Virga

Rain, especially from desert thunderstorms, which evaporates before ever reaching the ground

Gusty winds and far-off thunder

Drops which never quite strike this ground

Darkened the skies and it grew cooler

But the shower dried before it reached us

Struck out with all those good intentions

Mixed with the dust during my descent

Tumbled thru these wondrous skies

But never got to soak the earth

Held a promise to quench deep thirst

But could not even wet our lips

Brought us hopes of good moist soil

Yet only stirred the hopeless dust

Like some preacher or petty politician

assurance fading with the music

So deceivingly cool and dark and wet

Unreal as that lake mirage on desert road

A welcome sight for burning eyes

Left us wet, but with merest sweat

Blown out by unforgiving winds

Evaporate just beneath their thunderheads

So very appealing to the desiccated

So cruelly deceiving to the hopeful

Such wondrous promise at a distance

Dissolving into simple salt and disappointment

Sense Of Impending Doom

There’s this vise-like tightness growing in my chest when all I do is look around

Twilight’s lengthening shadows bring on a strong sense of my own impending doom

Maybe it’s the gray skies that just cant seem to brighten up all the mud and trash

Or it could be the endless pronouncements of wondrous new economic recovery initiatives

Then there’s this feeling like everybody’s running and I just can’t quite keep up

Seems like simply busting out in tears is appropriate at least once or twice a week

Even though my job seems pretty safe for now, the next round of layoffs still looms overhead

Once or twice a month it seems I wake up in the dark, drenched in a cold sweat

Doctor says that these new meds may take a while to reach their full effect

I surely hope so cause it feels like a lot of things are tightening up all around me

Maybe it’s cause I’m too old to hire, too young to retire and we’re still so far in debt

I just cant seem to get any air as I lay here in bed gasping like some tiny drowning fish

Feels like I’ve been squeezed into a corner that only leads to blind dead-ends

My savior’s not been as effective so I’m trying to turn up the power of prayer a notch

This awful burning that’s gnawing at my stomach speaks volumes, without a single word

Smog-darkened skies make sitting in endless lines of traffic just seem foolish and quite futile

Wise corporate leaders laying off thousands and defaulting on benefits fit neatly into my despair

Feels like the end of the carefree world that they advertised and helped us to finance

Can’t tell if that smell of fear is coming from the dark mall or the local feed lot

Just don’t have any matching ties that don’t cut off the circulation to my brain

There’s a numbness that’s spreading from my thoughts on out to my extremities

I’ve got this tingling sensation and my left arm feels as if it’s fast asleep

They say I’m just innocent detritus from the vast new global economies of scale

But there’s no way to avoid the simple conclusion that this just cannot continue

My ankles are swollen and my eyes are puffy and it’s really hard to get upstairs

A few drinks don’t bring the satisfaction that they always did, not so very long ago

I’m not seeing all the colors anymore or else everything is black or dirty gray

Feels like something quite sinister is flowing in silently from all sides at once

I’m subtly twisting everything I see to support these feelings of inevitable calamity

The dirty, littered streets all whisper to me of some ghastly approaching plague

Haunted eyes stare back at me from deep within the dark sockets of my own haggard face

Seems like the crows wait with ever more raucous impatience on something I do not see

The Sound Logic of Conservative Policies

This credit debacle far outweighs their cutesy fuzzy pipedreams of whatever sustainable living

These unemployment figures must push the real poor further into the gray background

Decreases in tax revenues force us to slash funds for even studying climate change

In this economic downturn the ecosystem simply must take a back seat to family welfare

The financial crisis leaves us without monies for these so-called superfund sites

We must pare social spending to the bone to preserve our military preparedness

Alas, educational funding must suffer given the collapse of the holy housing market

Real healthcare reform will remain on the back burner until consumer confidence returns

Cleaning up our waters takes a back seat to restoring mindless consumer spending

Energy independence can be shelved again thanks to fracking & a temporarily reduced demand

Burdensome impact reviews must be put on hold to help jumpstart the precious economy

