One Nation Under Surveillance

The dawning of a new America
is spoken of by many
promised by few
and realized by seemingly only those whose job it is to figure the statistics

the 2.1 million here
the 150,000 there
the top 1% of 200,000 with 5,000 each that was set aside and returned and recouped and renegged and....relived....
every four years....

or less
if you pay attention
to the diversely representative upper middle class minority that is the media today
or at least the face of the media today

because seeing is believing and a picture is worth a thousand words
and you can make a difference and in order to form a more perfect union
you need to vote....
especially if you're in Florida, or Ohio, or Missouri, or New Mexico

or if you help make up the sea of domestic tranquility that is Medicare and MTV
or if you support the troops and hate the war
or if you support the war and hate the enemy
or if you support the notion that hate is the enemy
or if you think it's more than just terror that's domestic
for the first time

Franklin looked and saw a rising sun on the back of a stationary chair
at the dawning of our country
the dawning of a new America
I wonder if that was before or after he invented bifocals.
And I wonder what he would say now

as people would bludgeon him with questions
about his faith or lack thereof
and his love for the French
and how could you dare say that BEER is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy?
besides we all know Thomas Edison invented electricity anyway

we learned all about it in our reformed schools
with waivers, or not
and new computers
and without the children who were left behind
and with the children that weren't
from our state-funded, federally-managed, government-tested somehow logically-defying internationally inferior school system

but is that really what's important?
I know the kids can pick out a picture of Bin Laden.
that's what really matters
next to money of course,
Just ask the teachers.

The dawning of a new America is again upon us
thank God we treasure our wisdom now
and we respect our elders
and we follow our minds, we follow our hearts,
and we balance both with the utmost discretion

Right?

May the sunset be brief this time.
Come dawning, come.

Anybody ever wonder what the other half of the battle was?

 
I think the less I say about this one the better.  Here's to the realization that sometimes life can be a little too real, and you may not even know it when it happens.
 
 
I now know what it's like to see your dreams laid out in front of you
residing in the lives of others
 
I now know what it's like to see what you've wanted even when you didn't know yourself
exemplified by those around you
 
I now know what it's like to feel cheated by yourself
as others have overcome themselves
 
I now know what it's like to regret
when I never have before
 
Knowing sucks
 
At least for now

Top dollah with the gold plate collah, pimpin' up in Stillwatah....PTG

Snoop fans unite. Imitation IS the highest form of flattery, you know.

While my rendition of LBC's finest might not ring true in your heart, this next "collaborative" effort often rings true in mine. This is actually a recreation of a poem that one of my best friends wrote waaaay back in the day. The first few lines and the last line are his, but the rest is continually adapted to whatever mood and situation I find myself in that prompts me to remember the point of the entire endeavor. This is the latest adaptation. I apologize in advance for the cheese factor, offering only in my defense the statement that sometimes there's power in cheese. Just ask Wisconsin.


I have a friend named Harry
who stands facing the wall.
Harry sees what Harry sees,
and Harry sees it all.

Harry sees but doesn't see
his eyes faced right ahead
Harry hears what Harry sees
his ears, his eyes, instead.

Harry knows what Harry knows;
it's us that tell him so.
Harry's back is to the world
in front...nowhere to go.

So Harry is not blind
to each of our attacks...
the slings and arrows that we hurl
at him behind his back.

And Harry knows our hate is not
confined to simply him.
Harry sees us talking;
he knows who did what and when.

Harry sees the image of ourselves
that we betray
Since how we act does not always
match up with what we say.

Harry knows our hearts,
and where they truly lie
Harry sees us as the very
selves we can't defy.

Harry sees the overflow of truth
contained in speech.
Harry knows JUST what we say
at times, the worst, in each.

Harry sees our whispered words
can bring both joy and pain
And Harry knows that there are times
at which we will refrain

And Harry knows that other times
we let loose our mind and tongue
Our senses do not tell us though
exactly who we're among.

Harry sees us both in our
best and worst of times.
Harry even hears our silly poems
filled up with rhymes.

So what would Harry tell us
were he to turn around?
Would he let us have it
for the hate that we impound?

While I can't be exactly certain
as I have not come out and asked
I think Harry would tell us
that the feelings that we mask

Perhaps should simply stay within
should they even exist at all
For any thought expressed aloud
is heard by at least the wall

And Harry, as you might have guessed
has the patience of a saint
Compassion is his to spare and share
with those victims of complaint

Which Harry tells me is much more
than just the others we discuss
Harry tells me that the subject,
at times, turns to each of us.

Harry goes on further to
suggest a simple plan.
Being "careful" just is not enough
It takes kindness to be a man.


If you can see with your ears, you can listen with your heart. Thanks, PTG.

To Brandon India, wherever you may now be.

This is a tribute to all the families facing the death of a loved one and all the people facing those families. May you all have lived life to its fullest and take solace, in at the very least, that fact alone.


Watching waywardly as time approaches
means life is passing you by.

One dives head-first as one indulges
without the question of why.

Only later does the wind throw back your caution
into your now realistic face.

The drones of life come calling
when life then slows its pace.

The moments are few and far among
when freedom and circumstance meet.

When cares far away have been flung
and responsibility seems to retreat.

Grasp strongly such times in gentle hands
the nexus that harmony wrought.

For life that's lived often itself demands
much more than just what we've sought.

Coincedependence Day

Today's post is dedicated to those codependent people out there who coincidentally happen to be featured in the horrifically bad pun that is my chosen title for the day. Truth be told, we all have our various vices and asundry supports. There is always something that someone cannot live without, and I don't just mean water. Something that would alter the very fiber of your being so much that even the water I just spoke of would sublimate straight to vapor. (Oooh...big words...and misused at that!) So here's a little light-hearted affair to shed much-needed light on our mixed-up, muddled-up, muggled-up, made-up world of the things that we think we know we just have to have and the idiots out there who fail to recognize our brilliance.


Mary had a little lamb.
Or did the little lamb have Mary?

The lamb was sure to go everywhere that Mary went. (How cute.)
But make it a bear....and then it's scary.

The thing in life that we cannot truly live without,
is the very thing you make it.

But look upon another's choices,
and we can hardly stand to take it.

Coffee? Sportscenter? A sale at Neimann Marcus?
Greeting the morning sun and spells?
There was a road to Damascus?

The big account, the deal just closed, the script that's finally read.
Decorating shows, motorcycle builds, and books just before bed.

Cats or dogs, fish or birds, or pets be damned I say!
Kids are my life, I love my wife, or single to my dying day...

We laugh and judge the lambs and Marys
that exist outside our world.

The simple fact of life is that we all have parts of both.
Mutton is as mutton does, as long as you're the shepherd.