decades of changes

we need drop in centers 
with volunteers who are kind, 
caring people with extra time 
to give genuine attention to all who enter

if the disease people are dying of
 is loneliness, 
perhaps the help needed is not medical, 
but social



perhaps the people who need to make 
these calls are neighbors, caring people 
with extra time, old folks looking for 
new friendship adventures?

the way to get money out of politics 
is to make it irrelevant
Vote, and also Volunteer 
to be a strong voice for democracy

how about we stop dividing ourselves 
into categories for hating?
how about we look at another person 
and see humanity writ large, the place 
where we all belong, working together 
to better our lives instead of wasting 
our precious human lives 
in fantasy wars?



we, all of us who live within societies, 
deserve that there be no poverty
it is not only the potentially impoverished 
who suffer from that lack of basics, 
but all of us who get to live within that fear, 
who get to live within impoverished places 
and the associated ills, who get to feel those 
reverberations throughout society, the cruelties, 
hungers, desperation, spread  of untreated 
illnesses, fewer customers for what we sell, 
wasted lives that might have been 
spectacular




 people in good health, well-educated, in stable, 
health-promoting environments means better 
workers/leaders/citizens/families/neighborhoods/lives 
much less costly than allowing social problems to fester



seems to me, when we fail to call out 
and demonize, or even normalize, or even 
congratulate bad (hurting others for fun) 
behaviors, we ARE ruining those young men’s 
lives horribly — 
taking from them what could be good lives 
of true morality and compassion, positive 
relationships and such



I want to ask:
All of these innocent, good, precious 
human lives destroyed for the sadistic entertainment 
of wealthy megalomaniacs — is this who you choose 
to elect, promote, worship, strive to become, are?

Why shouldn't I
while away, wander
pretty pictures in my head
Instead of angry or sad,
luxuriate in pleasure
only imagination provides



I am not who I was
those stories fading into
competition with fantasy
I have no picture in my mind
of that me I might be
No reason, apparently for
notice by those busy with
stories of their own
No desire nor need for
responsibilities to people,
or even ideals, giving
nothing to me
Self-appreciation to be
real, meaningful
can not be reliant on 
the kindness of strangers
or the sad remembrance
of unkind friends

Stories are consolidated
knowledge -- a way of making
knowledge real

I like to solve problems,
answer questions
find the answer within
the question
at the problem's core

Of course you want your
women unconscious
so they won't know what
a terrible lay you are

They are the stars that guide me
through this vast unmarked expanse

I believe what I believe
based on insubstantial memories
After all these decades of
changes -- this is who I am
today

10/8-23/26