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
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He was a boyand lied about
his age. His older
brother and he
enlisting for the great
adventure. Call it
getting out of town,
call it getting out of the country.
Call it three squares a day,
call it liberation,
call it war,
call it invasion.
So it’s off to Asia
and an Edwardian education,
and Thirty Thousand Killed a Million,
wrote the humorist, raging,
and our wounded boy came home
decades before my mother’s birthing.
I remember the old man,
and how the cousins who did
live with him would sneer
to tell of his crying jags,
supposing crocodile tears
to explain an old man’s
desperate melancholy.
I remember how his belly
ached, and how his cigarettes
his breath would take, his
shouting deaf man’s voice
and how he’d be sure to buy
the first poppy of the Day
from some ancient, younger vet
of some more recent, ancient war.
What else than honoring
an Armistice would
such a choice be for?
But now? All displaced
by our cynical sentimentality.
It’s not a peace we recognize,
but an endless, veteran-making
enterprise. So here’s to this
day’s Veteran’s Day: may
all our desperate best be thrown away.
May all the chicken hawks accord
our country reap its just reward.
No child wants to grow up experiencing a struggle with mental health, poverty, addiction and prejudice. In my career working with young people there has never been an occasion when an elementary aged youngster asked for these misfortunes.
As we are about to enter a new school year let us remind ourselves of the potential that children have, as well as our obligations to ensure that they are given equal opportunity. Eventually all third graders grow up to be adults. For those who end up facing some of life’s more daunting challenges, it is important to show a bit of compassion and understanding. Sometimes it takes a child-like innocence to remind us that we are all in this together.
Macie Brown
A place not far away,
At hometown elementary school,
Children were coming back inside
Following some recess play.
After a brief refreshing snack,
Then drinks from plastic cups,
Students were all asked to share
‘what i’ll be when all grown up!’
Nicole and Armani spoke of athletics.
Tom and Sulina liked outer space.
Garrett wanted to be a fireman
And Shauna described owning mother’s place.
When nearly all had spoken,
Teacher was appreciative of the share,
Up stood little Macie Brown,
The last to leave her chair
“When grown up years from now
I want to be without friends –
Perhaps homeless, or addicted,
The last to leave her chair.
Maybe illness without end.
I’d reside in a shelter
Or prison better still,
Growing up all alone
Beneath the evening’s chill.”
Returning back to her seat
Classmates turned and stared
While Macie was merely wondering
If anyone truly cared.
Today there are many children
In each and every town –
Sitting in their tiny chairs
Who hear the words of Macie Brown.
Returning back to her seat
classmates turned and stared
while Macie was merely wondering
if anyone truly cared.
Today there are many children
in each and every town –
sitting in their tiny chairs
who hear the words of Macie Brown.
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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“This will be a world-class capture and processing facility,” said House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello. “First came the Jewelry District, then the Knowledge District, then the BioMed district, then the ProvSox Stadium, and now we’re getting ready to break ground on the Magical Thinking District.”
The unicorns were first mentioned in an earth-shattering front page Providence Journal story, “Have you seen Providence’s missing unicorn?” While on the surface it seems plausible that the so-called missing unicorns are part of a nation-wide arts project, the truth is much darker.
“It’s a corral,” said a secret informant who preferred to be known as Deep Horn. “They’re planning on rounding up these unicorns and using them for medical experimentation. If you see a unicorn, don’t call that number! You’ll be consigning these beautiful creatures to a brief life of captivity, torture and ultimately vivisection!”
“Unicorns don’t exist, they’re like pensions,” said Governor Gina Raimondo, dismissing the allegations. “And if they did exist, then they would be a natural resource, like park land, that we can use to exploit and create jobs. Jobs for people! Jobs I say!”
“When businesses benefit, everyone benefits,” said Mike Stenhouse, who seems to be mentioned in every edition of the Providence Journal these days. “When we take $40 million from taxpayers and help corporations create new products using unicorn horns, that’s money that we can’t be spending on doing frivolous things like reducing classroom size or paying for preschools.”
“I used to shoe horses,” said former Governor and possible White House candidate Lincoln Chafee. “I’d love to shoe a unicorn! But I’ve got about as much chance of doing that as I have in a presidential primary.”
]]>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
November 9th, Twenty-Sixteen
Words crawl across my TV screen:
GOP WINS THE WHITE HOUSE BACK
My chest felt like a heart attack
I called my friends so we could grieve
Some were packing, ready to leave
Others asked me, “How could we lose?”
Still others drowned their tears in booze
The only hope we could embrace
Lay with the House and Senate race
But red states were on a roll
Republicans took full control
The first sign things weren’t like before
My doc moved to a Walmart store
ObamaCare – too socialized
So now all healthcare’s privatized
Keystone pipeline that wasn’t built
Assured us that no oil was spilt
Now crude is pumped in each time zone
With fracking sites in Yellowstone
Small business climbed out of its rut
Now that minimum wage got cut
The Equal Pay for Women Act?
Big biz made sure it wasn’t backed
Immigration is finally fixed
Thanks to a border wall of bricks
Built by any Mexican who
Gets an ID number tattoo
Guns and books are now the rule
Arming teachers in every school
Bus drivers too, and postal clerks
Ready for whatever danger lurks
America gets even worse
Lucky for you I’m out of verse
Suffice to say if this comes true
The April Fools are me and you