Otto Electra, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

The “brute” as you anointed him
Became your looming enigma
Estranged by the infection
Of his leg amputation

His absence at the tender age of eight
Was the source of both your love and hate
His stern authoritarian latent mannerisms
Were the canyon of his glaring absence

In a shroud of necked boots, and a mustache
You imagined as a dash, dashing, revolting
Compelling, calling, you desired his presence
Resented his leaving, how could he do that to you

Bumblebees left the hive in your youth
The butterfly’s monarch left no honey
His bout with diabetes gave him gangrene
How thoughtless, and cruel, and mean

That seal had set in from San Francisco
And bloated his toe, some way to grow
Over the groves of weeds graves to mow
Ambiguous ghostly figure on show

You said you were through, but that wasn’t true
Ted was the sequel that irreversibly damaged you
The backs of camels broken by crowbars not straw
Servitude to his statue in Greece you never saw

I did not say “bless you”, when you wrote “achoo”
61 years since your demise, I wish I had eyes like you
I know not of Tyrol or Vienna barley, hops, or brew
I only know I want to write, as masterfully as you do

He was your ghost, and now my pen is your host
The haunting in my head, generations have gone by
Since you made your bed, and now I try to keep you alive
As if you were never dead.
(end)

To understand this poem better, read Sylvia Plath’s poems “Daddy” and “Colossus”.

Otto Plath was Sylvia Plath’s father, who had diabetes, and had to have his leg amputated because of gangrene and died from a pulmonary embolism as a complication of his leg amputation.

Some may consider her obsession with her dad’s death as Freud might have called it the “Electra Complex”, which is the opposite of the “Oedipus Complex”.

I have to admit myself, I am obsessed with Plath in much the same way she was with her father. Only in the context of her death being a mystery to me and he complexity being an enigma to me because I can’t sit down and talk to her. It is a chasm I cannot fill. I didn’t know her personally and but it is frustrating I cannot tell her what an impact she has had on me.

Otto Plath wrote a book on Bumblebee behavior “Bumblebees And Their Ways”, which was a biology book on bees.

Oblivious, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet On FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

Sometimes I wish I could be
As oblivious as the bluebird in the tree
No knowledge of human troubles
Nothing to bother me

No hate filled bigotry
No rejection of minorities
No abuse of authority
No corruption of charity

Sometimes I wish I could be
As oblivious as the whale shark in the sea
No knowledge of human troubles
Nothing to bother me

No worries of nuclear war
No mass shootings at the grocery store
No threats to democracy
No climate emergency

More often I wonder why
Others don’t open their eyes
And listen to our planet’s cries
Before our species dies.
(end)

Obituary Of The Unwritten, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

How can it be unleashed, much less written down
If in the reaches of my imagination
No inspiration is drifting around

It is an empty casket, no body to be found
It is the unlit pyre, burning nothing to the ground
It is the unplayed music, emanating no pleasant sound

How can it be described, or even read out loud
Hidden in dark shadows, obscured by midnight clouds
How can it be a poem, if it has no plot

It is the abandon building on the empty lot
It is the fallen apple, left on the ground to rot
It is the shattered hull, of the old sunken yacht

How can it evoke a sigh, or a lover’s cry
How can it draw a tear, to the reader’s eye
How can it lead to question with no reason why

It is the parched arid desert, midday heat of July
It is the dusty cob web, covering the rickety chair
In the musty basement, nothing lives down there
(end)

Silent Silhouette, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

Silent silhouette, lurks in ink
On the page, your words I drink
Mastery of imagery on the brink
The alure of the abyss, death’s kiss

You did the deed, dead hand
Why? What was it about that finality
That tempted you like heroine
You spoke of it like a magic act

The last time, was your final,
The successful ones always are
You left me with no more words
Lurking in your ink, silent silhouette

Dead hand, oh what could have been
The volumes now forever unwritten
Lost to the dark possibilities
To never touch a page

Silent silhouette, you must know
I still occasionally scream backwards
In time, to call for you, to tell you
It was no call, it was a curtain call

Dead hand, you still possess my fingers
Everlasting, your memory lingers
The abyss cannot take from me
Though your flesh is no more

I still wonder about the milk set out
And the wet rags you studiously
Jammed in frames of window and door
And made the kitchen your expiration

As so careful as to not take your children
With you. Dead hand, so many decades
Later, silent silhouette, still lingering
Morbidly inspiring, forgive me

If I say to you sweet silent silhouette
Dead hand, that still possesses me
Please, oh please, please forgive me
If I say, I will not follow that call

I am that air you eat, bittersweet
Longing for my ink
To be immortal as well
Dead hand, silent silhouette

You’ve left a shadow burnt
On many a heart
That you will never meet
Dead hand, silent silhouette

We know your name
Dead hand, sweet silent silhouette
Silvia, Silvia, trust me Sylvia
You are still here, silent silhouette.
(end)

Another ode poem to Sylvia Plath.

