Month: May 2020

One hundred thousand dead and one man killed
Floyd George, a black, was murdered by a cop
One hundred thousand human voices stilled
Cop Chauvin’s knee caused George’s voice to stop

It’s hard to mourn one hundred thousand lives
Or hug a half a million people grieving
Or vent your anger that this virus thrives
But at police for justice not receiving

We demonstrate in cities everywhere
Pent up emotions pouring to the streets
Some wearing face masks showing they’re aware
This virus is more potent than police

This epidemic favors killing blacks
As do police in many jurisdictions
We talk reforms but actions seem to lack
That citizens are equal is a fiction

A hundred thousand citizens plus one
Half perished due to Trump’s incompetence
And then Floyd George, unarmed, a docile man,
Was executed with indifference

5/29/20

My Birthday

Tomorrow, twenty fourth of May, it’s eighty seven that I’ll be
I’ve witnessed in those many years high points and low of history
My uncle off to World War II; he fought the Battle of the Bulge
Experiencing the hell of war; experiences he’d not divulge
Hiroshima and Nagasaki leveled by the atom bomb
Destructive power beyond belief; the citizenry all but gone
The Holocaust, six million Jews exterminated, naked, torn
And from their graves the ancient state of Israel in blood reborn
Korean War, it never ended; Vietnam: tasting defeat
The MAD Cold War, the Berlin Wall; the Soviet regime we beat
The bonds of gravity escaped; our astronauts danced on the moon
Through Internet the world now speaks and data banks mushroom and bloom
The Information Age is now; a world of knowledge in our hands
Yet ignorance abounds rejecting science they don’t understand
We’ve now the battle of the age: the COVID-19 viral scourge
Three hundred thirty thousand dead both here and all throughout the World
It’s raging still, still taking lives; our country constitutes a third
Of world deaths, for which I blame Trump’s leadership which is absurd
I’ve witnessed thirteen presidents and though I’ve disliked things they’ve done
I did respect them, decent men, except the last, the fourteenth one

5/23/20

Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump

A week of tardiness cost thirty thousand deaths
Or so a study at a university declared
How many weeks delayed ere Trump joined all the rest
Of countries battling the COVID-19 scare?

The thousands killed, now ninety four reported
Plus thousand more the virus killed, uncounted
Their families mourn; their countrymen supportive
But empathy from Trump’s not there – and would be doubted

This virus wave continues unabated
Yet every state has started to reopen
Now thousands more will die; ‘tis surely fated
This wave won’t end as everyone is hoping

So say a prayer for all of those we’ve lost
And for their loved ones in their lonely grief
And be prepared: these openings may cause
This taste of welcome freedom to be brief

5/20/20

Hydroxychloroquine, Trump’s magic remedy
Against the COVID-19 terrible infection
By taking it, there is no lasting penalty
From getting this disease it surly gives protection

That’s been Trump’s selling pitch, his message to the world
But research disagrees in many cases tested
Protection didn’t manifest plus side affects occurred
‘Twas harmful to the heart, arrhythmia contracted

But Trump then disagreed. The scientists were wrong
He didn’t trust their views, a bunch of Democrats
But still he felt belittled; he’d not just go along
He had to demonstrate that he was right, in fact

So when the epidemic reached the White House staff
Trump needed to protect himself or so he felt within
He ordered staff, all but himself, to always wear a mask
And started taking, every day, hydroxychloroquine

5/18/20

The news is upsetting; it’s hard to digest
Try putting your arms around thousands of deaths
More eighty three thousand no longer alive
That’s parents, that’s spouses, all loved ones who’ve died
Their family, their friends in their mourning garb dressed
It’s just the first inning; what models suggest

Too, families are hurting, no jobs and no food
The nation’s economy deep in recession
This COVID ‘s so potent it’s really gone viral
Plus Trump’s sheer incompetence caused the deep spiral
The nation is under: more deaths and depression –
Upstaging Vlad Putin who’s up tp no good

Repeating his old tricks, but this time more clever
His goal is ensuring Trump’s term won’t abort
By massively sowing election disruption
To make Trump’s loss look like it’s steeped in corruption
So Trump could then challenge his loss in the courts,
Refusing to yield, ‘twill be Trump’s main endeavor

5/12/20

That’s what the President wants us to be
Willing to die for economy’s sake
Willing to frequent revived industries
Willing as warriors such actions to take

Now, when the nation, excluding New York,
Is seeing deaths rising at increasing rates
Where thousands of workers with jobs packing pork
Have suffered infections, uncertain their fate

Now, as the nation reels under this threat
Of COVID infections, transmitted in crowds
Where states are unlocking, Trump aids and abets
The states opening firms, that more firms be allowed

Then, we public warriors, should frequent these places
Supporting their businesses, Trump’s predilections
Displaying like courage a real warrior faces
All so that Trump maybe might win his election

5/5/20

A human life, just what is it worth?
The bacon consumed with your breakfast of eggs
From hogs that were slaughtered where poor people work
In plants where the workers fear ending up dead

Because of conditions unsafe on the job
They face major danger of being infected
By COVID-19. Their lives for your hogs
But that matters not; their pleas are rejected

By President Trump who ordered meat plants
Not to close down no matter the deaths
Of workers exposed, who’re told that they can’t
Stay away and still their unemployment get

Trump’s act is indicative of something deeper
Those meat-packing workers are people of color
As are the most workers at jobs that are menial
But clearly essential for running the country

Republican leaders treat them as expendable
Their lives are the price paid to boost the economy
That they are Democrats makes it more credible
This is their trade off, the height of ignominy

5/1/20