Purple Welts

 (Warning: The following is a rambling rant...Viewer tolerance requested)

Full Disclosure: I am one of those disillusioned Democrats who voted for Trump in 2016..

Actually like so many others my vote was AGAINST Hillary who to me epitomized the corrupt corporate inside the Beltway politicians who had strayed from the working class roots of FDR's Democratic Party...

Sure Trump was a wealthy morally bankrupt con man, but he effectively ran as a non politician outsider and since he was outside the political establishment I hoped he could bring a fresh perspective and maybe begin the process of bridging the divide between the perpetually warring political parties in DC...

Drain the swamp as it were...

This did not happen and instead of bridging the divide, the political wars intensified even more and the Grand Canyon like chasm widened during Trump's four years... 

Like with most wars, it takes two to tango... Trump's philosophy of "us versus them" while demonizing his opponents did not lend itself to bipartisan unity while the Dems who were shocked and pissed off that they could lose an election to such a vile creature reverted to full obstruct combat mode with the express goal of retaking their Congressional majorities in 2018 and the White House in 2020..

Full Disclosure II ... I spend way too much of my dwindling life span on Twitter...

For me Twitter was love at first site(ha ha)... I love the speed and the character limits that forced rambling me to convey my thoughts with beautiful brevity... The site rekindled my long ago extinguished passion of writing poetry which required me to utilize my atrophied brain... It also served as great therapy for an infinite variety of suppressed issues... Best of all, unlike Facebook I and the people I conversed with were anonymous blips on the screen... Nothing is more liberating and conducive to a free exchange of feelings than anonymity...  

Of course the political wars and all the combat politics seeped into and polluted many a conversation.. I have always viewed politics like I do sports in that it's all fun and games not to be taken too seriously...

As the social media political wars have escalated, so has the vitriol and personal attacks on those on the "other side"... At least on Twitter the personal bloodletting is usually between strangers, but in the real world political realm the personal shots between Democrats and Republicans are between representatives who should be working for the common good of the country...

Today the potentially lethal virus infecting the body politic today is this manically irrational obsession with placing politics over country... I believe this malady began to rear it's ugly head during the Clinton administration and has gotten progressively worse with each subsequent administration... The explosion of social media and 24/7 news (and I use that term "social" loosely) outlets has been fuel that feeds the fire daily..

What set off this rant was a post today by a Trump supporter gleefully showing off a chart which indicated that 14 of the top 15 states with the most daily new corona cases were "blue states"...One could almost hear the taunting tone of this gotcha troll sticking it to the libs in true Trumpian fashion

Of course this salvo set off numerous counter taunting posts from enraged Dems posting gleeful charts that the top 10 states with covid hospitalization and deaths were "red states"... Gotcha back fascists...

Fuck those losers who died... We are here to score political points and skewer our enemy.. 

These pointless rumbles rage daily on social media and all across Amercia... Us versus them.. Attack and counterattack... Stick it to the enemy and take no prisoners.. 

Senator Manchin a Democrat from very conservative West Virginia had justifiable(in my opinion) concerns about the high cost of the Build Back Better bundle of proposals and indicated he could not support Biden's bill... This of course unleashed a tsunami of predictable personal attacks and condemnations of the Senator from out of their minds with rage Dems.. How dare he place his personal reservations over loyalty to his tribe...

No one asks or finds it disturbing in any way that every single one of the 50 Republicans were against the bill and 49 of the 50 Democrats were all for it... Only one person from these very diverse groups even considered straying from the rubber stamped party line...

This is the tragic normal these days... Healthy debate is not tolerated... Compromise is a profanity... The party out of power does everything they can to undermine and obstruct the party in power from even a sliver of success which could benefit the country and therefore make it more difficult to unseat them...And the party in power retaliates by shutting out the other side from the decision making process...Round and round the partisan bullshit wheel spins... Us versus them... Nobody wins...

Party before country as our ship slowly sinks and we all drown together...

Thanks for playing...

 

      

 

     

  

  

   

  

                  

     

 

 

Alphabet Party

At a literary party I crashed purely because I was bored the letter U came up to me and moaned about the bullshit spelling rule of his presence always having to follow the letter Q...

"Why not a letter of more worth and status?",  he mused...

The least loved vowel made a very valid point though I chose not to enable his rants for fear of being accused of enabling the breakup of a very popular group...

I bumped into Q later in the evening and found her to be quite the pretentious little cunt though in all fairness she was quite drunk on champagne cocktails so we may not have met at her best moment...

In all fairness, it's hard for we mere mortals to realize and appreciate the stress levels these communication keystrokes have to endure on a daily basis...

