Mother Nature VS. Human Nature

It looks like Satan had surely won this battle,

is what Joe thought while snapping a photo.

The subject was an abandoned church.

Decades ago, the side walls fell inward.

The roof now filled the red mahogany pews.

Mold was the main worshipper at the altar.

Moss and vines replaced the church’s

framing and stained-glass windows.

Falling down buildings and junk cars

with trees growing right through them,

were Joe’s favorite photography targets.

He saw it as man verses nature

and in the long-term nature wins.

Mother Nature considered Joe’s images

battle damage in an ongoing war zone.

Joe did not realize he was a war photographer.

Man’s news had recently been warning

of killer bees and man was killing off all bees.

The bees are an essential ally to Mother Nature.

Of all the animals on Earth.

sustained by Mother Nature,

man was the only guest.

trying to destroy his host.

Man was now busy dropping explosives

and deadly chemicals into Earth’s inner core.

Fracking is what the oil companies called it.

Rape and torture are how nature saw it.

Nature providing fresh air and clean water

was just not enough for man’s desires.

One of nature’s greatest gifts,

the Amazon Rain Forest was just

considered a lumberyard to humankind.

Mother Nature was using her arsenal against man,

fires, tornados, droughts, hurricanes, and floods.

These are kamikaze suicide weapons of mass destruction,

that also do huge damage to Mother Nature herself.

Perhaps, Joe’s prize-winning photos

would make man finally realize

that Mother Nature will always win in the end.

The boys on Wall Street were betting

on the greed of man to always win.

Joe’s latest subject was the litter that dots

the areas along our highway and byways.

Litter from man, the most disrespectful

 animal on the entire planet.

 Joe’s litter photo collection might get humans

to see how they are destroying the planet.

Mother Nature figured Joe would make a difference

because he would at least pick up

the litter after snapping a photo.

Joe did not clean up any litter at all.

Being an artist, he figured he would leave it there

as a waiting subject for the next photographer.

There is always propaganda of who’s side

in a brutal war, is God really supporting.

God made man as stewards of Earth.

Man replaced stewardship with greed.

Humankind should have an attitude of gratitude,

for all that Mother Nature daily provides.

Instead, nature is just one more thing to exploit.

Mother Nature’s spouse, Father Time

will take care of mankind, one by one.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” ~ Genesis 2:15

Two Poems

Stealing Time

The best way to save your sanity

is to write some poetry.

And the best place to write

is at your jobsite.

Ignore the workday chime,

steal some company time,

write a rap or a rhyme

and do it on company time.

Jump in and get you feet wet.

Don’t worry about being a poet laureate.

The best environment to write prose

Is right under the boss’s nose.

But for goodness sake.

don’t write on your coffee break.

Roman Revisionist History

Researchers have made

an important new discovery.

They’ve discovered what caused

ancient Rome to fall.

Rome fell because it lost

it’s Greek style democracy.

It was lost because the citizens of Rome

refused to register to vote

because they didn’t want to serve on jury duty.

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”
–Anaïs Nin

Dr. Seuss Goes Working Class

I ran across this poem I wrote back when GW was president. I thought it still had something to say.

Get to work on time.

Overtime is mandatory

because the company owns your ass.

Work man, work, toil man, toil.

You’ve become a corporate tool.

Your family no longer recognizes you

because you now live at work.

Work man, work, toil man, toil.

Like all of America,

you’re in debt out the wazoo.

So, you drag your tired ass to work.

You’ve given your

blood, sweat and life

to this company.

Work man, work, toil man, toil.

The US gives tax breaks to companies who move overseas.

President Bush says outsourcing is good.

You wonder why you voted for Bush.

What the hell were you thinking?

Then you remember, your beloved NRA told you to.

Work man, work, toil man, toil.

They moved your company to Mexico,

vamoose without an adios amigo.

You worked man, worked.

You toiled man, toiled.

You’re too old to get another job

and too young to retire

because congress keeps raising the retirement age.

No work man, work, no payday man. 

At least Bush let you keep your gun.

You can use it to hunt or to rob a bank to feed your family.

Worse comes to worst you can

use it to end your misery.

No work man, no payday.

You had that “Lock em up and throw away the key”

conservative Republican mentality.

Now that you’re a have not,

you’re having criminal thoughts.

No work man, no payday.

While you were out hunting, job hunting

an endangered species in these days of globalization,

your family left your broke ass.

Not very sporting is it, sportsman for Bush,

as your bumper sticker declares.

Poverty is bad for family values,

so, you’re fucked man fucked.

Welcome to America’s future poor man,

broke ass man, discarded man

American working class man.

