High Score, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

One, two

Three, four, five

Six, seven, eight

Nine, ten

Eleven, twelve

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen

Sixteen, seventeen, eightteen 

Nineteen, twenty

Twenty-one, twenty-two

Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five

Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight

Twenty-nine, thirty

Thirty-one, thirty-two

Thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five

Thirtysix, thirty-seven, thirty-eight

Thirty-nine, fourty

Fourty-one, fourty-two

Fourty-three, fourty-four, fourty-five

Fourty-six, fourty-seven, fourty- eight

Fourty-nine, fifty

Fifty-one, fifty-two

Fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five

Fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty eight

Fifty-nine, sixty 

Sixty-one, sixty-two

Sixty-three, sixty-four, sixty-five

Sixty-six, sixty-seven, sixty-eight

Sixty-nine, seventy

Seventy-one, seventy-two

Seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five

Seventy-six, seventy-seven, seventy eight

Seventy-nine, eighty

Eighty-one, eighty-two

Eighty-three, eighty-four, eighty-five

Eighty-six, eighty-seven, eighty-eight

Eighty-nine, ninety 

Ninety-one, nighty-two

Ninety-three, ninety-four, ninety-five

Ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight

Ninety-nine, one-hundered

One-hundred one, one-hundred-two

One-hundred-three, one-hundred-four, one-hundred-five

One-hundred-six, one-hundred-seven, one-hundred eight

One-hundred-nine, one-hundred-ten

I wasn't counting numbers

I was counting faces

I was counting death

Every day in all places

With every fired bullet

Every time displaces

Shatters many a family

Such a vile status

Twenty-four 

Repeats much more

Cares not of repreive 

Locked or open doors

Twenty-four

Three-sixty-five

One-hundred-ten

No longer alive

Why is it then

Of our allies

Do not have this problem

Magnified

Sorry far right, it is not right

To coddle your fetish

With mounting carnage

All day and all night

We were through

Fed up with this

Decades ago

But you always say no

You claim every time

You really care

When we agree with you

You run away scared

One day for sure

The CEOs will lose

The lobby bankrupt

With nothing to do

Quite workplaces

Quiet stores

Happy concerts

Happy hotels

People not worried

About dodging and running

People not pleading

For a gun at them pointed

Streets all calm

No sirens to hear

No parties shot up

The slabs not near

The crime sceen tape

Should go extinct

Never to be used

At a mass shooting

Fewer suicides

And domestic murder

Accidental

No more demand to order

Psychiatrists not booked

Over PTSD

Battlfied weapons

Civlians don't need

Vigilantes not welcome

Anywhere

This isn't the movies

The guns don't care

Good Sumaritan 

You must beware

More likely to be injured

The perp don't care

One, two, 

Three, four, five

Six, seven, eight

Nine, ten

Shoud I start the count

All over again?

NO! NO! NO!

I WANT THIS TO END!

 Dear Ms Hughes, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB and @brianrrs37 on twiter)

You say our laws don't work

I 100% agree

You say our laws are racist

You won't get any denial from me

Your son 

And 18 so far

And that is 18

Too many

I can never know 

The pain you endure

And until

Your last day

But your blame 

Is missplaced

As to who should take

Responsibility

Democrats

Do not want

Black bodies

In the morgue

Democrats are not

Denying the right

To defend onself

Based on any race or creed

I know about 

The the Black Panthers

Who armed themselves

Back in the 60s

Supported 

By the NRA

Gun control wanted suddenly

Blacks denied by white supremacy

They now claim

And falsely so

Your son had the right

To defend and fight

But the real reason

Is not what you think

They in turn will blame

Black crime in big cities

So the truth as to why

They want blacks to have guns as well

Is so rural whites and urban blacks

To everyone guns will sell

GOP/NRA/ and the ceo's

Want everyone to be enemies

Panic buys for everyone

And industry profits soar 

And as you discribed

A gun to his head

The bullet still faster

Than if your son reached

It wouldn't have helped him

In such a case

But better gun tracing

And better vetting could have saved

It's not about blacks

Because of mean Democrats

It is vile marketing

On which the industry sits

Legal buys

Most of the time

Lead to death

Not always success

I see you"re in pain

But I hate to say

By the NRA

You are being played

They care not of you

Or whites or cops

The industry makes bundles

When more bodies drop

They use division

They have no intrest

But to protect their gravy train

At all zip code's expense

Remember Daffy

And the con he pulled

Selling boobie traps

To the Rooster and Dog?

Neither realized

The real fraud

So they hurt each other

And the perp got off

And left you in pain

And all skin tones in fear

Of going out the door

And going to school

I can never know

What you went through

I have no words

I haven't a clue

But please don't aim

Your anger at me

This Democrat is on your side

We want everyone to see

Daffy is playing 

You against  me

"Look out for the other guy"

Is what the NRA needs

Don't give them the ammo

To give you more caskets

To attend more funerals

The sane have had it

Even most gun owners

Want the most basic of things

Universal background checks

Safety it brings

Red flags do work

Even if you don't see it

Talk to safety advocates

We really need it

I can never know

I am not a parent

But I could have been killed

By my dad's errant bullet

My dad was drunk

Picked up his 38

Pulled the trigger twice

In a town house

I was 5 or 6

In the same room

It could have been me

I could have met my doom

Where were the factories

Where were the shops

Caring where dad's toys

Ended up?

He should have never been

Allowd to buy

"I want one, because I want one"

No longer applies

That little girl

Spread blood on her body

Played dead to escape 

Being murdered so sorry

It isn't about denying blacks

It is about simply stating facts

Arm more sell more

Simply does not work

Democrats are not

Your enemy

Daffy the con duck

Wants you to bleed

Wants everyone

To shoot some more

In all directions

Their profits will soar.

