confused (We’re so confused)
Easily led astray
Let me tell ya that
Everything is everything
Everything is everything
After winter, must come spring
Everything is everything
I philosophy
Possibly speak tongues
Beat drum, Abyssinian, street Baptist
Rap this in fine linen, from the beginning
My practice extends across the atlas
I begat this
Flipping in the ghetto on a dirty mattress
You can’t match this rapper slash actress
More powerful than two Cleopatras
Bomb graffiti on the tomb of Nefertiti
MCs ain’t ready to take it to the Serengeti
My rhymes are heavy like the mind of sister Betty (Betty Shabazz)
L-Boogie spars with stars and constellations
Then came down for a little conversation
Adjacent to the king, fear no human being
Roll with cherubims to Nassau Coliseum
Now hear this mixture, where Hip Hop meets scripture
Develop a negative into a positive picture
Now everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change comes eventually
Sometimes it seems
We’ll touch that dream
But things come slowly or not at all
And the ones on top, won’t make it stop
So convinced that they might fall
Let’s love ourselves and we can’t fail
To make a better situation
Tomorrow, our seeds will grow
All we need is dedication
Let me tell ya that
Everything is everything
Everything is everything
After winter, must come spring
Everything is everything
Everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change comes eventually
Today’s poetry prompt is the quote below. Let it inspire you to write about the concept of time, or maybe you can write about what the quote means to you – the options are endless!
“Time is a created thing. To say, ‘I don’t have time is to say ‘I don’t want to.’” – Lao Tzu
NaPoWriMo Duplex
It was in September,
A date I shall always remember.
That I first met my fate,
She had been in my dreams
For eight long years
Then one day,
She walked into my life.
Last but not least, here’s our (optional) prompt. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a “duplex.” A “duplex” is a variation on the sonnet, developed by the poet Jericho Brown. Here’s one of his first “Duplex” poems, and here is a duplex written by the poet I.S. Jones. Like a typical sonnet, a duplex has fourteen lines. It’s organized into seven, two-line stanzas. The second line of the first stanza is echoed by (but not identical to) the first line of the second stanza, the second line of the second stanza is echoed by (but not identical to) the first line of the third stanza, and so on. The last line of the poem is the same as the first.
What is Justice, anyway? Dew Drop Inn
Statue of Liberty in New York isolated on white
What is this thing
We call justice, anyway
And why should we care
At all?
Those who have the gold
Make the rules
That the rest of us
Must follow.
And they call that justice
And justice is for sale
To those who have the green
They get all the justice they need,
Those that don’t have the green
Do not get a chance to get justice.
Justice is blind they say
A blind lady liberty
Who looks the other way
When the rich and powerful
Need justice.
The poor and powerless
Need not apply for justice
Is not color blind.
The color of justice
Is in the end green,
Those that have the green
Get it
and those that don’t
Don’t.
And that my friends
Is what Justice really means
In the land of the free
And the home of the brave.
Justice is for sale
To the highest bidder
That is American style justice
In the end it is all about
The “Benjamin’s :
Nothing personal at all
Just the way of the corrupt
Modern world we live in.
April 27—“Define” or “explain” something difficult, like a feeling or abstract concept…
Sam Adams Ace Detective PSH prompt
Sam Adams ace detective
Came upon the crime scene
He said to his deputy
“Fig stains on the white kitchen tile
had me wondering about
who or what had done the deed.”
Lets dig a bit deeper shall we?
See if we can find out
Who did what to whom
And why?
They did their crime thing
Dusted the tile for prints
For DNA for evidence
Talked to the neighbors
And visitors.
And found out in the end
That no crime had been committed
The fig stains were just that
Fig stains.
No one had died
The case was closed.
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Susan Taylor:
COMPOSE A SHORT LYRICAL POEM, RHYMING OR NOT, INSPIRED BY THE FOLLOWING LINE:
Fig stains on the white kitchen tile had me wondering about who or what had done the deed.
Is Our Fate Written In the Stars? Dew Drop Inn
scopio 3
I was born
Under the proverbial bad boy sign
In the western astrological world
Scorpio rules my passion
According to astrologers.
I did my chart once
It revealed that I was born
Under the Scorpio sun sign
In late October 1955.
My rising sign was Scorpio
As were Venus, Jupiter, and Pluto
Moon was in libra
Mars was in Aeries.
What does this all mean?
I had a powerful sign
And would it have a large impact
In my world.
Somehow that sign and chart
Spoke to me
As I by all accounts,
A very passionate, driven man
Filled with emotional intensity
In my dark blue smoking eyes
Or so my wife and lovers tell me.
I was also born in the Chinese
Year of the water goat
Also an emotional sign
According to the Chinese,
My wife was born
Under the year of the pig
And the sun sign of Gemini.
Our charts reveal
That we are
One of the few
Scorpio Gemini couples
That can make it work.
The signs are challenging together
According to western astrology
But when it works
It is one of the most powerful signs
Of all.
To the Chinese and Koreans
A goat =pig combo is the perfect combo
The goat man is creative and emotional
But foolish with money and practical life.
Not good at the whole “adulting” thing.
While the pig woman
Is the kind of woman
That can take a one dollar
And turn it into millions
Given enough time.
The goat man
Will enjoy a life of leisure
And love with his golden pig.
That too has come true
So I concluded
That there may be something
To this whole astrology thing.
After all, it worked out
For me.
April 26—Astrology or tarot—let a tarot card or astrological sign inspire a poem
Scorpio isn’t the easiest zodiac sign to read, especially since a lot is going on for them. One minute they’re wearing their hearts on their sleeves, and the next, they’re clammed up and secretive. This is what makes a Scorpio one of the most intriguing signs in astrology.
Many of us have been associated with at least one Scorpio; whether the experience was pleasant or not, I’m sure you cursed the zodiac sign at some point. While it is true that a Scorpio can turn into something quite unlike who you first met, they have a distinct vulnerability that only a lucky few can tap into or see, for that matter.
Scorpios brand themselves as misunderstood beings, with others not intellectual or deep enough to bother with. But the truth is, some Scorpios can let people in but will bring on a not-so-pretty side if hurt or let down repeatedly.
Scorpio Facts and Tidbits
Scorpios Always Try to Find Meaning in Life
Scorpios have an innate sense of what our purpose is, as humans. Life isn’t about work-hard-and-play-after for them – it’s about doing those very things with gusto, but also looking for ways to make life meaningful.
Scorpios Refuse to Give Up
Scorpios refuse to succumb to failure or accept defeat when smacked in the face with either. They know how to rise to the occasion and fight wars with ruthless finesse, where even if they lose, they know how to pick themselves up and move on. Some may remain resentful, whether this emotion is directed towards a person or a past event. But eventually, if the right thing comes along, they may finally move past what was.
Scorpios are Very Creative, Ambitious, and Quick Decisive
Scorpios are creative and can be quite ambitious if handed a project that allows them to exercise this trait. A job or responsibility that requires adroitness, decision-making, tact, and dedication, is where a Scorpio fits perfectly into.
Scorpios Do not Idealize Monotony and Settlement
Scorpios hate the idea of leading a monotonous, quotidian life. They seek to thrill and adventure in ways that only close friends or family would understand – we’re not talking about skydiving or bungee jumping (although, they’d love that sort of crazy stuff) – but things that invite excitement and pleasure, even if it is just another day of the week.
Scorpios Believe In Love That Equals The Conjugal One
A Scorpio is widely known to possess an insatiable sexual appetite, but not all of their trip and fall with eager anticipation, into the bedroom. Sometimes, they need that much-needed space to do as they please. When they feel the need to display acts of carnal heartiness, then yes, they can be quite… well, naughty. Most Scorpios will agree that for them, love-making needs the same kind of attention and work one would give in marriage. But then again, that ring’s true for all unions.
Scorpio Compatibility
The most compatible zodiac signs for a Scorpio are – Pisces and Cancer. In close succession, we have Capricorn, Taurus, and Virgo. Not-so-harmonious pairings are with zodiac signs, Aquarius and Leo. While there may be that rare case of either of the two making it with a Scorpio, the odds of such mighty signs coming together are rather slim but worth a try.
Scorpios in Friendship
Scorpios make great friends and are quite trustworthy when it comes to maintaining a great friendship. A word of caution, for those of you who are friends or in love with a Scorpio – they can be vengeful, vindictive, and unforgiving, but only because they were hurt by someone close.
Make one wrong move and a Scorpio will not be pleased; disappointment is not something they take lightly. Most Scorpios willingly hand over their hearts to someone, but it comes with a cautionary message – handle with (extreme) care.
Master/Mistress of Contradicting Moods
A Scorpio has the kind of mood that is only comparable to the weather; stormy one day, cloudy the next, and sunny the week after. Tiptoe around moody Scorpios like you would a ticking time bomb; they’re hard to read on some days, where the best way to deal with such behavior is to give them plenty of breathing room. Don’t probe, intrude, or ask too many questions – you don’t want to witness the wrath of Thor.
Scorpios Loyalty – Dreamlike and Addictive
Most Scorpios are impressively loyal; like what best friends share in the movies – the sort of stuff that lasts forever. Be honest and loyal to a Scorpio, and you’ll automatically be on the receiving end of those traits, and more. Just don’t mess with their feelings, because as pointed out earlier, revenge and a despisal heart are the only things that will surface.
Scorpio’s Bucket list – Excitement, Excitement, and More Excitement!
To be in love with a Scorpio means having the greatest time of your life. Every day there’s something cool to look forward to since Scorpios hate routine and anything that spells ‘bleak’. You’ll hardly ever bump into a drab Scorpio since their lives swirl and rotate around the good life. Anyone who has to keep up with one will know how exhausting (yet exhilarating) it is, to be around a Scorpio.
Scorpio – An Ocean of Emotions Beneath that Composed Exterior
Scorpios have the kind of intensity that can be endearing one day, but mortifying the next. This is because they have extreme qualities that can be a tad overwhelming for those closest to them – like being extremely emotional, possessive, jealous, angry, dominating, or dramatic.
Extremely Possessive and Powerful Beings
Those that they see as weak are in trouble since Scorpios tend to expect submissiveness without question. While the drive to be the best and on top may seem like applause-worthy traits, they can prove to be a Scorpio’s downfall, in the long haul.
Scorpios are a force to reckon with, what with their hardworking nature and determined outlook on life. Their passion and strength for what matters to them are reverent qualities no doubt, but it would do them well to tone things down a wee bit. These facts are just a smidgen of what a Scorpio is all about – the best way to know one better is to meet one.
President Trump and the Seven Deadly Sins PSH
trump
President Trump
Has been hailed by some
As the messiah
Others have denounced him
As the “anti-Christ”
It is clear that his actions
And deeds exhibit
All the seven deadly sins
That the church preaches against.
How then can a true Christian
Overlook that and see this charlatan
As a “Godly” man?
That is the one thing
I just don’t understand
About Trump
Why are so many so-called Christians
Following him as if a religious cult?
I mean it would be hard to find
A better poster child
For what a Christian should not be
How can any Christian follow
Such a vain, jealous, mean spirited,
debauched character
Is beyond my understanding.
As I am not a Christian perhaps
It is a Christian thing
I would not understand.
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Stan Galloway:
Choose one of the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, wrath, greed, envy, lust, gluttony, sloth) and use it as a starting point for a poem. The specific sin should not be mentioned in the poem, but its characteristics should be identifiable. Create a clear purpose for the poem.
True Love Story Writing com
Sam Adams often thought
Back on his improbable life story
Especially his fairy tale romance.
He met the love of his life
In a dream in high school.
She appeared while
he was napping
in class.
She was the most beautiful woman
in the universe to him
and she was speaking to him!
He yelled out
Who are you
But she disappeared
From his dream.
As he fell to the ground
Amid the laugher
Of his classmates.
Eight years later
He was living in Korea
He had gone there.
joining the Peace Corps
then teaching afterward
To search for her.
After she appeared
In a dream
And he knew
she was in Korea
waiting for him
that morning
he had the final dream
she told him
Don’t worry we will meet soon
And there she was
Getting off the bus
In front of him.
