Living near the mayor,
I am inconvenienced when
A head of state comes through the gate,
Which happens now and then.
The secret service and the cops
Block off surrounding streets
And if you try to get on by,
You’ll suffer some defeats.
But it’s much worse for those who live
Or work near the U.N.,
For they are barred, which makes it hard,
From getting home again.
Between the protests and the police,
They’re sadly out of luck.
Like all the crews who film the news,
They’re flat-out simply stuck.
We city people know the drill,
But still keep seeing red.
We disapprove, but would we move?
We’ll suffer here instead.
Temperatures are sizzling;
Fires burn and spread.
Salad sales are fizzling.
(Eat grass-fed beef instead!)
Immigrants are terrified;
Deportations rise.
Flat-out lies are verified.
Drones invade the skies.
News reporters get the boot.
Algae grows and blooms.
Secret deals to prosecute
Are made in private rooms.
Institutions once revered
Are shuttered or debased.
Everything we’ve always feared
Has happened, in such haste
It’s almost inconceivable,
Yet somehow it is real.
We know that it’s believable,
For nothing can conceal
The way the world is crumbling
And only those in charge,
Despite their shameful bumbling
And greed are living large.
I do not see a way to fix
How bad things have become,
For nature’s tricks and politics
Have made me sad and numb.
This is the veridical horizontal
Laying it on the line
This is the flat out truth
That its plane to see its sign
Isaiah Forty Twenty-two
"He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth
And its people are like grasshoppers"[a]
From His birds-eye view, His perch
"He stretches out the heavens like a canopy
and spreads them out like a tent to live in"[b]
He does this to educate us all
Heavenly hosts dance for our direction
It's His purposeful ambiguity
As "In the beginning"[c] and "In that day"[d]
When there is more than one thing to say
I don't know why He didn't just come right out and say
This is the veridical horizontal
From the beginning as it stands
But don't busy yourselves with all this
Get busy with what the Gospel commands
My enormous dogs are running flat out
cannot go out tomorrow, I have no doubt
Halloween night is frightening for pets
ghouls, goblins and ghosts can cause them frets
dogs cower inside on the eve of black cats
in the sky zoom Dracula with bats
only one night they ask me with puppy dog eyes
Day of the Dead will be here at sunrise
both dogs are running flat out
dashing toward something that I neither hear nor see
they stop at the fence
their ears are up
they both look to their left, toward the road
I expect to see a mountain lion, gorilla, t-rex, or grizzly bear
I listen for the sounds of a machete-wielding maniac
nothing emerges or makes a peep
both dogs return to my feet
they have walked back rather slowly
two spoiled kings
I have never wrote a sonnet in my life
fourteen lines of iambic confusion
I’m not as poetically gifted
as Shakespeare or Petrarch
because pentameters and quatrains
are perfectly not my style
and too flat out antiquated for my liking
It’s rhyme schemes
always oppress me
line after line
stanza after stanza
as if I’m never allowed
to journey beyond
the black lines
while shading a picture
inside of a child’s coloring book
with a box of Crayola crayons
July 21st, 2025
It’s 8:43 a.m.
the humidity in Kansas City is worse than a sauna
twittering birds are doing noisy conversing
there is loud annoying haha of a crow
in the distance I can hear a barking dog
my dogs do not seem to hear this
they are staring in the direction of the crows
there are three of them, flying single file
Haha haha haha laughing crows
a super large black ant zoom-crawls toward me
large black rain spots appear on my gray asphalt driveway
there is a loud cymbal sound of thunder
both dogs enter doggie door, seeking refuge of the house
it is raining flat out now
I see steam rises from the asphalt
my parents were comedians
Dad’s sense of humor was overt
over the top, he flat out laughed like a crow
his eyes crinkled like Santa’s
Mother’s sarcastic wit was undeniable
her delivery was spot on
her quips were sharply honed
before they left her mouth
we kids had no chance of not being witty
Someone serving life in prison
Some way, somehow gets the nod
To release him, like an order
From a despot or a god.
The same applies to lowlife thugs
Whose insurrection acts,
When they stormed the U.S. Capitol,
Were changed to lies from facts.
When power goes to someone’s head,
It’s like a weird disease
Where he violates the law
And justice drops down to its knees.
Half the country hates it,
While the other seems to hail
The release of felons who should be,
Most rightfully, in jail.
I guess it’s pretty obvious
In which half I belong.
These pardons reek of villainy
And are simply, flat-out wrong!
I would like to be charitable
Give you the benefit of the doubt
But your bullying ways have made this impossible
I am flat out of forgiveness now
Well, I filled my glass with bourbon
Watched the sun set over the rise
Thought of everything that's passed by
And I wiped the tears from my eyes
I oft' think of tomorrows now
And those days that will follow on
See all the roads are breaking down
And now directions are all wrong
They had buried you on Sunday
In the middle of pouring rain
We dropped roses on your casket
Recalled the day when you were slain
Never did find your attacker
A crime of passion so they said
For your lover just disappeared
The day that you were to be wed
Found your body that same evening
Flat out on the cold kitchen floor
A bloodied kitchen knife was left
Laying just outside the back door
Well, that was thirty years ago
Still no verdict has been returned
Not many give a second thought
It's like the bridges have been burned
Your memory is a keepsake
Which is now held by just a few
But somewhere in a bedroom hangs
A fading photograph of you
getting a puppy has given me a new purpose
I am a mommy again
Renewed, refreshed, excited about life
I knew this is all it would take
Beau, the puppy, is thrilled to be here.
He tries to eat everything in sight,
so he is taking a lot of time.
But when I see him run flat out around the property
joy bouncing off of him like the world’s happiest clown
I know that I have given him a new purpose too.
I thank God for this darling every day!
Children who can barely keep their eyes open after lunch
Whose feet shuffle and drag, as they cluster into a bunch
Yawners who struggle to not lie down and flat out snore
When class is annoying, dull, uninteresting or just a total bore
rally at the end of the day with a hip hip hooray
Running swiftly away from the building with pep, perk and play!
A kindergarten student is not usually sent to my office.
I am the counselor, who gets my shares of stirrers.
Usually when a five-year-old is sent to me, they are crying.
This little blonde blue-eyed beauty was not crying.
She had a smug look on her face, actually not a tear in sight.
Find out what happened, the principal said, before she left.
What happened? I asked the dainty cherub.
When?
I am not sure “just now?”
Nothing.
I have to call the teacher to get an inkling.
She was fighting.
You mean arguing?
No I mean flat out fist walloping pummeling fighting.
I look for scratches or bruises but see no evidence.
Were you in a fight?
She nods her head.
I smashed them and bashed him, she told me.
She had a pleased smile.
I am surprised, but not stunned.
I have raised three daughters.
Two of them are tough.
She brags about her fighting prowess.
I find out later this little darling has four older brothers.
The streets are deserted,
not a single soul is about
even the winos and street bums
are nowhere to be seen.
There are no cars on the road
or any planes in the air
it’s so eerily quiet
you can even hear a pin drop.
We’ve all finished panic buying
and capsuled ourselves within our homes,
peering cautiously out of the windows
of our temporary prisons
as now and again
an ambulance screams by
- With a police car in tow,
to pick up another casualty
of this virus we cannot see.
It’s Apocalypse Now
as nightly
the government reels off the latest grim
figures,
the health workers are working flat out
- and so also are the undertakers!
Nobody can see an end in sight
and we can only pray
the virus doesn’t claim us next.
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