 Magnified, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

It isn't a femor

Or collar bone

A torn ACL

Ankle or wrist

It is something

Many do miss

They falsely assume

You are faking it

Faking your pain

Right after a smile

Alone by yourself

You cry for a while

Magnify the smallest things

Magnify worry to extreems

Debilitating and crippling 

On an x ray, nothing to be seen 

The fear of judgment

Coming from others

"Buck it up" 

Is all they offer

Even your family

And your friends

Offer you up 

Simplistic answers

"You have your health

It could be worse" 

Isn't  your intent

That doesn't help

Empathy and compassion

Listening and hearing

Psychiatric help

Is what I'm needing

I magnify 

The serious too

Asigning myself guilt and blame

It's nothing new

Even when

I know it's not true

Kicking myself needlessly

Is what I do

I might as well

Be wrapped in chains

Anxiety's hostage

I can't explain

It leads to depression

Then back to a smile

The fault line unseen

And after a while

The cycle repeats

There is no end

It cannot be cured

Only but mananged 

Patience I ask

I ask of thee

Those in my circle 

Those that I love

I am not faking it

I am not lazy

I merely have

A natural malady 

It isn't a femor

Or collar bone

A torn ACL

Ankle or wrist

No x ray

Can detect it

Laypeople missguided 

Don't under stand this

Some don't care

And can be vicious

Razor sharp edge

Of ignorance 

It can push me 

Deep into that ditch

It cannot be turned off

Like a light switch

 Martin V Thomas, By Brian James RationalPoet on FB/META and @brianrrs 37 on Twitter)

Some of the 6 

Said it would stop with this

But the black man with white wife

Said he'd be willing to stick in the knife

You are willing to harm

Others who faught

For the same equality

You are supposed to defend

And haunting echos 

Of Martin's words

You don't have to be

Even the first

The first to be bullied

The first to be imprissoned 

Don't be complacent 

And think it won't happen

Niemoller's horrifying

Observaton

Of human dignity 

Bieng obliterated 

Because of the charisma 

Of a madman

Promised a utopia

In God's Arian land

The lobster turns red

The frog belly up

Boild so slowly

They couldn't escape

To buy the absurd

Use it to vilify

Scapegoat and  gaslight 

Leads more to die

Why should you worry

They're not targeting you

You're even their club

What could they do?

Did you ever

See the coup

Of  the madman of Baghdad 

Who outed his crew?

Thomas is playing

A dangerous game

One of theocracy

Mixed with fascism

How vile to hear

Such insane irony

His race's history

Shackled in misery 

And brave people

Continued on

To defeat the oppression

To make us all strong

Years ago 

At a nursing home

I ran into a survivor

Of the Warrsaw Ghetto

I asked the lady

What it was like

Peircing horror

I could see in her eyes

Then I asked her

About 45

Similar look

Had been replaced

"I don't like him"

It is easy to spot

Dangerous bullies

History's rot

A stain on our species

History

Yet purging pluralism

Is what Thomas suggests

Heed Niemoller 

And never assume

It cant happen here

Least humanity seals it's doom.

 Incubator, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

Get in the kitchen bitch

And make me a sandwitch

If you try to run, if you try to flee

The law will drag you back to me

Spread your fucking legs

So I can deposit my goo

You're a government incubator

There's nothing you can do

Dont call uber

Or any freind at all

We will arrest them

For helping you at all

Get in the kitchen bitch

And make me a sandwich

Your pussy is a clown car

We'll certianly make sure of this

You're just an incubator

Guns have more rights

The terrorists make them like candy

Handing them out day and night

Put on your submissive white habit

You know you fucking want it

You're a government incubator

Don't you try to fight it

Get in the kitchen bitch

And make me a sandwich

Oh fucking shit

Now you're going to resist

I've raised the sleeping giant

You're right to be defiant

Fuck the fascist men

You'll leave them fucking crying

kick them in their balls

Untill he cant see them at all

Into his bladder they'll end

And shit them out his mouth

Get in the dungeon man

Thats where you belong

Shackled by your sack

Barb wire with no slack

So how does it feel

To be put in your place

Mind your fucking business

Get out of their face

This isn't the middle ages

Not witches for you to hunt

Or burn at the stake

Based on your ignorance

Women are not incubators

Owned by Uncle Sam

If that is what you think

SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS!

 What Independence? (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/Meta and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

You have the right

To remain our property

Anything you do can

And will be used against you

In the court of Christian theocracy

You have a right to submit in silence

As they pray  in public venues

Jefferson's wall in defiance 

You have the right

To a damaged atmosphere 

Of climate volatility 

They do not care

You have the right

To ignore nasty history

Of the brutal things

We did to minorities

The bombs bursting

Our instutions they're hurting

Checks on power

The right is deserting 

While the sefish barbecue

Light roman candles like fools

In close proximity to

That home belongs to you

Self entitlement 

Is what this day has become

The right to dictate to others

Checks on power done

I feel no independence 

From dangerous sycophants

The founders warned us of

Republic left in ashes 

They want their Christian state

Zealously bent on it

6 seats corrupted

Will put a seal on it

Christian Caliphate 

The Bell no longer rings

The Statue's tourch snuffed

It's the end of democracy

What independence

Is there left for me

You just want to dominate

Have your theocracy.

 RationalPoet...... A new firearm lullaby gun cultist parents can sing to their poor scared A-R 15 at night, before it goes to sleep dreaming of how many people it will slaughter in the days and weeks to come......

The Firearm's Lullaby, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/Meta and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

Hush little 15 don't you cry
Momma's going to sell a big fat lie
And if that fat lie don't sell
I'll pull out another
To see if it works as well

Hush little "no record at time of buy"
Momma's going to blame every thing in the sky
It's the video games and mentally ill
It's not the flooded market as they sell

Hush little gun cultist don't you fear
There's gaslit liberal right near
They want to oppress you
But that is not really true
I am simply selfish and lying to you.

I need your money
You gullible fool
To put my power
Over the right thing to do

Hush little factory
We've got your back
We'll protect blind immunity
No other industry gets

Hush little 15 don't you cry
Your inventor said it's not true
You were never meant
For civilian use

Hush little morgue
Don't you cry
Of dead bodies
There'll be plenty of supply

 "You Know So Well What God Wants?" by Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on (twitter).

Listen up Boebert

And Greene, Taylor, Marjorie

Of the voices of women

Of sanity

You love to tout

Right wing women

As the toughest 

In American History

That is not true

Not by a longshot

Listen to the voice

Of Susan B Anthony

She distrusted those

Who shouted their lies

Of what God wanted

Her to be

No ability to vote

Stuck in her kithen's home

Her only lot

To be a baby factory

She said "HELL NO!"