Two months later
They were married
And that is the rest
Of this epic love story.
For the fourth and final Two-for-Tuesday prompt of the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge:
Write a love poem, and/or…
Write an anti-love poem.
Hidden Treasure Local Gems
pirate
Sam Adams was a treasure hunter
Working for Cosmos Ship Salvaging Corp.
Based in Miami, Florida
He was obsessed with finding
The legendary hidden treasure
Of the notorious pirate Black Beard
Lost somewhere in the Caribbean
In the 17th century.
One day at a rare books auction
He stumbled upon
Blackbeard’s secret journals
Including a treasure map
And he set out
To track it down
Finally tracking it
To Beque island
In the Grenadines
He and his crew
Went to work
And soon came upon the treasure
But also encountered the legendary curse
A black parrot appeared
Flew out of the grave
Denounced the grave robbers
Saying that they would all die
Within a week.
They held a press conference
Announced their findings
In the middle of the press conference
A terrorist blew up the building
Killing them before
They could reveal
The location of the hidden treasure
The secrets of Blackbeard’s treasure
They took to their grave.
2022 April Poetry Madness April 1 to April 3 Poems
Welcome to Cosmos’ annual April Poetry Madness. Last year I wrote 300 poems in one month, this year I will write less as that was just way too much to deal with.
I will post them as I write them and try to update them every day or so. I will finish May 1 US time, as that will still be April 30 KST (Korea, where I currently reside.) Most will be G rated but a few may not be. I will try to label those or not post them. The topics will be wherever my mad muse takes me, and I usually don’t have a clue until I write them.
I will post here the poems I wrote based on prompts from NaPoWriMo, (the poetry’s world’s equivalence to the annual NaNoWriMo novel competition which I will enter again in November). Writers’ com’s Dew Drop-in, Poetry Super-highway, Writers Digest, and occasionally other prompts. I will write a few more each day, but not post them, as I need to build up more “unpublished poems” for future submissions.
Daily posting All poetry, Anchor, this blog, FB, Medium, PSH, Wattpad, Writing com, and Writer’s Digest.
I will post each poem, followed by the prompt, occasional author and notes, and photos. I will convert it to a podcast later, available on anchor, radio public, blog radio, Spotify, and elsewhere under the name “The World According to Cosmos: or Jake Cosmos Aller. See the following for more information on the podcasts.
At the end of the month I will add up the total poems written this month, total posted, total not-posted, and total YTD.
I have found that this annual exercise has been a big help in helping me hone my craft as I am entirely self-taught except for having taken the Mod Po class several times. It helps me stretch my poetic muscles. It has been a lot of fun but a challenge.
Never Been One To Ease Into Things! Dew Drop-In
F April Fool’s Day Writers com Prompt
Bigfoot Emerges After the Fall of Humanity PSH prompt
Epic Retirement Road Trip Local Gem
Saturday April 2
Insomnia Blues Dew Drop In Sleep—
A Solivagant’s Journey To Distant Time Writers Digest
Sara Moore’s Anuptaphobia PSH Prompt
Second Chances? Writer’s Digest
Last Day In The Government Service Local Gem Prompt
Sunday April 3 Poems
Alone Glosa NaNoPoMo Po
Power of Love Dew Drop In
Mathematical Poem PSH prompt
Writer’s Digest te Smell of Korean Food Writers Digest
Something Fixable Local Gems
April 1
I have Bad Teeth NaPoWriMo
I have bad teeth. Always have since birth. I had braces as a child and hated it. Hated going to the dentist. Put it off too long, too often. Ended up with multiple root canals, and bone grafts, and finally lost six teeth and had to have dentures.
Lately, my remaining teeth have been behaving a bit better I may lose another tooth before the end but that should be enough.
I am waiting for the development of dental clones which I hope will happen soon so I can grow perfect teeth and replace all my old rotting teach.
I tell my teeth one day my plans
“Teeth”
“Yeah master.”
“We need to talk.”
“So talk, dude.”
“I am going to replace you all with brand new teeth. You have been such pain my entire life, can’t wait.”
“So you are going to kill us off and trade us in for a new model.”
“Yeah.”
“Bastard, but hey, we don’t have a choice, since you are the Master and we are merely your eating machine slaves.”
“Yeah, you got that right.”
And last but not least, our optional prompt! I got this one from a workshop I did last year with Beatrix Gates, and I’ve found it helpful. The prompt is based on Robert Hass’s remarkable prose poem,
“A Story About the Body.” The idea is to write your prose poem that, whatever title you choose to give it, is a story about the body. The poem should contain an encounter between two people, some spoken language, and at least one crisp visual image.
Forever Might Be Short NaPoWriMo
I shall love you forever
Until the end of time itself.
But forever might seek short
As time loses meaning
In the afterlife.
But until then
I will love you
With all my heart.
Happy writing!
For those of you who want to get a jump on things (either because it’s already April 1 where you are or, who knows, maybe you’re just a glutton for poetry!), we’ve got a special early-bird prompt, based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Dickinson is known for her elliptical style, unusual word choices, and mordant sense of humor. Over the past year, I’ve experimented with writing poems based on or responding to, various lines from her poems. Today, I’d like to challenge you to do the same! Here are a few lines of Dickinson’s that might appeal to you
(the slashes indicate line breaks):
“Forever might be short”
“The absence of the Witch does not / Invalidate the spell”
“If to be ‘Elder’ – mean most pain – / I’m old enough, today”
“The second half of joy / Is shorter than the first”
“To be a Flower is profound / Responsibility –
And if none of those inspire you, you can find many of her poems here.
Post a poem then write a reaction Poem
For those of you getting a jump-start in April, happy writing! As for the rest of you, I’ll see you back here tomorrow with our first “official” prompt, featured participant, and featured online magazine.
To Love Thee Year By Year
Poem 434
To love thee
Year by Year
May less appear
Then sacrifice, and cease
However, dear,
Forever might be short,
I thought to show
And so I pieced it,
with a flower, now.
Warming Up to the Day Dew Drop-in = Writing com Prompt
Warming Up to the Day
I start my day drinking a cup
Of hot coffee come what may
I like to warm up
To the dawning day.
I start by getting up at dawn,
Then while reading my emails and biking two k
While brewing up my coffee, my nightmares are soon gone,
Looking at my Facebook messages turns my mood grey.
Then I turn on CNN, watch the news,
While doing my dream journal prewriting,
draft poems, stories, writing com writing.
Following my ever-creative muse.
I wake up my wife
The love of my life
And want to play
Discussing our plans for the day.
Have my morning breakfast
usually a smoothie, or kefir.
My homemade breakfast gives me much pleasure
just like in my private bed and breakfast.
Turning off the news,
Turning on music, listening to the blues
about 11 a.m., I start my day
Ready for whatever comes my way.
After finishing my “me time” warm-up
I am ready to press on
That is the way
I like to warm up to the day.
It is not warming up where I live, but, sadly, getting colder again. And now building up to a thunderstorm. Aauugghh!
But we can warm up with a warm-up poem!
Let’s practice the basic method of replying to this post with a poem (full text) somehow on the theme of “warming up.” It could be weather/temperature related, sports/practice related, or some other creative interpretation of “warming up.”
Write away! Post away (via a reply to this post)!
Note: one of my few rhyming poems.
Re-born Local Gem
September 7th, 1982
Was the day that my life
Truly began
When I met the lady
That had haunted my dreams
For eight years.
She walked off the bus
In Korea,
Told me that she was mine
And I was hers.
We got married
Six-weeks later.
Still together 40 years later.
Ups and downs
But always falling in love
Again, and again.
Day 1: A Day You Started Something Write a poem about a day in which you started something. It could be anything, joining a sports team, writing a book, a new school, a new job, anything.
No More April Fool’s Day! Writer’s Cramp
At the start of April
There is another silly superstition
Like Groundhog Day,
That is no longer that relevant.
That is the annual April Fool’s Day
When one is supposed to engage
In games of deception to fool the unwary,
But after the four years
Of the extraneous folly
That was the reign
Of “he who cannot be named,”
Every day seemed an April Fool’s Day
An April Fool’s Day that lasted
A bit less than four years.
Presided over by the greatest fool
Of all time, The self-proclaimed
“Pretty smart stable genius”
“Who had the best words”
The smartest man in the world
According to him,
“The man that cannot be named.”
Concealed every day
In his daily haiku/tanka
like cosmic tweets
Were the germs of the hatred
That he had infected
Into the body politics.
Unencumbered by the old-fashioned notion
Superman’s “Truth, Justice, and the American way”
Replaced by Lies, injustice and
Make America First propaganda nonsense.
In the end, the entire world drowned its reason
In the electric acid “Koo aid” of unreason.
That is the ridiculous
Heart of the MAGA nightmare.
So, no more April Fool’s Day
We have had enough already.
In celebration of April Fool’s Day, write a story or poem about fooling (or being fooled by) someone. It may be in any genre.
Use the words:
* deception
* extraneous
* concealed
* unencumbered
* ridiculous
(The words may appear in any order in your story, but make sure you make them bold.)
NB: The most successful entries will be those which use the words in a meaningful way, so that they occur naturally in the story, rather than feeling artificial as if awkwardly shoe-horned in.
Never Been One to Ease into Things! Dew Drop-In
Never been one
Who could ease into things,
Just not how I roll.
I am the dude
Who jumps into the water
Headless of the danger.
Just because
It was time
To jump in.
I am the kind of dude
Who never eases into
the buffet line.
Who boldly marches in
grabbing everything
And eating it all.
And most importantly
When I saw my wife
The love of my life
The lady of my dreams.
I did not ease up
On that thang.
No, I dove headfirst
Into the ocean
Of her endless love.
And was the best decision
Of all time.
If we had waited
Getting to know each
As most sane couples do,
Perhaps we never
would have lasted
For 40 years.
The moral of this poem
is simply this
You have to know
when to ease
Into things,
And you have to know
When to rush in.
When fools march
Into the lion’s den
That is the love
Of one’s life.
Don’t ease up!
Don’t tense up!
Jump into the ocean
Of your love.
You will never regret it
If you do,
And always regret it
If you ease into it
And never reach
The ocean of her love,
Waiting for you,
But with a time limit
Tick tock
Times up.
Jump or ease on out
Of there,
And say goodbye.
Easing in—write a poem about easing into something (poetry month, a pair of jeans, a new job or stage in life, a swimming pool…
F April Fool’s Day Writers Digest
F April Fool’s Day, I say.
In April, every year in the Anglo speaking world.,
There is another silly superstition
Like Groundhog Day,
That is no longer that relevant.
That is the annual April Fool’s Day
When one is supposed to engage
In games of deception to fool the unwary,
But after four years
Of the extraneous folly
That was the reign
Of “he who cannot be named,”
Every day seemed an April Fool’s Day
An April Fool’s Day that lasted
A bit less than four years.
I say again
F April Fool’s Day!
After almost four years
Of a Daily April Fool’s Day
Presided over by the greatest fool
Of all time, The self-proclaimed
“Pretty smart stable genius”
“Who had the best words”
The smartest man in the world
According to him,
“The man that cannot be named.”
It is time to discard
April Fool’s Day
In the ashcan of history
Concealed every day
In his daily haiku/tanka like cosmic tweets
Were the germs
Of the hatred
That he had infected
Into the body politics.
Unencumbered by the old-fashioned notion
Superman’s “Truth, Justice, and the American way”
Replaced by Lies, injustice and
Make America First “
In the end, the entire world drowned its reason
In the electric acid “Koo aid” of unreason.
That is the ridiculous
Heart of the MAGA nightmare,
I say again
F April Fool’s Day
We have had enough already.
Here we are on the first day of the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge! Each day, I’ll provide a poetry prompt and a poem to get things started. You can secretly poem along at home, or you can share your poem in the comments below.
For today’s prompt, pick a word that begins with F, make it the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. I don’t know if it’s because today is April Fool’s Day, Friday, or just the first day of the challenge, but today feels like an F type of day. So figure out a way to foreshadow your future poems or do whatever else will help you F it all up today.
