Go Vote!

 

I'll be glued to coverage of the returns tonight,

Hoping that the country will impose some oversight

On a President who's been behaving like a troll.

This mid-term election is about our country's soul.

Here it is...  November 6th, and I've already voted.

Turnout was much higher than I've previously noted:

Younger voters who don't normally participate,

Brand new voters at the polls deciding their own fate.

It's unprecedented in a mid-term that we see

Hordes of people taking part in their democracy.

Pollsters are reluctant to predict the tighter races

Because lines are out the door at many polling places.

Hopefully this indicates a Democratic wave;

Citizens who feel this country's worth the fight to save

From the demagoguery we've been subjected to.

It's a referendum on what is and isn't true.

Happy 21st Birthday Darlin'!

 

We do not have children now...  Both sons are young adults.

We've been raising them for years; we're thrilled with the results.

Youngest son turns 21 today... There'll be a crowd;

Family who love him and the parents he's made proud.

Sitting here - remembering the day that he was born -

Looking back on all the years and trying not to mourn

For the end of childhood and the turning of a page,

Starting a new chapter as we reach this milestone age.

Going out for Mai Tais - which he swears will be his first...

Maybe so, although I'm pretty sure he's quenched his thirst

On a beer or two or six before but, what the hell,

If he's happy and his college grades are doing well?

This is it! Your time to shine, my darlin'... Have some fun.

Happy Birthday - and a few suggestions for you son:

Take it easy when in pubs and don't debate a punk.

Call an Uber and remember - No one likes a drunk.

Hurricane Florence

Image courtesy of ABC News.

Florence is a "monster;" she's a Category 4.

Both the Carolinas braced for when she comes ashore.

Mass evacuations all along the southern coast.

Residents who try to ride it out at home are toast.

Florence isn't like the other hurricanes we've seen

And she's gonna hang around the region, which will mean

Rain they're measuring in feet with flooding in its wake.

Choosing to ignore the warnings is a huge mistake.

Stock up on supplies; check on your neighbors if they're old.

Please stay safe...  Evacuate if that's what you've been told.

Do not risk yourself - or others - leaving things to fate.

Get yourself to higher ground before it gets too late.

In Memoriam - Senator John S. McCain III

 

With the passing of a patriot like John McCain

My hopes for the country that he loved went down the drain.

No one else has shown the courage he showed 'til the end;

Few have tried to reach across the aisle and make a friend.

(My dad shared a room at the Academy with John

And the stories of the escapades those two went on

Kept us entertained and made me love John even more...)

Would have made a better President than Bush or Gore.

Sixty years of service to the country he adored;

I'm sure heaven has already welcomed him aboard.

He was an example to us all throughout his life.

Praying for his friends and family and lovely wife.

Dear Sports Gods; Definitely Not Gloating!

 

I am being very careful as regards my Sox

Because I am superstitious, which my husband mocks.

He does not believe in sports gods; said they're just a joke.

I bet that his Yankees wish he'd thought before he spoke.

Red Sox are so far in front of other baseball teams

They've exceeded even Fenway Faithful's wildest dreams...

But, I'm trying not to gloat before the play-offs start

Knowing that it risks the sports gods breaking Boston's heart.

Go ahead and laugh it up! Feel free to talk some trash...

Don't believe me! Then, when all your sports dreams turn to ash,

I won't say I told you so (that makes the sports gods mad)

But I will be thinking it...  And gloating, just a tad.

Shakespeare Revisited

 

"Something's rotten in the State of Denmark," Shakespeare said...

Then, in just a few short acts, the whole damn cast is dead.

As our current tragedy unfolds - the play undone -

I'm afraid our State will end up like that other one.

Men and women merely players; all the world a stage.

Our mad king's soliloquies are on his Twitter page.

Something isn't only rotten here...  It stinks like hell.

Alas for our democracy.  I thought I knew it well.

Methinks I doth smell a rat.  Its name is Donald Trump;

An Othello with the intellect of Forrest Gump.

In this comic tragedy we're in, perhaps it's best

If a flight of federal agents sing him to his rest.

The Free Press - Front-line Soldiers in the Culture War

 

If you've read my rhymes before than you are well aware

I'm concerned the fabric of our nation's gonna tear.

We're divided into camps who cannot get along;

Each of us convinced the other side has got it wrong.

We can't even seem to all agree on basic facts;

True or false depends on how the president reacts

Which depends on how his friends on FOX report their "news"

Based on some conspiracy as asinine as Q's.

Donald Trump continues to attack the 4th Estate,

Saying they're the reason why America's not great.

He's called them "disgusting...traitors." Claims reports are "fake"

Anytime he doesn't like the news, for heaven's sake!

What about the evidence out there for all to see?

What about objective truth or plain reality?

Hard to spin the cold, hard facts ('though Giuliani tries)

Can't ignore that Donald Trump is telling voters lies.