I do not want my mind

Or my body

To stay  second class property

And for that her reward

From old sexest white men

She was beaten up

For wanting such

She used power of vioce

With no weapons in hand

She used redress of grievance

As the First Amendment demands

Harriet Tubman too

Far better than you

Smuggled slaves from

Minds like you

And outside 

Our borders

Other female heros

Humanity can look up to

Muslim Malala

Atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali

One shot in the head

Muslims wanted Ali dead

And I do not remember

One single story of either of them

Parading arround like they were

A reincarnation of Annie Oakley 

They used vote

Not violence

They promote inclusion

Not intolerence 

But make no mistake

When you point to our side

You cant get away

With equating us to the same

You are the bullies

Not the victims

You sucker your fearful base

Into money for your campaigns

That is fake bravery

It means nothing at all

Only to display

Your theocratic insecurities

Women with brains

Use intelect, reasoning

Not threats of fear

Or intolerence 

Ever watch"On Golden Pond?"

Don't look now, if you say yes

Atheist actress Katharine Hepburn

Dominated the big screen 

Of Rosa Park's memory

You defame

They never used violence

So you do the same

Mamie Till

Wanted the world to see

Of people like you

And fallacious bravery 

But if you want a fight

You wait and see

Women of sanity

Overwhelm thee

Women like Liz

Whom of 

I vehementy

Disagree

And under oath

Faced calls of traitor

Cassidy Huchinson

Faced  her arrogent bully

And once again

Without a gun

That is the epitome

Of true bravery

Standing tall

Is not at all

Anything close

To your ideology

 Stage 5, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

You smoked too much

Didn't eat well

Overdid everything

Now the doctor does tell

You missed your chance

The odds are against

You are at stage 5

It may be the end

It started in your lungs

Moved to your nodes

Now it's in your brain

No longer contained

But you were dead certain

The snake oil would cure

Hang on to that conspiracy

He sold to you vile swill

The white blood cells

Thought they fought the Redcoats 

Instead infected the vessels 

Of the way we conduct our laws

They thought they were chemo

But the oposite was true

They were the virus

Carried one man's disease 

This demagogue they please

Got them down on their knees

No vaccine for such danger

When reason not applied 

Clever in mask

The rotting within

He was never your hero

He was never your friend

Was no doctor

No law scholar 

If he had won

It would be all over

Blustery imbecile 

Back at his bed bug 

Country club, palm fronds wilting

From his nasty smell 

Be vigil of such talk

Of institutions one might balk

Wanting to take them down

This cancer is lurking arround

Clothing that of wool

Of Oath Keepers it did fool

Proud Boys ready to roll

Stormed the Capital 

Never get to stage 5

Keep our republic alive

Never let it die

So all of us surivive.

 Daylight Savings, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

No no 

You have to wait

It isn't time to

Feed you yet

If I answer 

Your incessant call

15 more minutes earlier

 Out of my bed I crawl

If I do that

Day after day

I'll have to feed you

Before the Big Bang's fray

Don't keep bugging me

Or jump on my side

Digging into my ear

In the bed I lie 

When I met you

You cute little guy

Smaller than the 

Higgs Boson particle 

In a crowded room

At the rescue

When you captured me

I was through

I didn't see you

But heard your cry

Eventually saw you

Out of the corner of my eye

You would have made

The Road Runner blush

Look as slow

As a Galapagos Tortoise

You ran over their backs

To get to me

Grabbed my leg

And looked up at me

"Save me please"

From way below my knees

That tiny CERN  furball

Got a hold of me

"I'm toast"

I knew I was his

I took him home

He became my best friend

But that damned shift

In time zones now gone

Made my my days longer

Getting up before dawn 

One time the beast

That ocean tempest

Made us scatter and flee

Hundreds of miles inland

You wanted 

Out of your crate 

Tired of being cooped up

I did accomodate 

But at the lodge

I had found

I left the van

Forgot you were out

Wasn't sure 

We'd have a room

But lucky for us

I managed one

Went back to the van

Where did you go

You were not inside

My panic did grow

In the parking lot

Of the hotel

My eyes darted around

Looking to and fro 

I screamed in fear

Calling your name

Got the attention

Of a nice black lady 

I told her "he's gone"

So she looked arround too

I feared I had lost him

I didn't know what to do

She spotted the bugger

Next to a bush

I went over relieved

And picked him up

"Don't do that again

You gave me a scare

I know that of me

You wanted to be near"

But every day

Outside of vacations

Next to my side

Looking for relaxation 

No sratching or biting

Gentle were you

I could blow bubbles

On your tummy too

Eventually unfortunately

Condition's changed

In other's care

I had to arrange 

Almost 16 years

I had with you

Daylight savings 

I curse you

No longer around 

Either of you

To pester me to get up

And feed my best friend food. 

(end)

I got a call this morning that the people who took my cat said he had died this morning. He was my best friend. He awlays wanted to be next to me, he was gentle even when I played with him, he didn't have a mean bone in his body. I had to give him up for some health problems I was having. But like I said, I wouldn't change a moment of my life if it meant not having those years with him. I am going to deeply miss him.

I got him ironically because my late mother got pissed at me for staying depressed about the cat I had prior dying. We were in the van and, while I never liked my mom yelling at me, looking back now, I was happy she shouted at me, "THAT'S IT, WE ARE GOING TO THE CAT RESCUE AND YOU ARE GETTING ANOTHER CAT!"

The "tempest" stanza was when we had to go inland to escape what I thought was going to be a cat 4. I let him out of his crate because he was annoying me. But forgot to put him back in when I got out to see if the hotel had a room. He didn't want to be left behind so he jumped out after me. 

I loved him crawing on my side in  the morning waking me up. But like I said, if I gave in every time, I would get up earlier every day. Bye Sarah, may your atoms move on to greater adventures. 

 Afternoon Soaps, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

You were no Shaw

The bottle you saw

The soaps were on

And you had your gun

Baby sat me

Being 5 or 6

Drunk off your ass

The summer days passed

Cold brew in one hand

Of me you got mad

Discharged your weapon

In a townhouse no less

Considered me a pest

Almost all the time

Your true soap was you

With a gun in your hand

The leading actor

Called him self my father

I might be dead

If not for my mother

I don't remember

That day at all

She told me this story

As an adult

She heard a loud bang

In the living room she ran

Snapped me up

Took me to her VW camper van

To this day

I have this lowboy

In my kitchen 

Bullet gouge within 

No recollection 

Of the event

But I certainly believe

Every word she said

The couch Kojack 

Aviators on table

Ashtray dirty

Stripped bottle of label 

One day

I went out to play

Dad on his boat

12 pack mainstay 

The boys were bigger

And hurtting me

I went back to the boat

I thought I could be

But dear caring  dady

Didn't want me

Punched me in the stomach

Did't make a "man" out of me

I was fucking seven!