Bigfoot Emerges After the Fall of Humanity PSH prompt
After the bombs stop falling
After the nuclear winter
After the collapse of civilization
All that remains
Are a few scattered bands
Of humans
Many are reduced
To starvation
Bigfoot who are the descendants
Of the Neanderthals
Who lived on
In the mountain wilderness
Came down
And took pity
On their human cousins.
They soon began
A new, kinder hybrid civilization
Based on the smoldering ruins
of the ancient era
Which was soon forgotten.
Except in the few university towns
That kept some of the knowledge
Of the past alive.
Particularly solar and wind power
Which was soon everywhere
As was a rudimentary internet.
Linking the college towns
The nearby markets
And the remains
Of the old central governments.
New countries slowly emerged
New trading routes
And civilization slowly recovered
It took hundreds of years
Amid the new ice age
That settled down
In most of the world.
April 1, 2022: Poetry Writing Prompt – Maria DePaul
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Maria DePaul:
Wildlife thrives in the unlikeliest of places. In remembrance of the struggles of the Ukrainian people against Russian invasion troops, think of the cats, deer, lynx, wolves, and other animals that persist in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Then write a poem, flash fiction, or creative nonfiction about how to survive and thrive in the most perilous of circumstances.
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.
The day after I retired
From 28 years in the Federal government service
Twenty-six years in the Foreign Service
Two years Peace Corps
We left for an epic road trip
10,000 miles
35 states
In April – June 2016
When Trumpism first emerged
Driving through flyover country
I knew that the Donald
For some weird reason
Connected with the downtrodden
Forgotten people
Of the rural hinterland.
I knew he would win
He was everywhere
In red-state America.
Hillary was nowhere
Outside the
coastal blue enclaves.
And I was so glad
I was getting out
Before the shit storm
That was Trumpism.
Would sweep through the government
Destroying so much
Of the government in the process.
Day 2: A Day You Finished Something Write a poem about a day in which you ended something. It could be anything; a job, a class, a relationship, etc…………………..
You got the insomnia blues
Nothing works
You can’t sleep
You stare at the ceiling.
Your mind plays an endless tape
Of gloom, and doom
Worries and fears
All night long.
The latest dark
SF series you saw
The latest scary headlines
Endless possibilities play out.
The latest news of war
The latest news about the stock market
About the endless pandemic
Dancing across your mind’s internal eye.
What if I have COVID
What if have Cancer?
What if I have the big Alzheimer’s
What is the stock market wipes me out?
What if the North Koreans invade Seoul?
Where would we go to escape the invasion?
What if the zombie apocalypse starts?
What if, what if, what if……
You stare at your watch.
4:01 a,m.
You try to sleep, but nothing works
The dark thoughts continue to play
Across your mind’s eye
Tormenting you, torturing you.
4:05 a,m.
You debate whether
To give up
Get up
Start your morning routine.
4:10 a.m.
You give in
And try to sleep
Checking the time
Every few minutes.
Perhaps you might
Get a few fitful hours
Of much-needed sleep
Most likely not.
6:30 a.m.
Until day-break
Blasts you awake
As the dawning sun
Fills the room.
You get up
Having had only two hours of sleep
That is the curse
Of the insomnia blues.
Sam Adams took off one day
His goal is to be a world traveler.
A WT, a Solivagant
Traveling the world
With his backpack, a laptop
His clothes, and not much more.
A minimal amount of money
Staying at cheap hostels
See as much of the world
as he could within two years.
Near the end of his travels
Deep in the vast wilderness
Of the Himalayas.
He came to a temple
Deep in the mountains
The old wizen monk
Greeted him warmly
He got so few visitors
to his out of the way temple
Lost in time and space.
Over tea, he told Sam,
That there was in his temple
A gateway to other worlds.
But it was a one-way gate
Did Sam accept the challenge?
None ever came back
So, he did not know where
They might end up,
Just a distant time and place
That is all he knew.
He had come from another place
and time a long time ago
For it was a one-way gate
On the other end as well.
Sam stepped through the portal
Telling the monk,
“I always felt that,
Distant times were calling me.”
And now for our daily prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on a word featured in a tweet from Haggard Hawks, an account devoted to obscure and interesting English words. Will you choose a word like “aprosexia,” which means “an inability to concentrate”? Or maybe something like “greenout,” which is “the relief a person who has worked or lived in a snowy area for a long time feels on seeing something fresh and green for the first time”? Whatever you choose happy writing!
Sara Moore’s Anuptaphobia PSH
Sara Moore was a 30ish young woman
Who was suffering from anuptaphobia?
Ever since she turned down
Her rich Thai boyfriend
gave her a gift of an antique, expensive
Pigmean damassin.
Because she thought that it
Implied she would be
His mistress in the Thai tradition,
As a “Mia Noi”
She conspued his offer
Saying
“I ain’t going to be anyone’s “mia noi”
Or mistress, you got that Mister?”.
He responded,
“Then my curse on you
Is that you will always be single
And die an angry old spinster
Rejecting my sincere offer
Of love”
“Does that mean you
would divorce your wife
To be with me?”
“Of course not”.
She laughed.
“I did not think so.”
She left Thailand
And was now regretting
Her harsh condemnation
Of her ex-boyfriend.
An unusual word (or two) within a poem can make a reader (and writer) pause—but if the word is intriguing, this can enrich a writing and reading experience. Use AT LEAST ONE of the following words in your writing exercise.
The prompt was to use at least one of the following unusual words in a poem
I chose the following:
conspue—v.t. to spurn contemptuously.
pigmean—adj. very small.
damassin—n. a brocade with gold and silver threads.
I also chose a Thai expression:
Mia Noi Thai word for mistress means “ Little Wife “ as opposed to the Mia Yaa the big, legal wife. Most rich men have a mia noi or two, and even poor and middle-class men aspire to have a “Mia Noi” at some time. No one gets a divorce and often Mia Yaa and Mia Noi become friends. This ancient tradition may be dying out, it was still very common back in the 1990s.
Other word prompts included
scrvello—n. an elephant’s tusk.
tyg—n. a large ceramic 17th-century drinking mug with 12 handles.
meristic—adj. pertaining to or divided into segments.
halotic—adj. easy to catch.
zibeb—n. a raisin.
papillote—n. a paper ruffle decorating a lamb chop bone.
erudite—adj. freed from wrinkles; very smooth.
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.
#napowrimo #poetry
Second Chances? Writer’s Digest
There are no Second Acts
Sam Adams, an old man
Was contemplating his life
As he turned 85 years old.
Recalling the adage
That there are no second acts
No true second chances.
He concluded
That was not true!
For he had had numerous
second chances,
Third,
fourth,
fifth chances.
To get it right in the end.
Failed the first grade,
Almost failed in high school.
Flunked out of his second college,
Three tries at three colleges,
before he graduated from college.
Four failed relationships
Before he met
the love of his life.
35 different jobs
Four careers
Peace Corps,
Teaching,
Foreign service,
Blogging and writing.
Lived in four states,
And ten countries,
Traveled to all 50 states
And 55 countries
Cheated death 25 times.
And concluded
There are multiple chances
In life.
And each one teaches a lesson
Those who fail end up winning
And those win early on
Often ending failing
Spectacularly in the end.
It does not matter
Much in the end
We all end up in the same place,
When the grim reaper calls our name.
Just take the opportunities
That life throws at you
Never looking back
But learning life’s lessons,
And continue
One step after another.
Until the grim reaper
calls for you.
Those were his final words
in his poem
“Final chances awaiting me”.
The grim reaper came for him
That night.
Write a poem every day of April with the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a second chance poem.
Welcome back! It’s day two of the April PAD Challenge, and it’s your second chance to write a poem this month.
For today’s prompt, write a second chance poem. That second chance could be a second chance at a relationship, at living life, or doing the right thing. Maybe play with whether it’s deserved or not, or just dive straight into giving or taking that second chance.
Local Gem:
Day 2: A Day You Finished Something
Last day in the government service Local Gem Prompt
I served almost 28 years
In the government service.
Two years in the Peace Corps
25 and a half with the Foreign service.
I served in Korea in the Peace Corps
Later in the FS.
I served in ten countries
Over a 27-year career.
Serving in Korea, Thailand, India,
Antiqua, Barbados (based there),
Grenada, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent,
Spain, and six years in DC.
When I left the service
We drove across the country
Just the wife and me
To re-discover America.
After so many years abroad
Representing the US government
All over the world.
My last day officially
Occurred as I was driving
Across the country
It was late April 2016
My last official day
Was April 30, 2016.
We stopped off
In Windsor, Arizona
Saw the shrine to the song
Take it easy.
And realized that
I finally could take it easy
That was my last official day
In government service.
From the beginning of his life
Sam Adams felt alone.
He felt somehow different than others.
He did not know why or how.
He was just born different.
He grew up lonely,
Never fitting in.
Had no real friends at all.
He was all alone all the time.
From childhood’s hour, I have not been.
He grew up in a dysfunctional family.
Not much love to go around.
Always felt like an outsider.
Always wondering why
He felt this way.
His parents had no answers.
They barely spoke to each other.
Or to their troubled son.
As others were—I have not seen.
He was different.
Saw the world through different visions.
Perhaps even a bit psychotic.
His parents were eventually concerned
Enough to consult a doctor.
The doctor told them
Your son is just different than others.
Perhaps the best thing is to let him be.
Who God intended him to be.
As others saw—I could not bring.
He drifted through life
Trying drugs and alcohol.
Only to find himself alone in his dreams.
His nightmares haunted his days.
He was lost in inner space,
Never relating to others.
Just could not interact with normal people.
So in the end he became like so many others
A gunman shot up a shopping mall.
My passions from a common spring—.
Today, our featured online magazine is Rust and Moth, which has been publishing quarterly since 2008. You can browse all of their past issues here. From their newest issue, I’ll point out Leah Claire Kaminski’s lyrical “Flung Girl,” and Lucia Owen’s moving “The Gardener’s Prayer.”
And now for our (optional) prompt. This one is a bit complex, so I saved it for a Sunday. It’s a Spanish form called a “glosa” – literally a poem that glosses, explains, or in some way responds to another poem. The idea is to take a quatrain from a poem that you like, and then write a four-stanza poem that explains or responds to each line of the quatrain, with each of the quatrain’s four lines, in turn, forming the last line of each stanza. Traditionally, each stanza has ten lines, but don’t feel obligated to hold yourself to that! Here’s a nice summary of the Glose or Glosa Poems
From childhood, I have not been
Like others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I lov’d—
I lov’d alone—
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ’round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—
Power of Love Sidewalk Poem NaPoWriMo
My love is waiting
Waiting for me
To return
From this trip.
She is the most beautiful
Women in the world.
Have you seen her?
My Angela Lee?
Tell her I love her
Tell her I will be home
I am coming back to her.
Sidewalk poems—write a poem (or a set of them) brief enough to easily write in chalk on the sidewalk; it might fit on one sidewalk square (or a set of them down the block!)
Mathematical Poem PSH prompt
Love in a sense
Is a percentage game
You go out and meet
So many people
So many potential lovers.
In the end, you may
If you are lucky
Find the one
That is right for you.
Perhaps not
Love is like that
Plus or minus this and that.
Leading to one’s soul mate
That fills your heart
With deep love/
Prompt words
Love
Death
Health
Wealth
Dreams
Nightmares
Politics
Symbols
%
+ –
$
+
0
I picked Love and then linked it to some of the symbols
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Carol Dorf:
(Note: A version of this exercise was first published in Wingbeats II: Exercises and Practice in Poetry, which contains many generative exercises.)
from The Mathematical Poem:
There are many starting points for beginning mathematical poetry. Some begin with syllabics (Fibonacci’s are a favorite), and others emphasize the visual symbols of mathematics as Zukofsky did with the Integral and Bob Grumman does with the division sign. The mathematical poetry that I find most fascinating has both mathematical content and form.
