StarPoet Newsletter Vol. X, No. XXVIII

Faraci, Palermo,
Bound for New York Harbor,
Get on the boat,
The lower holds,
America lies awaiting.

Ellis Island to Chicago
(I never got around to asking):
The Depression found the Faraci's
Taking root in Sacramento in a ghetto
Chock full of the Italian working class.
The Southern Pacific and the Union Railroads
Saved many of us from starvation.

I remember the horse drawn cart,
Full of fresh vegetables and sweet fruit,
That pulled up in front of my Grandfather's house,
And Grandma on the curb, checking the produce,
As the driver handed me a peach to snack on.

Returning from the Pride Festival,
I realized that the world has changed
And Pride Week, Pride Month,
The parades and the festivals,
May all be slightly anachronistic,
A tradition born when all we had
Was what we brought to the table
-- That seems somehow out of place
In a Washington, D. C.
Where First Ladies and dyke singers
Exchange gossip in fine bathrooms
During gaily decorated Inaugural Balls;
A world where gay men are no longer
Arrested on suspicion of being queer,
Where post-op transsexuals openly hold
Positions of some authority in the government
No matter who the administration might be.
Let us celebrate our being out and being free
And not perpetuate the gay ghetto
Once a year and call it Pride.

Korea, Korea,
Where you been so long?
I'm getting worried, baby,
Tell me you won't drop the bomb?

Korea, Korea,
You've always been on my mind,
I'm just sitting here thinking
And I just can't keep from crying.

I've got a bomb with blinding flash,
I've got a plane dropping thunder from the sky,
I've got another bomb with more flashes,
I've got missiles that destroy eerything the reach.

Korea, Korea,
You've always been on my mind,
And I'm just sitting here thinking
I can't seem to keep from crying.

We African Apes,
Those of us who went north,
And those who stayed home,
Homo Sapiens and Neandertal,
Troglodyte and Pan, sisters
And brothers in blood and gene,
The bush savanna separated man
From both orang and gorilla;
The differences between the rest of us
Would seem to a matter of degree
And serendipity. 

Our bad backs serve as a badge
Of our genius and innovation,
Our brains, a still unprove adaptation
If we compare our few thousand years
To the many millions of the dinosaurs.

If Korea drops the bomb,
We might best look back on it
As a speciation event,
The moment of punctuated equilibrium
When those of us less imperfect
Wander off by our lonesome
In search of a better gene mix;

A nuclear chokepoint
That will either reset us or send us
Into oblivion like the dinosaurs
Or the Burgess Shale, thus denying
The next near earth asteroid
A chance to rearrange all the deck chairs
In one magnificent final comment
On the evolutionary advantages
Of growing your brain larger.

Michael Jackson has left his bubble,
going out in typical gaudy fashion
With a grand high circus at the Staples Center.

Call out the elephants,
Cue up the pop stars, everyone make sure
They publicly share their grief.

The onslaught of media attention
And the manipulation of Michael's legacy
Detracts from the memory
Of the boy who lost his way
In the excitement of the center ring.

All the good preachers and all the sharp doctors
Can't put Michael back together again,
As if they ever cared for anything
Other than his money.

Doves in a line,
Sitting on a wire,
Startle when they see me,
Wings whistling through the air.

High within the vapor skies,
A cargo jet moves west
Drowned out by the reset doves
Cooing softly in the background.

Do not fear the wolves,
The rabid packs that roam the internet
Tearing at the flesh of anyone
Who is not a member of their perfection.

If you know what you are doing,
Continue to do so, but if you do not know,
You are as blind as the lamest wolf
Who submits to the threats and growls
Of the pack, trading a chance at knowledge
For the security of the marauding masses.

Let knowledge sweat in your hands,
Hold fast to science and reason,
Offering your open hand to anyone
Willing to grasp it firmly.

Those who were in the waters
Shared with wolves and pigs,
Cannot then demand equal consideration:
That whores and flute girls anoint themselves
With fine oils and sweet perfume
Does not change the nature of their existence
Or give credence to the words
They might publicly declaim.

What is on the left is identical to the right;
What is above must be made identical
To what is below; the hope of the hopeless
Cannot fall victim to the ravenous needs
Of the pack: Who can produce wine from thorns
Or wheat from thistles?

Every one of you,
A work of evolution and humankind,
You have something to say
And no one to say it to;
Who placed the wolf's teeth at your throat
And gave him authority over you?
-- The ignorance of the fool is shameful.

These fleeting bonds of community
 That gather here on the Fourth
 To watch fireworks explode;
 This communion of celebration
 That links us generation to generation
 Is a mystery we play out
 On the steps of our nation's Capitol
 Where the proper matters are beer,
 Hot dogs, hamburgers, and fiery bursts
 That light the warm July sky.
 A clarity of orthodoxy falls over us
 As we unite as one people,
 Forgetting our petty disputes,
 One nation out of many, one promise
 To ourselves and the world,
 Raising the torch of liberty to remind
 And rededicated us to who we are and where
 We've been and the road we must continue
 To forge for our children and our posterity.