Monster In The Sky, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

Brother and sister, hide under the bed
They peer from under look up in dread
What is that spinning thing over my head

Five arms of mocha, four eyes of alabaster
Whirling dervish, fixed and inverted
Pull one chain , light at night, day converted

Camel spin 5, pirouette, fouette, centrifuge
That monster on the ceiling is so huge
What if it is an owl that swoops down to
Make a meal of us, are we going to be it’s food?

Daddy doesn’t seem to care, the stiff starfish
Blows a lot of cool air, but for now be aware
Of that thing on the ceiling, gives us a scare
It hangs high above our favorite chair

Should we try to sit under it, we do not dare
Why is that monster, spinning so fast
I hope the fears of my two cats
My newly installed fan will not last
(end)

I just got a new fan installed, and my cats were petrified of it, hid under the bed for hours. I did manage to coax them out for dinner. But any time I turn the fan on they run under the bed.

Evolutionary wise, they probably see the ceiling fan as some sort of large predatory bird, like a feral cat might see in the wild.

Real Treasure, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

Petals open

For all to see

Variant colors

In patches of green

Gardener’s sheers

The bushes preen

Nectar attracts

The bumble bee

Butterfly jumbles by

Under the fluffy clouds

In the sky

A turtle swims

In the pound

In the forest

A speckled fawn

A playful kitten

Rolls around

On the lawn

A last breath

All are drawn

Soak it all in

Before you’re gone

Higgins Boats, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

Crossing the English Channel
What was going through their minds
As the churning waves gnawed
At their guts, and thought of home

Would they return, what was their mission
The pill boxes, looming on the tops of cliffs
Their greeting, piercing, pelting. pinging
Dinging the the fap of the Higgins boats

The first rows, mowed down, falling limp
Further back, they jumped the side
Weighted down, many drowned
Onward bound, on the beaches

They hit the ground, thunder clapping
Grenade sound, shredded limbs
All around. The overcast day,
Airborne rangers, in dismay

Many a plane had lost it’s way
Dropped the parachutes in the fray
Floating targets became easy prey
Up the cliffs they climbed their way

Driving the Nazis back to Berlin
On the beaches is where it began
Ending fascism they took a stand
Preserving freedom throughout the land.

Poem No. 34, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

I had some sort of clue, an inkling
A sinking feeling , he would try something
When the black guy poked fun of him
To his face at the press conference dinner

Dad taught him to be a winner, no matter
Who you had to step on, step over, crush
The grifter gets his rush, from coning
So cunning, when he first began running

Glided down the escalator, walked up to the mike
Began to speak, the forked tongue snake
Didn’t hesitate, to start dispensing hate
“They’re rapists” and his minions took the bait

Multiple deferments, no Ho Chi Minh trail
“McCain was no hero” he falsely assailed
I thought for certain, that would end it there
That shameless bastard could never care

Willing to take dirt from a foreign body
Praising KGB Putin is his hobby
Oh what fun, the love letter’s done
Send it to North Korea and Kim Jong Un

Vilifies everyone not blindly loyal
Can’t pay his legal bills, sells snake oil
Willing to purge when he gets the urge
Be his sycophant or you will be purged

Warrants are not written by sitting presidents
Randomly selected grand juries are precedence
When it comes to the regular trial
Defense lawyers seat jurors all the while

He’s not persecuted, not by a mile
Went home every night during the trial
Attended Formula 1 race box seat style
Went to two rallies to spew his bile

Attended his son’s graduation just as well
He’s got his minions under his spell
“I am the victim” the big lie he sells
Now he may end up in a jail cell

November, November what will it bring
12 jurors regardless did the right thing
Checks on power, is what we all saw
Always proves no one is above the law.

When will they ditch that rancid smell
The narcissist bully could not tell
The boxed dozen, what their verdict would be
This should serve as a lesson for all to see
(end)

The Big Easy, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

The home of jambalaya, Creole and Jazz
The Superdome and Saints, Madi Gras
Does anyone remember Judge Roy Moore
The 10 commandments pushed before

Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists
Looks like Louisiana forgot “no religious test”
Seems like the fundamentalists are doing their best
To ignore the Constitution, destroy our education

Those on the far right, rightfully look to the east
To places like Iran and Saudi Arabia theocracy beast
They look at the youth in Afghanistan, indoctrination
Is the plan. Barbary Treaty written for contemplation

John Adams signed without confrontation, clearly stating
There was no Christian foundation to the laws ratified
In in our Constitution. 4,543 words you will not find
Any of theocratic mind, no “Jesus”, “Bible” “Christian” sign

5 parents in the court case, put indoctrination in it’s place
Long forgotten, but none the less true Engel vs Vitale
Justice Hugo Black knew, that indirect influence
Could put undue pressure on kids that did not subscribe

To the majority tribe. If any other texts were in the classroom
You know these same theocrats would not make room
For the minorities in their midst, silence of such
They would insist. Second class status at their best

The courts told Moore to remove the monument
Religious favoritism cannot be dominant
In public schools it is beyond arrogant
It will inherently teach kids to be intolerant

Schools are not Mosques you would agree
So why are you blind, why can you not see
The danger you are causing to our democracy
To make them churches is the height of hypocrisy