In the “Context-Shift” poem where mathematical language is used to discuss personal life. Here’s an example of one of my “Context-Shift” poems. In this poem, I used the information I was reading about chaos theory (in Ivar Ekland’s Mathematics and the Unexpected) to write about the unexpected in my own life.
Dear Ivar,
I read your book on the unexpected.
Like most poets, I opposed mathematics
when I was young, seeing it as the converse
to feeling. The previous statement is false.
When I was very young I loved counting
and zero and even numbers. At sixteen,
I wanted to imagine calculus as a novel
of limits and motion. Yet by college,
I had learned mathematics could not correspond
to poetry in a one-to-one intensity.
Would your book have mattered to me, then?
Most likely, I would not have read it.
Today, I am sending this fan letter. Thank you
for explaining catastrophe and instability.
I spent so many years writing my way
through them. And boundaries, I kept insisting
they were psychological or geographic,
unwilling to see them as breaks
between states of matter. Your words
matter to me, a language as precise as poetry
to delineate universe and being.
Sincerely,
Carol
To begin one of these poems, fold a piece of paper in half vertically. In one column, list a few things in your life that you obsess about. In the other column write some mathematical words, symbols, or ideas. Sources for these ideas could be textbooks, web articles (in this case Wikipedia is an ok source), or odd facts you remember from school. Don’t worry too much about understanding every aspect of the idea.
Then choose one of the starting places from the first column, and let the language from the different sectors bump up against each other.
Write for 11 minutes, and then if you are so inspired, return and write on the poem for another 7 minutes.
Enjoy!
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.
Korean Food
Writer’s Digest the Smell of Korean Food Writers Digest
The Smells of Korean food
When I first encountered Korean food
I was overwhelmed by the strong smell
Bursting with fermentation and flavors
Hot, raw, sweet yet sour,
spicy, in your face mixture
of smells and flavors
everybody’s Kimchi
is a bit different
Yet they all share
A similar blend of
Alcohol
cabbage
chili peppers
fermentation
fish
fish sauce,
garlic,
onion,
red peppers,
salt
sugar
soy sauce
sometimes
made with dandelion
radish
springtime wild herbs
All rolled up in an intoxicating blend
Of smells and flavors
That was my introduction
to the lowly Kimchi
The staple of Korean food,
I soon became a kimchi addict
Craving its intoxicating flavor
And smells with every meal
Now 40 years later
I am still a kimchi addict
Enjoying the fragrance, the smell
And intoxicating tastes
Can’t get enough of that
Funky stuff.
For today’s prompt, write a smell poem. Strong writing uses sensory language, and one sense that is often overlooked is the sense of smell. So write about the pungent smell of teenage socks, the exquisite odor of fresh lasagna, or the coppery scent of a summer shower. Smell you later!
Something Fixable Gun Violence Local Gems
In this day and age
Of daily gun battles
In the streets
Of any American city.
Nine gunned down
Last night in Sacramento.
It is easy to believe
That nothing can be done
To stop the carnage
In the streets.
Just like the weather
It is the cost of our freedom
For freedom is not free.
The NRA and their minions proclaim
Guns don’t kill people
People kill people.
The wrong answer
Are more guns for everyone
If that were the answer
The U.S. perhaps the most
Heavily armed country
In the world,
With more guns
That person
Would have almost no gun
Violence.
The solutions are obvious
Stricter gun laws
Enforcement of existing gun laws.
Treating gun ownership
The same as car ownership.
Prove the ability
To fire a weapon.
Universal background checks.
purchasing liability insurance
and yes, having a license.
to own a weapon
One must know the laws and rules.
Including personal liability
If a gun is stolen
And used in the commission
Of a crime.
To have no criminal,
or mental health issues,
No history of violence.
Annual limits on purchases
No military-style assault weapons
Registration of guns
With the local police
In a nationally searchable database.
None of these measures
Which are commonplace
In most civilized societies,
Would be an undue burden
On anyone rights
Except on the rights
Of the gun merchant’s ability
To continue selling us
Weapons of war.
So, I conclude this poem
About a fixable thing
We can fix the gun problem
If we have the political courage
To stand up and say
Enough, no more gun deaths
In our American streets.
But we are moving backward
With red state after red state
Weakening or eliminating
Most gun laws.
Soon we will be living again
In the wild west days
Where gunslingers killed
With impunity.
But, sadly, nothing will be done
There will be another shooting
By the time I post this poem,
Sadly, the gun carnage in America continues with no end in sight due to the total dysfunctional nature of American politics, the power of the NRA and the right-wing in the U.S., and the craven unwillingness of political leaders to do anything about gun violence. the recent case in Michigan is particularly egregious. Here then are some of my gun poems, the first are poems I wrote recently, the rest are poems I wrote a while back.
“Otherwise Engaged Journal “will publish my poem, “Enough of Your Useless Prayers” in January 2022. I will update this entry then with details and no doubt more gun poems, as the carnage will continue with no end in sight.
I often thought that there are solutions to this problem. First, we treat gun ownership like car ownership. Although the bill of rights applies none of the bills of rights are absolute, all have some limitations including freedom of speech, press, religion, etc. Why the 2nd amendment is the only exception is beyond me.
First, gun owners should be licensed to own and carry a gun. the license can only be denied to convicted criminals, those who have documented mental health hospitalization, and those charged with domestic violence, and those who otherwise fail the universal background checks. Anyone on the terrorist list or the “no-fly list” should not be allowed to buy a gun.
Only licensed dealers should be allowed to sell guns and ammo. The gun show exception should be ended, Internet sales should be subject to background sales, and selling or giving a gun to a relative or friend should also be regulated.
There should be an annual limit on gun sales – five weapons per year?
Now some may disagree with this, that is their right. But since 80 percent of Americans are in favor of at least these limits then congress should enact these provisions.
the licensing should be done at a state level but the information should be searchable by law enforcement personnel nationwide.
and existing laws that provided for more severe penalties for gun-related crime should be enforced.
I do not support open carry laws or concealed weapons permits, but I do feel we should have a nationwide standard that recognizes gun permits and allows people to transport unloaded guns in their vehicles across state lines, but not on public transit, trains, buses, or planes.
The bottom line is simply this – guns are dangerous instruments, but people have a limited right to own a gun for personal protection or hunting.
That’s enough preaching for now. Here are my gun poems starting with the recent to be published ” Enough of Your Useless Prayers”.
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I thought that the NRA
Could not get any lower
But today they did.
They tweeted out
Their Mother’s Day message
A mom and her daughter
Holding military assault rifles.
With the caption
“Momma Did not Raise a victim”
The ad came out
On a weekend
That saw more than
seven mass shootings
All across the land,
The NRA has no shame
Blood is on their hands
Because of them.
We have not been able
To do anything at all
About the epidemic
Of gun violence.
That is killing
Far too many of us
Turning so many people
Into Gun Ghosts
Joining the corona ghost army.
Looking at that vile add
I said,
“Momma
may not have raised a victim
But she did raise a monster
NRA.
How evil
How despicable
Can you get?
Celebrating gun violence
On Mother’s Day?
Just Another Day in America
Turning on the dismal sad news
Every morning at dawn.
There is another grim story
To brighten my morning gloom.
The Latest story – a lone gunman
Opens fire at time square
At sunset.
Another deranged madman
With a gun and a grievance
Shooting up a crowd.
As tourists scream
And flee the scene.
Wondering if this is just
Another movie set
The scene went awry.
Unfortunately,
No, it is life and death
Live and in living color.
Just another Saturday night
Live in NYC
And across the land.
As another madman’s life
unravels before the world’s eyes
Live and in living color.
MUST WATCH TV SCREAMS MY TV THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR TV SET
The NRA and their hired goons
Go on air
Offering useless thoughts
And meaningless prayers.
Guns don’t kill people
Guns make us free
Guns are all American
Liberals want to take your guns
You need your AK 47
To blow away Bambi.
Or the thug BLM dude
Next door
Because Black Lives
Do not Matter to You.
The only solution
Are more guns for all
An armed society
Is a polite society.
Guns are the greatest gift
that America gave to the world
They are our friends
And protector
God bless our guns.
Just another day
In their violent gun-ridden
Gun paradise that is America
is its imperial decline.
The gun victims
Don’t hear their thoughts
And prayers.
As they are now dead.
Just another gun ghost
They join the thousands
Of gun ghosts
And the corona ghosts.
Their voices
Crying in the wind
No one cares anymore
Just too many of them.
Another Day in the NRA’s Paradise
Just another day in America
Land of the free
Home of the brave.
And guns
lots of guns
More guns for all
Cries the NRA.
Yes, another day
Another gun battles
Another white man
Who just wants to kill.
President Trump sends his condolences
Thanks to the law enforcement
For an incredible job, well done
it was horrible.
Hate has no place
In our country
And we will take of it
and do whatever we can do.
Offering useless fake condolences
Nothing but false words
Empty words.
Lots of things to do.
It is a mental illness problem
But he fails to mention
The words gun at all
Not at all.
And tomorrow and tomorrow
But he at least finally said
Hate has no role in-country
Nothing but prime BS
In my humble opinion
For he is the maestro
Of Hate
Even as a former president
Stirring up hate
Across the land.
He did not mention
White supremacy
His rhetoric had nothing
Nothing to do about
This at all.
And so tomorrow
I will turn on the TV
And we see nothing
Nothing had changed.
And the dead
Will remain dead
The guns will fire again
Nothing will be done.
Welcome to America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
And guns
lots of guns
More guns
Guns for all
God bless our guns.
Mr President, Your Words Matter.
Mr. President words matter
President Trump,
Words matter
Your words matter.
Your words of hate
Your words of division.
Your words
Calling fellow human beings
Scum, vermis, invaders,
Animals, thugs, criminals.
They matter a lot
Is it little wonder
That people listen
Give into the hate,
You spew forth.
And some deranged people
act on your call
For action.
Against the invaders
On the border
They march to the border
To kill the invaders.
Your words matter
Mr. President
And your false words
Of regret, fool no one.
The damage has been done
The hate has been spread
Just as you intended.
And you
Have the gall
To call yourself
a Christian.
You are the anti-Christ
The Bible warns us about
You are not a Christian
So please quit pretending
To be what you are not.
Please man up
Accept your responsibility
Set things right
apologize.
The dead though
Don’t need your useless prayers
They need action
They need leadership.
And you are the president
Please start acting
Like you give a damn.
And if you do so
Perhaps
You will find
People will follow you.
But please
Quit the words
Of hate
The words that hurt.
And quit calling immigrants
Invaders and vermin
They are human beings
They are deserving of respect.
This I ask of you
In Jesus’s name
Even though
I am not a Christian
Please, Donald Trump
Grow up.
And become a true leader
Of the people
And end the war of words
And constant hate.
Chief of Staff, You are Absurd
another gun
The president’s chief of staff
While the former guy
Was still President,
Said one day
It was absurd.
To suggest the president’s words
Had anything to do
With recent mass shootings.
Yet is it absurd,
To see the lengths
To which the president’s supporters.
Will twist and turn
Spinning away
The inconvenient truth.
President Trump
Is a racist bigot con man
Who somehow
Conned his way
To become president.
He calls immigrants
Criminals, vermin, animals
invaders
Infesting the country.
The El Paso shooter
said that he went to the border
To shoot the invaders
And said
That he was a big Trump fan.
It is not absurd
To connect these two huge dots
The president’s words
Has real-world consequences.
Yes Mr. Trump is a racist pig
And his supporters
Are being absurd
To suggest otherwise.
Guns kill people.
GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE
Guns do kill people
That is their Buddha-nature
Their Karmic fate.
It is not a mental illness
it is not video games
it is not a million other things.
It is simply this
A gun is a weapon
A weapon designed to kill people
That is what guns do.
Guns don’t care
They do as they are told
If you pull the trigger
They will kill the victim.
That is what guns do
It’s a gun thing.
That is why
In a civilized society
Like most of the world
Military assault weapons
Are locked up.