I remember that one

So I am not surprised

Of the story of the gun

All my children

No guiding light

Where to be safe

Where is the light

Is it any wonder

More bodies fall

The NRA

Wants no safety laws

It could of been me

And you'd have sided with him

He'd sober up

You'd give him his gun

If laws were proper

As they should be

They'd have taken his away

And protected me

And locked him up

Lost his teaching job

But for afternoon soaps

And a bottle of cold brew.

 The 13 Circles Of Tyson, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

Alighieri

With your Inferno

Purgatorio

And Paradiso

You start it at

The Vestibule 

Abandon all hope

You won't get through

But even then

If you do

Beware the traps

In front of you

Consentric the access

Center of nine

Satan Yahweh's servant

Yetza hara so fervent

Decending and increasing

In wickedness

Escape Room producers

So envious 

The abyss called limbo

The Archeron he crossed

Sagan the guide 

Tyson not lost

Minos the condemner 

Inflexable Rhadamanthus

King of Crete

Judges the deceased 

Dido, queen of Carthage 

Helen of Troy

Syrian wife of Onnes

And Ninus 

The woman from Navenna 

Murdered by Giovanni 

Afair with his brother

The motive sure was plenty 

Then the next circle

Sure fills the trough 

If you want more

And cant get enough

Cerburus 

"Il gran vermo"

Fill it's three mouths

With mud to appease

Had a chat with the hog

Ciacco his name no need to please

About the strife in Florance 

After the defeat of the Ghibellines

It does repeat

The next circle stays

In mythology of old

And headlines today

Don't bother says Virgil

Dont speak to them

Greed on both sides

Indifference does win

Don't get between

The pitbulls fighting

Everything about them

Everso biting 

You messed with Medea 

Virgil yet to mention

Murdered her kids

To get even with Jason 

Terra firma 

Divided by Styx

On the opposite bank

The underworld sits

Wrath on the surface

And even submerged

The different factions

Drown in the sludge 

Pulling and clawing

Shreding and beating

Snarled and seething

The river's repeating 

Threatened by Furies 

One of them Medusa 

An angel lets in the poets

The City of Dis Dante enters 

But then they're approaching

The City of Dis

The sixth circle of hell

Heresy is next

Firinata Uberty 

The Ghibelline leader

Epicurian Florentines 

The soul and body dies

Those in the know

Speaking from hell

Firinata to Dante explains

They're seeing the future 

But that window

Once it is shut

No more knowledge

Can ever be had

In the fiery tombs

They both dwell

Emperor Fredrick the 2nd

Ottaviano il Cardinale

Violence next circle

Three rings within

Against thy neighbor 

Another boiling river

Of fire and blood

Phelegethon 

"A stream of fire"

One river of five 

The river full

Of bloodthirsty tyrants

Attila and Alexander

Dionysius, all scourge of the earth 

Then the second of the seventh

That attempted self harm

Or suicide became "gnarled trees"

Harpies fed on them with razor sharp claws

The ridged roots

Of self hatred

Of suicide 

They've become committed 

The last of the three

Of the seventh 

Violence against

Art, God and Nature 

Violence against God

On burning sand stretched

Facing upward

To see embers that land

Violence against nature

In circles they run

Sodomites lost

Were surely done

Sodomy, blasphemy

And Usury 

The heavens rain fire

Deserved misery 

But amoung the group

One of all the sinners 

Dante observes

His admired philosopher 

Brunetto Latini

The suffering Sodomite

Prophesied Dantes mistreatement

By the Florentines

The waters silent rage

The poets do notice

Burst into loud roaring

Approaching the Great Cliff

On the back of Geryon 

Medusa's grandson

Virgil and Dante

Fly down 

The circle of fraud

And that of malice

Decent into 

The evil ditches

Now in the eighth 

In his Inferno

Named Malebogle 

Funnel shaped trenches 

Every aspect 

Of society

Sexually permiscuous 

Men of the clergy 

Both public and private

Endevors corrupt

Authority, advisory 

And that of property

Civil servant

Of the government

All are guilty

No one to trust

Demons whip thee

Seducers they be

Panderers fool thee

Conning deliberately 

Venedico 

The Bolognese Guelph

Sold his own sister

To the Marchese d'Este 

And what do they say

In what flatterers do stand

The howling excrement 

The fighting within 

Then simony sales

The pulpit rapacious 

Ravonous leeches

Never give in

Of the  pretenders

Dante looks down

At the phony prophets

Fake fortunes they sewn 

The soothsayers 

The Seers 

Dangerous magicians

All labeled liars

Bannon the Barrator 

Architect of his boss

Fleecing their followers

To pay their legal costs

Nice sales pitch

Black and boiling

Viscous and bubbling

Political treason

Hypocrites, Thieves

Counsellers of fraud

Sowing discord

Falsifiers sour cords

And into the last circle

They've finally breached

Surrounded they observed

That of tretchery 

Dante ends up

In a large frozen lake

Cocytus the last circle 

He had to face

Instead of God's love

That wich brings all warmth

The icy incased remorsless

Furthest from providence sunlight 

Caina round 1

We all know that story

He was quite Abel

Of committing fratricide 

Antenora round 2

Jaunary 6th should be 

Considered attempted murder

Of our Republic's democracy

Then Ptolomaea

A trator to your guests

Moirai, one of three

Atropos has fates for thee

Judecca the forth

The last round before the center

Frozen waist down 

Lucifer's suffering 

But that's not the ending

Remember my mention

The 13 circles 

Of Neil deGrasse Tyson? 