Expensive emission control procedures can be waived until the recovery finally takes hold

This discretionary habitat restoration must cease until our families begin buying on credit again

Personal responsibility can wait while we bail out both irresponsible debtors and lenders

Clearly this is not the time for some expensive, lifestyle-based disease prevention program

We certainly cannot impose costly deposits on recyclable materials during this crisis

Requiring power companies to stop acid rain could push customers over the edge

Mandating energy efficiency for electronics could hurt slumping sales even more

Saving old growth forests must take a back seat to temporary jobs cutting timber for export

We cant stop illegal worker abuses without threatening businesses and raising costs

Protecting our soil must now take a back seat to curbing factory food price increases

Underwriting investment banking gambles trumps making higher education affordable

We wont be rushed into phony climate change fixes but this huge bailout must be fast-tracked

To fight this crisis, patriotic coal-fired power plants will be permitted near national parks

Limiting worker chemical exposure imposes undue costs on already-stressed industries

Ethical treatment of animals must take a backseat to affordable factory protein for our families

Calls for smart growth sound pretty silly given these current dire economic conditions

We must pump trillions to the bankers while cutting back on unproven childcare programs

Overseas atrocities and starvation are secondary to rebooting our own hyper-consumption

Right now, rugged conservative straight talk must override shrill liberal whining

We cannot embark upon squishy socialist programs lest we jeopardize a fragile recovery

Unlike the planetary ecosphere, our investment banks are too big to be allowed to fail

It would be insane to radically increase gas tax now to rebuild the failing transportation grid

Regulations can wait until the bailout money has re-lubricated the noble financial system

Habitat preservation is for the birds when good families are suffering economic hardship

Fairytale wacko concerns must take a backseat given our ongoing economic uncertainties

Makes Sense When You're Dreaming

It just all seems so logical and sensible inside this flawed dream we collectively weave

that’s why we need cluster bombs, land mines, new nukes and more chemical weapons

It’s all here before us in living breathing color every month of our maxed-out credit card lives

There are drugs for those who imagine that all this is crazy and can’t really last much longer

We waste and pollute, overcrowd and degrade, extract, poison and extinguish

For this we have rock solid reasoning layered on seamless and unassailable assumptions

From one bit of faith flows our vast river of well-constructed and inescapable dogma

Thusly can we ignore ancient wisdom and our starving brothers in an angry, righteous blindness

Bathed in a warm sea of religion, patriotism and family values we move about with ease

We readily expect third world sacrifice on behalf of our dreamy convenience

Groping sleepily with the blind hand of the free market in pursuit of individual happiness

We gladly pay more for disappearing resources which guarantees their final exploitation

The lights work and the water runs and the garbage gets hauled off somewhere every week

Verily do we perceive the unending natural cycle of our inalienable consumer lifestyle

There’s nothing out of context and the wackos are sensibly and seamlessly ignored

Our own professionals in neat suits have organized agendas tracking everything important

We readily explain away anything which disturbs the consistency of the revered central images

Thus, the multi-generational poverty and suffering of others is thoughtlessly tolerated

Just a couple of small basic distortions have increasingly warped our derived beliefs

And fat people drive oversize cars way too fast, wasting and emitting and calling it good

With but a subtle bending to enlightened self-interest and the pursuit of our happiness

We appoint the greediest, most amoral and self-serving as the masters of our universe

It just makes common sense in the dream which immerses everyone, all of the time

Together we direct all our efforts towards the foolish pipedream of eternal compound growth

It seems normal to live beyond our means, never save a penny, and still expect pensions

Nobody even questions shoving all the other life forms aside to abet our so-called progress

Our only true issues arise when we cannot obtain all the rich rewards of the collective fantasy

But even then, the shared dream in which we pursue these shiny baubles cannot be distorted

Yet, it takes a moment to ignore the rolled back, widened eyes seen often in the departing

It is as if, too late, they are roused from our dream to some nightmare that we will never see

