Unsolicited Advice for Future DPRK Visitors

Mathew Miller and Kenneth Bae arrived home from North Korea yesterday. (Photo/DPRK.org)

DPRK's just released Americans they had;

These 2 were the last they held.  They're home and I am glad.

I just wish that we'd stop going when it's all too clear

Kim Jong-un is paranoid.  His people live in fear...

Fear that if they talk to us they're gonna land in jail.

Should we interfere and try to help we're doomed to fail.

If we get arrested breaking their laws over there

We have hope of rescue; they do not...  It's hardly fair.

North Korean prisons aren't a place you wanna be.

Life is hard enough in North Korea when you're free;

Where the fear you're being watched by everyone is true.

It's not paranoia when they're really after you.

The Beautiful Game?

Soccer fans are flocking to the cities of Brazil,

Met by angry residents who'll have to foot the bill

For the World Cup tournament that they are hosting there.

It's the biggest thing in sports...  Americans don't care.

Our team's in the "group of death;" unlikely to advance.

So much so, our coach has said that we don't stand a chance.

Plus, it's not that popular here in the U.S.A.

We prefer the kind of football NFL teams play.

'though the world calls soccer "football" ('cause they use their feet)

Here a forward pass is something quarterbacks complete,

Not a kick from guys in shorts that cause a ball to roll

Toward some other guy in shorts who'll try to block the goal.

I know that the world may disagree, but it's a bore.

There's a lot of running but nobody seems to score.

If they do they bellow "Goooaaal!" when balls go in the net...

It's how they awaken fans who fell asleep, I bet.

Google Won't Forget This

People throughout history have tried to leave their mark,

Hoping we'll name streets for them, or schools...  Perhaps a park.

Something that survives us after we are in our grave,

Yet we all  have made some marks that we don't want to save.

It might be a drunken photo or a careless tweet;

Information you don't want to share with folks you meet.

Something you don't talk about with people from your church...

Things that they can learn about you with a Google Search.

In the state of Denmark though, if you did something rotten,

European Union passed the Right to be Forgotten.

You can have those links removed - you only have to ask.

Google says complying is a monumental task.

If you're an American you do not have this right

So, if you're debating if it is or isn't bright

To do something that you'll later wish you could forget,

Just remember - what you do stays on the internet.

Israeli Settlements - An Irish-American-Agnostic's View

(Map/Courtesy of BBC News)

I am not Israeli, so I can't know how it feels;

Do not have a history of loss time never heals.

Don't know what it's like to have bombs falling from the sky;

Every day - afraid someone I love is gonna die.

I'm not Palestinian and can't know how I'd feel

Watching as Israelis do their very best to steal

Land that once belonged to me...  And, why? Because God said?

Their belief my neighbors want to see all of them dead?

I was born of Irishmen with Troubles of their own.

Saw the hatreds grown through seeds that history has sown.

Any time you mix God up in boundary disputes

Peace trips on religion and it tumbles down the chutes.

I am an American who doesn't understand

Why is it that settlements are built on Arab land?

Surely, everyone can see that's making matters worse?

Numbers should be falling but they're doing the reverse.

I am an agnostic; I don't follow any church.

Doesn't mean I think that God has left us in the lurch.

I believe that God is there and angry at the mess

We have made out of the gifts which He gave us to bless.