I’ve cried the Star-Spangled Banner
I’ve traveled America the Beautiful
I’ve faithfully Pledged Allegiance
I’ve sworn to protect her secrets
for which I had privilege to know.

I’ve saluted independence in poem,
and yet I’ve seldom realized
this is by fortune of birth for which
my joy and pride and all I respect
and hail as great is so rare and precious.

Independence and freedoms won
through blood and sweat and tears
and intellect and high ideals in times
long before, and in moments everyday
by those who keep the faith and
keep a most holy watch.

Something sought or required
Like the movie with Billy Crystal
who is looking for that One Thing.

But isn’t this what life is, the
Quaesitum… the grand quest in
life for that one thing?

As Curly said, in City Slickers
“It’s up to you to figure it out”
…  your one thing.

Life is a complicated thing
but so often the one thing
for each of us is a simple thing

May your life quaesitum
be worth the journey, worth the
quest, and you find your one thing!

The seas are a brutally unforgiving
place to challenge adventure, and even
more dangerous for migrations to a better life.

We are simultaneously fascinated with risk
of discovery while repelled by the desperate hope
for a better life for the most unfortunate of us.

We cannot look away as five
wealthy thrill seekers face
their tragedy of life existence…

While we can easily look past another
unremarkable sinking of an overcrowded
boat taking the lives of hundreds of migrants.

What is wrong with humanity and
our fascination with the extraordinary
adventures of a few wealthy tourists?

While the drowning of hundreds of
unfortunate migrants fleeing oppression
causes us nary a shake of the head?

Where is our interest, where is our
concern, what resources are applied
to rescue, what resource to prevention?

We must wonder about how we value lives
and how we mete out our limited
attention, resources and prayers?

A longing and desire
for something unique
for something tasty
for something valuable.

A tendency toward and
an affinity for activity
and action and power
a compulsion of sorts.

His need for power and
esteem is an appetency
which has driven his
entire existence.

Conveyed in crowd size,
ratings, the stars on the
shoulders of those who
served at his table.

The documents and trappings
of greatness, and importance
hoarded and protected
like fireflies in a bottle.

The women treated as
trophies of conquest,
no different than the
magazine covers, of his likeness.

Like Narcissus lost in the
his own reflection, he
has no soul, only the
reflection of a crafted image.

His appetency will be
the end of him just the same
and with this the honor
of all who held the mirror.

Appetency was the word of the day today… I thought it was very interesting…. the definition is included in the beginning of the poem. 

“Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues. You are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,”  … Liz Cheney.

Time is on my side says the patient man,
waiting for the moment to show his hand.

And yet time is no one’s friend,
it wins the long-game in the end.

Moments are very soon to pass
for those who thought it would last.

As if next-time would always be there,
because the last-time failed to declare.

And time will not be banked says the wise man,
it is to be spent before slipping through your hand.

The gift of present-time we should all be aware
is the most precious thing this life can share.

It has a nice ring to it…
Free as if it has no cost,
but it does.

Dom, as if it is a state of being
endowed as a right,
easily trampled.

Often heard as a rally cry
by those who intend to
strangle it.

Ringing true as a bell
in the subconscious of
those asleep.

Keeping them asleep,
for fear they should
awake.

For they might then see
that freedom doesn’t
mean alike.

U who are greatly unique
and highly unusual.

The three U’s of unusual
one up the tu of unique.

There should be a
museum of the unusual U,

where certainly there’d
be long queues on Tuesdays.

And of course ed-U-cation
to be found at the U of U

for the highly unusual and
greatly unique U.

We may be energetic and restless as a people
but we are also static, and bound to our homes.

We move on with great difficulty, but we move
on in mass and until we find ourselves home again.

Goodbyes are tearful, some can never be said,
Memories, legacy and purpose abandoned to hope.

We who are the fortunate children of past migrations
Potato famines, wars, persecution, gold or adventure.

We should naturally sympathize with the plight of
millions on the move, for they are who our ancestors were.

But alas, many would rather pull the ladder up with us
when we leave the bottom, in the name of national security.

We would define our world and there’s as if they were
something alien and unworthy of the hope and dreams we have.

We are no different, we are they, but for the sake of fortune,
and someday their children and children’s children will be us.

The next wave is here, changing us forever, resistance is both useless and unfair. Life is precious and so is unwavering hope.