I find science

Far more amazing

Dante's Inferno

Nowhere near inspiring 

As the intense heat

Of a collapsed star

Vaporizing the rivers

Of old mythology

Pale by comparrison

100 billion times hotter

Than fictional fires

In a never was furnace 

Neutrinos so small

They could be the baseball

Pass through a diamond

And solid planets as well

We thought the expansion

It would slow down

The universe ends

In a big crunch 

But to their shock

Yet plesently so

Increasingly faster

As the universe grows

Binary stars

One strips the other

Making it unstable

Until it explodes

The brightness of stars

The speed of light too

Cosmic Microwave 

Background radiaton too

Gave scientists 

A far far different view

Not made for us at all

It was never true

The romance of loyalty

To that of your lover

That of your country

That of your Lord

Longinded nonsense

Written by ignorance

Truth seekers who saught

Facts in defiance 

In just one nanogram

Of table salt

Sodium chloride 

Atoms abound

Galileo 

The facts he found

Got him arrested

The gatekeepers frowned 

Gluons and Bosons 

Wave fucntion as well

Those stuck on mythology

That's the real hell 

Venus not hotter

Because it is closer

It's a broiling oven

Because of retention 

Of the heat trapped by

Greenhouse gasses

Carbon Dioxide

Clouds of sulfuric acids

Neil shows the stages

Of earth's evolution

First fiery molten rocks

Celestial collisions 

At one time 

A giant ice ball

Jupiter's Europa

We once were

Then in time

Earth finally thawed 

And out of the waters

Life did crawl 

But the gatekeepers

Feared finders of fact

That went against their beliefs

Would negatively react

He explained 

Mutual discovery 

Unconnected tribes

Of antiquity 

All had versions

Of astrology

Constellations in stars

Mayans, Christians and Chinese 

All separated from

Their gods and deities

Punished for

Disloyal deeds

Neil explained

In each episode

Overlapping discovories

Humanity builds and grows

Who first thought

That light was in waves

But also of particles

How it behaves 

Dark energy

And dark matter

Still an enigma 

Yet to be shattered

Bruno challenged

The position of earth

God's attention

Had settled our worth

The sun seemed to rise

The sun seemed to set

It had to circle us

But that was not it

Big Bang born on

January First

Humanity by comparrison

December 31rst 

Haley's predictions

Newtons laws

Comets and glaxies 

Shows works with them all

Gravity the bending

Of space/time

John Michell said

Of binary stars

The gravity wells

Could act as traps

Sucking them in

Leading to their deaths

"Camera Obscura"

Mozi Chinese philosopher

Wondered long before

The famous double slit

Ibn al-Haytham

Lead futures to the telescope

This Arabic scientist

Of light pondered so

Newton's defractions

Through prisms 

Proved that of visible

Spectrums

From the micro and atomic

Tardigrades, parameciums 

Plants convert sun into energy

Photosythesis via chloroplasts 

The ancient philosophers

Pondered such scale

Democritus postulated

The small just as well

Thalus wondered

About natural laws

Milinia later

Amino acids give pause

Carbon based life 

Double helix so flexible 

Darwin was right

All along 

Super-Kamiokande 

Used to detect neutrinos

Beat photons by three hours

A supernova dispersed 

Tyson says some of these

Extremely small guys

Originated from the Big Bang

Still around in our lives

Clair Patterson 

A geochemist 

Determined the age of the earth

4.5 billion years worth

The "Pleiades"

Or "seven sisters"

Lights in the nighttime sky

Their false predictors 

At first they rejected Cecelia's thesis 

The composition of stars

Being primarily of hydrogen 

And helium 

But that never stopped 

Such determined women

Henrietta used spectra to find

A star's distance from earth

Palaeogeography 

Is the study of

Ever changing lanscapes

And historical geology

Then onto plate tectonics

Abraham Ortilus hypothesized

In the past might have been connected

Little could he have realized 

Pangaea the super-continent 

As well as continental drift

Wegener was on to something

Blowing mythology to bits

Electromagnatism contributors  

The arc lamp of Humphry Davy

Orsted was able to harnness it

The first electric motor, now taken for granted 

But at the planet's massive scale

While the solor winds prevail

Earths magnetic field deflects

From radiation us it protects

Back to old mythology

To see the similarities

Gilamish and Utnapishtim

Tyson presented to thee

Eniki called on him

Noah tapped  by God

Gilgamesh saved his family

The similarieties don't seem so odd

Tyson says it may be possible

Life piggybacked to our earth

Some microbs are extremophiles

Maybe they got here first

Tyson brings it back around

Russian probe to Venus had found

Greenhouse gasses the culpret 

Refrigeration couldn't save it

All the carbon we burn up

Increasing untennable pace

Ignoring climate volatility 

Fatal to the human race

The famous library distroyed

Countless scrolls on the walls

Maybe we'd have been here faster

If fire hadn't made disaster 

But conveyed our curiosity 

Throughout our species history

Zwiky speculated more mass there must be

Than in the galaxies we do see

He named this unseen mass

Dark matter in it's own class

His work almost forgotten

Later to be solidified by Vera Rubin

Who made adustments 

To outer stars missbehaving

On the outer edge of galaxies

Unless dark matter in account

The Host of A Spacetime Odyssey

Voyager's golden record if discovered

Tyson of Segan he thus honored

Long in interstellar space 

Galactic cosmic needle 

If other life later to be found

Further shrinking our importance

Making us more important

Everso more important

Is the hear and now

Saving our only home

Saving our "Pale Blue Dot"

Tyson has never forgot

That day standing in the snow

His mentor Sagan gave him

The Gleem of of inspiring know 

Don't settle keep on asking

Pester them with questions

Be inquisitive solve more mysteries

These are our ultimate lessons. 

 (end)

Finally right?  Full disclaimer. I did not write this to imply I know everything about everything in every line. I did this poem just like I do most of my poems. I get inspired by the moment then write as I go, googling dates, names, history of. No, I have not read Dante's Inferno. But I can say it still smacks of superstition, mythological characters, mixing Christianity's monotheism with a shitload of prior and surrounding polytheism and Greek Mythology. A fight beteen political factions and families and historical rivals and between lovers. And comming to the same conclusion laypeople argue today. That the worst pain you can suffer is not having the love of God, or being separate from his love. And heavy doses the romantic view of blind loyalty to your God, your state, your party, and your lover. But laugh or cry, it does seem to imply tragically funny but at the same time sad. But no worries for the protagonist either way, he ends up in paradisio in the eyes of God. 

Dante if I am reading it correcty even recoils at the sins of his most admired mentor. He finally gets to the 9th circle, and by the time I got done wading through epic nonsense, I could not wait to get to the Tyson portion of this poem. I did watch all 13 episodes of Neil's "A Spacetime Odyssey. ".

The following are the two wiki links I based this poem on. Basically the layperson's expliation is science beats the shit out of old books of mythology. I fill much more fufilled and part of the universe, dispite knowing my consciousness will not outlive my brain. 