‘”Capitalism cannot survive without a working class, the working class can flourish a lot more freely without capitalism.” ~ Terry Eagleton

Stationary Repetition

Jane chain smokes several packs a day.

She puts on facial cream every night,

expecting miracles for her skin and wrinkles.

After all, the commercials said it would help.

John drives his Hummer getting 7mpg.

At every one of his fill-ups,

he bitches about those damn Arabs,

having our country by the balls.

Bob calls talk radio daily and rants

about problems in the community.

It’s easier than actually putting

shoe leather to pavement

and doing something himself.

People say things have got to change

and pull the lever for another D or R.

In a few years when things still need to change,

they once again pull the lever for another D or R.

In the end we are Sisyphus daily rolling

a huge bolder endlessly up a very steep hill.

That meaningless repetition should not be our obituary.

“The Change we dread most may contain our salvation.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver

The Average Working-Class Joe

The Average Joe was

always the backbone

of American society.

In the time of war, it was

G.I. Joe that put his life

on the line for his nation.

After years of concessions

in the industrial sector,

Joe Six-Pack is now

whittled down Joe Three-Pack.

He could just as easily be;

Joe Bag O’ Donuts turned into

Joe Bag O’ Donut Holes,

or Joe Shmoe who became

Joe ain’t got no dough.

One thing is for sure

he will never be called, Joe Millionaire.

Joe caused his own downfall,

by voting for Richie Rich.

You see, Richie gets richer,

when Joe gets poorer.

You’ve got to love Capitalism.

Especially, if you’re Richie.

“Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.” – John Maynard Keynes

American Alpha Male Crap

He declared that the Golden Rule is for suckers

And that the meek shall not inherit the world.

He lives by the idea that greed is good.

He justifies wars as they’re good for the economy.

He’s OK with the raping of Mother Nature

As the bitch has natural resources he wants.

He thinks that scientists are whiny little punks.

He’s here to smote political correctness

And social justice warrior snowflakes.

He’s for banning every book except the Bible.

He wants the Ten Commandments in every courtroom

And Nativity Scenes featured in every town square.

All paid for at the taxpayer’s expense,

Regardless of their religious affiliation.

He believes in American exceptionalism

And that white Americans should never apologize

For anything or too anyone ever.

He’s dressed from head to toe in cammo

And drives a huge gas guzzling jacked up SUV,

Spewing tons of carbon dioxide everywhere he goes.

He’s got the swagger of John Wayne

And the soulless smirk of Bruce Willis.

He’s got so much American pride bluster

That he has no room left for empathy.

He’s a back woods, home schooled militia man.

Pseudo Special Forces meets fake Seal Team Six.

He says he can kill with his bare hands.

He can’t be persuaded to change

By talk of eternal damnation.

He’s not interested in an afterlife in Heaven

Because he’s heard it’s a gun-free zone.

“Masculinity is not something given to you, but something you gain. And you gain it by winning small battles with honor.” ~ Norman Mailer

The Dead Comeback Tour

                       This isn’t about a 2022 Grateful Dead tour.

                         It’s not about deadheads dropping brown acid

                         At an outdoor stadium rock concert.

                         It’s about brain dead folks attending

                         Trump Indoor super spreader freak shows

                         With Donald J Trump as ringmaster

                         Spreading bullshit lies and hate.

                         The attendees are jacked up on

                          A cocktails mix of bleach and urine.

                          No, it’s not a Grateful Dead comeback tour.

                          But it could be a comeback tour of the dead.

                          Dead rock stars, dead famous people and royalty.

                          QAnon the internet Jerry Springer

                          Of white trash entertainment

                          For angry conspiracy wacko Americans

                          Has been promoting surprise appearances

                          By the risen Michael Jackson, JFK Jr. and Lady Diana.

                          Q has reported that Trump is a messiah

                          Who can raise the dead back to life.

                          The first sign that this is nuts is including Lady D.

                           Trump would never bring her back to life

                           As she rejected his advancements calling him a creep.

                            A smart woman with insight we should have listened to.

                            I guess Elvis sightings over the years

                            Just weren’t crazy enough for these people.

                            Truth is, Trump only wants to resurrect one guy

                            That would be Trump’s BFF Jeffery Epstein.

                            Who could supply him and Matt Gaetz

                            With a harem of pubescent girls

                            There has always been a mentally unstable crowd

                            That is easy for businesses to market to.

                            That explains supermarket tabloids like;

                             The National Enquirer and Weekly World News.

                             With the advent of internet social media platforms

                             Former incoherent street corner crazies

                             Have been able to find one another.

