Suffrage the Children

I heard that people were all in a rage
To change the minimum voting age.
I thought they were saying sixty at first.
A little bit high, but perhaps not the worst.
And then I thought they were saying six.
That was my ears, just playing old tricks.
It’s really sixteen that is being proposed,
But six makes more sense, so my case is now closed.
What’s more, I think that the office of president
Should be open to every six year old resident.
Once you’re smart enough to read
Aren’t you ready to vote and lead?

Poet Nonlaureate

As poets go, in point of fact,
I’m anything but famous.
If you don’t know who I am,
You’re not an ignoramus.

Merely Rare

They say perfection’s impossible.
They say the world is glitched.
But baseball’s a counter example.
Perfect games have been pitched.

Month Two

February, you go so soon,
Leaving without leaping.
Sometimes you stay an extra day
For calendar housekeeping.
I dreamed we’d have more time but now
Your exit caught me sleeping.

To Bits

David Mamet has written a new play, about Harvey Weinstein. He has been talking to reporters in recent days, I think as part of a book tour for his new novel. Anyway, I found this paragraph from the Chicago Tribune interesting:

'He long ago and powerfully explored the matter of sexual exploitation in his 1992 two-character play (later a movie) “Oleanna.” “I think about this a lot now. I have a bunch of daughters, a young son,” he says. “Every society has to confront the ungovernable genie of sexuality and tries various ways to deal with it and none of them work very well. There is great difficulty when you are switching modes, which we seem to be doing now. People go crazy. They start tearing each other to bits.”'

"Ungovernable genie" is a nice phrase, and it does seem like people are tearing each other to bits lately. And the joining of the 2 ideas in a sentence makes me wonder if he was thinking of The Bacchae, the ancient Greek play in which the god of wine inspires a mob of women to literally tear a man to bits.

It's just a jest to declare
That a genie is involved,
But there may be puzzles here
That really haven't been solved.

It's Hard To Stop A Spree Killer In Advance, But...

I'm just gobsmacked by the repeated failures of law enforcement to stop this guy in Florida. The FBI received 2 tips, one extremely detailed and credible. The local cops had had a lot of prior dealings with this young man. And finally, to top it off, the sheriff's people had multiple officers stationed outside the school, guns in hand, positioned behind their cars, while the shooting was going on inside the school.

Yes, I realize it's early in the reporting cycle, and facts could still change, but...

When things just drop out of joint,
Suddenly, tragically wrong,
You often find there were multiple points
Of failure all along.

Blarney

The world's smartest pig
Is Irish, that's no sham.
His brain is extra big,
And he is a Cunningham.

Aftereffect

Melting snow
And rain galore
Have made my yard
A pond once more.

No Place Like

After I’ve journeyed
Around for a while
It’s good to return
To my own domicile.

In the San Jacinto Range

I do indeed worry I’ll fail
To keep to the right mountain trail,
But with GPS as my buddy,
Along with a bit of map study,
I somehow got out and back
While staying mostly on track.

In Palm Springs

Hummingbird hovering over the green,
Dipping for nectar while I sit serene,
What are the words that your song does not say?
Something perhaps that I might take away?

Petrified Forest National Park

Freakishly fossilized logs
From fallen Triassic trees,
Cells replaced by silica
And streaks of manganese.

Keeping My Mouth Shut

If your tongue
Got stung
By a bee
Would you be
Unable to speak
For most of the week?

News from Saugatuck

I've spent a lot of time in Saugatuck, Michigan. But this was news to me:

Saugatuck dog mistakenly approved for unemployment benefits

Will work for food
And improve your mood.

After Nine Days of Snow

From the Chicago Tribune:

"Southwest Airlines runs out of de-icer, cancels all flights from Midway"

In retrospect, having more de-icer
Would have been nicer.

Probiotic

I went to the airport cafeteria
To acquire an emotional support bacteria.
I sneaked it in, inside my system.
TSA just kind of missed him.

Up In The Air

Americans are getting wider and taller
But airplane seat space is getting smaller.
I’m scared to predict what will be the case
If both of these trends continue apace.

My Annual Metsphysical

A universe without stuffing
Would be a show about nuffing.

Dreaming

We’ll launch and eat our lunches
In electric cars,
Cruising midst the comets
On our way to Mars.

Horsedogship

Here is a funny short video of a neighbor's corgi riding a "one-eyed pony". It's another one of those "friendship across species" videos, but I was really struck by the extent of the cooperation in apparent imitation of human riding, especially since they reportedly worked this out on their own.

It's a dog and pony show.
I'm not sure how the dog says "whoa!"

Hopium

A friend of mine assured me
That winter was nearly gone.
I didn’t bother to argue.
I’m not sure what he was on.

Wendy MacLeod Bows to Crowd

"Kenyon professor calls off original play about cultural insensitivity amid criticism that it's culturally insensitive."

The playwright is Wendy MacLeod, who is pretty well known. Not like David Mamet, but pretty well known. And she is the "playwright in residence" at Kenyon College.

I've always wondered about these writer-in-residence jobs. They sound sweet. Except, apparently, that the sensitivity kids can keep you from putting up your play.

"The play is inspired by a true story in which a group of Guatemalan minors were forced to work on an Ohio egg farm; three of their captors were convicted and a fourth was indicted last year. MacLeod’s play imagines what might happen if one of the youth escaped to a nearby liberal arts college and encountered a group of less-than-culturally-sensitive white undergraduates."

But it wasn't "white" students who complained. It was "Latin American" students. They didn't like the way the Guatemalan was portrayed. They didn't like that another character used the word "illegal" to describe him. They didn't like that he didn't have many lines - and no English lines at all. They didn't like that he was a "stereotype".

Of course MacLeod caved.
And the college administration
Issued congratulations
On how they all behaved.

Beware of Rhyming Foods

An adventurous antelope
Whose mood was mostly jolly
Consumed a bad cantaloupe
And came down with meloncholy.

Pretzels, Better for Eating than for Posing

I’m bad at pretzel poses.
It’s really not my fault.
It’s just I always try them
With a great big grain of salt.

In case you raise the question,
That picture isn’t me.
The closest pose that I can do
Is known as Tipping Tree.

Unlikely

I saw an article claiming that credible academic philosophers are trying to revive panpsychism, the idea that everything, including stones and spoons, is conscious.

This makes me very happy, you see -
If rocks are conscious, there's hope for me!