"Destruction is a beautiful version of freedom".

Lindsay got 120 days and she’s sorry and

Snooki looked so hot before she got pregnant and 

Lorenzo’s kid got busted twice for snortin and

teen momma’s baby daddy wanted to be a rap star and

Michae… Read full post »

Lithe and lovely

Eritrean girl

high cheek bones

pearly whites

chocamocha

café latte

has me staring at her

aquiline nose.

"Hey G. I!

You buy hashish today?"

Smoke rings and purple haze

scotch and water

tobacco and hash

I take the pipe.

she takes the glass

 … Read full post »

A repost for Memorial Day 

Did you hear sweet Melanie's song?

There's a chance peace will come

in your life.

Please buy one.

I hear a whistle blowin

its rollin ‘round the bend

Is that the peace train commin

or will the killing never end?

How long, how… Read full post »

a repost for Memorial day 

A Picasso face
with one eye
a piece of nose
a dented skull
distorted
melted

cubism done in red black and blue
one hand
one and a half limbs.
A rearranged montage
of her soldier son.

His mother turned away
in a silent scream
beyond anguish
beyond tears
face burie/… Read full post »

It was the Summer of 1967 and I was in the Army.

I had been loading up flat bed rail cars in Texas in 1966 as my unit prepared to deploy to Vietnam. My mom died suddenly (she was 43 years old), my father was ill (he had epilepsy) and… Read full post »

a repost for Memorial Day

Dalton Trumbo with his wife Cleo at the House Unamerican Activities Committee hearings in 1947.

"World War I began like a Summer festival - all billowing skirts and golden epaulets. Millions upon millions cheered from the sidewalks while plumed Imperial Highnesses, S… Read full post »

A repost for Memorial Day 

Reader's Pick!  Yaay!!

Lock is frozen

snow tonight

thaw it open

Zippo light.

Got a pint of Southern Comfort

fuel to keep a body warm.

Not much gas to run the heater

eleven hours till the dawn.

Well maybe just a little… Read full post »

A repost for Memorial Day

When your son was killed that Summer night

you were filling up the car.

You didn't know 'till you saw my face

what I already knew.

While you slept your husband died

on a hill outside Dak To.

You had no idea when… Read full post »

Fifty Eight Thousand

Two Hundred

Seventy two.

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized.  It is hard to believe it is 37 years since the… Read full post »

Memorial to Thich Quang Duc - Ho Chi Minh City 

Thich Quang Duc was a Buddhist - a Vietnamese Buddhist living in South Vietnam in 1963.

South Vietnam had been created by the Geneva Accords whereby the French dissolved the colonial administration, Ho Chi Minh’s communists ruled the… Read full post »

The son of the Allentown butcher

will lead the way

point man on the sweep today

through God’s heavenly green cathedral

Verdant canopy reaching to heaven

flickering sunlight illuminates

mottled parrots red and blue

on the moss a mantis waits

Her body rises as he… Read full post »

Demonstrations like they used to be - this one for passage of unemployment insurance in Union Square - March 7, 1930

How "free" are we as a people to affect change in government policy or indeed any change in government? Are we more free than the British or French? The/… Read full post »

"The Cardinal and Theological Virtues", which was painted in 1511 by Raphael and represents a combination of law and religion, makes up one wall in the ‘Stanza della Segnatura’ room in the Vatican.

That's Sly Stallone on the left in the painting -… Read full post »

Staring at the pile of bills
doesn’t make ‘em any smaller
shufflin the envelopes
doesn’t get the mortgage paid.

Out o’ work a whole year now
running out of unemployment
must apply for food stamps soon
get the kids on medicaid.

Keep on sending resumes
showing up for all/… Read full post »

The Princess and the Geek - May 1963 - At the Ft. Hamilton High School Prom.   She's laughing because the photographer's background matches her dress and her shoes.

Did you ever think about how you got to where you are?

Everyone does at one time or another. How… Read full post »

So it’s Sunday morning and the "news" shows and respected journalists are yammering about whether or not coming out for same sex marriage will help or hurt Obama’s re-election efforts.

"Sixty percent of those polled indicate his stance will have no effect on their vote; 16%… Read full post »

A repost for war mothers 

Summer sun reflected

off a wheelchair

holding half the soldier

he used to be

in half the body

he used to have

the dent above his left ear

now hidden in his hair

His mother buys a popcicle

and places it… Read full post »

Those of you who waste your precious time reading me may know, through one source of information or another, that I recently self-published a collection of poems.  This earth shattering news went up on my daughter's Facebook page, immediately rocking the poetry world.

I’d always be… Read full post »

...to the girl I met when she was 17, loved and lusted after in high school and was my partner in life for more than 40 years until I buried her 8  years ago.

Well the Republican National Convention in August is fast approaching and our fair city is getting ready for potential disaster.

Some 50,000 plus of delegates, news organizations, free lancers, bloggers, talking heads, strippers, hookers, rent boys, foreign commentators etc. will be des… Read full post »

http://youtu.be/-Wb1ViP3QMY

Color film of London, May 8, 1945

 Churchill announces the end of the war.

 (sorry, the video cannot be embedded)

 See it if you never have.

"In all our long history, we have never seen a greater day than this." Read full post »

the illusion

Foot binding -

"the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent further growth. The practice likely originated in the Southern Tang Dynasty in Nanking but spread to upper class families and eventually became common among all classes. The tiny narro… Read full post »

A repost is allowed on a slow Sunday evening no?

:-) 

Tutmoses looking 'cross the Nile 

saw your reflection on the water.

Cleopatra held Antony’s hand

and kissed it by your light.

Nero plucked his lyre

while you shined on burning Rome.

Did Mehmet gaze upon your… Read full post »

Tutmoses looking 'cross the Nile 

saw your reflection on the water.

Cleopatra held Antony’s hand

and kissed it by your light.

Nero plucked his lyre

while you shined on burning Rome.

Did Mehmet gaze upon your face

atop the walls of Byzantium?

You shined that night

on… Read full post »