My Other Self

menace has yellow eyes
I know because I’ve seen them
staring through my sleep
unnerving
my other self

subconscious sweat
stains the pillow
I don’t know if this thing
wears catlike form
it just feels that way

I somehow can sense
it seems ready to pounce
one terrible leap
from lean black hunter’s haunches
across breathless fear

through ominous air
extending malicious sharp claws
toward the unaware peace
that I brought to bed
from a day that was such a good day

what precipitates
ungodly terror
into calm asylum
why do yellow-eyed creatures
stalk peace of mind

perhaps a good day
confers surreal guilt
on that other self who
awake while I sleep
is at mercy of metaphors

Drones, Fair or Foul

Let’s try to cut through all the political crap. Forget any opinions of Obama or Bush. Lay aside party loyalty and ideology. Trying to stick with principles, and what’s right for the protection and defense of the United States, I offer the following:

• Are drones just one more class of lethal weapon in our national arsenal? Yes, but they also have unique benefits and advantages over more conventional weapons: greater accuracy, less collateral loss of innocents, greater stealth, easier deployment, greater flexibility, less expense, and most importantly, almost no risk of casualty to U.S. soldiers.
• Does the Commander-in-Chief have authority to use such weapons? Yes, as with any weapon of war, when engaged in legitimate warfare as may be decreed by Congress or under the presidential War Powers Resolution.
• Does the War Powers Resolution really give this authority? Certainly debatable, not least because of its potential for abuse, but I believe it does. Our recourse against such abuse is, as always, to vote or impeach the President from office.
• Is the “war on terror” legitimate? Yes, in my opinion. No, for some others.
• Who decides legitimacy? Our constitutionally empowered elected leaders, whether or not any of us agree with their decision. We cede that decision with our vote.
• Beyond legal notions of legitimate, is the “war on terror” morally justified? Yes, in my opinion. No, for some others. We’ve been told that both Obama and Bush understand the philosophical concepts of a “just war” as presented, for example, in the astute moral reflections of St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Both Presidents are said to have studied them, among other great thinkers on the subject. But whether or not that’s true, regardless if their conclusions conform to our own views, we, again, cede that moral justification with our vote.
• Are drones instruments of assassination? Yes, meaning that their intentionally stealthy use denies the target any chance for surrender.
• Is assassination a legitimate tactic of war? Yes, in my opinion. No, to some others. I judge it legitimate when the target is a sworn enemy of the U.S. with the wherewithal to plan, direct and/or conduct terrorist attacks, and has either already done so or is reasonably expected to do so.
• Is assassination of a U.S. citizen legitimate? I think this is by far the thorniest issue. Yes, if they meet the same criteria above, but only, I believe, if they are on foreign soil and cannot be captured. The primary goal should be to bring a U.S. citizen terrorist to trial, in the U.S., under charge of treason, as provided for in our Constitution.

This post heavily abbreviates my thoughts and the profound implications of the subject. It’s intended to stimulate, not settle, the issues.  And I’m fed up with much of the politicized dialogue of the media.

The questions raised by the issue of drones and, moreover, of assassination, deal with deeply important moral principles and grave ethical problems. They deserve thoughtful consideration and cogent debate by Americans. It’s fair for citizens as well as legislators to examine if new law or revision of the extant War Powers Resolution is in order. This new technology of warfare may indeed cry out for a new or different ethical framework.

But politics and personal opinions of any particular President have no place in such discussions. In fact, they will only guarantee a bad outcome. Frankly, we can’t afford bad outcomes when it comes to terrorism.

I’ve aired my own thoughts. How about you?

Winter of Our Discontent

we have no fingers left on our hands
in this brittle season of citizenship
no way to point out
the fallacies trapped in your frozen promises

it’s been said
making sausage or law is no spectator sport
but at least something’s made
and once made can be seen

unlike bombast and petulance
fogging the air out in front of your face
are you trying to hide in the vapors
of your utterly feckless performance

we stood unabashedly naked at polls
and shivered with low expectations
rewarded now only with cold recognition
that low wasn’t near low enough

the ice in your veins marks a trait of your class
but we are a warm-blooded suffering clan
in pain from the icicles hung on our hopes
and our frostbitten fingerless dreams

what can we do to find thawing relief
shall we start up Wolfe’s bonfire
and heave upon it all your vanities
or will it suffice to simply set fire to your ass

Lightspeed

Galileo opined
……….Isaac Newton refined
……………but Einstein defined
………………..how time settles its groove
…………………….gives tomorrow reprove
………………..when the eyes and eyed move
……………in concurrence aligned
……….to the pace of light shined
so that clocks cease to wind