 

  

Med Time Rhyme

GOttA reGuLAte 
cHeMiCal
im
bal ance
thAt DefiEs
cUrrenT beHavioRaL anaLySis..

That's better...

Now my words are more presentable...

 
In olden times
we would have been
institutionalized
and locked away...

Never to be seen or heard
again by proper society...

Not even family
wanted to associate
with us misfit members...

We were deletes of history...

Today they just give us
mind numbing meds

to keep us flat line controllable

and more easily socially digestible...

Not even a minimal hint

of humanity is left intact

after our souls

are neutered chemically... 

Life is all about control...

Refracted Life

All your hand wringing
is going to chafe
those blistered dreams
slipping away...

You can lay the blame

at a variety of clay feet
but the cracked mirror
is a relentless adversary
which hands out distorted reflections

of a decaying world

rapidly losing it's substance

 

Soul Dilutions

Went back...

Deep into archives past to review the deleted versions of me in all their unedited glory...

Back before I became refined

and meticulously planned like the polished eunuch I now am...

Compromised beyond recognition...

Care Package

I am
such
a flippant
rascal...

This really

which annoys
peeps
who feel
I need to be
more
respectfully
conventionally
packaged...

Too bad for them,
but fortunately for me
I don't give a damn
about what ''they" think

Pots and Pans

Pots and pans
exist in darkness
in the corners of irrelevance
for they have fallen
out of rotation
as the recipes
that once defined them
and gave them purpose
have lost their appeal
to the current generation
who are clueless

about ancient taste sensations
they are missing...

These pots and pans
all too well understand
what it is to be lonely...

Victims of ignorance

and forced obsolescence...

They will live long lives

with only memory sustenance

to sustain them

in the bitterness

of current uselessness 

Nubbed Out

Sturdy and strong
when freed from the box
the noble pencil of yore
was immediately on point...

Such the productive tool...

Useful to it's very core...

Time advances...

Now the once proud cog

is tired and worn...

Not much of use anymore...

Past the point of functionality...

 
Wither the nub of the bunch...

Soon to be gone...

Smell Testing

Bit into a rancid concept...

Delicious to the eye
but thoroughly rotten inside...

As spit the vile sandwich out
I vow henceforth
to ride shotgun with doubt
and always check
the expiration date
before blindly
consuming externally
every convenient theory
that just so happens to fit
my current slanted narrative...

The Path Traversed

The things you find

during the decluttering process...

Frozen in time...

This scrapbook now soothes

my fading mind..

Pics fully laminated...

Protection against the elements

and the ravages of today...

Locked in memories

where none of us age out...

Even death can not penetrate

this thick veneer of yesterday

where erosion is irrelevant

to these locked in moments of joy...

Arthritic fingers

painfully skimming

long neglected pages...

Liberating images

from a bygone existence

of youthful exuberance

and unbridled innocence 

where we still owned

all our tomorrows...

Ripe to Be Me

Back to where we've been before
as we seek to settle old scores
with those we feel done us wrong...

The Going Nowhere Payback tour
on the ancient treadmill of revenge
has now become

such a cliche saturated bore...

So I now exit the hate cycle...

Leaving all future pointless wars to you...

Gonna try and live my receding life grudge free... 

Perhaps I really have finally matured?

Curiosity Suicide

Dug deep
and went in depth
to bypass surface truths
that muddy perceptions...

Got to the core finally
only to find
upon closer inspection
these well meant deceptions
were for my own protection...

Wish I could go back
to my blissful ignorance

Ride The Rise

Chronically cynical me
wants to believe desperately
in anything...

or anyone...

Cause it's not easy
lugging these chains of negativity
all around this grind of a life
that will bury you
if you can't manage

to rise above the bullshit
every once and awhile

Birds of a Feather

Check all the boxes...

Record your soul
into the master database
high in that cloud place
where statistical segmentation
will be performed
to slot you properly
on the great cyber ship
to dance on the platform
of the Microchip Ballroom

with like minded blips...

Take a little mining trip...

Far above this lonely sphere...

Where filtered truth

is dispensed loud and clear

in data cluster increments...

Processed Life

Round and round...

Dizzy from the spin...

Chasing a tail

we will never catch...

Satisfaction rarely guaranteed...

Yet the fruitless pursuit proceeds...

Instead of keeping score

as we try to quantify
and desperately justify
our timeline quite finite
perhaps we'd be best served
if we graded ourselves on a curve...

Embrace life's variations...

Cut our stressed asses some slack...

Finally accept the obvious fact
that winning this game
is all in the playing

Pro

Blessed Be We Inepts

People anxiety
getting the best of me
as I put on ignore
the suffocating real life party
and the fake conversations all around...

The hum of a small talk symphony

like finger nails scraping a chalkboard

have always been pure torture

to my socially awkward species... 

