current events

how can we honor our dead
without
glorifying death

how can we celebrate their lives
without
celebrating their wars

a newsman has a lust
that must be satisfied

we are the beast he must feed

so when his voice is charged
with an ancient fervor
and when his eyes glint
with the light of old campfires
recognize yourself in his reflection

else throw yourself
before the stallions' hooves
a human wall of sacrifice
that says
it must stop here
it must stop now

for if we sit in circles
wringing our hands
those same hands
must practice the applause
we'll need to welcome home
our dead from war

Barbieshop

His mid-life crisis
was as predictable
as his male pattern baldness
each time his hairline
receded another inch
the age of his current companions
dropped a decade

as things go
by this calculation
were he to get hair transplants
he would have to start dating
my dead grandmother.

Be nice to girls in kindergarten
I told my then 8th grade son
if your scalp
is like your fathers'
those girls may
turn out to be
the mothers
of your future
girlfriends.