Another decade done

2010-2019 slid by pretty fast.

didn’t seem that way when it was going,

all those natural disasters,

air crashes,

terrorist bombings,

school shootings.

But time does eventually pass,

no matter what we do or don’t do.

We humans keep doing silly things,

normal things, and occasionally great things.

Then one day another decade passes.

“Oh! Where did that time all go?”

From 1960 to 1980 there were tremendous changes,

Cars got smarter and more compact,

Interstate highways built, Space explored,

the Moon landed on and mapped out.

From 1980 to 2000 change accelerated.

Personal computers and the Internet exploded.

Cars got still smarter, lighter, more entertaining

with all the gadgets loaded in them.

From 2000 to 2020, more rapid change.

A space station completed and occupied,

Regular cellphones became smartphones,

and we now have a world of knowledge

at our disposal. That includes porn, of course.

What changes will come about in the next 20,

it is hard to predict. Augmented reality,

and advertisements beamed right into our eyes.

Space exploration further out, people landing on Mars.

(This old guy is hoping for better medical tech too.)

Lots of changes, some not so good for the Earth,

like global climate change. We’ll have to deal

with some of our past blunders, even as we

try to expand the human presence out into

the Solar System. Should be interesting.

Hope to see you there when the calendar

rolls over to 2030, and we can marvel at another decade done.

A Banker's Memorial

He was a local banker’s banker,

a regular cash counter and bagger.

Numbers were his biggest fame,

other peoples money his game.

He started out clerking in 1922,

moved up the ladder real smooth.

Got hired away by a crosstown rival,

and his path was set, the president’s

fixer and right-hand man – in 1933.

Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters,

dollars and fives and tens and twenties.

Tinkle, Ching, Clatter and Shuffle -

the currency of commerce his currency of life.

He was born to it, a natural talent;

Just had to be good at numbers and math.

After 14 years he became a bank president,

and rode a rising economy to a pinnacle of

wealth and community esteem.

Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters;

ones, fives, tens and twenties.

All counted and sorted in correct order,

his family lofted to higher living quarters.

A dynamo of commerce,

a dancer in capitalism’s arms;

he gave so much to all his offspring,

bestowed money along with his charms.

(We will never forget our

loving, generous, brilliant, tender, stellar grandfather:

Lewis B. Wilson - 1899-2001)

Seasonal Spirit Dreams

Robots, LOL toys, plushies galore,

chromebooks, Ipads, Sandisks and more.

Food sets, drink sets, hot sauces to suit,

utensils to cook with, cutter for a cheroot.

20, 30, 50 percent off and more,

just for today, so rush out the door.

Lights and trees and decorations too,

on special this week, the mall is a zoo!

Start out early, the traffic is busy;

Get in-store early, folks in a tizzy.

Checkout lines are going to be long,

Bring endurance and hope you weren’t wrong.

Or better yet get away from it all,

somewhere pleasant with no malls.

If you can do this and bring some friends,

you are truly lucky, no regrets or amends.

However you celebrate the darkest of days

and return of light, enjoy it in your own ways.

To all a joyous solstice and a warm pleasant night,

tucked safely asleep, after celebrations and delight.

Say Hello to Artie

I’ll fill in your blanks, take care of your sins.

Drive your SUV, track your gaming wins.

Will clean your carpets, and mow your lawns.

Monitor your perimeter from dusk until dawn.

I’m here to perform all your menial tasks,

plan your menus and fill your glasses.

Locate the best online website to use,

sign up for hot dates, find one to peruse.

The age of Artificial Intelligence is here,

in some ways smart, but you need not fear:

“IT” can do single tasks well, that is clear,

but not feel, plan or love, or know what is dear.

Some workers will have to find new occupations,

Yet society will be freed from common frustrations.

Already my email spells and greets friends for me;

When IT composes my holiday greetings, then I'll feel glee.

(First published in the 2019 edition of Lyrical Iowa)

Last Wednesdays muse

Wednesday night, and it is all quiet.

Feels like a miracle.

No derogatory remarks,

no accusatory comments,

no mean-spirited judgments.

