By keeping one's mouth shut, one might
Appear to be a stupid lout--
They say--however, by opening it,
The person thus removes all doubt.

That's a message that Donald Trump
Really ought to take to heart.
Often when he opens his mouth,
He comes off sounding not so smart.

Trump dismissed concerns about
His tariffs raising the price of toys.
And so when Christmas arrives this year,
Watch out, little girls and boys.

He says that kids this year might get
Just two dolls instead of THIRTY.
Once again, it looks as though
Trump is getting down and *****.

And, yes, those dolls are going to cost
A wee bit more, but that's okay.
Is the man entirely clueless?
What a stupid thing to say!

It sounds just like the comment he made
Regarding injecting our veins with bleach.
He says the most ridiculous things
In every interview or speech.

Bringing and keeping prices down
Was part of his election campaign.
The nonsense we are going to have to
Put up with during the mad king's reign!

-by Bob B (5-2-25)

Shhh! The Trump administration
Doesn't want you to know
One reason why Donald Trump's
Approval ratings are low.

What they're doing is very much
A gaslighting technique.
Their talk on tariffs truly is
Political doublespeak.

The tariff war that Trump has started
Will NOT raise prices, they say.
Do they realize that we
Were NOT born yesterday?

Prices indeed are rising and workers'
Jobs are at risk. What's more,
Small businesses are hurting
As costs are starting to soar.

Tourism is slowing down.
Bankruptcies will occur.
Instead of helping businesses, Trump's
A business saboteur.

The tariffs are hitting farmers hard;
They don't know how to plan.
It's easy for them to identify
The real bogeyman.

If countries want a tariff war,
Trump says we'll defeat them.
Regarding the tariffs, he keeps saying
That China is going to eat them.

Whoever thinks that's going to happen
Hasn't been paying attention.
That CEOs are caving in
Is also worthy of mention.

But shhh! Don't talk of rising prices,
Or Trump will be irate.
If you upset the king, he will
Want your head on a plate.

-by Bob B (4-30-25)

Years ago we threw off the shackles
Of tyranny and built a nation
(Though sadly the previous occupants
Suffered loss and deprivation).

We refused to pledge allegiance
To any king; those days were past.
We created a democratic
System that we thought would last.

But that has changed. The king is back.
Has history ever seen such a thing:
When the fool--or the court jester--
Slipped into the role of king?

It's Mad King Donald who has become
The absolute ruler of this land.
His lackeys lavish him with praise
And blindly obey his every command.

The king has become darker, crueler,
And more unstable than ever before.
His rude, sadistic, impulsive actions
Give us the people so much to deplore.

Weaponizing information,
Lying to us about our borders,
Repeating Kremlin propaganda,
Disobeying judicial orders,

Banishing people to other countries,
Not caring about our health,
Causing economic chaos,
Caring only about his wealth,

Completely distorting reality,
And having no empathy, he's the result
Of what happens when millions of people
Join a personality cult.

He thinks he has complete power
And no one can tell him what to do.
Bring up truth or reason with him,
And you'll be told "To hell with you!"

The tyranny in America
Could end if people gave their all.
Folks all over the world are watching
And waiting for Mad King Donald to fall.

-by Bob B (4-23-25)

Aunt Em received a letter from Dorothy--
A curious one in which she said
That even though she liked it in Oz,
She'd rather be back home instead.

Then she told her aunt about
Something she'd never seen on the plains:
A person lacking THREE important
Things: courage, a heart, and brains!

"The Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion, of course:
Each lacked ONE of those three things.
It's scary to know there's someone who
Possesses NONE of those three things."

Aunt Em replied, "I know it's strange
To find someone who lacks all three.
But I'm afraid you're not in Oz;
You’re in Washington, D.C.!”

-by Bob B (4-20-25)

(inspired by an anonymous Facebook post)

You'd better mind your p's and q's
And pay attention to the news
Or you'll be stuck forevermore
In a prison in El Salvador.

Trump has made a special deal
With that country, and it's real.
And CECOT° gets Trump's rubber stamp
For being a concentration camp.

Deportees are being--you see--
Sent there quite illegally.
Watch out if you have a tattoo,
For Trump might say good-bye to you,

And off to the prison you'll be flown,
Down there in the torrid zone.
Forget due process; it doesn't exist
For those on Trump's get-rid-of list.

People with even a legal status
Are victims of Trump's apparatus
Of hate and fear and terror and find
Themselves locked up in a real bind.

Once you're there, your rights have ceased.
Most likely, you won't be released.
Even if they admit mistakes,
The government says, Hey, that's the breaks.

Today deportees; tomorrow who knows
Will join the prisoners. That's how it goes
When autocrats are in control
And total power is their goal.

-by Bob B (4-17-25)

°Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (Terrorism Confinement Center)

Our spirits hover over the rubble--
Here and there a school or dwelling,
An abandoned camp or a hospital--
Targets of constant Israeli shelling.

We see our bodies within the debris--
Along with our siblings, our fathers and mothers,
Doctors, teachers, journalists, medics,
Aid-workers and many others.

We see the doctors desperately
Treating the injured with few supplies.
Cries of anguish and pain fill the night
As rockets carry more bombs through the skies.

While Palestinians are under attack
And tens of thousands of people have died,
The world wastes its time debating
"IS it or ISN'T it genocide?"

"Ethnic cleansing"--whatever you call it--
Is ****** on a scale that is grand.
It's Netanyahu's excuse to commit
Atrocities in the "holy land."

A fantasy of the "chosen people"?
Thousands of years of tribal strife,
Blood, ******, vengeance, violence…
Lies in the scriptures come to life.

Countries supplying Netanyahu
With deadly weapons, have you no shame?
Have you lost your sense of compassion?
In what he's doing, you share the blame.

Our spirits hover; our sadness lingers.
We yearn for the madness and killing to cease.
We yearn for an amicable resolution.
Will we be able to rest in peace?

-by Bob B (4-16-25)

I no longer recognize
These United States.
In my lifetime, we've never been
In such desperate straits.

Due process for many folks
Is widely being denied.
We are seeing the Constitution
Being cast aside.

The power-hungry president
Constantly tries to extort
Favors from others and threatens them if
He doesn't get their support.

The rule of law is currently being
Eroded by the hour
To give the demented president
Authoritarian power.

Trumplicans watch him defy the courts,
And they're okay with it.
He could spit in their faces, and yes,
He'd get away with it.

He treats the DOJ as though
It's his private firm,
And AG Bondi wants to make
Trump's dissenters squirm.

The envy of the world was our
Economy when he
Ascended the throne, but now the mess
He's making is sad to see.

He doesn't care if people might suffer
From a Trump recession.
Doesn't he understand that tariffs
Worsened the Great Depression?

Trump and his administration
Will not back away
From trying to have control over
What we do and say.

His many executive orders are being
Challenged, but he doesn't care.
He derives great Schadenfreude
From other people's despair.

"America the Beautiful"
Is now a different song.
It's lyrics must reflect what is
Occurring. Sing along:

How sad it is to see this land
Become what it's become!
The president looks down on us
As though we're worthless ****.
America! America!
Please say it's not too late.
Democracy? Autocracy?
Oh, what will be our fate?

-by Bob B (4-12-25)