Manhood

growing up amid wheelchairs
abrogates
common-held views
of manhood
like oblique-angled shots
by an avant-garde camera
a more esoteric
perspective
obtains

physique fades away
from definitive focus
on masculine norms
recessive in exile
to indistinct background
machismo to mere
cinematographic
detritus

bringing to fore
abstract musculature
of the mind
with its concepts
of intellectual rigor
calisthenics of character
practiced to strengthen
integrity
laying in wherewithal
banking the chambers
of kind beating hearts
depositing deep within
unsullied souls

the products
achievements
of healthy hands
arms, legs and feet
are irrelevant to
how one’s manhood
conduces
exemplary life

no more manly of men
ever lived
than the two I called
father and brother
who gave in abundance
affectionate guidance
love, wisdom and friendship
with unbridled humor
congenial of spirit
belying their plight

these men were the dons
of my coming of age
who taught me
beyond all my learned professors
who showed me
beyond any cultural icon
that genuine manhood
need not stand erect
but always stands true
to the values and virtues
that found and anneal
a truly good man

Terrestrial Clouds

 

desultory shapes

disappear

then reform

like terrestrial clouds

in barely perceptible

powdery motion

white windblown soft snowdrifts

wander

across windward acres

of my

rural dreams

Naif in an Orchard

She thought a lot
Her belly’s burl
How others could
What she could not
A pensive girl
Midst fruiting wood

A bag of bones
A sack of blood
What can we be
Organic stones
Mere quickened mud
What more are we

If we had worth
If life were dear
How could we kill
To squander birth
Without a tear
Or guilty chill

Which tree puts root
Where error burns
With pardoned malice
Poisoned fruit
When swallowed turns
Us hard and callous

God, is it you
Or is it them
Who bear the seed
That shoots the new
Gnarled fruitless stem
Of heedless deed

Did Eden give
Of this same choice
To grow or cease
The urge to live
To take the voice
Of pain or peace

Ailing GOP Must Heal Itself

The GOP is limping into the 2013 legislative year. They are injured, sick, weakened and vulnerable, all serious conditions, and all entirely of their own making.

They have allowed politics to deform their agenda and divide their policy initiatives. They have wasted so much effort aiming for the illusion of a political center bullseye, they have completely missed the target. They have squandered their precious and rare control of US government and turned their back on Republican first principles. In my opinion, they have utterly failed in several critical tasks that speak directly to what should be at the core of their conservative political philosophy.

Since his reelection, they have capitulated to President Obama on nearly every vital policy issue, serving only to embolden his wrongheaded policies.

Chief failures so far include their:

• failure to force responsible, substantial reductions in government spending, allowing the President to continue his profligate course,
• failure to force substantial deficit reduction,
• failure to reform entitlements that are careening toward insolvency,
• failure to force the President to present a responsibly balanced budget,
• failure to quash tax increases,
• failure to stimulate genuine creation of jobs,
• failure to achieve an acceptable level of national security, and to properly pillory the culprits responsible for the travesty in Benghazi,
• failure to staunch the continuing flood of illegal immigration,
• failure to move an energy policy adequate to the nation’s needs
• failure to impede the damages of Obamacare.

While all of these failures conduce primarily to the President’s own hands, that only serves to make it all the more urgent that Republicans flex their muscles of loyal opposition and see that the right things get done for the country. A number of these failures extend all the way back to President Bush and the Republican majorities he enjoyed. The GOP didn’t just become sick when Obama came to office. They’ve been ailing for some time.

In a nutshell, on issues vital to America, there has been a failure to legislate – by both parties, and for too long. The failure to reach the kind of reasonable compromise, the kind that leads to enactment of beneficial legislation, has been on both parties.

Unless and until the GOP returns to its conservative knitting, their illness will remain disabling. Democrats will continue to run amok, and America will suffer accordingly.

Winged Guilt

 

a hovering hawk
hunts the choices men make
watchful hungry and keen
for the ethical mind
giving vulnerable sign
of doubts or regrets

but spying instead
calm contentment
of satisfied leisure
will send the bird off
to make moral measure
of some other prey

disregarding the finds
from amoral minds
born or grown to become
impervious to the sharp
talons and beak of
a hovering hawk

The Hyphenated Man

 

If a man over time marries more than one wife,
and/or changes careers at mere drop of a knife,
when his grave has been shut,
will his tombstone be cut
to chide him for choosing to hyphenate life?