Wanton disregard

has become this president’s

essential requirement.

~

His associates

mirror his own essential

quality quite precisely.

No one ever said

“Compassion is the killer.”,

but the term’s barely begun.

~

The real killers are

already loose: hot heads joined

with ice cold disdain.

All that windiness

is not nature’s doing, but

comes from heated rhetoric.

~

Heated rhetoric

may not cause all climate change

but it sure is blustery!

It’s the standing snags,

long dead but not yet fallen,

that fool us with hollow strength.

~

Leaders pretending

to care, but whose hearts are dead

deceive with displays of strength.

When those at the top

ignore the needs of those at

the bottom, Musk and Trump beam.

~

Old trees with deep roots

weather this chaos with ease

while beaming old men are felled.

Ninety-nine minutes

and the needle never moved

fans and opponents unswayed.

~

What did move was his

lying tongue and his waving

hands seeking an audience.

Where are our leaders

as our national light starts

to flicker and die?

~

Hiding in the dark

in terror their own party

will feed them to the Wendigo.

How much evidence

will it take ‘til some believe

that guy’s just up to no good?

~

Misplaced loyalty

blinds some from seeing all that

they don’t wish to see.

When you don’t know how

to negotiate, you just

 bully and berate.

~

The Art of the Deal

involves insults and shouting

for an artless narcissist.

Surely all must call

this benighted second dose

national recrudescence

~

Another outbreak

of crudeness has descended

upon the White House.

February ends 

on a sunny note as far

as the weather is concerned.

~

This sunny weather

and our grey uncertainty

stand in stark contrast.

Sometimes a delay

is all it takes to derail

the public’s health and safety.

~

It seems their interest

is not in health and safety,

but in showing their power.

Will our Nation’s soul

survive stuffing their coffers

full of House made Soylent Green?

~

Greed will kill the souls

of coffer stuffers, but not

the souls of true patriots.

Just when you begin

to think reason might prevail,

His Majesty speaks.

~

And reminds us all

that, by gift, from his good friends,

the emperor has new clothes.

To the witless clown

who adorned my door handle

with that chewing gum, you suck.

~

Wonder what’s eating

that clown that he’d resort to

passing on his chew to you?

I may be old, but

I can see well enough to

recognize bullshit.

~

This bullshit diet

means to desensitize us

to the horseshit yet to come.

Always something new

toxic and mean~spirited

to keep them off their balance.

~

An old trick used by

power hungry tyrants to

distract and control.

The cats and I watch

the snow fall, content to be warm

and sitting inside.

~

And I go trudging

through the snowy woods chasing

a small dog bounding for birds.

Are some so hungry

for change they will consume

all this patent medicine?

~

Popping a pill for

an effortless fix always

has a huge appeal.

The quiet work of

introspection is not work

valued by those with loud mouths.

~

No one can be seen

to be working hard when all

the labor is internal.

Where has justice gone

when police assume a crime

driving by at fifty-nine?

~

Assumption became

fact to a mind resolved to

find his criminal quota.

Most admonishments

apply to admonishers

as well as the admonished.

~

That old rebuttal

we learned as kids still remains

true: “It takes one to know one.”.

Is being alarmed

same as being alarmist?

These days is there a difference?

~

An alarming fact

is, alarmist or not, we

hear those alarm bells ringing.

Yesterday we got

a three-in-one package from

Mother Nature: rain, sleet, snow.

~

 Weather’s trifecta

came in at 3 to 1 odds

and left us an even mess.

How can one believe

assertions of a salesman

when he’s got skin in the game?

~

Folks don’t try to sell

something unless they somehow

benefit from doing so.

This retired life

has me leaping tree to tree

like some adolescent squirrel.

~

Sounds like you leaped

into a nutty world, but

still can’t find the time to eat.

Cold and rainy days

such as this invite us to

settle in with a good book.

~

So, of course, I ‘rose

many hours before dawn

to cook a breakfast fundraiser.

This shotgun spraying

orders ever crazier;

hoping he can get some through.

~

His half-cocked approach

to governing matches his

lack of social skills.

I opened the door

for Knox. He stepped forward, but

turned back when he saw the rain.

~

That pre-dawn thunder

was Beggorah’s 411;

he burrowed under blankets.

Speaking of nature,

there are those who still believe

Man is, somehow, its master?

~

Some folks will ignore

all facts and experience

and insist they are in charge.