BARBARIANS AT THE GATES Once Rome attained its pinnacle Remained on top of things. Though forces quite inimical Sought to destruction bring. Some conquered thought despicable Rome’s impositioning Of laws it deemed applicable When “Pax-Romana”-ing Four centuries continuous Spanned Romans’ reign as king Throughout the lands contiguous Mediterranean. Just like empires classical From whom […]
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OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS Although there was no Noah Or Gilgamesh around, No blast like Krakatoa To deafen with its sound, The Ocean of the Indies Awakened from its sleep When scarp off Indonesia Collapsed in Sunda Deep. The nine-o quake by Richter With cataclysmic force Unleashed a silent killer Unnoticed at its source. A bump upon the […]
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IN WILLIAMSBURG In Williamsburg we learn How freedom ours was earned, At least for lucky born Of alabaster skin. Their independence claimed By declaration famed That Founding Fathers framed, Though was still had to win. But if from continent Of African descent, Whatever effort spent Was not for likes of you. Four score and seven years Still had to bear […]
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HERO OR ZERO? To die on the battlefield leading a charge, Your body upon a shield, burned in a barge – An image heroic of Viking portrayal Approvingly stoic, quite worthy of hail. The fireman rushing pall-mall into blaze As on 9-11, the last of his days. No body recovered from building’s collapse. Just wife, children, mother to […]
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THE END I witnessed the end of the world today.* Galactic alignment blew it away. The sun grew much hotter; neutrinos changed And heated the core till crust rearranged. So much speculation to Mayan doom: An asteroid fatal may nearby loom, Or gamma ray burst from galactic core Could fry the earth’s surface like none before. […]
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SMALL BEFORE THE SEA We have only pictures, A journal and rubble From what was a fixture To keep ships from trouble. A lighthouse, built sturdy, On Unimak island Around 1940, With Coast Guard as client. Five Guardsmen were manning The station that morning, Both horn and beam spanning The sea with their warning. At […]
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STILL HAUNTED (DALLAS ‘99) The cheering crowd three dozen years Ago’s no longer there, But, as I watch, their ghosts appear And toward the limo stare. A sunny noon in late November Nineteen sixty-three; A lady dressed in pink remembered Waving happily. The honoree next to his wife, The Man whom crowd adores. Except for One […]
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CRIMEAN PUNISHMENT Apparently,once the gods had fumed Atgrowing decadence, they were doomed. Nolonger culture pre-eminent, Atlantisunder the sea was sent. Competingtheories have been put forth Ofancient civilization north Ofwhere the Black Sea has always lain Ononce quite fertile Crimean plain. Onefaction claims Plato had it right – Atlantisvanished in just one night Whenearthquake cracked geologic flaw Releasingdeluge […]
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HOTAND COLD Perhaps 100million years To rise from naught, then disappear Above the Hot Spot in the Earth That to Hawaiian Chain gave birth. The oldest now perhaps just stumps, Once mountains proud, now merely bumps Long passed from magma cauldron where They first broke through the surface there. The youngest rise majestically For miles above […]
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VEXED OF KIN You pick your friends, but not your kin. Once stork descends with you, you’re in Whatever group that Fate selects, Who’ll mold you to what they expect. To some degree, your genes decide What you will be, who you’re inside. But those you’re with through early years Upon your pith their likeness sear. […]
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