Monday, September 3, 2018

Reporters without bylines



Reporters without bylines are a national disgrace;
I wanna see their name and education and bright face.
How sad that in a country where the Press was once supreme
they have to lose identity as well as all their steam.

Who belongs to a Union anymore? -- Kerry in 2020?



Most Americans like labor unions, at least in the abstract. A majority (55%) holds a favorable view of unions, versus 33% who hold an unfavorable view, according to a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year. For most of the past three decades that the Center has asked that question, in fact, Americans have viewed unions at least somewhat more favorably than unfavorably.  
Despite those fairly benign views, unionization rates in the United States have dwindled in recent decades (even though, in the past few years, the absolute number of union members has grown slightly). As of 2017, just 10.7% of all wage and salary workers were union members . . . 
Pew Research Center 


Belonging to a union is a fine thing, in abstract;
but if I were to join one my darn boss would have me sacked.
Or else the dues would levitate to heights I can't afford;
Teamsters pay enough that even Bill Gates would be floored.
My father was a Union man -- his father was one, too;
but all those heavy lifting jobs have gone to Katmandu. 



Former secretary of state John F. Kerry isn’t shutting the door to a second presidential bid, more than a decade after his narrow loss to President George W. Bush in 2004.  WaPo

Running to be President in 2020 is
something to give has-beens a fine calculating fizz.
But I don't think the prospects for a wannabe like Kerry
are anything to make Republicans feel very wary. 

Sunday, September 2, 2018

brittle flowers



an overgrown yard 
with an outmoded commode 
and brittle flowers



the prairie chapel



the prairie chapel --
empty but not abandoned --
filled with tinted sage


sing redeeming love



I say unto you, Yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. Alma 5:9

Expansion is the way of God, I should not ever doubt it;
in fact I ought to sing it sweet and maybe even shout it.
Redeeming love comes from the Christ, who gave me this great gift
so I could be a garden isle and never start to drift.
Saved from the dreary arm of flesh, I've loosened all my ties
to shriveling surmises and the devil's silken lies.
And so I'll sing redeeming love despite my lack of talent,
because the tune, and not my voice, is what makes living gallant!

Saturday, September 1, 2018

mysterious green





a light in the night
makes the grass look like plastic --
so no crickets chirp



overripe





I once was a blossom
in the summertime of youth --
now I am overripe


eavesdropping on owls



this shy summer moon
timidly shines above trees
eavesdropping on owls



mountain morning clouds




mountain morning clouds
in a dusky sleepy sky
watch summer leaving




I Love Canada!



I love Canada, but they’ve taken advantage of our Country for many years! @realDonaldTrump

When dealing with sneaky Canucks
you've got to keep track of the bucks.
Canadian loonies
belong in the boonies --
I'm tariffing their hockey pucks!