Tim Torkildson's Clown Alley

Saturday, March 24, 2018

the seeds are like rocks

dull and immobile and brown

their promise is yet

neighborhood of one

goes wherever the rain stops

shoes dry off slowly

open the door

open the door now

the winter is passing by

finding is easy

beauty is absurd

in the wan light of winter

when tree bark is pearl

A man among the Gentiles . . .

And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles . . .

First Nephi. Chapter Thirteen. Verse 12.

A man among the Gentiles may be wrought upon by God

To leave his home and fam’ly for a purpose far abroad.

A woman, too, is often stirred to valor in the home

And need not find excuses to meander and to roam.

Even children can be moved to sacred things exclaim

That shut the mouths of tyrants and put demagogues to shame.

The finger of the Lord may touch whomever He may choose,

And if I’m ever touched again I hope I’ll not refuse!

Friday, March 23, 2018

From the Washington Post. Friday March 23 2018

U.S. stock markets ended their worst

week in more than two years on Friday

after China threatened to respond in

kind to President Trump’s imposition

of $60 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports.

When shooting off his big bazoo

Let’s hope Trump knows what he’s to do

When nations combine

To commerce confine

And stock markets go in the loo.

When Haspel’s nomination was

announced earlier this month,

McCain warned that she would

need “to explain the nature and

extent of her involvement in the

CIA’s interrogation program”

during her confirmation hearings

and that she “must pledge without

reservation to uphold” the prohibition

on torture.

When torture is used for the good

It’s often so misunderstood.

The pain so produced

Has never seduced

The CIA into falsehood.

Weeks after the White House released

its budget request, which provided a

massive increase in defense spending,

Congress took over and added even

more money for ships, aircraft and

missile defenses in what amounts to

a spending spree on major weapons systems.

Nobody has ever gone broke

With making the weapons that croak

The world’s residents --

In fact it’s immense,

The money they make with one stroke.

From the New York Times. Friday March 23 2018

In the Pacific Ocean between California

and Hawaii, hundreds of miles from any

major city, plastic bottles, children’s

toys, broken electronics, abandoned fishing

nets and millions more fragments of debris

are floating in the water — at least 87,000 tons’

worth, researchers said Thursday.

The Ocean decided one day

To make messy mankind sure pay

For all of their trash,

So made a big splash

And flooded Bangkok to Marseilles.

The W.T.O. fancies itself a United Nations

for global commerce, a place where its 164

member nations convene to hash out clear

rules of engagement, seeking to defuse conflict.

But as the United States and China, the two largest

economies on earth, edge closer to a trade war,

the organization established in 1995 to prevent

such hostilities appears increasingly impotent.

There once was a global cartel

That ruled how to buy and to sell.

But Trump and Jinping

Have stepped in the ring

To spar, sending world trade to hell.

John Bolton’s appointment as national

security adviser seems to many around

the world to represent President Trump

unbound, and they are trying to puzzle out

what exactly that means.

With Bolton now driving the bus

There won’t be too much to discuss.

Korea, Iran,

Still need a hit man;

But Mitt Romney won’t let him cuss.

There was an old hawk name of John

Who didn’t like words, only brawn.

He got a new job

Within the Trump mob,

To wield a big scary baton.

From the Wall Street Journal. Friday March 23 2018

President Donald Trump threatened Friday morning to veto
a sweeping spending bill just hours after it passed both
chambers of Congress, despite assurances from White
House officials and GOP leaders that he supported it.

Congress may vote as it chooses,

But Trump plans on giving it bruises.

Like some child at game

He vetoes sans shame

Whenever his temper he loses.

Pedestrians were victims of about 15% of traffic fatalities in 2017,
with the estimated 6,000 pedestrian deaths representing a level not seen
in 25 years, according to a report released last month by the Governors
Highway Safety Association.

Pedestrians get in the way

Of traffic most all of the day.

They think a crosswalk

Is someplace to gawk --

So they get squashed like a beret.

The crocodile skin business is booming, with especially strong
demand from Asia, and Australia’s crocs are coveted for their
particularly fine skin patterns—American alligators tend to
have horny backs—and because more of the hide can be used.

A gator came from Adelaide,

Skinned into purses all made

For just the beau monde

To be really conned

By prices blown up like grenade.