Our Most Sacred Core Beliefs

Out of which arise our Traditional Family Values©

War is a basic and unchangeable part of human nature that will always be with us

You cant’ stop progress and that includes its unforeseen and destructive side effects

We must remain ready to preemptively defend ourselves or we will be attacked from all sides

Population growth is divinely ordained and no one may limit a family’s number of children

Human survival on the family scale trumps human survivability on the global level

Food and jobs must supercede preservation of the earth that supports them both

Trillions of selfish short-term, greed-optimized decisions blindly ensure our best future

Our god, no matter his name, is the one true god whom we must follow and defend to the death

The soulless animals may be tended, exterminated or ignored simply as we see fit

God works on his vaster projects in mysterious ways which we simply cannot grasp

This earthly life is but a short and illusory prelude to a far better and eternal paradise

His servants on this earth are here to help guide us along the path that He created

Merging mega-sized competitors produces many long-term benefits, not just fat bonuses

Hostility and aggression need our financial support but peace and harmony do not

We will always have to be preparing to fight to the death for a bit of simple peace

We hold as a matter of faith that our children will always have a rosier future than we

The poor are either lazy or suffering divine punishment and therefore, can be righteously ignored

Monomaniacal control freaks will use the power they grab only to help build a better society

Once safely out of our sight, our wastes need no longer be any of our concern, ever again

Air and water are free goods and trying to preserve them involves taxes not investments

Simply reacting to problems after they become serious is more effective than failed social planning

Living in wait for quickly-forgotten holidays leaves one with a rich set of remembrances

Corporations really do care about employees, customers, society and the environment

Focusing on next quarter’s results leads us all inevitably towards the happily ever after

Climate change is unproven but would be far too expensive and difficult to try and remedy

Overseas outsourcing clears the way for those new and better jobs for our displaced workers

Hindbrain reactionary muddling remains the best option for global problem solving

Stocks are safe investments which always outperform other instruments in the long run

Personal Responsibility is a viable strategy to deal with pensions and medical costs

The free market will address poverty, education, environmental and healthcare issues

Road, bridge, dam, sewer, power and water infrastructure outlays can be indefinitely postponed

An officially multi-lingual government provides egalitarian services and unites its people

God belongs in our government but the government does not belong in our businesses

Living life to its fullest means saving nothing as one consumes and discards freely, without saving

Mom is really quite happy at that place and the people all like her and really care about her

God’s will is quite naturally done here on earth just as it is in His eternal heaven

Bring On Them Libtards

Gonna whip some Snowflake ass!

Let’s see these skinny vegan dope smokers stand up to our smirking spin doctors

Yeah, come on you queer, yellow recyclers, just try and make us sort thru our garbage

Think you’ll make us pay 6 bucks a gallon to fill up our muscular diesel pickups?

Just step on out here and we’ll show you what these extra pounds can do to you

Try and make me eat that tough grass-fed beef and I’ll show you a thing or three

Come around here and I’ll hose you down with this stuff I spray on my kid’s lawn

Jest get in the road and I’ll dust your puny bicycle with my powerful Dodge Ram diesel

Which one of you don’t wanna bailout my maxed out credit cards and reset mortgage loan?

Your little friends don’t like my snowmobile, well, I say dammit, just bring em on

You’re against my OHV, step over here brother and I’ll wring your turkey neck

You want to take away my jet ski but I’m here to tell you what - I’ll fight for my rights

We’ll whip your green asses if you say we support terrorists with every tankful

They caint make us turn down our thermostats or turn off the stinkin lights and TV

We’ll proudly idle in the drive-thru line and eat bacon double cheeseburgers, all we please

We’re stayin with the NFL and NASCAR and you go shove that whatever World Cup

You keep your fuzzy research and we’ll stick with the true facts of Creation Science

We’ll take you to the mat for our right to cheap Chinese imports down to Wal*Mart

We’re pushin back hard on your bullshit about our overeating and never exercising

Let’s just chainsaw them trees they’re hugging with em still hanging up above

Push their girly faces down into the fat tire tracks we made in them useless, muddy wetlands