                             Throw in wacko right-wing radio talk show callers

                             And zombied out FOX News viewers

                             And you’ve got a crowd detached from reality

                             That Trump has been able to exploit

                             And turn into a political movement.

                             A movement whose members have bumper stickers

                              Happily declaring, “Proud to be a Deplorable.”

                              Did you know that the real Joe Biden

                              Was assassinated at GITMO in March of 2019?

                              Did you know that the Trump on stage

                              Is actually JFK Jr. disguised as Trump?

                             You’d know that if you followed Trump’s Pope QAnon.

                             You’d know it from Q’s apostles who attend Trump rallies.

                              It doesn’t really matter if the speaker on stage

                              Is Trump or the resurrected John Kennedy Jr.

                              As the speech is braggadocious, unintelligible rambling

                               It could be the words of a dead man or a brain dead man.             

                              President Biden is now giving out free masks

                               And covid tests to the American public.

                               I’d suggest free Thorazine and straightjackets

                               For the Trump supporters at these rallies.

                              They’d probably refuse the help which proves

                               Mental help is not for everyone.

“We have to challenge lies. We have to challenge falsehoods and conspiracy theories. If you don’t, they fester – unchecked and unchallenged.” – Briana Keilar

Unwritten Traffic Laws

A true event:

The factories quitting bell has rung.

The workers exodus has begun.

Another day of hard labor and they’d had their fill.

They raced to their vehicles and climbed the steep hill.

Bumper to bumper like an impenetrable tank.

No oncoming traffic dares break their rank.

They were focused on their homeward destination.

Ignoring the stop sign as if it were just a suggestion.

Old Smitty just about had a heart attack,

when he looked up to see the grill of a Mack.

It turned his old Chevy Caprice,

into an abstract metal art piece.

Luckily, no one was hurt in the crash.

I thought everyone learned in Driver’s Ed class,

that workers have the right-of way,

at the end of the work day.

“This is the crux of the problem because the Republicans and the right wing has been successful in almost eliminating unions, everyone else has suffered as a result.” ~ Michael Moore

Happy Holidays to all!

A Night of Madness

“Somebody help me. I’m going to die” the young woman on the stretcher screamed. She had just been wheeled into the Emergency Room of a local hospital. She then started sobbing quite loudly. She wasn’t the first person I heard in the ER screaming they were dying. I heard a dozen of them when I was in the ER from 5 PM until 12:30 AM last Friday. Many of those stretchers had patients who weren’t saying anything. That is because they had arrived wearing some kind of portable respirator. As one ambulance pulled out another was arriving. It was as if they were an assembly line.

          I really didn’t want my 91-year-old father in an ER full of Covid patients. My brother stopped at dad’s house and found he had fallen. Dad now had slurred speech and difficulty breathing. My brother phoned me with the news. After I arrived, we decide to call 911. They promptly arrived and did a great job of persuading my stubborn dad that he needed to go to the Emergency Room.

I don’t know the last time I have been in a place as stressful as that ER. Everyone in the unit was required to wear a mask. I always travel with one in my pocket. My father was put on a bed in the hallway because there were no empty rooms. I was sitting in a chair near the end of his bed. A nursing aide stood next to me holding a blanket. Housekeeping staff showed up and took it from her. As they took it the aide said, “Possible Covid.” I heard the word Covid, over and over that night. It was really adding to my stress. More stressful was the guy who kept parking his wheelchair next to the chair I was sitting in. He was probably in his early seventies. He wore a flannel shirt and a camouflage NRA ball cap. He had a scraggly sparse gray beard and a gray pony tail hanging out the back of his cap. He did not have a mask on. A nurse handed him a mask and told him to put it on. He held up two he already had. He explained that both security guards had had already given him masks. He said the nurse could shove it because he wasn’t wearing any damn mask. He kept wheeling around the place getting in the way of nurses and constantly arriving ambulance crews. A nurse told him that he was in the way. He loudly yelled, “I don’t give a shit.” He then again parked next to me. It was decided that something needed to be done with him. He was sent to the bathroom to fill a cup for a urine specimen. He rolled out of the bathroom proclaiming, “Who wanted this cup of piss?” They soon gave him some antibiotics, explained how to use them and away he rolled out the door.

A 35 year-old guy entered the emergency room next. He had washed down a large dose of his depression meds with a huge amount of wine. A doctor asked him if he drinks often. He said only at Pittsburgh Steeler and Pens games. A social worker came to talk to him. She suggested a rehab place for him and was describing it. It all sounded good to him until she hit the last detail. That was the fact that it was a non-smoking environment. He claimed that was a deal breaker. She asked if he smoked tobacco. He replied, “Among other things.” His aunt had come in with him and was now shaking her head. He asked her why his mother had not brought him in. The aunt replied, ‘She didn’t think you’d want her here and frankly she is tired of this.”