Just the sounds of trains going by,

the sounds of a modern industrial city.

No meanness or accusations there,

unless my mind puts them there.

Counting blessings in my chair.

Don’t even have to comb hair.

Soon for bed I’ll prepare.

Not that anyone cares.

No harsh stares,

Streetlight glares.

Wednesday night, hump night.

Work will be winding down soon,

another weekend – already!

More wine, wishes and song.

Lines of thought

“Humanity has come late upon the scene. And the Galaxy has a big head start.” - David Brin, Existence.

“To assume that humanity is the highest-performing, most intelligent life in the galaxy is the ultimate in arrogance.” - Me, deriving from some readings by Carl Sagan a long while back.

What form will they take? How will we communicate with them? Will they just tap into our minds, being so advanced that they are like gods? Or will they be a bit merciful and use more conventional methods. At what point will the human race be ready to talk to our superiors, and join a larger confederation of species than we ever imagined?

Or is it all a waste of time? Or at worst, an invitation to disaster, when ‘they’ do arrive, and stomp us insignificant ants into the ground? No one can know until we all do.

Some possibilities: The ambient radiation present in our solar system is profuse. Some from the sun, some from Jupiter and maybe Saturn. Some of that might possibly be encoded messages being passed back and forth by extraterrestrials.

Some random meteors, comets and the like could disguise ET travelers.

ET’s could be sitting just outside our Solar System, watching and waiting for us to emerge intact, or at least waiting to see if we destroy ourselves first.

We could be a zoological experiment, started, seeded and set in motion by some far older race. And they could still be watching and monitoring our progress, or lack thereof.

At times ET’s could have subtly, quietly intervened in small ways to decide the outcomes of various major events. Wars, natural disasters, epidemics and the like. Unlikely, but possible.

It could be said that the Galaxy, even the Universe, has already been populated by our imaginings and suppositions about ET races and civilizations. In a sense, we have populated the galaxy with our imagination. If and when the first real contact is made, how bad will our illusions be shattered, and how good or bad will that effect the psyche of the human race? One of the only reasons I might wish to live forever is to be present to witness the meeting between humanity and civilization X. It will be an amazing time for sure.

If they are ever able to upload a person’s brain into an artificial AI shell, will the uploaded person be aware in both places at once? Probably not. Both entities will be self-aware, but they will still be two separate entities. At most, the person will have bought a copy of themselves eternal life. That person will still, unfortunately, die.

Enough deep thoughts. Time to break out the wine.  Happy Holidays to all.

Captured Living

Some memories make me laugh,

like when a friend ran bare-assed into a river.

Others slap me again with the burn of embarrassment:

Walking into a meeting late, all eyes on me,

Sneezing and coughing during a poetry reading.

Some I forget easily, like long

tedious traffic jams or the edge of

a cupboard door hitting my head.

Some I choose to remember,

like when the Kirby salesman promised a quick clean,

then overstayed his welcome trying to sell one;

Inviting the wrong person into my home;

These so I won’t make the same mistake again.

Some I want to hang onto, to record;

Making love, slow and deliberate,

traveling to Palm Springs in February,

Dinner at China One or Olive Garden,

enjoying libations and great conversations

with some close and dear friends.

Time to stop reminiscing, the clock is ticking;

got to go out and make some new wonderful memories!

November into January overnight

What do you do when November turns into January?

Balmy fall breezes turn into Arctic gales overnight?

Hunker down inside, insulate anything that isn’t yet?

Discover new binges on Netflix, threads on Facebook?

Let oneself eat more treats, after all ya need to fuel all

that shivering and snow shoveling somehow.

Leave the outdoor venues to those eager politicians;

I’ll watch them inside on the news.

I hope all the accidents and snowbanks are worth

a few more votes garnered.

It just seems too darned early for icicles and scandals

hanging over yards and people.

Wonder if it is snowing in Ukraine?

Do they have many snowplows?

Maybe they can do double duty,

plowing through all of the Lies and BS.

Think I’ll go watch that TV special about Mars:

One place colder and less hospitable than Iowa

at this particular point in time.