 
Escaping to the shadows...

Seeking relief in isolation...

I take refuge in technology
with my head buried
in a hand held oasis...
 
Suckling on the bosom
of my flat screen
cyber sanctuary... 

Once again 

using this social media front

to be fully anti social...

Island of Misfit Selfies

99 abandoned selfies
that did not make
the posting cut...

Orphan victims
of flaws self perceived...

I'd rather see
these image outtakes...

Much prefer to view
the real you...

Flaws and all...

Instead of that one perfectly staged pic
plastered on your social media wall

Islan

Indecent Exposure

This entrenched position
I got myself locked into
without thinking things through
(which I too often tend to do)
is beginning to disintegrate...

My hard line intransigence
now blowing back in my face
as the relentless forces of truth
lay waste to played out arguments...

How to exit this pit gracefully

with even a shred of dignity

is going to be a challenge for humbled me

in this social media communications age

where every rant pronouncement

is recorded permanently...

Guess it's best to take the hit

and acknowledge that I am full of shit

  

 

Bratty Zealots

 

Show me the creature
of absolute certainty
with rock hard steadfastness
buoyed by unwavering conviction
and swaggering confidence
mixed with a sense of arrogance
that doubt can never penetrate
and you will have found in your midst
a stubborn close minded zealot...

Show me the creature

from the Know It All tribe

who belittles and condescends

those who dare share contrary opinions

that challenge their core structure

and shake the very foundation

that supports past entitlement

and you will have found in your midst

your typical rigid ideologue...

Do not engage these foolish creatures in debate...

Best to let them pound their chests and bloviate...

Sure they can be incredibly annoying little girls and boys

but in the end they are just irritating background noise

who will fade into obscurity and bitter irrelevance

once the adults send them off to bed

  

 

Harvesting Friendships

Just once in your bitter existence
choose to be magnanimous 
and praise your sworn enemy
when they somehow manage
to get something right...

Maybe they will return the compliment...

 
Perhaps these seeds of positive reinforcement
can even blossom into a fruitful relationship?

It may be worth a shot...

Changing the current poisonous narrative

and coming to grips finally

with the uplifting concept

that's it's OK to think differently 

Ode to the Outcasts

The mass text spoon fed
to satiate conventional wisdom
will never reach full saturation
so long as there exists free thinkers
who chafe against conventional interpretation...

They will of course be ostracized
and pushed off to the side 
for their lack of thought conformity...

As painful as their isolation may be

they can take solace in this certainty...

All progress throughout human history

was driven and advanced by such outcasts

who dared to venture outside the main stream 

Inter Gender Demolitions

Aging former beauty queen...

Perpetually battling gravity
and the catty whispers
of alleged friends...

Perhaps out of jealousy
or the residue of past envy...

Many of whom themselves have stealthily
had bodily parts enhanced surgically...

Perhaps they should focus their efforts
on uplifting each others spirits...

This quality of humility
and communal empathy
is a timeless reflection
of true and lasting beauty

And Read All Over

Zebra Zebra...

We dig your stripes
of black and white...

A metaphor perpetually
of racial harmony
and spiritual coexistence
which long ago
drifted into the domain
of lazy cliche...

Zebra Zebra...

Stay clear of predators
and desperate philosophers

In the End

My innuendos once so crisp

gradually began to slip...

Becoming so worn

and outside newly minted social norms

I became a social outcast...

Now wearing the label

sexist misogynist 

of a Boomer origin

the muzzle fits snug

over these inappropriate lips..

Stripped of all sarcasm

by the very same forces

I use to mock and disparage

back when I was still relevant..

My dreams of a blue comedy

Renaissance now destined to die with me

Detour Road

Those calamities
we bring
on ourselves
are the hardest knots to untie...

We have to unravel
not only threaded consequence
but also the stubborn core
of tightly wound ego
we arrogantly applied
when we let our emotions decide
the course of future events...

Now we need find
the required humility
to break down our deficiencies  
and extricate ourselves
from the morass we made...

   
Only then
once we have untangled
and the fix implemented
can we proceed 
to get back 
on the road to evolution

Seek and Find

 

I finally found happiness
when I stopped running away
and faced the liberating truth
that there is no escaping reality...

Had to drop the pointless denials
and desperate deflections...

This self confession
led to my acceptance
that our existence is but a maze
with only one mortal exit
that will find us all 
upon completion of the game

Once Upon A Good Time

Pretty pink princess
with her poofy puffy dress
blowing in the glittery breeze...

Side saddle riding
her snow whiter unicorn
through strawberry fields
somewhere over the rainbow...

Rides past judgmental eyes

with nary a care in the world...

