Just 'cause . . .

Annabelle is a happy little dog, but seems especially since Dad trimmed her little floofy butt.

August Morning

It’s ripe, the melon
by our sink. Yellow,
bee-bitten, soft, it perfumes
the house too sweetly.
At five I wake, the air
mournful in its quiet.
My wife’s eyes swim calmly
under their lids, her mouth and jaw
relaxed, different.
What is happening in the silence
of this house? Curtains
hang heavily from their rods.
Ficus leaves tremble
at my footsteps. Yet
the colors outside are perfect--
orange geranium, blue lobelia.
I wander from room to room
like a man in a museum:
wife, children, books, flowers,
melon. Such still air. Soon
the mid-morning breeze will float in
like tepid water, then hot.
How do I start this day,
I who am unsure
of how my life has happened
or how to proceed
amid this warm and steady sweetness?

 - - - by Albert Garcia

Peak Summer

We're steeped deep in summer
And everything around me
Seems to indicate it'll never end
But still I'm spending time
Looking for the subtle signs
Trying to figure out when
We've reached peak summer
When the billion green trees
Start to dull ever so slightly
When the bounty of vegetables
Found at all the local farm stands
Start thinning in quantity and quality
When the Halloween candy
Appears in the supermarkets
And the Back To School! signs
Show up in the big box stores
When the sun sets a little earlier
And gets a little more noticeable
Each night, night after night
Until you start thinking about
How much daylight you've lost
All of the signs and all of the things
I've been noticing are telling me
That we're right in the midst of
Peak summer and if I'm not careful
It'll be completely over
And I'll have missed it entirely
As the season folds into fall

        by Eric Nixon

Wake up

Wake up

Make your bed

Shower

Wake the kids

Get dressed

Flip the pancakes

Make the lunches

Brush the hair

Tie a shoe

Pack a backpack

School drop off

Kiss good bye

Say I love you

Go to work

Then a raid

Then chaos

Then nightmare

Then fear

Then agony

Then silence

Mama wakes you

Kisses your face

Makes you pancakes

Peanut butter jelly lunch

Braids your hair

Takes you to school

Kisses your face

Says I love you

School day bliss

Friends

learning

Recess

Lunch

Walking home

No one there

No one there

Alone

Darkness

Chaos

Fear

Last kisses

Lost

Multiply by 680

Multiply by thousands

And count the millions

That the CEO of Koch Foods will make

ICE is Gestapo

trump is hitler

Who will you be

Freedom fighter or nazi

- - - - by Leslé Honoré

Here -

Let me give you a gun 
Because you have the right 
To bear arms 
Go ahead 
Murder babies 
In Sandy Hook 
And teenagers 
In Parkland 
And music lovers 
In Vegas 
And employees
In Aurora
And Shoppers 
In Walmart
And children on the streets of Chicago 
Let me give you guns 
You don’t have to do much 
Just give me some money 
I don’t care if you are 
Sane 
Just bring me green 
And I’ll give you ammo 
And pay my lobbyist 
To cover your government 
In blood drenched bills 
And arrange for the NRA 
To meet your president 
In a hotel 
And make his video of urination on a 
Russian prostitute 
Look like a Disney short 
Here 
Let me give you guns 
Because it’s your American birth right
Like baseball and apple pie 
And racism and genocide 
Like hate and capitalism 
Here 
Let me give you guns 
And when you weep over 
Your 1st graders 
Dead
Bullet holes bigger than golf balls 
And your high school students 
Swimming in the blood of their peers 
And co workers hiding behind desks 
Like they are in battleground trenches 
I’ll give you 
Thoughts and prayers 
This is a war zone 
But the idiot that hate elected 
Calls a national emergency 
For a border crisis that doesn’t exist 
And ignores the chalk outline drawn 
Around this entire country 
Here 
Let me give you a gun

  - - - by Leslé Honoré 

a racist is a racist is a racist

Here's the thing. 

We all know people who will look you dead in the eye and declare vehemently that they are not bigots.

 Fine. 

But. 

If you've paid attention to them over the years, you've seen the little cracks. 

Those off-hand remarks. 

Sly, but telling. 

And now, because of Chief Racist Rapist they're becoming braver and slimier. 

Because they truly believe that because of the color of their skin they're "better." 

Those well-dressed, educated folks who go to church every Sunday and call themselves Christians but aren't batting an eye at children in cages are no better than that red-neck truck driver with a confederate flag in his back window who loves screaming the n-word as they race through small towns and country roads.

 Not one bit better. 

They just pretend they are, and they think they're fooling the rest of the world. 

And they silently cheer at their TVs as their president incites riots. 

They're the dangerous ones. 

They're the ones I despise the most.

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2019/07/30/im-not-an-angry-person-im-a-loving-person-who-is-angry/

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2019/08/03/the-hurtful-church-of-jesus-less-christians/?fbclid=IwAR0zGQgZm_Yem5b1JLx5jlUeY3vO-EBAYLOv0EjEnEZ9j3tGKqZHN6o8nlQ