Wiki Article on Dante's Inferno.......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)

Wiki Article on Neil's Cosmos series "A Spacetime Odyssey 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Spacetime_Odyssey

 The "Essence" of Plato, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs on twitter)

Damn you Dawkins

I will never forgive you

For knocking him down

A few pegs

He was spot on right

About leaving the cave

Seeing things differently

Than shaddows from flames

He most certainly

Was for anti trust

Against blind obedience 

Authoritarian's lust

He defended Socretes 

In his Apology 

The unjust judges

Left with only his Phaedo 

The Hemlock was given

But Plato was driven

To value that 

Of to always question 

But his idea of "essence"

Was extremely flawed

To chase the perfect

Only chase good

That one could do so

Through pure reason

No modern concept

Of control groups that's needed

This was not 

Practical thought

All be it well intended

Of humanity it still haunts

The perfect food

The perfect painting

The perfect politics

The perfect business

The perfect skin color

The perfect class

The perfect religion

Reason shall grasp

Damn you Dawkins

I will never forgive you

For nocking him down

A few pegs

I want my perfect

Atheist world

Force the end of religion

And I know I could

The essence of life

Is always being on top

Oh, now I get it

It's not that at all

Heros are not

Ever to be

The essence of

Any human being

The only heros

We can ever defend

Are fact finders

To which peer review is their friend

I agree Mr Biology 

Philosophy means nothing

If it only seeks justification

To hold a position

Independent eyes

Accept their flaws

Ditch bad data

When proven wrong

He got some things right

None can deny

But the chase for the perfect

Haunts us, even today. 

Would Plato if alive today

Have a Libertarian bent

Would he be in line

With the likes of Ayn Rand?

I'd like to think not

Her dystopian plot

Would be Plato's muse

With compassion's rot

It is ok to pursue 

A happy life

With this one rule

At other's expense is that of the fool 

You can take and take

And think it is fine

But eventually too

Your ecosystem is through 

(END)

Back when Dawkins wrote "The Greatest Show On Earth" he prefaced it with his rightful criticism of Plato's idea of "essence" and I agree with him, that bad idea of only chasing the good and thinking pure reason would find something factually and universally correct, was a deeply flawed idea and is why our species natural and unfortunate tribalism is compounded by that idea. 

There are different reasons to "justify" anything. Plato was dead right to value questioning everything. But he made a fatal mistake in applying the idea that simply thinking about something, anything long enough through pure reason, you would end up with something universally correct. There is a reason the word "Apology" is used to day in debate, because that is what it is an "apology". Not in the "I am sorry I said this" context, but in that, "This really sounds right and feels right to me so therefor it has to be universally correct". 

And that is completely different than today's modern value of scientific method. The chase for facts is going where the evidence leads, not where one wishes or wants it to go. Plato's Apology was an argument about defending a pal, who also valued the idea of questioning everything. But far better "justification" isn't just good intent, it is backed up by the value of consensus building based on independent peer review outside the claimant's own personal bias. 

 Our Lot,  By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

In 1838,

Decades before

He met his death

In Petersens House took his last breath

Invisioned he did not

Outside of our lot

Distruction brings on rot

Our Republic all for not

We will be the author

Of our own demise 

Trojan horse within us

A deadly ominous crime

Even today a finisher

Of the worst kind

In that powerful office

Our nation almost resigned

Incidious slow decline

Venom infected mind

Selfish megalomaniac 

His followers en masse panicked 

Capricious in his demeanor

Unbridled dangerous behavior

Painted himself their savior

But only cares about his power

The spoken bloody linens 

The stage play unforgiving

The lesson worth remembering

None of this is a given 

He was his own Booth

He took the Oath Of Office

He almost became the carpenter 

To  make  our final coffin 

It must spring among us

It will not come from abroad

If not to stay alive

We will die by suicide 

(end)

This is a poem about a famous Lincoln quote, which has been echoed throughout our nation's history about warning about the enemy within, and how that is far more dangerous than any foriegn enemy. His qoute is extremely relivant today with the former guy and the January 6th hearings. 

This is an ode to our 16th President. Who like many have  cautioned that it is important as well to be vigil in protecting our institutions against the enemy within. 

Lincoln's speach text link here.... 

 https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm

And a wiki article here.... 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln%27s_Lyceum_address#:~:text=Abraham%20Lincoln's%20Lyceum%20Address%20was,could%20destroy%20the%20United%20States.

 Lincoln blamed slavery for the civil unrest. The sad thing is today far too many people faslely equate an incited insurrection by a madman as a display of patriotism, with the undestandable reaction a minority group would have after repeated abuse by the system they live under. He also warned that the very office he held later from 1861 until his assasination in 1865, that his office could be abducted by a tyrannical mindset. I would say that the former guy came damned close to toppling our Republic. 

 Hot And Cold Fascism, By Brian37(aka Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

The fridged glaciers 

Have no compassion

For the land 

They carve into

The eon's knife

Cuts the skin

Chasms hidden

A creeping debut

The equator's fire

Has no desire 

Kilauea cares not

One ounce for you

San Andreas 

Will always shake us

Crust violently thrusts

No care for us

On that frozen lake

The risk you did take

Cracks in the ice

Cold watery grave

One day while camping

In the tinderbox forest

Your ciggarette lit

Wildfires so torrid 

Inhalation 

Became emancipation

The drought you caused

Lungs filled with devistation 

Your firy bombasity  

You're  icy and nasty

Nature has an excuse

But Goebbels' noose

Is choking the life

Out of our Republic

Strangling reason

And rule of law

Frozen it seems

Our species dreams

Repeat in a cycle

Of fascist extreems 

The flames you impassion

To mask your corruption

You falsely play victim

And that's how you trap them

You damned well know

That warrant was legal

Put law enforcement in danger

Your lies are evil

The cult leader's religion

Verglas and glacia

Burn it all down

A golf course you placed her

Disposible lighter

The styrofoam cooler

Polluting the minds

They defend your conquests 

Your rally cry inferno

You must bomb London

Christian Nationalism

Incendiary abandon 

From the Caspian 

To  the Black Sea

In want of red state Caucuses 

 You have designs on thee

You call us Stalin

Barbarosa you're calling

But we know it's failing

Two wicks you are burning

The same candle

The toddler is frozen

Over 400 times

The 5th you were pleading

The bellows spread embers

The tundra consumes them

Permafrost melting

Releasing the methane 

Such unsavory distain 

The enemy within

All a "false flag"

Calls to violence again

Smoldering and seething

Piercing frostbite decives them

Their teeth they are gnashing 

Supercilious their ashes

The cubes in the tray

Will melt someday

The kiln of our oversight

Will not be diswayed 

The Siberian husky

Hides in his Florida compound

Sparks of propaganda

He wants no truth to be found

 Cover Blown, By Brian37 (AKA, Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter)

When my bones ache

And I feel I can't walk

I turn on old music

From my High School halls

But then I see adds

With kids singing in back

To Crazy Train

How can you be sad?

