February 2023
Bio Note: I am a regional VP of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and currently serve on the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission. Many of my poetic prompts come from news headlines. I enjoy play time with my 7 year old grandson every Wednesday afternoon.
No Greater Love
Video captures 10 year old boy saving mom from drowning
- Newser website, 8/30/22
At first I don’t know why this headline
bothers me. A boy, ten years old
is saving his drowning mother.
What could be more video-worthy
in today’s YouTube world?
It will probably be featured
on local news wherever local is.
Then it hits me. Someone on the shore
is holding a camera videotaping
this ten year old’s ordeal.
Do you get the picture?
Can I finish this poem right here?
Mug and Brush Meditation
Feather in the bay rum lather like Bob Ross
painting snow-covered pines, coating each whisker
making it stand straight.
Pay close attention to the skin
above and below the lips
anticipating a kiss.
Rinse the blade often using
the hottest water available.
Play Leonard Cohen’s Dress Rehearsal Rag.
Cover your face with the soap
now you’re Santa Claus
but please, use a safety razor.
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Far-right congresswoman says the violent crowd would have won
on January 6 if she and Steve Bannon had planned it.
-The Guardian December 12, 2022
If Marjorie Taylor Greene
had planned the attempted coup
it would have been quite a different scene
with a different ending too.
Like a modern day Joan of Arc
she’d have picked up arms and donned her armor
she’d have given Bannon’s coup a spark
and ended up as Steve Bannon’s paramour.
They’d be like a reigning king and queen
with the prime minister Donald of Orange
I can’t say just how it would have been
because I can’t rhyme anything with orange.
©2023 Ed Werstein
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