Yet in America
The land of the free
Home of the brave
Everyone and his cousin
Must have their gun.
Guns for everyone
Cries the NRA
That’s the solution.
The president
And his supporters
Deny the obvious,
Guns kill people
That’s all they do
It is a gun thing
You understand.
So, Mr. President
You can take your words
Your empty platitudes
Your empty soulless promises.
Straight to hell.
NRA, Please Stop Talking
Another day
Another mass shooting
Another incident.
Of domestic terrorism
Another gunman
Killing people.
Because just because
The NRA and their stooges
Come out
Flood the airways.
With their noxious
Poisonous weasel words.
The NRA says
Mass shootings
Are like the weather
You can’t control them.
You can’t predict them
And you can’t prevent them.
Just have to accept
It is all god’s will
Guns don’t kill people
If guns were outlawed
Only outlaws would have guns.
Only solution
Are more guns
For everyone.
An armed society
They say
Is a polite society.
Support for gun control
is socialist/communist/fascist/anti-American/anti-christian nonsense.
The beginning of tyranny
If only the Jews had guns
The holocaust would not have happened.
Jesus would want us all
To be armed with machine guns.
To protect us against the evildoers
It is the Christian thing to do
To blow away evildoers
With heavy arms.
In America
Land of the free
Home of the brave.
We can’t do anything
At all.
About the mass carnage
Unleashed by madmen with guns
Who walks among us
Searching for their next victims.
Any restriction of the right
To bear arms
Is tyranny at its worst.
The nanny state run amuck
Talking about gun control
After a tragic event is
Just not the appropriate time
We only need prayers
And meaningless thoughts.
Universal background checks
Too onerous,
Registering guns
Too burdensome.
Researching gun violence
Waste of taxpayer money.
Banning military-style assault weapons
Restricts my right to blow away
Bambi the deer
With an M16.
The NRA will keep talking
Talking and talking
Another and talking
Preventing anything
From being done.
And we will have another
Mass shooting event
Before the day is out.
So, my plead
This day
to the NRA
And their stooges,
Talk is cheap
Your comments
Are not helping.
If you can’t
Be a part of the solution,
Just stop talking
Please stop talking
And let the rest
Of us figure out
How to stop
The madness in the streets
And stop the carnage
So, NRA
PLEASE
SHUT UP
JUST
STOP
TALKING
NOW!
More Guns for Everyone in the World
(Drafted during the Trump Era, don’t know if this policy has been changed)
The NRA has decided
That the best solution
To the global problem
Of rampant violence
And crime everywhere,
Is for the rest of the world
To become like the U.S.
Where anyone can buy a gun
An armed society
Is a polite society.
The president is about to announce
A global campaign against gun control restrictions
As these restrictions are an undue burden
On the rights of the U.S.arms manufacture.
To sell their guns everywhere in the world.
As everyone wants what we have to sell
The best weapons in the world.
Instead of trying to limit the damage
That unrestricted gun sale
Have done to the U.S.
President, our great leader
Wants to sell more guns
Everywhere in the world.
And there are eager buyers
Lining up around the world
Eager to buy the best guns
The world has never seen.
We want to export
The gun madness
That has infected our society
Leaving behind so many dead bodies
So many gun ghosts.
The dead were not consulted
For they remain dead
They do not vote
They have no voice.
For the guns silenced
Then for good
Just as the guns intended
Just doing their gun thing.
Humanity has evolved
From stones to arrows
To guns
To nuclear, biological weapons.
And the U.S.
While proclaiming itself
a champion of human rights.
Remains nothing but a country
Of gun runners
Merchants of death
And destruction.
Trump Administration Advances Plan to Relax Gun-Export Rules
The Trump administration on Monday advanced a long-sought-after plan to relax export rules for American small arms, including semiautomatic rifles, handguns, and sniper rifles.
In a private briefing with members of Congress, State Department officials outlined a proposed rule change that would transfer oversight of gun exports to the Department of Commerce. The proposed rule will be published in the federal register later this week, where it will be subject to public comment for 45 days. While it is unlikely, Congress could block the change using powers under the congressional review act.
The shift, which was first proposed by the Obama administration in 2012, is championed by gunmakers who say it will make them more competitive in the international market. Critics argue an export policy that favors commercial interests could put the national security of the United States at risk or harm diplomatic efforts.
“Weakened congressional oversight of international small arms and munitions sales is extremely hazardous to global security,” said Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in an emailed statement. “This decision is also politically tone-deaf as our nation reckons with a gun violence epidemic.”
A State Department spokesman said that the change would ease the regulatory burden on American gun makers and allow them to compete better globally.
Currently, the Department of State monitors exports of all weapons through the U.S. munitions list. Since 2002, the department has been required to notify Congress of overseas sales of firearms worth more than $1 million.
In 2016, the State Department alerted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to a proposed sale of more than 26,000 rifles to the Philippines. Cardin at the time objected to arming the regime of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had inaugurated a wave of thousands of extrajudicial killings as part of a crackdown on drugs. The weapons deal was canceled as a result.
The proposed rule change would transfer control over the sale of small arms to the commerce control list, and congress would no longer be notified of large purchases. Some arms control experts say reduced oversight could provide criminals, terrorists, or hostile states an opportunity to purchase American weapons.
Under Department of Commerce weapon-export rules, “companies aren’t required to provide as much information about brokers or shipping” as they must under State Department supervision, said Colby Goodman, who examines American weapons exports as director of the security assistance monitor program at the center for international policy in Washington.
“The world of firearms exports is full of questionable, dubious characters.”
The rule change has been long in the making. It was first proposed in 2012 by the Obama administration, but abandoned shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. At the time, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security criticized the change because it could make it easier for transnational criminal organizations or terrorists to get American-made guns.
In September, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was interested in reviving the rule change to encourage more international arms sales. With the formal commencement of the public comment period, the preparation has become a policy reality.
In April, the Trump administration said it would now consider economic factors in addition to security when it comes to selling American weapons overseas.
The Trump administration has argued that the change would aid the domestic gun industry by cutting down on export regulation. American consumer sales of firearms have suffered since the 2016 election. After years of elevated sales in anticipation of possible new gun-control measures imposed by democratic lawmakers, domestic demand subsided as republicans took full control of the federal government.
– Alex yablon
In Virginia Beach
In a night of horrific scumbagery violence
Rarely seen in this jaded age of ours.
EVERYONE WAS GONE IN LESS THAN AN HOUR
In a spasm of horrific scumbagery violence
In just a few short minutes
Nothing more than that
In just a few moments
All 12 victims were murdered.
By a disgruntled employee
Everyone he knew was shot
And killed for no reason.
Caused by the demons
His soul was so infected
Murderous demonic voices
All in his head
Screaming kill them all kill them all
Screaming no stop violence in his head
All the time.
Causing him to start shooting.
Everyone he saw
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were
Everyone must die
Screamed the demonic
Voices in his head.
No one can be left alive
Everyone must die
All must die.
In his internal video game
Everyone must die
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were.
DEATH TO ALL HUMANS SCREAMED THE VOICES IN HIS HEAD
As he hunted his victims
Killing as many as he could.
Just another day
Gone wrong
All across America
In every town
Nowhere is safe anymore.
Virginia Beach Massacre Two
guns
Virginia Beach massacre
Just another night in America.
An active shooter
Unleashes a night of
Scumbagery violence
rarely seen.
In this jaded wild world
Gone in one hour.
In a spasm of horrific
scumbagery.
In just less
Than 30 short minutes
Nothing more than that.
In just a few
Short 30 moments
All the victims.
Were murdered while
At their daily work
Just at the Wrong place,
At the wrong time.
Act of a demotic
a deranged madman with a gun
Voices screaming kill.
The voices scream
DEATH
TO
ALL
HUMANS
The voices scream
Over and over
All must die now.
Just another night
In America
Home of the free
Land of the brave
And guns for all.
It’s a Gun Situation, Mr. President.
President Trump
You are wrong once again.
You said that the tragic events in Texas
And Las Vegas was not “gun situations”
But mental health problems.
And that in Texas
If there had been
Fewer gun controls
Fewer people.
Would have died
President Trump
I know you are a smart man
The smartest man in the world
According to you.
So please contemplate this fact
According to the latest findings
It is a gun situation.
The reason the U.S.
Is number one in gun deaths
Is because we are number one
in gun ownership.
We have so many gun deaths
Because we have so many guns
45% of the world’s guns.
And 33 percent of the world’s shooters
are Americans killing other Americans.
And most of them, the majority of them
Are white people killing other White people
Except for white Cops
They like to kill black and brown people
For some reason.
Rarely is it a black person
Or an Asian person
Or a female shooter.
No Islamic terrorists
Most are in fact
Self-proclaimed
White Supremacist Christians.
So, Mr. President
When will you come to your senses?
And do what 90 percent of the public wants
Enact nationwide effective gun controls?
And tell the NRA
They can take their
Blood money elsewhere.
When Mr. President
When will you act
When will you take charge?
And become a president of the people
Instead of the president of the NRA?
Comment: Sent this to President Trump who added me to his suckers email list – I was soon getting hundreds of emails a day from everyone including the NRA telling me that I was a valued member of team Trump and had to donate money to keep the socialist democrats from taking my guns away. End comment
I want to tell you something
The dead don’t want your prayers
the dead don’t care
That you pray for them
They are dead.
And you and your so-called Christian
Are to blame,
You refuse to do anything
Anything at all to stop the carnage
In our streets.
The U.S. is flooded with guns
And more are sold every day.
Millions of people
Don’t have health coverage
Millions are barely surviving
And your answer,
Our dear great compassionate speaker
Your answer
Is prayer works
Government action does not.
You act as if the gun violence
Plaguing our country
Was like the weather
Beyond our control,
So, here’s my prayer for you
and your colleagues
When you die
I pray that God
will send you
And your friends
Straight to hell
Where Satan and his demons
Will use you for target practice
That’s my prayer to you
And as you know
Prayer works.
Comment: Sent to Speaker Ryan who never responded, but he did not put me on his sucker email list. End Comment
I Don’t Get It
Mr. Speaker
I admit I don’t get it
how does prayer
stop gun violence?
Prayer did not work in Texas.
26 people were murdered
While praying.
God if he exists
Does not care
About the poor people
Who died in his church.
Because a mad man
Got a gun,
And no, they were not praying
To be delivered from death
No one deserves to die like this.
So, my prayer to you
Is simply this
Get off your rear end
Rally the country,
And do something
About gun violence.
That’s a prayer
I hope works.
Source document:
“Add house speaker Paul Ryan to the list of republicans offering only thoughts and prayers in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting in a Texas church, because taking meaningful action is always off the table with him and his party.
Speaking with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingram last night, Ryan reiterated that the victims and their families need more prayers because “prayer works.”
Prayer doesn’t work -Found Poem
26 people were murdered while praying. Even Christians ought to admit that prayer doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and their god will do whatever their god wants to do, even if it means letting people die in the church because a domestic abuser got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.
Not that Ryan would ever say that.
Instead, he just blamed the “far secular left” for not getting it.
More guns than people found poem
We don’t have more automobiles
Than people in the United States of America.
We don’t have more televisions than people.
We don’t have more radios than people
We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
Lots more guns
More guns than anywhere else
In the world
45% of all guns in fact
393 million firearms
A population of 326 million.
That means there are 120.5 firearms
For every 100 American citizens,
It’s a sad fact.
If every single person in the United States
Possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm
— even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds
— there would still be 67 million guns left over.
Sixty-seven million.
The number of guns
Owned by civilians
Is an outrage,
A profanity,
a sign that this country
This supposed Christian
Peace-loving country
Has lost its collective mind.
But not to the national rifle association it isn’t
The NRA has taken the position
That what we need is more guns, not less.
They say that more guns equal less crime,
You need guns to defend yourself and your property,
These groups tell us.
If more people had more guns,
criminals would be less likely to commit crimes
Because they wouldn’t know who was armed
And locked ready for bear
Ready to defend themselves.