Citizens of the world

Adam sang loud

Freddie's anthem 

Generations of all

How could you not

Beat on the brat

Yee  knows so well

How to give em hell

Cornelius can tell you why

The Eagles still do fly

Bridgers makes it matter

Many decades later

Just what you needed

Is to be knocked out

Your car has been modified 

With a hip hop beat

Your abstract face

It it's Idol to deny

Olsen's cover

Will find it's way

You want some Hot Stuff

In the summer 

Disco turned into metal

The pigs are the winners

Drink some Briandi

Where we belong

The old is reborn

And continues on

Francis is why

There is plenty of supply

Airing out the notes

Shelf life he defies 

Hand down the music

Let the future hear it

Let the youth enjoy it

Let generations share it

 At What Cost? By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

Laramie, Cody

Sheriden, Riverton

Saratoga, Lusk

I ask at what cost?

You won the battle

But won't win the war

Even though she is

Exiting  out the door

You are angry 

At her scrutiny 

Fasley accuse her

Of party mutiny 

Was it her brass

Her demanding facts

Are you scared of the truth

That dear leader is through

That she stood up to him

Sacraficing her win

Puting her nation first

Instead of one man

What's wrong Cheyenne 

She won't join the klan

She wont drink the poison

And do his bidding?

She will leave office

Some things more important

Like oversight and accountability

Not blind loyalty

At what cost

I don't think you know

The damage he's done

By convincing you so

Your freedoms attacked

Only he can save them

But she's the real hero

And won't give in

Her megaphone

Will travel with her

Outside of her office

With unwavering tone

And with every bone

She will make it known

He's not who you think

 A house of cards his throne 

Buford, Casper 

Moorcroft, Pine Bluff

It's of his corruption

She said, "That's enough"

He think's he is tough

May like to play rough

But when he's faced down

He ends up the clown

You want to know courage 

Well, you just lost it

At what cost Wyoming

It's his scourge you're supporting.

 Not Of Want, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

If you are

Not of want

Why am I here?

If you are 

Omnipotent 

What would you need?

If you are

Omni benevolent

Why do I bleed?

If you are

Omnipresent

I have no privacy 

If you are

Not of want

Why am I here?

Is it love you need

Need is a want

So perfect you're not

I am not

Your creation

You are just imagination

Want is a deficet 

It is to be filled

To be complete

If you are perfect

You are not of want

I should not be here

Not me, not anyone

Not the planet

Not any life

You are the nightmare

Sold as a dream

Your name they scream

And rattle their fists

Unsheth their swords 

Of want to eviserate for their Lord

If you are

Not of want

Why am I here?

Am I in your ant farm

Obligitory obedient drone?

I don't think so.

 (end)

WARNING...... I do not want any of my poetry I have ever written to be taken stupidly by anyone as advocating lawlessness, or physical harm to theists. My poetry in context of all my work, is simply sketpism attacking bad logic. It isn't a call to outlaw religion. It isn't a call to oppress beleivers. It is just blasphemy and criticism of bad logic. It is my sincere hope that more humans grow to accept our common existence, and our ability to cooperate and be compassionate, and at a minimum, stand up against all forms of attempts at autocracy, fascism and theocracy. 

 Heads up before you read this poem. It is based on a German movie called "Die Welle"(2008) or "The Wave" but "wave" in the context of the movie is a "salute" which is a metaphor in the movie for the Nazi salute. The move is a warning to the younger generations not to assume it cannot happen in your lifetime. 

If I had my way, I would make this movie manditory in every American civics class and a requirement for all the GOP sycophants who are blindly kissing Trump's ass. 

Some of the language in the following poem will sound mispelled, even outside my real malady, but some of them are words I am borrowing from the German language. IE "Die" does not mean "dead" in German, "Die" in the context of the title is pronounced "Dee" as in "The" and "Welle" means "Wave". If you watch the movie, you will know in the context of the movie, "Wave" really means a "Salute" to the leader, and respect for the autocrat. 

I really do recommend anyone reading this to watch "Die Welle" it is a damned good warning to never assume that it cannot happen where you live, or that your free society cannot fall. Too much conformity and demands of blind loyalty will always lead to the downfall of a free soceity. I will not spoil the plot for you if you have not seen the movie. 

And no Trump, you are not the victim, you are the bully, you are the person the makers of that movie warn about, that Orwell in 1984 and Animal Farm warned about. 

Autokrat, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

It creeps in slowly 

The carasmatic man

Leads the high school kind

Innocent have no hint  

1918 you were humilated

They left you to rot

With no jobs and  no food

The no name runner,  up to no good 

Teach them they are the victim

Teach them you are the savior

Teach them social injustice

Give them uniforms, teach them comformity 

Teach them disziplin

Do not let non party members in

Make them goose step loud 

Herr  Wagner will make them proud

Jedoch, Karo took great pause

Wouldn't fight for the cause

Her fliers the Valkyrie 

Disturbed the water polo team 

Denken Sie Daran

It can happen

When you are not looking

You buy what he's selling

Because you are desperate

Because you can't eat

Tired of the bread lines

Being dead on your feet

Herr Wagner the Diktator 

Manipulated them 

It was too late 

He had sealed their fate

Karo is the man

In the famous Foto

Refusing to salute 

Hitler she rebukes 

Und this remindes me of

The Fotos of the dead

Suicides of great dread

Into the abyss they were lead

Stellvertreter Mayor 

Ernst Kurt Lisso

And his family apically 

Cyanide took them quickly 

Not wanting to face revenge

Their own lives they did end

Und thus so did Tim

Shot Bomber his loyal friend 

If Germany does not win

In that evil disturbed mind

In the bunker he so died

Taking 60 million lives. 

Wir great when united

Brownshirts are now white

Uniformity, blind loyalty

Nacht is void of light 

Cheney is Karo

Defying the party cult

Refusing to sell the big lie

Carfully listen with auscult 

Die verrotten wir verboten 

The rotton we forbid

Decapitate Mein Kompf's head

Fruede that he is dead

Let the artist paint

Protect the prose of the poet

There is no master race

And everyone should know it

The youth aways say

"I did not live back then

I am not to blame

It can't happen again"

It is the evil seedling 

That grows into a sapling 

Onto autokrat's  rule 

Don't become fascism's mule 

It is the creeping hate

That slowly infects the brain

Their brains on your plate

Die welle is insane. 