Yet, somehow, the president has managed to convince

His supporters they should not believe reporters, since

They're all out to get him with their slanderous attack

And he needs true blue Americans to have his back.

So, they all fall in to line and truth's a casualty

In this culture war Trump's launched against a press that's free.

Journalists are patriots.  They're holding down the fort.

They deserve our gratitude and have my full support.

Happy 23rd Birthday Darlin'

Our son says nobody likes you when you're 23...

I suspect he's quoting Blink 182 at me.

Since our eldest will be turning 23 today,

Want to tell him he should not believe a word they say.

I know lots of people who think he is pretty great;

Funny, smart, and handsome and, on this auspicious date,

As we celebrate another birthday with our son,

We hope he discovers 23 is lots of fun.

It's an age when you're considered one of the adults;

Old enough your education's showing some results,

Young enough you haven't started dragging your caboose

But, when you screw up, you still have youth as an excuse.

Hate to disagree but Blink 182 is wrong;

Twenty-three's the perfect age, so don't believe their song. 

It's your year for doing all the things that you enjoy...

Trust your mom on that and Happy Birthday darlin' boy.

Carpe Aestas

 

How is it already August? Wherefore went July?

Is it only me who feels like summer's flying by?

I have not been swimming in the ocean, even once;

Haven't been up to the mountains...  What am I? A dunce?

There are gorgeous beaches less than 40 miles away,

Or a pretty inn in Woodstock where we like to stay.

Why then am I sitting here and writing stupid rhymes?

I should be at Michael's drinking G&Ts with limes.

I don't have a good excuse for sitting here at home.

Need to stop procrastinating; book my trip to Rome,

Grab a bathing suit and get my fanny to the beach...

Carpe diem...  Time to go and practice what I preach.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

 

I have got a cookie recipe that's quite a hit.

Only problem I've encountered is I'm writing it

With this rhyming bug of mine so, do excuse me, please...

Seussilitis ain't ideal for sharing recipes:

Place 2 sticks of softened butter in a mixing bowl.

Add a cup of packed brown sugar. Crack in 2 eggs (whole)

Plus another cup of  sugar (granulated, white)

And 1 cup of peanut butter.  Blend 'til smooth and light.

1 and one half teaspoons baking soda. Then add 1

Teaspoon baking powder, half of salt (You're almost done.)

2 and one half cups of flour; bag of chocolate chips.

Mix, then chill the cookie dough (and wave good-bye to hips.)

Roll the dough into a ball and then in sugar, too.

Place the balls on cookie sheets and grab a fork, then you

Press down. Put them in the oven (350) to bake

For 10 minutes... Couldn't be much easier to make.

I Can't Look

I'm afraid to look and see what Michael Cohen's tape

Causes Donald Trump to tweet about his latest scrape

With the law...  I wonder if he'll tweet it all in CAPS?

Or, if he will start a war the next time that he snaps.

Or, is this new scandal meant to cover up his last?

And, which one was that, exactly?  They go by so fast.

Were we still on Putin?  Hell...  I'll have to check my list;

It's the one with reasons I continue to #RESIST.

It's a pretty lengthy list and, 'though I've written small,

I've required several pages just to hold it all.

Guess my list is not the same as those inside Trump's camp.

If it were, then they - like me - would all have writer's cramp.

What's Happening? Part 3

Donald Trump did everything except bestow a smooch

Right on Putin's Russian ass - completely screwed the pooch.

Dancing like a puppet to the tune that Russia sings...

Makes me wonder why Trump's letting Putin pull his strings.

Trump said that he couldn't understand why Russia would

Meddle in U.S. elections and that Mueller should

End the witch hunt... Never mind that everyone agrees

Presidents leave politics behind when overseas.

Presidents don't disregard the briefings from their staff,

Don't ignore indictments, then explain it as a gaff.

They trust their intelligence reports and don't agree

With the word of former members of the KGB. 

I don't know what's happening or how we reassure

NATO allies in the region, but one thing's for sure

Putin got the guy he wanted - Trump as president -

And he's proving more than worth the rubles Russia spent.

The Celebrity President

 

I don't watch Big Brother; I don't watch The Bachelorette.

There are no Real Housewives fighting on my TV set.

I can't stand the kind of shows they call "reality."

I don't find them entertaining; not my cup of tea.

I do not like any shows where judges make a choice -

If someone is talented, can dance, or has a voice.

Not the target audience at which the Networks aim;

I don't want to see somebody's dreams go down in flame.

It's the kind of TV genre that the president

Loves the way that he loves FOX & Friends, because he spent

Years when his own program, The Apprentice, was the rage.

Sadly, he has brought this genre to a larger stage.

Tune in for his big reveal, tonight at 9 PM,

When Trump names his SCOTUS pick; his second one of them.

'though I'm a Survivor, I feel Naked and Afraid...

Sure that I'm not gonna like whatever choice he's made.