We’re gonna end this abortion murder and if need be, we’ll kill to get her done

We’ll impale them showy gays with pitchforks and burn them with our torches

Tired of pushy government women hangin up on us after theyre done tellin us what to do

Bring them sheetheads on over here and we’ll hunt them down fer varmint bounties

Just try and make us eat all like salads and we’ll punch out your pasty faces

We’re sick and tired of hearing about the evils of donuts and the glory of tofu

Hell yes, let’s drill everywhere sos we can drive around alone, making lots of noise

Ain’t ridin no buses, scooters are for kids and feck yer teeny-weenie lectric cars

No way we’re trying to touch our heads to our butts doin this bullshit, faggot yogi

Veggies and fruit may be OK fer kids but grownup men need good red meat with ever meal

Meditatin aint got nothing to do with jesus word my friend, so you can jest ferget it

You can have yer overpriced artesian loaves cause traditional families like soft white bread

Let’s stone their botoxed pushy feminist leaders down at the county fairgrounds, just fer fun

You think we fight wars of liberation just sos you can go socialize our healthcare system?

Won’t give up this struggle til they peel the remote out from my cold dead fingers

So bring em on and we’ll take em on here, just like we done over there in Whateverstan

Violent Macho Vegan Fantasies

Come on out from watching football and let’s settle this climate change issue right here

There’s a vegan birdwatcher been lifting weights who wants to break some NeoCon face

Gonna enjoy smashing your snow machine on behalf of all the vanished wildlife

Would be happy to fill your car with all that trash from those drive thru windows

Put down your stupid firearms and let’s settle this like the TV men you dream of being

Gonna smack you down for the frogs you 4WD’d over while smirking-drunkenly, smug and secure

Got a squishy liberal hammer fist for sending research and engineering overseas

Here’s a broken tooth for your overspending role in this ridiculous credit debacle

I’m a sissy treehugger, but I’ll gladly bury a palm strike in your fat and outsourced face

How about a bony elbow to your unused head or skinny knee in your fast food gut

I’m calling you out over what you’ve done to this country over the past 40 years

I’m a weak and yellow bicyclist trained hard enough to snap your overburdened joints

I’ll show you tough on fucking defense you wheezing, red-faced, HamAndEggers

Bring it on and we’ll film liberal greenies tattooing your tired-out, freedom-loving asses

Putting you on notice that machoism can survive on organic salads and soy milk

Here’s a hard left hand for the channelized and poisoned rivers you leave behind

Let’s do this in a peaceful meadow that your smoking bulldozers have not found as of yet

I’ll quietly meditate and sip green tea as they carry you off after I finish your beating

You can review your mistakes with your personal savior during the ambulance ride

So, yeah, the Bushido Zen Way is not incompatible with a peace-loving heart

Been practicing chokes and armbars just for you while I was hugging all them trees

This peacenik calls you to go mano a mano over your standalone cowboy foreign policy

While you’re on your back, gonna put quiet mufflers on your moronic pickup

You’re gonna go back to the earth with me to enjoy some good old ground and pound

This proponent of universal healthcare wants to ensure you a safe and free trip to the ER

I’ll enjoy a fruit smoothie after I am de-con’d of all the bloody sweat from your fat body

Gonna Visualize World Peace as I knee your piggish face from a tight Mui Tai clinch

Step down out of those oversize pickups so I can knock the Budweiser right out of you

Wackos are gonna bitch slap you until you whine like your fat, spoiled and stupid wives

Socialist flag-burning recyclers will punish jet ski riders from full mount position

A meditating observer longs to slam a real patriot into the cage just to feel his pain

Gonna pay you back with elbows for letting them ruin our standing with the whole world

Callin you out for a beating on behalf of the lakes whose fish you have tainted

Taking you down hard for stripmining mother ocean and waltzing off with the cash

Here’s a vicious combination for the tortured cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and sheep

Gonna whup yer ignerant, selfish polluting asses and force feed you nuts, tofu and sprouts