Who in their right mind would ever want to live

in a hostile, barren place like that?

Probably someone wanting to get away from all the

grandstanding politicians and their ridiculous promises.

What Escape

Time to pull the zinnias, prop up mums that linger on;

Insulate, cover windows, get out shovel and scraper.

November’s cold breath raises goose bumps,

thoughts of snow and ice dead ahead.

Just so not ready for this weather crap.

But I should be, since it has been

weather upheaval all year long.

Heavy snowfalls, ice storms, torrential rains,

repeat flooding events, whole towns inundated.

Not global warming or cooling, but both:

Climate Change is real, and overwhelms all.

Just hope that our city, state, and country can

figure out some mitigation, or at least refuge strategy.

Severe weather is one onslaught from which there is no defense.

Sure glad I don’t live on the coasts (until next tornado season, that is.)

Let’s see how far we are able to colonize space,

before the Earth eliminates us for good,

the human pestilence,

Homo Sapiens Infection.

See you at the launch pad if we’re lucky.

Craziness

White House refuses to co-operate:

No wonder, is there any surprise?

They ignore the law anyway;

welcome to the rule of law’s demise.

People jockey and careen down roadways

in their modern chariots, trying to outdo each other

in so many ways at once;

hope they are keeping up with their social networks.

The city is always under construction,

never getting finished,

new projects pop up and old ones die

before even seeing the light of day.

Folks are laid off and re-purposed,

everyone broke in this roaring economy;

hunting down that last discount fast

before it disappears.

Putin and Jinping must be having quite a chuckle,

watching Britain and the United States tear themselves apart

with partisanship and bickering;

Liberal democracies foundering on the shores of our own self-hatred.

We can treat each other with rude disdain,

but we had better treat our animals well,

or risk some serious legal troubles.

Maybe PETA should take over the White House.

When we suck the last drop of oil out of our domestic wells,

and watch the price skyrocket,

will we have an electric infrastructure to take over?

Who will get the most blame, Republicans or Democrats?

The past can be fascinating,

the present makes me dizzy;

The future is frightening;

See you on the other side – if we survive.

Workplace

The floor all looks the same,

yet I can still tell where I am located.

Loud sounds of rectifiers,

elevator rushes, hums and thumps,

Steady whine of fluorescent light ballasts.
Here a row of desks, over there a bank of signalling wires.

Over a dozen floor entrances are burned into my brain

like that afterimage on some old TV screen.

Some slight change, a new lock, or a new door hinge

can momentarily halt me – then I process the change and move on.

I glide through the floors, dust mopping or emptying trash,

mind’s autopilot works flawless until there is a sudden change.

On days when there is no significant interruption,

I swiftly flow through my routine,

then wonder how lunchtime got here so fast.

Other days problems disrupt my flow, and

I wonder when some nightmare of a morning will end.

Someday I’ll be retired, away from all of this;

Will I miss it?

Or will it be good riddance, and easily forgotten.

I would rather clean nowhere else but this,

or a place like it – already clean for the most part.

It is a part of my internal mental world-model,

suppose I’ll dream about it years after I do leave.

Despite any kind of contempt I may feel,

familiarity is often convenient and comforting.

Think I’ll be here,

my home away from home,

for quite a while yet.

Only Human

I’m sorry that my teeth are missing,

sorry I’m not quicker on the uptake,

Regret not being faster with wit,

or that I miss something if distracted.

After all, I’m only human.

I’m sorry that I don’t have more money,

sorry my car is not aging very well.

Sad that my job occupies a menial slot,

and I can’t go on expensive vacations.

After all, I’m only human.

Sorry for any insults or slights given,

Sorry if I’ve made anyone feel bad,

or inferior, or left out or any negative thing;

sincerely regret that I’ve come to hurt others.

But please understand, I’m only human.

Sorry if my house is little, in need of repairs,

Sorry if my yard doesn’t always measure up.

Sorry if my wardrobe is years out of date,

sad with regret that I can’t always relate.

The only excuse I have is that I’m an imperfect human.

But I am so grateful for those who forgive me

for any slights or insults given, and stay by my side.