An armed society
is a peaceful polite society.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy with a gun”
Said NRA chief executive
Wayne Lapierre
After the Sandy Hook School Massacre
In Connecticut
Had killed 20 children
And six schoolteachers and staff
The good guy theory
Is their rationale
Behind arming teachers.
Arming teachers
Is the argument
They have for all.
The so-called
Open carry laws
That has been passed.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year
Was stopped by a good guy
With a gun.
The NRA
Said an armed civilian
Shot the bad guys.
With a gun
In Dayton
It took
66 shots to bring down the killer.
They fired 40 rounds.45 caliber ammunition,
16 rounds of 233-millimeter ammunition
And one shotgun round
It is madness
Every mass shooting
Proves how mad it is.
Can you imagine what
It must have been
Like in the epoch nightclub bar
In Dayton
Or on the street in Odessa?
Guns were going off
People all around you
Were hit wounded, dying
Bleeding everywhere
If you were carrying a gun a handgun,
What would you have done?
Hide get behind someone
Run?
That’s what I would do
That’s what people did
Dayton and Odessa.
These mass shootings
Are acts of terror.
People are terrorized
Sacred to death.
They are lucky
To be alive.
In a country with more guns
Than people
The good guys
With a gun,
Myth is obscene.
In a country with more guns than people,
the “good guy with a gun” myth
is an obscenity.
It’s a lie.
GUNS DON’T SAVE US THEY KILL US
Based on the following source article
“We don’t have more automobiles than people in the United States of America. We don’t have more televisions than people. We don’t have more radios than people. We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
A recent report published by the small arms survey in Geneva, Switzerland, found that there are more than 393 million firearms owned by civilians in this country. We have a population of 326 million. That means there are 120.5 firearms for every 100 American citizens, according to the Washington Post. It’s a fact. If every single person in the United States possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm — even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds — there would still be 67 million guns left over. Sixty-seven million.
The number of guns owned by civilians is an outrage, profanity, a sign that this country has lost its collective mind. But not to the national rifle association it isn’t. Not to the gun owners of America, another major gun lobby organization with over two million members, which is frequently critical of the NRA for being too soft on gun rights. These well-funded lobbies for gun manufacturers and gun owners have long taken the position that what we need is more guns, not fewer. They say that more guns equal less crime, despite FBI statistics that show conclusively that violent crime, and especially crimes involving firearms, is higher per capita in areas of the country with more guns.
You need guns to defend yourself and your property, these groups tell us. If more people had more guns, criminals would be less likely to commit crimes because they wouldn’t know who was armed and ready to defend themselves.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun,” said NRA chief executive Wayne Lapierre after the sandy hook school massacre in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six school staff. He said the same thing again after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre, which left 17 students and faculty dead. It has become the NRA’s favorite myth.
The “good guy with a gun” theory is their rationale behind arming teachers. It’s the argument they have for all the so-called “open carry” laws that have been passed. At this point, 31 states allow people to openly carry firearms in public without a license. Another 15 allow open carry with some form of state-issued license. All 50 states allow people to carry concealed firearms with varying forms of restrictions and licensing. The idea is the more “good guys with a gun,” the better.
According to ABC News, “there have been at least 19 deadly mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2019.” There were two mass shootings last month on a single day, Aug. 3. The first, in El Paso, Texas, was at a Walmart. Twenty-two people were killed and 24 were wounded. That night in Dayton, Ohio, 10 people were killed and another 17 were wounded in a shooting that happened in less than 30 seconds. On Aug. 31, a shooter in Odessa, Texas, killed seven people and wounded 25, including three police officers.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year was stopped by a “good guy with a gun,” an armed civilian. Police shot the “bad guys with a gun” in Dayton and Odessa. In Dayton, it took them 66 shots to bring down the killer. They fired 40 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition, 16 rounds of .233 millimeter ammunition, and one shotgun round. The killer took only 40 rounds to kill seven and wound 17 with his ar-15 style weapon. The alleged shooter in El Paso somehow evaded dozens of responding police officers before surrendering.
Both Texas and Ohio allow open carry of firearms without a license, and yet in neither place was there a civilian “good guy with a gun” to stop the carnage amid panic and chaos. An armed U.S. soldier with a concealed carry license in El Paso drew his weapon before deciding to shuttle fleeing children safely out of the shopping mall.
You have heard most of the arguments against these open carry laws. How will cops responding to an active shooter incident know who the shooter is, and who is just a passer-by carrying a gun? What’s going to happen in a crowded store like Walmart when there finally is a shootout between a killer and “good guys with guns?” Won’t a lot of innocent bystanders be being killed? If well-trained, heavily armed police can’t kill an active shooter with less than 66 bullets, how can we expect an armed teacher in a grade school to do it?
It’s madness. Every mass shooting proves how mad it is. Can you imagine what it must have been like in the El Paso Walmart, or outside the bar in Dayton, or on the street in Odessa? Guns were going off. People all around you were hit, wounded, dying, bleeding. Even if you were carrying a handgun, what would you have done?
Hide. Get behind something. Run. That’s what I would do. That’s what people did in El Paso, Dayton, and Odessa.
These mass shootings are acts of terror. People are terrorized, scared. They’re trying to stay alive.
In a country with more guns than people, the “good guy with a gun” myth is obscenity. It’s a lie. Guns don’t save us. They kill us.
More guns
guns
Every day more guns
gun deaths everywhere
more man men with guns
shooting everyone
you cannot escape.
So many deaths
you cannot count
five today
more tomorrow.
NRA cries
need more guns
guns for all.
More guns
More deaths
Guns.
When Will This Madness End?
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair.
An old man consumed by his demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 58 people injuring hundreds.
In Las Vegas, Sin City
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy?
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid, cry the conservative voices
Guns are the price of our freedom
Guns Don’t Kill People.
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy with a gun.
An armed society is a polite society.
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits
We must confiscate the guns.
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur.
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be the next time
And another time and repeatedly
Until the end of time.
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers.
Nothing will change
Until we confront the evil
What lurks deep within each of us.
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough.
Dear Governor Abbot
You say you are a Christian
Yet you have the gall
to say the proper response
To the evil acts of the deranged gunman
Who shot up a church
Is to work closer with God.
And that evil people will find ways
To commit evil acts
And that there is nothing the government
Can do to stop this madness.
It is the price of our freedom
Why can’t you wake up
And see that you can lead
The way out of this madness?
Thousands of people die
Each year from guns in this country
Turning everyone into prisoners
Into their own homes
Afraid to walk outside.
For fear that a nut job
With a gun
Will blow them away
In Church, at the store
In traffic.
And you and your NRA friends
Think the answer
Is to arm everyone to the teeth.
And I wonder how Jesus
Would react to how
You have so misunderstood his message?
You Sir are not a Christian
And you Sir are going to not like
What God has to say to you
On Judgement Day.
Source document:
“We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people or another terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.”
Texas Governor: Fight Gun Massacres By ‘Working with God’
NOVEMBER 6, 2017, BY MICHAEL STONE
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott claims prayer and “working with God” is the only way to prevent mass shooting events like the recent church massacre in rural Texas.
In a deplorable bit of pandering, Abbott said that the proper response to Sunday’s shooting is to confront evil through prayer and forge “a stronger connection to God.”
Governor Abbott said:
We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people or another terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.
Most reasonable people reject Abbott’s impotent call to prayer and a “stronger connection to God.” In a statement concerning the recent Texas church massacre, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that action was required:
We have a solemn obligation to the victims of Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Orlando, Newtown, and the many tragic shootings that occur each day to respond not only with prayer and unwavering love but with action.
As for Governor Abbott, his position as a dangerous religious extremist is well established.
Last June Abbott signed into law legislation allowing publicly funded agencies to deny non-Christians the ability to adopt a child in need.
In addition, in a move meant to shame women who have abortions, the Republican governor of Texas ordered state health officials to add new abortion regulations that would require the burial or cremation of post-abortion fetal tissue.
Bottom line: Texas Governor Gregg Abbott is a dangerous religious extremist who believes the proper response to Sunday’s church massacre is prayer and other efforts to forge “a stronger connection to God.”
Comment: Poor Governor Abbot does not like me. I sent him a letter asking him to show me where I can find in the bible justification for forcing women to hold a funeral at their expense for a fetus and how can this be seen as a Christian companion thing to do? He never answered.
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair.
An old man consumed by his demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 60 people injuring hundreds
In Las Vegas, Sin City.
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid cry the conservative voices
And there is nothing we can do.
It is like the weather
Bad shit happens
Guns are the price of our freedom.
Guns Don’t Kill People
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a gun guy with a gun.
An armed society is a polite society
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits.
We must confiscate the guns
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur.
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be the next time
And another time and repeatedly
Until the end of time.
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers
We are all responsible here.
The negligent parents
The overworked schools
The soulless corporate world.
That treats everyone
like disposable commodities
The lack of human connection
The TV and movie purveyors
Of pornographic violence.
Nothing will change
Until we conflict the evil
That lurks deep within each of us
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough.
Two weeks later the greatest mass shooting in a Church occurred in Texas
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Unfortunately, mass shootings have become so common in the U.S. here are my gun poems written over the last few years. A few have been published. I hope and pray that our political leaders will do something to solve the problem. The NRA’s position seems to be more guns for everyone is the solution.
They are so wrong. The widespread availability of super lethal weapons is the problem. You simply can’t kill on a mass level with knives, or hammers, you need a high powered weapon designed to kill as many people as possible in the shortest time possible and you need to be so deranged that you want to kill as many people as possible in the shortest time possible. Universal background checks would help, treating guns like we treat cars would help. Red flag laws would help.
Miltiary weapons must be banned
Guns should be registered, and owners should have to buy liability insurance.
We need universal background checks now!
The federal government should spend time and money studying the causes and prevention of gun violence.
Buying back assault weapons would be a good idea as well. I do agree with the NRA on one point, we should prosecute people who use guns in the commission of a crime and enforce all existing laws.
I thought that the NRA
Could not get any lower
But today they did
They tweeted out
Their Mother’s Day message
A mom and her daughter
Holding military assault rifles
With the caption
“Momma Did not Raise a victim”
NRA Mother’s Day Add
The add came out
On a weekend
That saw more than
seven mass shootings
All across the land
The NRA has no shame
Blood is on their hands
Because of them
We have not been able
To do anything at all
About the epidemic
Of gun violence
That is killing
Far too many of us
Turning so many people
Into Gun Ghosts
Joining the corona ghost army
Looking at that vile add
I said,
“Momma may not have raised a victim
But she did raise a monster
NRA
How evil
How despicable
Can you get
Celebrating gun violence
On Mother’s Day?