Jefferson’s Virginia Religious Freedom Act
Pulpit politics will negatively impact
Lets leave those bibles out of backpacks
Let kids think for themselves

If Sharia Law makes no sense
Then there really is no pretense
To pretend that youth are your clay
And no others shall have a say

Nobody will burn down your churches
Nobody will have you arrested
But education is what all have invested
And that should never be divested

Into tribalism, otherism, anti pluralism
“E-Pluribus Unum”, “out of many one”
Teach the kids inclusion, never to shun
Learn from past history, and what the King had done

“My mind is my church” words of Thomas Paine
From The Age of Reason, I hope not written in vein
He saw the toxic mix of religiously fervent men
Seeking dominance, and corruption, always happens when

Left to it’s own devices, no checks on it’s power
Religion left unbridled, freedom it will devour
When that school bell rings, neutrality shall be the rule
Indoctrination centers never shall be in school.
(end)

Admittedly I put a lot of history into one poem. So here is some deeper historical context.

1. Back in the 90s Alabama Judge Roy Moore erected a stone monument of the 10 commandments in his courthouse. The Judge was successfully sued and forced to remove the monument based on the establishment clause of the Constitution of the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion”.

2. Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists was signed January 1rst 1802, reassuring them that freedom of religion was protected, but could only be protected through his “wall between church and state”. Jefferson’s concept of neutrality.

3. United States Constitution’s oath of office, does not contain the words “So Help Me God”, that part is strictly voluntary. Words that are in there are “no religious test”.

3. President John Adams penned in part and signed “The Barbary Treaty” and it’s article 11 which states, “As the government of the United States Of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion”. It was signed in to law without dissent.

4. There are 4,543 words in the Constitution, none of them are “bible” “Jesus” or “Christian”. If the founders had intended on biblically based law and not government neutrality, why the failure to mention Christianity by name? “

5. A Jewish man, Steven Engel, along with 4 other parents, one a Unitarian, sued The Hendrix School District and it’s school board President William Vital in 1951 Supreme Court Case challenging the forcing government lead prayer in school.

Justice Hugo black wrote as part of the majority opinion, ” It is a matter of history that this practice of establishing governmentally composed prayers for religious services was one of the reasons which caused many of our early colonists to leave England and seek religious freedom in America.”

6. Thomas Paine in his book “The Age Of Reason” wrote about the dangers of religious power infecting government institutions:

“My mind is my church……. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”

Paine accepted that people would be religious, but like any institution religion could and would become abusive if it overran government. The religious indoctrination of youth in the Middle East and places like Afghanistan is all the more reason to leave religion out of public schools.

Those who are not in the majority at a particular school, will be marginalizes or seen as outcasts if they don’t participate. It is bad enough that a parent will teach their kid to be intolerant of others, but the school system should not be playing favorites to one religion over another.

Jefferson’s Virginia Religious Freedom Act was the prototype for Maddison’s First Amendment. Jefferson did believe in the God of Jesus, but did not believe that Jesus was a magic man with super powers. Nor did he believe that God intervened in human lives after he started everything.

Now, play close attention to these words in that law that became the prototype for Madison’s first Amendment.

Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom reads in part:

” Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own
will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that
Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, YET CHOSE NOT TO PROPEGATE IT BY COERCIONS ON EITHER.”

Forcing kids to walk by are stare at plaque on a daily basis is coercion by implication. It is a passive aggressive way of indoctrinating kids while claiming that is not what you are doing. Any kid or parent objecting to religious favoritism is going to be seen as a malcontent, an outsider, and be subject to harassment, bullying, or even violence.

To the advocates who want the 10 commandments in public schools, think about the religious indoctrination of kids in Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. You fully accept what they do is indoctrination. You also accept their theocracies are bad. The founders fought a King who forced his religion on the colonies.

Schools are not mosques, they are not synagogues, or Buddhist or Hindu temples, and they are also not churches. There are 380,000 houses of worship in America on private property that anyone can go outside of government time. But the government itself is ours. It does not belong to one religion, our motto is “E-Pluribus Unum”, out of many one. Our youth should be taught inclusion, tolerance and neutrality. Schools are for learning, math, science, history, second languages, sportsmanship. They should not be indoctrination centers.

Invasive Species, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

Pervasive, with every tree we cut
Our throats we slit, our lungs we gut
Plastic in everything we eat
The ocean continues to overheat
More frequency of flooding
The oil companies are hiding
The damage they are doing
The ice caps are melting
Summer heat is sweltering
Winter is retreating
Shorter is the season
And humans are the reason
Addicted to fossil fuel
The coal became our crack
Planet under attack
It won’t have our back
A victim of our own success
Putting earth under such duress
We created this mess
Time is running short
Grim is our health report

Distracted by our divisions
Politics and religion
Ecological destruction
Our home cannot function
Take your last breath
It’s profits for wealth
The knives in our chest
We’ll be laid to rest
We’ve unleashed the beast
On our misery will feast
Drill , baby drill
They’ll die on that hill
Suicide self inflicted
Greed has long since infected
Science the fools rejected
Unfortunately not unexpected
Can we save ourselves
Can well accept the truth
Can we save our planet
For the future of our youth?