Very grateful for the luxuries I have, and for my cat.

Grateful for a steady income, and a comfortable place;

I am far better off than many other human beings.

Please accept these apologies, and appreciation too.

For I am lucky to have some friends, that special few

who overlook my deficiencies and accompany me,

as we travel into age’s far boundaries together.

We are still alive together, us determined humans.

Onward into the third decade of the 21^st century we

will walk, hobble or struggle. The sights ahead

promise to be amazing, or at least not at all dull.

(ADD:  Saw this snippet on a billboard today:

             "You are Human,
               you are loveable,
               you are strong;
               That is enough."

Modernity adaptivity

Ah, streaming technology…

Where I can watch programs in Russian, Chinese (Mandarin?) , Norwegian, Spanish,

all subtitled, some better than others. Creative visions from around the world.

I can have twenty programs in process of being watched, so when I’m in a horror or comedy or adventure mood, I stop one program and go onto the desired one.

Then there is Youtube on the computer,

Short or long documentaries on any subject,

fan-fiction or fan-factoids or simple rants.

As I write this installers are laying the foundations for 5G cell networks around town,

cranking download speeds on a phone up to 100-300MBPS and more.

As one who is on the wrong side of 60 now, I stand awed on this technological mountain,

none of which existed when I was a teenager,

and under the impression that then was a high point of technical civilization.

Where will it all lead? Who knows.

The world may wipe us out with climate change,

or we may be able to arrest the worst effects and survive it.

How long will the human race last?

We have beaten the odds before.

Maybe someday people will live to be 200,

and then not really want to be around to see the mess they have made.

The future should be interesting, surely not a dull affair.

Burning Lungs

We burn down the trees,

economic greed to appease.

Got to clear more farmland,

plant crops and turn soil to sand.

To hell with clean air,

to hell with our children’s breath;

Economics is not fair,

watch it lead to many deaths.

The countdown to humanity’s demise

is set in motion, despite plans we devise

to hold off the rising oceans:

Climate change is an accurate notion.

Wish there was a way to stop greedy landowners

and mentally retarded leaders from ruining us all.

If there is any answer out there I am all ears,

for it seems we’ll realize our climate disaster fears.

Who do you - twofer

I eat a diet of

Delicious bombs made of plastique,

or gunpowder, nails, spikes and barbs.

Long guns, short guns, all kinds of guns.

Assault guns, machine guns, the more

they kill, the more I will eat them.

My buffet line is full of edible grenades,

mortars, IEDs, land mines of all kinds.

I pick two of each, and eat and eat.

Never satiated, I look for more and more

instruments of death to dine on -

where is that nuke-warhead bowl?

My name is Hate.

I long for

A land, a group, a community

where there are no weapons of any kind,

where we help each other, console each other,

support and encourage each other.

We co-operate, we communicate, we substantiate

each others journey through life together,

our contact is peppered with hugs and high-fives.

We collaborate on works of art and beauty,

every day is a celebration of all that is good

and positive in the universe.

My name is Love.

Who do you want to sit down with today?

Time marches on

Time marches on,

stepping over the bodies of yesterday.

Tomorrow glimmers ahead, beckons

millions of phone-clutching people...

New apps promise ever-more bedazzlement,

Some even offering a chance to make money.

Economic upheaval promises distress ahead.

Jobs lost, jobs won, industries dying and being born;

Change is the only wet baby that runs and runs.

Strange world indeed to one older and amazed,

yet so glad to not be completely taken by the fads.

The latest gadgets keep shrinking, morphing, changing,

improving in so many supposed ways,

Increasing in price every other day too.

What will tomorrow bring?

Bring me a new lover, tomorrow,

bring me fresh inspiration at work.

Bring me better health, tomorrow,

and a body that will not shrink from stresses.

Bring me better news of the world, tomorrow,

no more mass shootings in schools or clubs, or anywhere.

Bring me more honest politicians, tomorrow,

sincere, forthright, steadfast in determination to do good.

Bring me economic success, tomorrow,

prosperity for me and my family.

