by Rick Young | Aug 10, 2020 | Poem
Some kids go back to school today, as ordered by our leader,
protected by their masks and plexiglass.
It’s not the school of olden days; there is no Weekly Reader,
instead a constant threat inside the class.
Coronavirus is now every school’s new bully boy.
It wants your grandma’s life, not your lunch money.
As bad as learning was before, there were things you’d enjoy.
But now even the teacher’s acting funny.
There is no recess, hunker down at your desk for the day.
And conversation’s hard wearing a mask.
Whatever bonds you had with classmates likely went away.
You may have questions you’re afraid to ask.
Remember you’re polluting every item that you touch,
pens and pencils, paper, desk and books.
And if you overact, or else, perhaps, protest too much,
you’ll have to just imagine dirty looks.
For many kids the benefit of school is making friends,
relationships that sometimes last a life.
But this contamination’s likely where that habit ends.
Your education now’s a two-edged knife.
Honor students, future dropouts, average C attainers,
thrust into this petri dish of schooling,
keep your distance, wear your mask: these are both no-brainers.
This is an experiment unspooling.
Remember, no talking and no fooling !
by Rick Young | Aug 9, 2020 | List
11:02 a.m., the bomb hit Nagasaki.
Over in America, Betty Boop (1930) was cocky.
Charles Farrell (1900) and Robert Shaw (1927)
were both John Dryden (1631) readers.
Jean Piaget’s (1896) child psych theories
helped out many breeders.
Rod Laver (1938), Aussie, rushed the net.
Whitney Houston (1963) lost her bet.
Bob Cousy (1928), Boston Celtics’ “Cooz,”
gave hockey’s Brett Hull (1964) the Blues.
Ken Norton (1943) once beat old Ali.
We can’t forget Mets’ Tom Agee (1942).
In the late night, sixty-nine, the Manson gang descended.
In ninety-five the Great Jerry Garcia was ascended.
by Rick Young | Aug 8, 2020 | Poem
Dick Nixon resigned on this date back in seventy-four.
It was the culmination of his long and ugly war.
In nineteen-fifty-eight, a crowd attacked him in Caracas.
We ignored their warning. Maybe we needed maracas.
We sat through his Checkers game. No, he was not a crook.
He was more than that, an evil not seen in our book.
Yes, he set the standard for Republicans to come.
Reagan, Bushes, one and two, and now this lying scum.
Malevolence is not excused by dumb.
And we will not forgive this crooked crumb.
But if he had the sense like Tricky Dick did to resign,
maybe some judge might cut him a deal along the line.
by Rick Young | Aug 7, 2020 | Poem
Trees are really not your friends,
from their roots up to their ends.
They like both the earth and sky.
But you, human, aren’t their guy.
They’ve seen you climb up their limbs,
abuse them like jungle gyms.
They’ve seen severed branches used
for club houses. Not amused !
They’ve suffered ropes for hammocks, swings,
and many more dastardly things.
They’ve been turned into toothpicks
and paperized, it seems, for kicks.
It’s no wonder they shed leaves.
That’s the way a sad one grieves.
They’ve been known in a good breeze
to fall upon their enemies.
Remember, trees are living things
and you are not their queens and kings.
So, when walking in the woods,
keep your damn hands off the goods.
by Rick Young | Aug 6, 2020 | Poem
Seventy-five years ago, on this very date,
one U.S.-dropped bomb made Japanese incinerate.
Some are still alive who survived this momentous blast.
It may be number one in our atonement for the past.
And just three days later came a second mushroom cloud.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Our worst selves were proud.
Yes, it helped to end world war where eighty million died.
But it’s not a moment that we look upon with pride.
“Little Boy” and “Fat Man” were the last A-bombs deployed.
They ushered in the age of fear which we have since enjoyed.
Through the cold war Russia sought to match our deadly missiles,
causing paranoia with loud sirens, bells and whistles.
Many years they stoked our fears as nukes proliferated.
As protection, MAD was vastly overrated.
Nowadays, nine countries possess the atomic bomb.
The more the scarier and subtle threats upset the calm.
The worldwide stockpile can be best described as just insane.
And our great leader once suggested nuke a hurricane.
Odds are even we won’t have another big event.
So we can wait to be wiped out by the environment.
