№ 862: Meditations (mark of a realist)

RECKONING (May 21) —

Marcus Aurelius

Jesus was a Socialist.

Giving out free bread and wine?

And his “business” (Jay's Loaves and Fishes?)

never collecting a nickel or dime?

Had Jesus been an entrepreneur,

charging full freight for his services,

then, perhaps, the Sanhedrin and Romans

would not have gotten nearly as nervous.

Had Jesus been a go-along guy,

rendered Cæsar — completely! — his due,

then, perhaps, Pilate would have ignored

the unfortunate fact of his being . . . a Jew.

His coreligionists could have found common ground,

had he, instead of clearing the temple,

spread a peck of shekels around.

(And been a little less temperamental.)

Had Jesus struck a truce with Zeus — 

that guy the Romans called Jupiter — 

would history have taken a different course,

maybe have been a little less stupider?

Nah. Who am I kidding? What are the odds

that there could ever be peaceable gods?

Gods we created in our own image, 

who therefore exculpate our violentest scrimmages

with winners and losers, with vics and perps.

Exacerbate everything. Give 'em the works!

Slings! Arrows! Outrageous fortune!

Ain't no such a thing as out-of-proportion.

We are who we are. We get what we get.

I find it astounding we ain't over. (Yet.)

№ 793: The American Century

HERE AND NOW (February 16) —

Can we accept it's all over?

The American Century’s dead?

That we, the new not so great Britain,

may get disunited in decades ahead?

Can we accept the South won THE war

and, generally, Lee was its hero?

That our unprecedented president’s flaws

show him to be the quintessence of Nero,

that rabid emperor whose total distemper

disrupted first century Rome?

(Without McConnell's friendship with benefits,
Nero (their Donald) was sacked by the Senate.)

№ 611: Donald D-Day (or fiddledeedee, how could anyone not worship me?)

NEW ROME, June 5

Let us now praise Donald J. Trump,

sign petitions for making him king.

Think of wonders that could unfold,

the happiness that he would bring

as absolute ruler whose word would be law

unencumbered by courts and congressional meddling.

Donald, you know, is guided by God,

he's the fourth leg of the Trinity.

Only a Socialist-Democrat-dog

would dare question his subprime divinity.

Kneel in abasement before God's replacement!

Bow and kowtow in self-effacement.

Lavishly laud, be awed and applaud.

DON'T think he's odd, not equal to God,

unless you're prepared to be under the sod.

(NOR that he is a mentally ill, shrill carny shill,

that with him in charge we're heading downhill.)

If you still feel you must such stuff relate,

I suggest you adjust your estate

and kindly remember him in your will,

for he is a figure much like Caligula.

№ 594: Are We Rome Yet? (quelques pensées)

NEW ROME, May 13

In this slo-mo
unraveling story,
an oaf Cæsar bumbles,
proclaiming glory
and some of us wish
for Brutus and Cassius.

And others ask,
“Who is Antony?
Who is Augustus?
Who has the
talent or temperament
to bring us justice,
dispense the pretender
and be God-Emperor?”

Some may say,
“Ayn Rand knew it.
The Constitution,
with a revision
(or two) to renew it,
could undo flaws
devised over time
by Dem Party demagogues.”

Hark.
On your mark.
Get set.
A random spark
could ignite the dark.

Sit back.
Relax.
“We have nothing to fear. . .”
Do not send in the clowns.
They're already here.

No. 307: Sick Transit, Gloria (first as tragedy, then as farce)

The Roman Empire

was the most superior

power the world'd ever seen.

They whupped the Greeks,

Spain and North Africa

and everyone in between.

Rich, demanding

and ever expanding

the Romans had money to burn.

It was all goin' fine,

then they declined

and got whupped in their turn.

No. CLXXXVII: Couplets There Appy

“...you look at what is happening in the United States...It’s just a matter of whether the republic is going to collapse a thousand years from now or five hundred years from now or is it going to collapse a week from next Thursday.”

— Mike Duncan author of The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic quoted in TIME

We think we're so clever,

we'll last forever.

That nothing could

is not understood.

Trump the pagan
won't make us “great again”.

Propelled by this clown,
we're goin' down.

Just think, in a blink
we'll be extinct.

The point of this “pome”?

E.T. phone Rome?