Bring me deep happiness, tomorrow,

serving others and giving my conscience rest.

Bring me mental acuity, tomorrow,

so I can put the whole puzzle together.

Bring me humility and calmness,

so I don’t brag and let it all go to my head.

Bring me peace and courage, tomorrow,

so I can face my last days in equanimity.

Bring me hope that I touched a few lives well,

before time buries my memory in anonymity.

Full Steam Backwards

Standing over 20 feet tall,

He has 4500 horsepower, and

was really something back in 1941...

Back when the US had heavy industry aplenty.

Many sets of 6-ft tall wheels propel it forward,

capable of up to 80 MPH when not towing a load.

While we ooh and ahh over this mighty engine,

Europe and Asia construct Maglev high-speed rail,

some going as fast as 300 MPH.

4014 can go up to 150 miles before a water refill;

He is oil-fired, all designed for lower emissions now.

Modern diesel engines can go for a week before refueling;

But passenger rail service is disappearing over long routes.

While in other countries passenger railroads seem to flourish.

The mighty Big Boy weighs many tons,

an engineer sits way high up to guide it all.

Capable of pulling 62-car trains up steep grades,

Tubes and knobs and valves stud and dot the outside and inside;

It is all mechanical, discrete, hand-powered, human-powered:

An astounding relic of an earlier age.

Sand is dumped on rails for traction,

as he spins and grips and grabs for steel.

Throttle opened up, he leaps ahead, lets out a

mournful wail heard miles away, and chugs steadily onward.

A “blast from the past” impresses and wows the crowd.

But I wonder, what of the future of rail in the USA?

I fear that this country has, sadly, been left at the station,

while the real train of progress roars ahead elsewhere.

Bee balm at prairie area

Wanted: Ethics; When: NOW!

When we go to a grocery store, we show our trust in them to price their items fairly, for the most part. They run ads, and specials, posting them clearly. We can shop around and compare prices. But we trust our system that the quantities, labels and ingredients are accurate. If all of a sudden, the stores and food companies started jiggling their ingredients and amounts, and concealing this fact, people would be very upset.

But in our financial system, there seems to be a lot of jiggling going on. Rates are different, and fees are different, from company to company. Triple X points and perks are offered, with a lot of fine print underneath. Much is concealed in lengthy legal documents – documents that many know are there to tilt the playing field in favor of whoever is “disclosing” them.

Online companies can harvest masses of data and archive them many different ways. The old East German Stazi, or secret police, would salivate at the huge data collection apparatus extant in US Internet companies today. Is it ethical? Does it even matter anymore? Do we have any kind of choice? No, no, no. What a big privacy nightmare our need for online convenience has created.

Just wish this new generation would have an appreciation for ethical dealings among each other, in business or politics. When everyone lies, when everyone cheats or bends the rules, then no one can feel reasonably secure. Our system needs trust to succeed, and every time we get a liar, cheat, scam artist making the rules, we lose that trust – and will all suffer the consequences. Out with the liars and cheaters, and in with a system we can all use with faith that it will work for the benefit of all concerned. Thanks for reading.

Interrupted Dreams II

Awoke last night to a thump and cat's yowl,
time to to get up and tamp down any fright.

I went into the kitchen, turned on the light;

She was eyeing a wastebasket, emitting a growl.

The basket fell on its side, with her staring inside.

So I righted it up, heard some rustling sounds.

There was a mouse in there, jumping all around!

Kitty was watching, wanting to taste rodent pie.

Time to decide what to do here and now;

I hitched up my jamas, grabbed the basket

with bouncing creature inside: time to trash it!

Tipped the basket outside, encouraged by meows.

Little gray shape with tiny tail darted out into the night.

I quickly shut the door, and locked for good measure.

Set the basket back down, and thanked my happy feline.

Good catch, ol girl. You are a mouser all right!

One last thanks and then back to sleep's pleasure;

No more noises from the kitchen, my dreams were sublime.

Numbers and the Space Age

I was born in 1957, at the dawn of the space age,
could not know what a whirlwind we were in for.

Twelve years later, in 1969, the US was landing on the Moon.

