Katrina

I was there when the words came down the pike,
"Katrina's coming, get out of Dodge."
The pronouncement prompted an exodus,
And throngs of believers took to the skies,
Highways and back roads.
By all means available, posses of evacuees,
tightened reins, shifted gears in survival mode -
packed themselves into mini-vans, SUV's,
manned bikes and motorcycles
and made a hasty retreat
from the Crescent City, the Big Easy -
Ignored the up-turned thumbs of carjackers,
posing as hitchhikers to deal with carbon monoxide,
and gridlock.

The oracles had spoken:
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox,
The mouthpieces of mainstream news,
From Media Olympus (instigators of blacks and losers),
Tossed Natalee and Cindy aside like flimsy rag dolls,
And extolled Katrina:
"Evacuate, evacuate". Hunker down and die
was the mode, "Or leap-frog over the dead and dying."

Questions crammed my mind,
Not so much of Katrina, but the, seemingly,
the idiotic 1803 purchase:
The Napoleon/Jefferson connection,
Signed, sealed, delivered -
Land sold and bought, ranging from the Mississippi River,
To the Rocky Mountains and from Canada
To the Gulf of Mexico. Sold for 15 mill
To a mere three hundred and seventeen year old:
A Nation onto itself in a bowl below sea level,
An acquisition Of Mulattoes, Creoles,
Octoroons and Quadroons;
Acquired, the French tongue, pidgin,
Ebonics; voodoo/hoodoo, carrion superstition -
The merrymaking Mardi Gras -gumbo, Cajun, jambalaya;
King Oliver, Kid Ory, "Old Hickory" Jackson
And Huey Long.

Questions, doubts, hope:
"How High's the water, Mama."
'Four feet high and rising,
five feet high and rising,
The Walls of Jericho's been breached,
Casinos and churches surrounded by a moat,
Bodies and debris all afloat,
Six feet high and rising.
Water, water everywhere and nary a drop to drink.'

Children waded in the water,
Adults holding babies and possessions
Waded in Muddy Waters;
No Bridge Over troubled waters.
AC's and TV's, power lines and traffic signs,
Surfboards and skateboards, tampons and condoms,
Vomit and feces toileted in rising water.

Water, water everywhere and nary a drop to drink.

More so than her elder siblings,
Katrina was mean-spirited, irascible, incorrigible -
Temperamentally tumultuous - unpredictable,
A robust tropical storm whose full-blown strength,
Commandeered the swirl of whirling winds,
Dared Neptune and that "Old Man River"
To impede her advance as she stormed ashore;
Ran amok in Louisiana, Mississippi and parcels of Alabama;
Sideswiped New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi,
And sucker-punched Mobile.

"How high's the water, Mama?"
'Nine feet high and rising. Ten feet high and rising.
Twelve feet and rising. Water, water everywhere
Nary a drop to drink!'

Afloat, rats and roaches, cats and dogs,
Magnolias and seaweed -
Flooded, "The House of the Rising Sun",
"Blueberry Hill", and Ward 9;
Adrift, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn,
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

I was there when the words came down the pike:
"Evacuate, evacuate. Katrina's eye is on us."
I was there when the entrance
Beside the Golden Door of the Super Amphitheater closed;
Refused the tired, the poor, huddled masses,
The wretched refuse, the homeless refugees,
To be exiled to highway ramps and rooftops,
Waving the Red, White and Blue,
And crayoned signs scrawled on cardboard and sheets,
Begging to be rescued by any means available.
Vigilant observers craning necks,
Looked for chariots, buses, iron-horses,
Looked for UFO's, and whirlybirds to lower Jacob's Ladder;
Prayed for Moses to part the waters;
Searched the horizon for Noah's Ark.

Water, water, everywhere, nary a drop to drink.

I was there when the words came down the pike:
"Help is on the way. Help is on the way."
And desperate voices inquired: 'How long? How long?'
And the repeated refrain: "Not long! Not long!"
And help arrived: National Guardsmen, hardened combat troops,
Some dispatched from Fallujah - armed to the hilt.
Tanks and Black hawks circled the Super Amphitheater
For unknown, unidentified snipers, looters,
murders and rapists
Said to exist by Media Merchants,
Spinning half-truths from News lets Olympus,
Agenda driven, distorter's, condescending babblers:
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, UPI, AP, Reuters,
Dot com, dot org, dot gov.

