Let’s face it when you’ve got to go
The only thing you want to know
“A bathroom, is there one nearby?”
A human right they can’t deny
Yet there are those who have control
Over who gets to use the bowl
And the judgment that they render
Is determined by our gender
Used to be signs on the door
Designating who it was for
One sign read She, the other He
But now that number’s up to three
“Those damn transgenders are to blame!”
The right wing politicians claim
“Women be women, men be men
Make America great again!”
Europeans know how to pee
Single toilets marked WC
One at-a-time equality
Whatever future genders may be.
c2016pn
]]>American Neanderthal
Seems like the perfect name to call
Those goons who crowd around his stage
Like cavemen from the Iron Age
Their eyes are bugged, their mouths are wide
They wave their fists from side to side
A thousand strong to hear the king
Yet they don’t bother listening
Hateful language The Donald spews
For them is hardly breaking news
Their lack of judging right from wrong
Was theirs before Trump came along
But what they never had was hope
Some pride when being called a dope
Trump proved dumb is worth defending!”
#Neanderthal may soon be trending.
c2016pn
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The political mouth is loud
It grabs attention in a crowd
Up on the stage the smile is wide
But get in closer, look inside
At stains that white-strips won’t erase
From lies they told to win the race
And once that mouth is elected
Rancid gums become infected
The whispered stench of secret deals
Becomes the spit to grease the wheels
Political teeth start to grind
So many pockets to be lined.
(c)2016pn
FACE VALUE
What’s with faces that need to hide
Whenever they appear outside?
Belonging to the human race
Requires that you have a face
It’s not a bigoted request
And failure doesn’t mean arrest
But without cheeks, a mouth and nose
It’s just fabric from head to toes
Floating like ghosts on Halloween
That private world of the unseen
Shouldn’t mean immunity
From joining our community
Of men and women, boys and girls
Dark hair, blond hair, buzz cut, curls
We wink, we frown, we cry, we grin
Draw your curtains and let us in.
c2016pn
POETICALLY CORRECT
Hurry up imagination
Breaking news on every station
Need to cover each disaster
Wish the words were coming faster
Something for the Paris sorrow
Said they wanted it tomorrow
San Bernardino needs a verse
To help dispel their ISIS curse
The global warming wears me out
Deadly floods and quakes and drought
Are squeezing me day after day
For still another way to say
That life is just a coin that’s tossed
Some lives are saved, some lives are lost
A tale for novelists to tell
“My cell phone’s ringing. Where the hell…?”
c2016pn
Don’ talk to me about love and kissesWedding bells, Mr. and Mrs.
Marriage? What a fairy tale
Give ‘em time, they’re bound to fail
Something I’ve never understood
That wolf from Little Red Riding Hood
One date with him and look at me
The fifth month of my pregnancy
A little witch inside me grows
It’s got these ears, this crooked nose
I nourish it with wholesome meals
Bugs and insects, worms and eels
I’m making sure the child will be
A spitting image of hideous me
A sickly thing prone to disease
So I’m lighting up a lot of these
Cigarettes cause low birth weight
Breathing disorders can seal its fate
A cleft palate and birth defects
Are what a smoking mom expects
It fills a witch’s heart with glee
To deliver a kid as unhealthy as me
So light up a butt my sweet Valentine
And your baby could turn out just like mine!
c2015pn
Read Peet Nourjian’s previous poems here.
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And couldn’t wait to make the scene
Behind the wheel of your own car
Driving made you a superstar
But freedom on the open road
Was cut short as the traffic slowed
“A sign of progress” experts said
Congestion means full steam ahead
Remember your first airline seat
Runway rumble beneath your feet
The look of wonder in your eyes
As you wing through the friendly skies
Then flying lost some altitude
Lines got long, they stopped serving food
Like sardines in a sardine can
Congestion is their business plan
Remember your first railroad ride
The panorama countryside
Rambling by on iron wheels
The club car waiter serving meals
And then one day the train was new
More frequency and comfort too
But most of all it was faster
Racing to its own disaster
Traveling is a right they missed
On our Constitutional list
We need to get from here to there
By means that aren’t a double-dare
Drive a car and the road could sink
Is your pilot seeing a shrink?
Washington, invest the dough
Make America GOOD TO GO.
Indiana and ArkansasChampions of religious law
Determined that the scriptures say
“You won’t be served if you are gay”
Rhode Island has religion too
Our common sense shapes what we do
“You’ll never get served if you’re rude
Or have a lousy attitude”
Indiana and Arkansas
Are family states where Ma or Pa
Want neighbors to be just like them
No handsome women or pretty men
Rhode Island’s more a people state
The mixing is what makes it great
Freedom to live and love and play
No matter what the scriptures say
Muslim, Christian, Hindu, JewThe hell religion puts us through
Murdering in the name of God
Is more than just a little odd
One religion commits no crime
And you can worship anytime
No statues just some sticky weed
Rolling paper is all you need
Instead of prayer you take a toke
The answers show up in the smoke
It fills our heads with peace and love
Not words of war from up above
They say communion wine is blood
Commune with nature, burn a bud
St. Maryjane, you are superb
Baptize the world with your sweet herb
“One Bad apple” is what they say
Explaining when cops go astray
But now a better line might be
“Be careful where you plant the tree”
Like many men who join the force
They choose a military course
Of war beneath the desert sun
Before they earn a policeman’s gun
Most cops are filled with civic pride
But some have demons deep inside
Grim flashbacks to hostile faces
Battle scars from foreign places
Soldiers learn how to determine
Sunni’s from Shiites by their skin
But once back home they’re not allowed
To profile faces in a crowd
America, land of the free
Is filled with ambiguity
Let’s make sure racial killing stops
Our veterans should not be cops