DeKorte November 11, 2019

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nothing less

It's going to be a life and death struggle

To compel the fossil fuel extraction industry 

To leave all that money in the ground 

Expropriating the billionaire owners.

The good of the planet and the people of the world

Our rallying cry against the self serving capitalists

Requires nothing less than removing their class 

Taking the power from them to change everything. 

Right now they are in complete control

The courts the police the politicians all do their bidding 

The media tell us anything else is unthinkable 

Even as the climate crisis emergency hits home. 

But when the idea of the socialist alternative takes hold

Spreading through every place and every way

Mobilizing all manner of actions to seize the day

There will be no stopping the determined population.

Today their government eliminates all restraints

Against the rapacious destruction of the environment

In a desperate rush to cash in at the last minute

Before popular anger slams the door shut. 

Tomorrow necessity will be the mother of invention

Transforming how we live and work together

Based on a whole earth health awareness

With science in the service of global well being.

engendered pronouns

She came up to me as she walked past

There in the back of the room during exercise class

Me active following along doing the workout moves

She unrecognized an unfamiliar face not participating. 

I looked at her as she spoke round face with white hair

Heard her tell me I had my harem around me

And I frowned back without pausing as she walked away

Feeling put off confused and disturbed by her remark.

She was aware as I am aware I am among women there

One of the few men at the senior center in the class

Where my moves seem awkward among the practiced ones

Where at times I feel out of place like an interloper misfit.

I do not expect to hear a sexist joke from a woman

Expecting I would be amused and pleased

As a kind of backhanded welcome to me in this group

That would make me complicit in oppressing women.

And who am I to deny having lived with the advantage 

Being male in a world where patriarchy is in everything 

Where fear of rape and violence against women is palpable 

Even in this room of warm bodies in exercise clothes.

If only a single pronoun were sufficient for all of us 

Like the way children might be if they were dressed as neutral

Before puberty hormones engender her adult shape

And the difference outlines their history of exploitation. 

Franklin Lakes Nature Preserve November 3, 2019

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Celery Farm October 30, 2019

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speaking up

She is in the teachers room eating lunch

When the innocuous talk shifts into racism

Confronting her two days before Halloween

“What’s wrong with blackface?”

She is in her classroom moments after dismissal

When a parent enters to question her lesson content

Teaching the science of climate change

Teaching about Indigenous Peoples Day.

Speaking up like she does is not easy

Holding up against the reactionary push back

Looking for ways to attack and isolate you

Trying to demoralize you into silence.

I am so proud of her determination

To be a teacher who inspires by example

To eradicate every form of ignorance and prejudice

She is a very special person to know.

Having such a daughter close to me

Talking together about the challenges in her life

Sharing in the happiness and optimism of youth

Makes me a very lucky man.

downstream

Some days I feel like we are all being swept downstream

Imbibing pollution in what we eat and drink and breathe

Sickening us in ways we don't fully understand

Captives in our fouled nest our planet earth.

My vision looking down from the bridge at Dunkerhook

Where the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook joins the Saddle River

Watching the mallards that make their home here 

Living a few miles downstream from the sewer treatment. 

Thinking of the filled septic tanker trucks we see arriving 

To flush their collected contents into that facility

Across from the Giant Farmers Market store

Where we go to shop for fresh produce.

When it hasn't rained or has rained a lot

We can smell the sewage there on the bridge

Even after treatment to remove certain pathogens

But today I am focused on the odorless medicine in it.

Those ducks are host to the H1N1 bird flu deadly to us

Ingesting this water laced with Tamiflu antiviral pills

Passed through human urine and bypassed by treatment

Causing the virus to mutate and develop resistance.

Closing the loop back on us everywhere we turn

What we and they consume is what we produce

Pesticides and herbicides and exhaust fumes

PFAs and PCBs and all the chemical alphabet soup.  

Even so I think a technical solution is possible

If only we do away with this political economic system

And turn loose human ingenuity on the problem

To create a sustainable cycle for all life to thrive. 

The tension between what is and what might be

Infiltrates into every conversation about existence 

Forcing its way into consciousness against all resistance 

Compelling intervention to take control of the future. 

her childhood bike ride

Listening to a dear friend tell us personal items

Charming as ever at ninety-eight-and-a-half

Happy to count the half years with her still with us

The way we did when our age held but a single digit.

We brought a pocket talker device with us

Hoping she would like hearing our amplified voices

As I fitted the headphones on her ears

Secretly taking my chance to caress her soft hair.

Turning on the mike brought a beautiful smile

Making my day rosy before I even sat down

To watch and hear her expressions of delight

Holding the things we brought to give her.

Fall colors in red maple and sweet gum leaves

Yellow gingko and white cedar and pine sprigs

Aromatic lavender and sedum flowers

Greenery picked from our yard this morning.

Then we heard from Rosie what it was like years ago

Like the eight months she was immobilized

After a bout with polio paralysis at seven years old

When she read the collected works of Mark Twain.

Cheerfully explaining how she became an atheist

Thanks to that reading thanks to catching polio

And how she learned to ride a bike to get around

But went right past the church on Sunday.

I can almost see her now pushing the pedals

Laughing as she goes by on her way to have fun

Heading to the river down by the dock

Free of illusions about priests and their God.

Sherman Hoffman and Cross Estate October 26, 2019

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being together

Let us raise our seltzer glasses together today

In praise and happiness to celebrate our union

The combination of mutual respect and attraction

That makes sharing our lives an endless enjoyment.

I remember the exact place on the path to the lake

That hike you took me on to see the mountain laurel

The blooms dappling the woods in shades of pink

When first I realized you would like me to kiss you. 

I remember where we were sitting and talking

The moment when I knew I could trust you

Hearing the genuine heartfelt honesty in your voice

As you spoke about yourself and your life.

I remember the day you boldly proposed to me

There in my kitchen where I served you dinner

That we should find a place to move in together

To join our lives together as full partners.

I remember the happy day when you agreed

To make our residence together official

Deciding you would like us each to wear a ring

Certain that our love for each other is true.

I remember all this and so much more

Being close to you all these years

And the best part is the new memories 

We make every day going wherever we like.

Doris Duke Loop October 24, 2019

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