My dad threw up three times and had to go to the bathroom three times. The nurses were patient with him and were doing their best. I asked a nurse if the ER was always this insane. She replied, ‘Sometimes it’s worse.” She also explained that only three nurses were in the unit for the night.

At the nurse’s station the phone kept ringing. A nurse was shaking her head after one call. She told another nurse, “A caller wanted to know if she should come in with pink eye. Pink eye, dang. Would you want to venture into a Covid pandemic area with something as minor as pink eye?” The other nurse laughed and quickly ran to one of the rooms because a buzzer was going off. There are several rooms in the ER and all have a glass sliding door on them.

An ambulance crew now brought in a middle-age woman on a stretcher. She had a ring on every finger, a nose ring and several earrings in each ear. She looked like a walking jewelry box. She had fallen and they were taking her for a head ex-ray. They told her they had to remove her earrings and recent nose ring. They took out the earrings but she refused to take out the nose ring. Her husband was pleading with her. Another nurse with a diamond in her nose came over. She told the woman she recently got her nose jewelry also. She took it out and put it back in. This convinced the jewelry box woman to take her own out.

The ambulance team brought in a woman screaming for help. She claimed her gall bladder was attacking her. A nurse was trying to calm her but she screamed for twenty minutes. She then climbed off the stretcher and calmly stood at the desk. She then told a sitting nurse, “I’m not going to be here all night.” Sitting nearby I wanted to tell her I had already been there six hours.

The ambulance crews tried to hang around and help the nurses. Most could only help for ten minutes or so until another 911 call. I was feeling very sorry for the nursing staff that was on a twelve hour shift. The midnight nurse crew had just arrived. They were also understaffed and hurrying about. A nurse was on the phone trying to get a couple of patients transferred to other area hospitals. She was told they were all packed and no beds were available. At 12:30 AM a nurse told me I might as well leave as they would keep my father in the hall until a bed opened up. I felt I was in the way as the ambulance crews were back to full assembly line mode. I left very stressed out and really grateful for the wonderful job the nurses and ambulance crews were doing. As I exited the ER door a car quickly pulled up outside the doors. A man and woman got out screaming and fighting angrily with each other. The midnight shift was in for another wild ride. I arrived home exhausted showered and went to bed.

The next morning I went back to the hospital and dad was in a room with another patient. He is undergoing further testing. On my ride home I tuned into KDKA a Pittsburgh talk radio station. Callers were arguing with the host. Caller after caller stated that hospitals are empty as Covid is a hoax, that Covid was a “plandemic” by the Democrats, or that vaccines don’t work.

I just wish that one of those idiot callers would have experienced the seven hours I just spent in a hospital ER. Better yet, I wish they had to do one of the nurse’s twelve hour shifts. I only wrote about a small percent of the madness I saw in that ER. Bless these healthcare workers who are up against Covid deniers on top of the daily madness they face. Thank God for these heroes.  

Who’s Looney Tunes?

I was on my way to our townships’ recycling center, which is behind the volunteer fire department. That is when I first spotted two flags, at a home next to the station. One was a Trump flag and one had a photo of President Biden. The Biden photo was in the middle of a Looney Tunes’ logo.

I really hadn’t seen much about President Biden that I thought was looney. I felt like stopping and asking the homeowner what he thought was looney about President Biden. I’m sure that would be a two minute conversation. I would have had to respond with all the things I thought were; bizarre, erratic, weird and looney about President Trump. Reciting that list about Trump would have taken me hours. I just haven’t had the time to stop and have that long conversation.

Let me just list a number of things about Trump’s looney behavior. During a rally he asked Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s email account. Trump said that Crimeans were happy to be ruled by Russia. He was also unaware that the Ukraine had been invaded by Russia. His lack of what was going on in the world should have been enough to disqualify him as a candidate.

Trump insulted veterans when he said that he had no respect for veterans like John McCain because he was captured. That should have been enough to disqualify him as a candidate. I just realized that the arthritis in my hand is not going to let me type that long list of idiot things Trump has done.

          I’ll just leave you with this list to look over: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/dumb-trump-moments

 I didn’t even get into Trump’s racism. I’ll let Trump speak to that, “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys wearing yarmulkes… Those are the only kind of people I want counting my money. Nobody else…Besides that, I tell you something else. I think that’s guy’s lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks,” John O’Donnell, a former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, quoted Trump saying to him in his 1991 book. In May 1997, Trump was asked about his comment during an interview with Playboy, and he confirmed that “the stuff” O’Donnell wrote about him were “probably true.”