Deep inside her fairy tale bubble

that will one day go pop
and land her crashed ass in rehab

Crash Dummy

Flying blind
as I am prone to do
when I get too cocky
about my invulnerability...

Post crash...

I curse the gods of inevitability
for not properly warning me
that extreme arrogance
begets negative consequence

On The Vine

We are all in stock
for a limited time only...

So don't ignore
the opportunity to secure
this deal of a lifetime...

Sign up for happiness

Knot Today

We consume mass quantities
but never savor the flavor...

No time for reflection
inside our microwave lives...

Prisoners of fate...

We can no longer self regulate...

Our story gets revealed 
at it's own unstable pace...

Spinning threads
tangled in the knotted tapestry
of frayed human history

Ode To Have Nots

My self esteem
(for what it's worth)
will never be driven visually...

I don't have the genes...

Nor the discipline...

Nor the resources...

Or even at this point
the inclination
to be conventionally
attractive physically...

My self esteem
(for what it's worth)
is generated internally...

So deal with it bitches

Or not...

If you have not figured out by now

I am not here to appeal to you

or your snobby judgmental crew

of petty little gossip hounds

What a liberating feeling

not worrying about being appealing

to anyone but yourself...

Or not...

HA...HA...HA...

 

Old Truths

The human equation...

Scrawled on the wall
in a gibberish formula
only ghosts can comprehend...

Time has moved on...

As have the spirits of the past...

  
So we must commit today

to whitewash stale myths

long ago outmoded
and recycle our thought process

all over again

in order to make sense

of this perplexing paradigm 

Morning Necessities

Morning lung excavation
as the night's stagnant phlegm secretions
get power coughed up the chute
into manageable spit clumps
for easy evacuation...

The pools stubbornly hanging on
from the depths of A.M. congestion
are the last to be cleared...

Once the passageways

are opened up fully

and oxygen intake

is finally uninhibited

we can proceed

to perform

other necessary

wakeup bodily

emptying activities...

Contrary to popular myth...

Life ain't all glamour and glitz

 

 

Writer's Crock

If I be a writer
that nobody reads
do the words I spew
truly get through?

So why should I really care
if my wayward craft goes nowhere?

I'm just slaying time
trying to make rhymes
of minimal consequence
to this impervious Universe

Scorched Bricks

Cultural dissolution

will commence at eight...

Please don't be late...

The best relics of our civilization

will be promptly set ablaze

in a raging bonfire you won't wanna miss...

Bring your camera phone devices

to get the best conflagration flame shots

and then toss those hand held beasts

into the cleansing fire

for a fitting ironic conclusion

Dream Team

The best distractions
are pliable commodities...

The stuff of impractical fantasies
that release us from the clutches
of our monstrous realities...

Even if only temporarily...

The best distractions
are the ones we can share...

For they can take us anywhere...

All the way to these dreams

we Earth bound beings

can craft together

Peace In Our Minds

Let's not debate
the color of the sky
or quibble about
the quantity of fish in the sea...

Don't wanna fight anymore
over topics totally lacking in relevance
to the challenges in life we face daily...

 
Our nonsensical arguments
have turned us into
social media caricatures
creating nothing but useless friction
that serves as contentious entertainment
for the bored Cyberverse masses

Hands On

Let's take a break
from our self centered race...

Take off those blinders
that serve to narrow our view
and see the beauty
that exists in the periphery...

The panorama of humanity...

See the frayed edges of our quilt..

Find those souls in need of a boost...

Kindness provided so very easily
if we access our own memories
when we were feeling lonely
and in desperate need
of basic human inclusion

Mr Second Banana

The crazy joker I once use to be

married a joketress way funnier than me...

Today I play the support partner...

Setting up her humor shots on a tee

as she dazzles the world with comedy lunacy...

Exasperated reaction shots now define my role

like the good nonplussed straight man I am...

Not a bad gig if you must know

cause I no longer gotta carry the show alone

Crucifix On Wheels

Why must sin always be

so frickin subjective

and hopelessly time sensitive?

Such is the fickle nature

of modern morality...

There just ain't no consistency...

Which only adds to the anxiety

of trying to live saintly

in the 21st Century 

Number One

Knots in my hair
and I don't care
cause I ain't going nowhere...

Not doing a Zoom
or Facetime any time soon...

I am retired from being seen...

No more issues with self esteem...

On this island where I be King

Prayer of Public Affirmation

When I read about tragedy

from the safety of my secure bunker...

I lay on thick the social media empathy...

"Pray for this"

  

"Hearts for that" 💓💓  

Damn.... Ain't I long distance compassionate?

Like all the other scrub hypocrite saints...

Fishing for mass kudos in a dark sea of misery