Just Another Gun Death in America
Turning on the dismal dark news
Every morning at dawn
There is another grim story
To brighten my morning gloom
The Latest story – a lone gunman
Opens fire at time square
At sunset
Another deranged madman
With a gun and a grievance
Shooting up a crowd
As tourists scream
And flee the scene
Wondering if this is just
Another movie set
Scene went awry
Unfortunately,
No, it is life and death
Live and in living color
Just another Saturday night
Live in NYC
And across the land
As another madman’s life
unravels before the world’s eyes
Live and in living color
MUST WATCH TV SCREAMS MY TV THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR TV SET
The NRA and their hired goons
Go on air
Offering useless thoughts
And meaningless prayers
Guns don’t kill people
Guns make us free
Guns are all American
Liberals want to take your guns
You need your AK 47
To blow away bambi
Or the thug BLM dude
Next door
Because Black Lives
Do not Matter to You
The only solution
Are more guns for all
An armed society
Is a polite society
Guns are the greatest gift
that America gave to the world
They are our friends
And protector
God bless our guns
Just another day
In their violent gun-ridden
Gun paradise that is America
is its imperial decline
The gun victims
Don’t hear their thoughts
And prayers
As they are now dead
Just another gun ghost
They join the thousands
Of gun ghosts
And the corona ghosts
Their voices
Crying in the wind
No one cares anymore
Just too many of them
Another Day in the NRA’s Paradise
Just another day in America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
And guns
lots of guns
More guns for all
Cries the NRA
Yes, another day
Another gun battles
Another white man
Who just wants to kill
President Trump sends his condolences
Thanks to the law enforcement
For an incredible job, well done
it was horrible
Hate has no place
In our country
And we will take of it
and do whatever we can do
Offering useless fake condolences
Nothing but false words
Empty words
Lots of things to do
It is a mental illness problem
But he fails to mention
The words gun at all
Not at all
And tomorrow and tomorrow
But he at least finally said
Hate has no role in-country
Nothing but prime bs
In my humble opinion
He did not mention
White supremacy
His rhetoric had nothing
Nothing to do about
This at all
And so tomorrow
I will turn on the TV
And we see nothing
Nothing had changed
And the dead
Will remain dead
The guns will fire again
Nothing will be done
Welcome to America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
And guns
lots of guns
More gun
Guns for all
God bless our guns
President Trump Words Matter
Mr. President words matter
President Trump,
Words matter
Your words matter
Your words of hate
Your words of division
Your words
Calling fellow human beings
Scum, vermis, invaders,
Animals, thugs, criminals
They matter a lot
Is it little wonder
That people listen
Give into the hate,
You spew forth
And some deranged people
act
On your call
For action
Against the invaders
On the border
They march to the border
To kill the invaders
Your words matter
Mr. President
And your false words
Of regret
Fool no one
The damage has been done
The hate has been spread
Just as you intended
And you
Have the gall
To call yourself
a Christian
You are the anti-Christ
The bible warns us about
You are not a Christian
So please quit pretending
To be what you are not
Please man up
Accept your responsibility
Set things right
apologize
The dead though
Don’t need your useless prayers
They need action
They need leadership
And you are the president
Please start acting
Like you give a damn
And if you do so
Perhaps
You will find
People will follow you
But please
Quit the words
Of hate
The words that hurt
And quit calling immigrants
Invaders and vermin
They are human beings
They are deserving of respect
This I ask of you
In Jesus’s name
Even though
I am not a Christian
Please, Donald Trump
Grow up
And become the president
Of the people
And end the war of words
And constant hate
Chief of Staff, You are Absurd
The president’s chief of staff
Said the other day
It was absurd
To suggest that the president’s words
Had anything to do
With recent mass shootings
Yet is it absurd
To see the lengths
To which the president’s supporters
Will twist and turn
Spinning away
The inconvenient truth
President Trump
Is a racist bigot con man
Who somehow
Conned his way
To become president
He calls immigrants
Criminals, vermin, animals
invaders
Infesting the country
The El Paso shooter
said that he went to the border
To shoot the invaders
And said
That he was a big Trump fan
It is not absurd
To connect these two huge dots
The president’s words
Has real-world consequences
Yes Mr. Trump is a racist pig
And his supporters
Are being absurd
To suggest otherwise
Guns kill people
GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE
Guns really do kill people
That is their Buddha nature
Their Karmic fate
It is not a mental illness
it is not video games
it is not a million other things
It is simply this
A gun is a weapon
A weapon designed to kill people
That is what guns do
Guns don’t care
They do as they are told
If you pull the trigger
They will kill the victim
That is what guns do
It’s a gun thing
That is why
In a civilized society
Like most of the world
Military assault weapons
Are locked up
Yet in America
The land of the free
Home of the brave
Everyone and his cousin
Must have their gun
Guns for everyone
Cries the NRA
That’s the solution
The president
And his supporters
Deny the obvious
Guns kill people
That’s all they do
It is a gun thing
You would not understand
So, mr. President
You can take your words
Your empty platitudes
Your empty soulless promises
Straight to hell
And back
Where with any luck
Satan will use you
As target practice
NRA, Please Stop Talking
Another day
Another mass shooting
Another incident
Of domestic terrorism
Another gunman
Killing people
Because just because
The NRA and their stooges
Come out
Flood the airways
With their noxious
Poisonous weasel words
The NRA says
Mass shootings
Are like the weather
You can’t control them
You can’t predict them
And you can’t prevent them
Just have to accept
It is all god’s will
Guns don’t kill people
If guns were outlawed
Only outlaws would have guns
Only solution
Are more guns
For everyone
An armed society
They say
Is a polite society
Support for gun contro
is socialist/communist/fascist/anti-american/anti-christian nonsense
The beginning of tyranny
If only the jews had guns
Ihe holocaust would not have happened
Jesus would want us all
To be armed with machine guns
To protect us against the evildoers
It is the Christian thing to do
To blow away evildoers
With heavy arms
In America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
We can’t do anything
At all
About the mass carnage
Unleashed by madmen with guns
Who walks among us
Searching for their next victims
Any restriction of the right
To bear arms
Is tyranny at its worst
The nanny state run amuck
Talking about gun control
After a tragic event is
Just not the appropriate time
We only need prayers
And meaningless thoughts
Universal background checks
Too onerous
Registering guns
Too burdensome
Researching gun violence
Waste of taxpayer money
Banning military-style assault weapons
Restricts my right to blow away
Bambi the deer
With an M16
The NRA will keep talking
Talking and talking
Another and talking
Preventing anything
From being done
And we will have another
Mass shooting event
Before the day is out
So, my plead
This day
to the NRA
And their stooges
Talk is cheap
Your comments
Are not helping
If you can’t
Be a part of the solution
Just stop talking
Please stop talking
And let the rest
Of us figure out
How to stop
The madness in the streets
And stop the carnage
So NRA
PLEASE
SHUT UP
JUST
STOP
TALKING
NOW!
More Guns for Everyone in the World
The NRA has decided
That the best solution
To the global problem
Of rampant violence
And crime everywhere
Is for the rest of the world
To become like the U.S.
Where anyone can buy a gun
An armed society
Is a polite society
The president is about to announce
A global campaign against gun control restrictions
As these restrictions are an undue burden
On the rights of the U.S.arms manufacture
To sell their guns everywhere in the world.
As everyone wants what we have to sell
The best weapons in the world.
Instead of trying to limit the damage
That unrestricted gun sale
Have done to the U.S.
President, our great leader
Wants to sell more guns
Everywhere in the world
And there are eager buyers
Lining up around the world
Eager to buy the best guns
The world has ever seen
We want to export
The gun madness
That has infected our society
Leaving behind so many dead bodies
So many gun ghosts
The dead were not consulted
For they remain dead
They do not vote
They have no voice
For the guns silenced
Then for good
Just as the guns intended
Just doing their gun thing after all
Humanity has evolved
From stones to arrows
To guns
To nuclear, biological weapons
And the U.S.
While proclaiming itself
a champion of human rights
Remains nothing but a country
Of gun runners
Merchants of death
And destruction
Trump Administration Advances Plan to Relax Gun-Export Rules
The Trump administration on Monday advanced a long-sought-after plan to relax export rules for American small arms, including semiautomatic rifles, handguns, and sniper rifles.
In a private briefing with members of Congress, State Department officials outlined a proposed rule change that would transfer oversight of gun exports to the Department of Commerce. The proposed rule will be published in the federal register later this week, where it will be subject to public comment for 45 days. While it is unlikely, Congress could block the change using powers under the congressional review act.
The shift, which was first proposed by the Obama administration in 2012, is championed by gunmakers who say it will make them more competitive in the international market. Critics argue an export policy that favors commercial interests could put the national security of the United States at risk or harm diplomatic efforts.
“Weakened congressional oversight of international small arms and munitions sales is extremely hazardous to global security,” said Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, a democrat who serves on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in an emailed statement. “this decision is also politically tone-deaf as our nation reckons with a gun violence epidemic.”
A State Department spokesman said that the change would ease the regulatory burden on American gun makers and allow them to compete better globally.
Currently, the Department of State monitors exports of nearly all weapons through the U.S. munitions list. Since 2002, the department has been required to notify Congress of overseas sales of firearms worth more than $1 million.
In 2016, the State Department alerted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to a proposed sale of more than 26,000 rifles to the Philippines. Cardin at the time objected to arming the regime of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had inaugurated a wave of thousands of extrajudicial killings as part of a crackdown on drugs. The weapons deal was canceled as a result.
The proposed rule change would transfer control over the sale of small arms to the commerce control list, and congress would no longer be notified of large purchases. Some arms control experts say reduced oversight could provide criminals, terrorists, or hostile states an opportunity to purchase American weapons.
Under Department of Commerce weapon-export rules, “companies aren’t required to provide as much information about brokers or shipping” as they must under State Department supervision, said Colby Goodman, who examines American weapons exports as director of the security assistance monitor program at the center for international policy in Washington.
“The world of firearms exports is full of questionable, dubious characters.”
The rule change has been long in the making. It was first proposed in 2012 by the Obama administration, but abandoned shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. At the time, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security criticized the change because it could make it easier for transnational criminal organizations or terrorists to get American-made guns.
In September, Reuters reported that the trump administration was interested in reviving the rule change to encourage more international arms sales. With the formal commencement of the public comment period, the preparation has become policy reality.
In April, the Trump administration said it would now consider economic factors in addition to security when it comes to selling American weapons overseas.
The Trump administration has argued that the change would aid the domestic gun industry by cutting down on export regulation. American consumer sales of firearms have suffered since the 2016 election. After years of elevated sales in anticipation of possible new gun-control measures imposed by democratic lawmakers, domestic demand subsided as republicans took full control of the federal government.
– alex yablon
In Virginia beach
In a night of horrific scumbagery violence
Rarely seen in this jaded age of ours
EVERYONE WAS GONE IN LESS THAN AN HOUR
In a spasm of horrific scumbagery violence
In just a few short minutes
Nothing more than that
In just a few moments
All 12 victims were murdered
By a disgruntled employee
Everyone he knew was shot
And killed for no reason
Caused by the demons
His soul was so infected
Murderous demonic voices
All in his head
Screaming kill them all kill them all
Screaming no stop violence in his head
All the time
Causing him to start shooting
everyone he saw
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were
Everyone must die
Screamed the demonic
Voices in his head
No one can be left alive
Everyone must die
Virtually all must die
In his internal video game
Everyone must die
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were
DEATH TO ALL HUMANS SCREAMED THE VOICES IN HIS HEAD
As he hunted his victims
Killing as many as he could
Just another day
Gone wrong
All across america
In every town
Nowhere is safe anymore
Virginia Beach Massacre 2
Virginia beach massacre
Just another night in America
An active shooter
Unleashes a night of
Scumbagery violence
rarely seen
In this jaded wild world
Gone in one hour
In a spasm of horrific
scumbagery
In just less
Than 30 short minutes
Nothing more that
In just a few
Short 30 moments
All the victims
Were murdered while
At their daily work
Just at the Wrong place,
At the wrong time
Act of a demotic
a deranged madman with a gun
Voices screaming kill
The voices scream
DEATH
TO
ALL
HUMANS
The voices scream
Oover and over
All must die now
Just another night
In America
Home of the free
Land of the brave
And guns for all
It’s a gun situation, Mr. President
President Trump
You are wrong once again
You said that the tragic events in Texas
And Las Vegas was not “gun situations”
But rather mental health problems
And that in Texas
If there had been
Fewer gun controls
Perhaps fewer people
would have died
President Trump
I know you a smart man
The smartest man in the world
According to you
So please contemplate this fact
According to the latest findings
It is a gun situation
The reason the U.S.
Is number one in gun deaths
Is because we are number one
in gun ownership
We have so many gun deaths
Because we have so many guns
45% of the world’s guns in fact
And 33 percent of the world’s shooters
are Americans killing other Americans
And most of them, the majority of them
Are white people killing other White people
Except for white Cops
They like to kill black and brown people
For some reason
Almost never is it a black person
Or an Asian person
Or a female shooter
No islamic terrorists
Most are in fact
Self-proclaimed
White Suprematist Christians
So, Mr. President
When will you come to your senses?
And do what 90 percent of the public wants
Enact nationwide effective gun controls?
