Friends Reunite In Time For The Apocalypse

I met them after many years
and soon the evening's many beers
had brought back something of the old
delightful, dirty folderol.
And some would laugh and seem to revel
in the game of luck, the devil's
own they had. And some would think
and feel beneath the tattoo's ink,
remember when we weren't so cowed
by history's cosh, back when the crowd
seemed thrillingly directionless.
Not like now. Now the mess
we've made together in this game
sweeps us all along the same
dark path as all the other fools
we've known and met in jobs and schools,
all heading to the boneyard singing --
tying knots in ropes for swinging.
Faith is gone and rightly too:
we knelt for nothing on the pew
and those whose faith is strongest now
will kill you for their sacred vow.
Now horsemen three ride into view
awaiting one long overdue.
Still, let's be grateful; such a laugh
we've had along the primrose path.
Such biting wit at their expense:
Putin, Nigel, Trump (and Pence?)
Such jokes and tweets and comic memes
(such innocence of bygone dreams.)
We never thought the end of days
would be such fun! So let us praise
the gaudy con man 'cross the shore;
his friend our gurning, blazered bore;
the shirtless bullet-head riding tall;
these fuckers just might kill us all.
But after all it could be worse:
my evening taxi ride -- a hearse.

Make Some Noise

It’s over. Move along now.
There’s nothing here to see.
If you’d like to protest, fine –
but do it civilly.
Or not at all would be preferred.
Silence! Obedience! Mimicry!

The area in question has been taped off.
Investigations are currently underway.
Move along now, there’s nothing here to see.
You don’t want to be arrested now, do you?
For practicing democracy?

There’s work to be done to make things undone
the rigging needs disassembly, its deceitful job done.
Now packed away like scaffolding: lies, slander, fraud
the deplorable deed is over, the populace duped and won.

In the time between the unreal and the real,
between the specter and the curtain,
before the gates are opened,
Go! Now!
Make some noise!
Search the cupboards
for pots and pans – anything!
Turn up the heat in the kitchen!
Let furor take down the Fuehrur!
He’s a fumbler, a fake, a cheat.
It's now or never -- or else rest in peace.

Now Hiring
s
Ye sons of bigotry and foul desires,
The mad, the vain, the dumb the Donald hires!
All intellectual nightmares can dump
Plans in the Oval Swamp who brown-nose Trump;
Deny abortion to the hapless mothers,
Give breaks to the obscenely rich Koch Brothers,
Write-off all Climate Change, pollute all Earth,
The wrong are right if they boost his self-worth.
a

Erik, I think you mean "breaks" in line 6 - I haven't heard that Trump is planning to put the brakes on the obscenely rich Koch Brothers.

Thanks, Brian. Yea, breaks is what I meant. As everyone knows, 'brakes' and Koch Brothers does an oxymoron make. The only right term applied to them must of necessity imply advantage. They are as intimate with these breaks as they are estranged from those brakes.

Trump Keeps DC Swampy

The Old Guard dined with Trump upon frog's legs;
All cheered the promises that Trump reneges,
And promised to precipitously pour
‘The Oval Swamp’, and toasted ‘F--- the poor!’
s

The Mandate from Hell:
A Snapshot Captures the Awkward Courtship Between Trump and Romney

Mitt lost his suavity and his panache,
His brow's as pained as those portrayed by Bosch.
So hungry for the power, Mitt can stoop
For four whole courses, and not touch the soup.
d

Someone leaked the memo
that the spate of leaks must end.
Hooray! Some British irony
this Yank can comprehend!

Aleppo Is Now a Synonym for Hell

https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/...-for-hell.html

“Aleppo is now a synonym for hell,”
says Ban Ki-moon. We sigh, and change the station,
because we don’t see danger very well.

Show footage of the market’s closing bell.
Discuss the Flip or Flop hosts’ situation.
“Aleppo is now a synonym for hell,”

says Ban Ki-moon, but no one wants to dwell
on that. We’re sick of clips of devastation.
Because we don’t see danger very well,

we yawn, and let the oligarchies sell
their power to us, packaged as salvation.
Aleppo is now a synonym for hell,

and climate change abatement’s final knell
makes hell the whole damn planet’s destination,
because we don’t see danger. Very well,

the writing on the wall will always spell
in vain, unless we change the conversation.
Aleppo is now a synonym for hell,
because we don’t see danger very well.

Bingo! Spot on! And cool!