Jedi Mind Meld [Week's News Poem, March 1, 2013]

Jedi Mind Meld [Week's News Poem, March 1, 2013]

Sage of the week seeks unique yet oblique

Resolution (obeying the Constitution) for fiscal absolution

In terse, unreherse verse. What's worse,

Apocope doesn't rhyme—nope-ey.

“President Barack Obama formally ordered broad cuts in government spending on Friday night after he and congressional Republicans failed to reach a deal to avert automatic reductions that could dampen economic growth and curb military readiness.”

—Richard Cowan and Alistair Bell, Reuters, WASHINGTON | Fri Mar 1, 2013 10:51pm EST

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/02/us-usa-fiscal-idUSBRE91P0W220130302

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Calvin Trillin Style [Week's News Poem, January 18, 2013]

Calvin Trillin Style [Week's News Poem by Khakjaan Wessington, January 18, 2013]

This week's iambic news must rhyme the trite

With facts and names that fade when out of sight.

Did you hear about the trillion dollar mint?

An after dinner platinum coin we print

To bribe the sober headache aftermath

Of spendthrift ways; the pain of laughter's wrath.

Oh Calvin, any kid can write like you;

So why do you when verse's jobs are few?

Perhaps that's why the choppers never strafe

The people in your poems, why they're safe

Ensconced in paper sheafs inside your mind

Despite the desert heat, jihadikind.

I know your silly sort:

Quick to retort—

Both rapid

And vapid.

Well maybe we can talk about the guns

That don't work as Shel Silverstein-style puns?

I hear that Congress wants control.

A stack of parchment shall patrol

The empty depths of human wit,

Because the poets cannot fill it.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardsalsman/2013/01/17/debt-ceiling-gimmickry-is-unbecoming-a-rational-government/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/19/gun-lovers-freak-over-obama-s-executive-actions.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/algerian-reticence-spoils-us-strategy-for-region/2013/01/18/7af23fbe-617c-11e2-89a2-2eabfad24542_story.html

ps: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOYLIT!

 

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American RPG [Today's News Poem, February 21, 2011]

American RPG [Today's News Poem, February 21, 2011]

I loaded my game and returned to the sidewalk.
To level, I jaywalked and dodged all the autos.
And somewhere a player is rolling the chances
And notes my encounters with clerks at the grocer.
I've died on the freeway and died on the mountain;
I've fallen off cliffs and been shot in an alley.
My character loaded, returned to the story,
Where datapoints gather the resources, treasure
And play simulation. A city of players
Where oil is from Libya; the trinkets, from China;
American program—add prayers to be certain.

"Several oil companies said they were making plans to evacuate employees from Libya and investors are wondering which oil-producing country may be next to face the wrath of its people. “Political risks is hanging over a big proportion of the world’s oil supplies,” said Simon Derrick, an analyst at Bank of New York Mellon. “I can see safe haven buying the natural outcome of all this.” Particularly strong was a survey showing that business confidence in Germany... Concerns about Portugal’s debt crisis... Earlier in Asia, investors also had their first chance to respond to Friday’s decision by the monetary authorities in China to increase the amount banks hold in reserve."
—Associated Press, February 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/business/global/22markets.html



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18th Level Cyborg Wizards in 2030 [News Poem April 15, 2010]

18th Level Cyborg Wizards in 2030 [News Poem April 15, 2010]
“Alexander agreed that an attack against America's privately operated power grid, launched from another country but routed through the computers of unsuspecting U.S. citizens, poses difficult questions that the Pentagon and other agencies are trying to answer. ”
–LOLITA C. BALDOR (AP) – 9 hours ago as of 5:33pm PST
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h02Prpewchnn1skzjV7ISlVz-H3gD9F3J0B80

“A Saudi man asked if he could make magical talisman for his sister who had marital problems. Sibat, in the kingdom on a pilgrimage, said he'd be happy to help... As soon as he hung up, religious police stormed into his room and arrested him for witchcraft. Now Sibat is on death row, sentenced to be beheaded.”
–SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI (AP) – 6 days ago, April 15, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hQ_jb3NeJqD5cjGvkNxW5Jlje9AwD9EVD3I03

“The deadliest refinery accident since 2005 was described Monday as “more of a fireball than an explosion””
–VICKI VAUGHAN San Antonio Express-News April 5, 2010, 10:39PM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6945528.html

Texas City? Simply rookie stuff.
Blew my fucking fingers off—the blast
Spared the middle two. It made me tough.
Certainly important, yet I'm cast—
Featured—yes, for greater deeds I'd say.
Hippies turned to Weathermen before
Selling out to servitude to pay
Conscience off: a poodle can't restore
Its dignity, from ignominity.

The malcontents of prior years—
The madmen, cast to bitter street
Where urban teeth with concrete gears
Would starve and freeze and elsewise eat
The mad—they call us 'master' now.
It's they who beg we spare their minds,
Though once we plead for drugs or chow.
When Lil, or Fred escape, they find
The secrets most of you protect:
My nightmares drain your intellect.

I killed a man for hitting me; this happened long ago—
The hitting, not the killing—he became a football pro.
Before the microchips and internet enhanced my brain
The doctors said “no empathy.” They said I was insane.
This jock? He beat me down in front of class, in college days.
My rage became a pleasure, faked my way through life with praise.
The numbskulls locked me up before I had a chance to strike.
I ran away, I bought my chips and now it's what I like:
I crashed his car then cleared the trace—an accident they said.
I drop the cranes, I kill the lights—and you? Already dead.




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