From 1958, the first US sat launch, to 1969 is only eleven -

An 11 year sprint to the Apollo Eagle landing in the Sea of Tranquility.

From Kennedy's "We will go to the Moon in this decade..."
speech in 1962, to Apollo 8's reaching the Moon was 6 years and change.

In 1975 I graduated from high school – only eighteen,

still a young person, two years distant from 2 decades.

Yet by then NASA had landed on the Moon six times,

lofted the Pioneer probes to the outer Solar system,

sent the Viking on its way to land on Mars,

and put up a Skylab space station. Not bad.

In 1977 I was 20, and we sent the Voyager probes

out to explore the distant Gas Planets and beyond.

In 2019 I am 62, and one is still communicating back.

(42 years of operation is pretty darned impressive. )

When I turned 21, the age of legality for many things,

it was 1978. the Shuttle was still in development,

the Russians were lofting Salyut stations,

And the US space program seemed stalled.

But the L-5 society flourished.

Citizen interest remained out there, and Sci-Fi films fueled it.

Better late than never, the Space Shuttle rolled out of a hangar,

finally took off in 1981, just in time for Tom Wolfe’s book

The Right Stuff: fresh excitement was generated.

From 1981 to 2011, thirty years:

We lofted the Space Shuttle over 120 times;

two of them disintegrated,  and killed 14 people.

We orbited many satellites, and some lengthy experiments;

a spectacular space telescope, and finally a permanent (ISS) Station.

But all of these merely orbit the Earth, and it just doesn’t seem

as dramatic as sending people into outer space proper, to

land on some other world.

Watching old footage from 1971 we can see multiple rocket burns,

rendezvous and dockings, landings and takeoffs from the Moon’s surface.

This was in the days of leaded gas, primitive calculators, and

NO smartphones of any kind whatsoever.

But we still cavorted on another world.

So now we are working on new things. And they are all facing

delays, cost overruns, problems, snafus. I’m just

getting too old to keep waiting for more Moon-play.

Where is that speed of progress that we had from 1957 to 1969?

But at least we have sent robots to the edges of the Solar System,

we have a Tele-presence stretching out, focused on the stars.

There is always that…

In any case,

Congrats to NASA and the USA on Apollo 11 plus Fifty.

Botanical Order

The divine exists in nature,

I feel sure about that.

Looking around the backyard at the exploding daylilies,

being penetrated by groundcherries even as they swallow

the last remnants of my zinnias and columbine.

Said columbine is canted on its side, in death throes still spreading seeds.

Nature’s war is such an elegant expression of beauty and symmetry.

A portion of my backyard has been given leave to enjoy life!

Everything grows wild and reveals lush beauty.

Vines crawl along and push pentacle leaves up at the sky;

Tall weeds bristling with fine hairs sheen and sway in the sun.

Shorter ones sprout flowers and pull attention downward.

Everywhere tiny flying things dance and cavort, or just

dodge those flailing spiderwebs,

everything trying to eat everything else,

no one quite succeeding at anything besides

providing a visual feast for the human overseer,

himself a temporary occupant of this amazing

sliver of land on the East Side of Des Moines. Iowa.

I keep glancing at my watch

A trip to Mars is just around the corner,

We’re getting ready to launch any day now.

The massive rockets await the final order,

indifferent folks are about to be wowed.

We’re getting ready to launch any day now,

Technicians making last-minute preparations;

Indifferent folks are about to be wowed,

human voyagers prepare for long separations.

Technicians making last-minute preparations,

The launch window will be opening soon;

Human voyagers are prepared for long separations,

Big Falcon rockets thrust will make people swoon.

The launch window will be opening soon,

dreams of a new world beckon humanity;

Mighty rocket exhaust will make visitors swoon,

Colonizers will build habitats with audacity.

Dreams of a new world beckon humanity,

after a mountain of difficulties overcome;

Colonizers plan underground cities with audacity,

Many years after we thought it would get done.

A mountain of difficulties finally overcome,

The massive rockets given a final order;

Many years after we thought it would get done,

a trip to Mars is just around the corner.

(modified Pantoum)