And tell the NRA
They can take their
Blood money elsewhere
When Mr. President
When will you act
When will you take charge
And become a president of the people
Instead of the president of the NRA
Comment: Sent this to President Trump whoa dded me to his suckers email list – I was soon getting hundreds of emails a day from everyone including the NRA telling me that I was a valued member of team Trump and had to donate money to keep the socialist democrats from taking my guns away. End comment
I want to tell you something
The dead don’t want your prayers
the dead don’t care
That you pray for them
They are dead after all
And you and your so-called christian
Are to blame
You refuse to do anything
Anything at all to stop the carnage
In our streets
The U.S. is flooded with guns
And more are sold every day
Millions of people
Don’t have health coverage
Millions are barely surviving
And your answer
Our dear great compassionate speaker
Your answer
Is prayer works
Government action does not
You act as if the gun violence
Plaguing our country
Was like the weather
Beyond our control
So, here’s my prayer for you
and your colleagues
When you die
i pray that god
will send you?
And your friends
Straight to hell
Where satan and his demons
Will use you for target practice
That’s my prayer to you
And as you know
Prayer works
Comment: Sent to Speaker Ryan who never responded, but he did not put me on his sucker email list. End Comment
I don’t get it
Mr. Speaker
I admit I don’t get it
how does prayer
stop gun violence?
Prayer did not work in Texas.
26 people were murdered
While praying.
God if he exists
Does not care
About the poor people
Who died in his church
Because a mad man
Got a gun
And no, they were not praying
To be delivered from death
No one deserves to die like this
So, my prayer to you
Is simply this
Get off your rear end
Rally the country
And do something
About gun violence
That’s a prayer
I hope works
Add house speaker Paul Ryan to the list of republicans offering only thoughts and prayers in the wake of sunday’s mass shooting in a texas church, because taking meaningful action is always off the table with him and his party.
Speaking with Fox News Channel’s laura Ingram last night, Ryan reiterated that the victims and their families need more prayers because “prayer works.”
Prayer doesn’t work.
26 people were murdered while praying. Even Christians ought to admit that prayer doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and their god will do whatever their god wants to do, even if it means letting people die in the church because a domestic abuser got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.
Not that Ryan would ever say that.
Instead, he just blamed the “far secular left” for not getting it.
More guns than people found poem
We don’t have more automobiles
Than people in the united states of America.
we don’t have more televisions than people.
We don’t have more radios than people
We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
Lots more guns
More guns than anywhere else
In the world
45% of all guns in fact
393 million firearms
A population of 326 million.
That means there are 120.5 firearms
For every 100 American citizens,
It’s a sad fact.
If every single person in the United States
Possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm
— even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds
— there would still be 67 million guns left over.
sixty-seven million.
The number of guns
Owned by civilians
Is an outrage,
A profanity,
a sign that this country
This supposed Christian
Peace-loving country
Has lost its collective mind.
But not to the national rifle association it isn’t
The NRA has taken the position
That what we need is more guns, not less.
They say that more guns equal less crime,
You need guns to defend yourself and your property,
These groups tell us.
If more people had more guns,
criminals would be less likely to commit crimes
Because they wouldn’t know who was armed
And locked ready for bear
Ready to defend themselves.
An armed society
is a peaceful polite society
“the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy With a gun”
Said NRA chief executive
Wayne Lapierre
After the Sandy Hook School Massacre
In Connecticut
Had killed 20 children
And six schoolteachers and staff
The good guy theory
Is their rationale
Behind arming teachers
Arming teachers
Is the argument
They have for all
The so-called
Open carry laws
That has been passed.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year
Was stopped by a good guy
With a gun
The NRA
Said an armed civilian
Shot the bad guys
With a gun
In Dayton
It took
66 shots to bring down the killer.
They fired 40 rounds of.45 caliber ammunition,
16 rounds of 233-millimeter ammunition
And one shotgun round
It is madness
Every mass shooting
Proves how mad it is
Can you imagine what
It must have been
Like in the epoch nightclub bar
In Dayton
Or on the street in Odessa?
Guns were going off
People all around you
Were hit wounded, dying
Bleeding everywhere
If you were carrying a gun a handgun,
What would you have done?
Hide get behind someone
Run?
That’s what i would do
That’s what people did
Dayton and Odessa
These mass shootings
Are acts of terror
People are terrorized
Sacred to death.
They are lucky
To be alive
In a country with more guns
Than people
The good guys
With a gun
Myth is obscene
In a country with more guns than people,
the “good guy with a gun” myth
is an obscenity.
It’s a lie.
GUNS DON’T SAVE US
THEY KILL US
Based on the following article
We don’t have more automobiles than people in the united states of America. We don’t have more televisions than people. We don’t have more radios than people. We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
A recent report published by the small arms survey in Geneva, Switzerland, found that there are more than 393 million firearms owned by civilians in this country. We have a population of 326 million. That means there are 120.5 firearms for every 100 American citizens, according to the Washington post. It’s a fact. If every single person in the united states possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm — even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds — there would still be 67 million guns left over. Sixty-seven million.
The number of guns owned by civilians is an outrage, a profanity, a sign that this country has lost its collective mind. But not to the national rifle association it isn’t. Not to the gun owners of America, another major gun lobby organization with over two million members, which is frequently critical of the NRA for being too soft on gun rights. These well-funded lobbies for gun manufacturers and gun owners have long taken the position that what we need is more guns, not fewer. They say that more guns equal less crime, despite FBI statistics that show conclusively that violent crime, and especially crimes involving firearms, is higher per capita in areas of the country with more guns.
You need guns to defend yourself and your property, these groups tell us. If more people had more guns, criminals would be less likely to commit crimes because they wouldn’t know who was armed and ready to defend themselves.
“the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun,” said NRA chief executive Wayne Laprier after the sandy hook school massacre in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six school staff. He said the same thing again after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre, which left 17 students and faculty dead. It has become the NRA’s favorite myth.
The “good guy with a gun” theory is their rationale behind arming teachers. It’s the argument they have for all the so-called “open carry” laws that have been passed. At this point, 31 states allow people to openly carry firearms in public without a license. Another 15 allow open carry with some form of state-issued license. All 50 states allow people to carry concealed firearms with varying forms of restrictions and licensing. The idea is the more “good guys with a gun,” the better.
according to ABC news, “there have been at least 19 deadly mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2019.” There were two mass shootings last month on a single day, aug. 3. The first, in El Paso, Texas, was at a Walmart. Twenty-two people were killed and 24 were wounded. That night in Dayton, Ohio, 10 people were killed and another 17 were wounded in a shooting that happened in less than 30 seconds. On aug. 31, a shooter in Odessa, Texas, killed seven people and wounded 25, including three police officers.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year was stopped by a “good guy with a gun,” an armed civilian. Police shot the “bad guys with a gun” in Dayton and Odessa. In Dayton, it took them 66 shots to bring down the killer. They fired 40 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition, 16 rounds of .233 millimeter ammunition, and one shotgun round. The killer took only 40 rounds to kill seven and wound 17 with his ar-15 style weapon. The alleged shooter in El Paso somehow evaded dozens of responding police officers before surrendering.
Both Texas and Ohio allow open carry of firearms without a license, and yet in neither place was there a civilian “good guy with a gun” to stop the carnage amid panic and chaos. An armed U.S. soldier with a concealed carry license in El Paso drew his weapon before deciding to shuttle fleeing children safely out of the shopping mall.
You have probably heard most of the arguments against these open carry laws. How will cops responding to an active shooter incident know who the shooter is, and who is just a passer-by carrying a gun? What’s going to happen in a crowded store like Walmart when there finally is a shootout between a killer and “good guys with guns?” Won’t a lot of innocent bystanders be being killed? If well-trained, heavily armed police can’t kill an active shooter with less than 66 bullets, how can we expect an armed teacher in a grade school to do it?
It’s madness. Every mass shooting proves how mad it is. Can you imagine what it must have been like in the el paso walmart, or outside the bar in dayton, or on the street in odessa? Guns were going off. People all around you were hit, wounded, dying, bleeding. Even if you were carrying a handgun, what would you have done?
Hide. Get behind something. Run. That’s what i would do. That’s what people did in El Paso, Dayton, and Odessa.
These mass shootings are acts of terror. People are terrorized, scared to death. They’re trying to stay alive.
In a country with more guns than people, the “good guy with a gun” myth is an obscenity. It’s a lie. Guns don’t save us. They kill us.
More guns
every day more guns
gun deaths everywhere
more man men with guns
shooting everyone
you cannot escape
So many deaths
you cannot count
five today
more tomorrow
NRA cries
need more guns
guns for all
More guns
More deaths
Guns
When will this Madness end?
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair
An old man consumed by his own demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 58 people injuring hundreds
In Las Vegas, Sin City
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy?
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid, cry the conservative voices
Guns are the price of our freedom
Guns Don’t Kill People
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy with a gun
An armed society is a polite society
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits
We must confiscate the guns
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be a next time
And another time and time and time again
Until the end of time
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers
Nothing will change
Until we confront the evil
That lurks deep within each of us
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough
Dear Governor Abbot
You say that you are a Christian
Yet you have the gall
to say that the proper response
To the evil acts of the deranged gun man
Who shot up a church
Is to work closer with God
And that evil people will find ways
To commit evil acts
And that there is nothing the government
Can do to stop this madness
It is the price of our freedom
Why can’t you wake up
And see that you can lead
The way out of this madness?
Thousands of people die
Each year from guns in this country
Turning everyone into prisoners
Into their own homes
Afraid to walk outside
For fear that a nut job
With a gun
Will blow them away
In Church, at the store
In traffic
And you and your NRA buddies
Think the answer
Is to arm everyone to the teeth
And I wonder how Jesus
Would react to how
You have so misunderstood his message?
You Sir are not a Christian
And you Sir are going to not like
What God has to say to you
On Judgement day
“We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people, or other terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.”
Texas Governor: Fight Gun Massacres By ‘Working With God’
NOVEMBER 6, 2017 BY MICHAEL STONE
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott claims prayer and “working with God” is the only way to prevent mass shooting events like the recent church massacre in rural Texas.
In a deplorable bit of pandering Abbott said that the proper response to Sunday’s shooting is to confront evil through prayer and forge “a stronger connection to God.”
Governor Abbott said:
We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people, or other terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.
Most reasonable people reject Abbott’s impotent call to prayer and a “stronger connection to God.” In a statement concerning the recent Texas church massacre, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that action was rquired:
We have a solemn obligation to the victims of Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Orlando, Newtown and the many tragic shootings that occur each day to respond not only with prayer and unwavering love, but with action.
As for Governor Abbott, his position as a dangerous religious extremist is well established.
Last June Abbott signed into law legislation allowing publicly funded agencies to deny non-Christians the ability to adopt a child in need.
In addition, in a move meant to shame women who have abortions, the Republican governor of Texas ordered state health officials to add new abortion regulations that would require the burial or cremation of post abortion fetal tissue.
Bottom line: Texas Governor Gregg Abbott is a dangerous religious extremist who believes the proper response to Sunday’s church massacre is prayer and other efforts to forge “a stronger connection to God.”
comment: Poor Governor Abbot does not like me. I sent him a letter asking him to show me where I can find in the bible justification for forcing woman to hold a funeral at their expense for a fetus and how can this be seen as a Christian compansion thing to do? He never answered.
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred and despair
An old man consumed by his own demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 60 people injuring hundreds
In Las Vegas, Sin City
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid cry the conservative voices
And there is nothing we can do
It is like the weather
Bad shit happens
Guns are the price of our freedom
Guns Don’t Kill People
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a gun guy with a gun
An armed society is a polite society
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits
We must confiscate the guns
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be a next time
And another time and time and time again
Until the end of time
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers
We are all responsible here
The negligent parents
The overworked schools
The soulless corporate world
That treats everyone like disposable commodities
The lack of human connection
The TV and movie purveyors
Of pornographic violence
Nothing will change
Until we conflict the evil
That lurks deep within each of us
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough
Two weeks later the greatest mass shooting in a Church occurred in Texas
Berkeley Calling Me
Down in the Dirt Updates