Stories, stories everywhere and nary a drop of truth.

Tanabe

Watch Tanabe by Dr. Mongo

http://drewlesso.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=35

As he circled in his eighties,
A reluctant, misty rain baptised his untimely death,
Washed his blood and bits of gray matter
into the guts of a wide-mouth, highboy gutter.

After that day, I wondered: Did he have time to think,
"What's happening?" As his skull was pounded
into kaleidoscopic fragments - body, buckled beneath
an unprovoked barrage of blows upon his person.
Or did he not have time to think at all,
as he crouched at death's curb,
perhaps, idled in senility, waiting for ol' three-eyes,
to green him across the street?

Are you on the other side, Tanabe,
resting peacefully in the bosom-tree
of the Buddha-Christ?
amid lush green gardens,
polka-dotting profuse valleys
Far, far away from that dark evil,
whose hands violently clutched and swung
that cold, hard lead pipe,
cancelling out your hopes and dreams
beneath the rising sun?

Pick Up Jacks (Childs Play)

With a little bit of fiction coupled with fact,
This poem deals with the subject of everyman Jack:
Jumping jacks, cracker jacks
And Spring Heeled Jack,
Lumber jacks, steeple jacks and one-eyed jacks.
Then comes this Jack from the far side of the tracks,
Crawling, slithering pass security checks,
A leader and perpetrator of terrorist attacks.

This Jack is on the loose, running wild,
Hither, thither, hawking, stalking unsuspecting prey,
Destructive ideology's his forte-foreplay,
Making for a bad hair day.

If you help me get him - hunt him down,
Force him underground, but keep him in sight,
I'll make his life a miserable 24/7 nightmare.
I had him once, but he got away,
Disguised as a jack-tar sitting on the dock of the bay.

This Jack is on the loose - running wild,
A murderous psychopathic child,
An egotistic monster with a jack leg smile,
He turned an inch into a mile,
Now there's two Jacks, three Jacks, pick up jacks.
This Jack doesn't jaw jack, eat flapjacks or crackerjacks,
Play jack stones, jackstraws or blackjack;
Dance the Ball and Jack or drink applejack,
Maybe every now and then a shot of Jack
As he plots his next attack.

This Jack, that Jack
A radical, fanatical, maniacal Jack,
A crackpot, Jackass Jack, looking for a jackpot,
Will jack you up, jack you off,
Hijack, skyjack, carjack, Bushwhack, strait-jacket you .
This Jack doesn't jaw-jack, eat flapjacks
Or cracker jacks - dance the ball-and-jack,
Drink applejack - maybe, now and again a shot of Jack
As he plots the next attack
This Jack, that Jack - pick up jacks!

This Jack is on the loose running wild;
An anthrax, atomic Jack,
Biological, chemical, electromagnetic Jack,
Uranium, plutonium, nuclear Jack,
A homicidal, suicidal, genocidal Jack -
Five, six, seven Jacks - pick up jacks.

This Jack's a Jackal with an international
Criminal jacket a Wylie Coyote, Tasmanian devil,
Blue Beard, Jack the Ripper Jack,
Jack-of-all-trades, jack smith, jack lighter,
A Jack-o'-lantern jack, jack-o'-knaves,
Jack-'n-boxes, fast as cheetahs, sly as foxes-
Seven, eight, ten, twelve Jacks - pick up jacks

This Jack is nimble, lightening quick,
With AK-47's and jackknives
Wooing anxious fingertips,
Ready to shoot, stab, maim, kill,
Then hop away like a jackrabbit on a pogo stick.

This is no Jack and Jill, Jack Jingle, Jack Sprat,
Jack-a-Nory nursery rhyme,
No Jack Frost, Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale,
This Jack is on the loose running wild,
Wrapped in a pea jacket, leather and flak jacket
In the house that Jack built.

Some of these Jacks will get away,
While others are made to rue the day
Flushed from camouflaged hideaways,
Chambered caves and catacombs,
Byways, highways and seaways,
Two, four, six, eight Jacks - pick up jacks.