 (end) 

According to google translator, the German word for child is "kind" but the voice translator pronounces it as "kint" So the first stanza does rhyme. 

 Hope You Guess My Name, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)
 

Rapacious, lecherous 

Incidious, melevolent 

Nepotistic, unrealistic

Infintile, futile, just plain vile

Hope you guess my name

The office defamed

Left in flames

Belongs in a cage

Aways enraged 
 

Hope you guess my name

Compulsive, repulsive

Abusive, vituperative 

Sedistic, heartless

Ruthess, remorseless

Hope you guess my name

The office debased

Secrets in boxes I take

My entire life is fake

Always on the take

Hope you guess my name. 

Pitiless, relentless

Uncaring, offensive

Brutish, classless

Thoughtless, careless

Hope you guess my name

The office degraded

Intel I've hated

War heros berated

And lies I have stated

Hope you guess my name

I don't have to introduce myself

I'm the victim, and you're to blame

Pleased to con you

Thank you for playing my game

Smpathy for the criminal

Will make  our Republic terminal

No cure will be available 

Unless he's held accountable. 

 Ode To A Redcoat , By  Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

The turn of a nob

The gas was on

Your light extingused 

The cut of of an onion

The fourth Thursday 

In November

The main dish 

Waddling skin 

Babushka 

You did yourself in

Samon colored 

Hydrogen paroxide 

The sabator 

In your head

Lead you to the kitchen

Until you were dead

The tarnished balled

Silenced within

I'd have been on your side

Had I lived back then

Without your words

I'd have given in

A rope,  a pill, a gun

My live would have been 

Much more colorless 

Much less discriptive

Much more isolation

Much more discontent 

But your topic 

So disturbing 

Dark reaches 

Of desperation

Damn that knob

Damn that knife 

Damn that gas

For you goodnight

Mother's pills

Under the porch 

Your first attempt

Did not work

Did you have the "courage"

To slash your legs

Did the electroconvulsive thearapy 

Make you brave 

Hands at two and ten

It was yet another attempt

Into a river arround a bend

Off of the road you drove in 

You wet the towels

Sealed the room

Turned on the gas

And sealed your doom 

The final time 

You succeeded

Left  Nicholas and Frieda 

Lonely and grieving 

It was in London

In 1963

The 11th of

February 

Vivid your prose 

Using Redcoats

Discribing a cut

That of your thumb 

(end)

This poem is an ode to Sylvia Plath, whom unfortunately took her own life by sticking her head in an oven and breathing the gas. "Cut" is the only poem of her's I can understand. I love the vivid metaphore of discribing cutting her thumb. It is a must read for all poetry lovers. It is just sad she suffered depression and ended her life like she did. She was a treasure to the world of literature. 

 In "Ode To A Redcoat" two posts above, I used the word "live" and I meant to use "life".  But once you type a new post it takes away your ability to edit the prior post. 

 The Twitch Of Daddy Longlegs, By Brian 378 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

They swabbed your gums

With morphine to numb

From days to mere hours

Within minitues succumbed 

It wasn't a pucker 

Not a last kiss

Like the daddy longlegs

Your nurons made twitch

Both hemispheres gone

And all that was left

The cerebelum and brain stem

I witnessed your end

They swabbed your gums

With morphine to numb 

Last desperate jailbrake

Your neurons tried to make

And the last motion

Was that in your face

Your lips were twitching

Puckering for breath

Slowly fading 

Then no more motion

It was the end

Your lips stopped moving.

(end)

This poem was about my late mother's death. It was horrifying to watch, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone to see, even peaceful slow death, like hers in a nursing home. She had been in pain for weeks, and on her final morning, she wasn't speeking, but she was still breathing, her eyes were not open. Then that vile death rattle the hospice nurse and staff warned me about. But regardless of the process they told me about, you can never be prepared. 

But just minutes before, I could tell that her face was changing, and I knew her brain was shutting down. Then the last bit of motion, was just in her lips, twitching and puckering and the final desperate nurons telling her to breath, then that horrifying cold dead lack of motion. It was like watching the leg of daddy longleg's leg twitch then stop moving. 

I hope nobody reading this has to witness death, but if you do have the time in a terminal situtation, it is of great comfort to the dying and as painful to watch, I couldn't  not be there. 

 THIS IS THE LAST DITTO, THE NEXT POEM WITH THE SAME TITLE IS THE CORRECT AND FINAL VERSION. 

The Drams Of Mr. Smythe, By Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

You sly sheep 

White face, black wool

Bartholomew top hat and cane

Sweat drams for two

This marrage 

Between you

My liver their child

Breast fed by Madea 

I could not resist you

One for each hand 

Mom used to say

Two giant bottles, one every day

You slowed me down

Quite in a jiffy

Drank myself to j

 Thank God There Is No Afterlife, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet On Facebook and @brianrrs37 on twitter)

I asked you for Trae Crowder

You threaten me with Foxworthy

To stand in front of my mourners

To read my poetry in eulogy 

My first goal 

Before I go

Is to convince the president

To nuke your home

Say goodbye to Norman

The Sooner the better

If banjo I'm warning

You've sullied my ears

Nothing's sacred to you

Desicrated ABBA, Metallica

And the Ramones too

AC/DC

On banjo

Foxworthy ready

To make your move

Thank God for you

There is no afterlife

My wake I'd be haunting you

All through the night

Shall you die before me

Return the favor,

And torture thee

If I give your eulogy 

You kicked Allison 

Out of your house

I'll say you loved Andy Griffin

Instead of Griffith 

I'll correct your pronunciation

It's "Sausalito" not "sultry"

It "potato" not "taters"

It's "video" not "viddddeeeaaa"

And no John

I will never, never

Ever, ever, ever

Pass you the Jelly!

It's "All Fruit" you bastard!

(end)

John loves Allison Krauss. 

This is a poem about my best friend John who has a thick typical "redneck" accent, and loves banjo music and country music. So he constantly teases me that if I die first he will get Jeff Foxworthy to read my poetry at my wake and play my favorite bands on banjo, such as Metallica and Abba and the Rammones. I love the guy in all reality, and in all seriosness, if he did not roast me at my wake, I really would be pissed at him.