Fourteen, twenty, forty-eight K Jacks,
The time is running out - it's inventory time,
You've got to hit the road, Jack,
Ten, nine, eight, seven, jacks,
Six, five, four, three, two, one Jack,
Pick up Jack ...

Once Upon A Time

He was a guy who had everything,
A velvety voice, wavy black hair,
A masculine physique
And a Valentino flair,
Once upon a time.

He dined on international cuisine,
Travelled to distant lands,
Dressed in the best of clothes,
Expensive jewelery ringed his hands,
Once upon a time.

He hung out with elite groups,
He was a renaissance man,
Never once did he doubt,
His influential span.

Women just adored him,
They bought him fancy cars,
But his feet weren't firmly grounded,
'cause his head was in the stars,
Once upon a time.

Suddenly came that unforeseen day,
When his lofty world fell apart,
And those who were once friends,
Became attitudinally tart.
Distancing themselves from him,
During his fast decline,
Due to his insincerity
Once upon a time.

Now, he's eshewed by most,
His frame is skeletal-like,
His hair has hued to dusty-gray,
Strangers tell him to take a hike,
The people that he once ignored
And often took for granted,
Are become supporting seeds
That he never planted,
Once upon a time.

His voice has become a crackle,
He frequent alleyways,
He goes without a bite to eat,
Sometimes for several days.
The grasp of drugs excites him,
His clothes are torn and tattered,
His world has become meaningless,
His hopes and dreams are shattered.

He was a guy who had everything,
A velvety voice, wavy black hair,
A soothing, orchestrated smile,
The gift of gab entrenched in guile,
And he remains a friend of mine,
Not once upon a time.

Untitled

To speak and not be heard,
To be present and not be seen,
To touch and not be felt,
Is like a forest without a stream.

To lie when faced with truth,
To falsify emotion,
To want without a need,
Is like a wave less ocean.

To hug and not feel warmth,
To never set a goal,
To take life for granted,
Is like a story left untold.

Religionism

Worship & Sacrifice
Go hand & hand
Throughout the land,
Sanctioning killing on command,
Ready to die on demand-
Alters & Tabernacles,
Antennae & Tentacles,
Revealed in Oracles & Miracles...

Worship & Sacrifice,
Face to face mirrors,
Via terrors & horrors,
In Pagodas & Temples,
Mosques & Synagogues -
Infallible dispensers & cryptic deciphers
Of texts hidden in Scriptures
And bizarre monologues,
Of influential demagogues...

Worship & Sacrifice,
Self-immolation,
Kindled by fables, sagas & epics,
Woven in fear & dark superstition;
Traditional suspicion cloistered in customs,
Indoctrination (psychic molestation),
Mental castration, a perpetual hoax
Of shamans & popes,
Genies & ghosts
Allied with angelic & demonic hosts...

Worship & Sacrifice -
Gateways to heaven?
Blasphemy? Heresy? Idolatry?
Rituals & Totems,
Ceremonies & omens,
Gift-wrapped in "What if"
And pious Amens!

Life

I've heard it said more than once,
Perhaps some myriad times,
Expressed in pale, prosaic prose
And oxy-owlish rhymes
by poet and philosopher,
optimist and skeptic,
kibitzer, biographer,
pessimist and cynic;
by the wealthy-laden, poverty-ridden,
social scientist and critic
that regardless of who you are,
Life isn't fair - never will be,
it's just the way things go,
sometimes yes - oftentimes no
you reap what you sow.
Filthy rich, rolling in dough,
stone-broke, penniless, dirt poor,
is determined by some hand of fate,
when knocking at the door.

It matters not your force or bent
Life isn't fair - never will be,
it's just the way things are,
the Midas Touch, the Silver Spoon
or wishing upon a star,
is like a stealth-like reaching hand
in the proverbial cookie jar.

Life's a split second in the span of time,
a brief, bottled-space, a limited chime,
rather prophet, saint, sinner, devil,
a doer of evil or righteous deeds,
the double-jointed hand of life
offers few guarantees.

Life isn't fair, it's a two-edge sword,
a Janus-faced catch 22,
one half of conjoined twins,
temporarily on loan to you.

So live and be merry - wed doubt and trust,
bond with Life's ups and downs,
For She's a series of leaps and bounds,
and in the end there's just one result
which is ashes to ashes and dust to dust.