Surveying the Century

With the concurrence
of bad food
an at-risk natural world
and modern medicine

today it's fashionable
to want a satisfying
healthy life

rather than one
that is merely long.

Probably a positive trend overall
in terms of self-
and other-awareness.

but yesterday the oldest man
in the world
111-year-old
New Yorker Alexander Imich

died after evading
the Nazis in Poland

learning five languages
getting a Zoology degree

and writing books.

He was once asked
how he lived so long

and answered
"I don't know.
I simply didn't die earlier."

He did take physical care
of himself
by eating well
and exercising

but there's something to be said
for sticking around
with a slightly beat-up machine

doing what you can with it
but also

just being around to see.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Tracy Morgan Bona Fide

Tracy Morgan was injured
in a six-car pileup

and is now
in critical condition.

Having a net worth
of 18 million dollars

a playful and robust
sense of humor

the ability to bounce back
from ill-thought-out comments

having the inimitable
"hot lady nerd
from next door" Tina Fey
as a fake and real boss

and even a close
supportive family
with whom to share it all

will pull you a long way
from pain
but not all the way.

Please recover soon
Tracy Morgan

and please show
that you are invincible.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Not Just on the Day

For tomorrow
this 70th anniversary
of D-Day

you don't have
to be pro-war

or think America
has been blameless
in every global 
(or domestic) conflict

to respect
and listen to
the soldiers
who gave their lives

and yes they still gave

even if they were
lucky enough

to come
back home to us.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Training Up A Child

While it's true
that if Hitler hadn't done

all that
orchestrating-mass-murder stuff
he'd be more widely-regarded

as a hero today
for first lifting
millions of Germans
out of poverty

it's still ill-advised
to quote him

(and even Gandhi
had a few questionable views

though he did stick to
that whole "deliberately avoiding
senseless violence" thing

which certainly
helped his image)

and probably most especially

if you're running
a Christian children's ministry
in Alabama

that aims to help
impoverished kids

even if that quote says

"He alone
who owns the youth
gains the future."

Luckily they did
recognize their mistake
after three days

but they probably
need a better
outdoor advertising publicist.

Even "Hussein" Obama
is probably a better
more moral person

from whom to pluck
an inspirational quote.

(The Son of God
may be everywhere

but frankly
after two thousand years
he's tired of doing ad copy.)

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Used to Be a Time

At the three-day
Republican Leadership Conference

the Republican National Chairman
Reince Priebus asked

"Why does the party 
of Abraham Lincoln

not get more credit
as the party of tolerance?"

Lest we forget
Lincoln's calculating pragmatism
that conveniently brought down

the institution of human ownership
in the process

it's still true that those
who cannot remember

the past of thirty years
fifteen years
six years
or even six days ago

are condemned to repeat it

and those that have never listened
to Janet Jackson's 1986 hit

"What Have You Done
for Me Lately?"

are doomed to hear
a larger and larger proportion
of society

blast the infectiously
forboding tune
and leave the Old Party.

(It was Grand
while it lasted.)

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

For the Love of Christie

Chris Christie's career
is dead.

Long live
Chris Christie's career.

The petty low-level mobster
who still believes
he's found refuge in politics

has not completely
ruled out
running for President in 2016

and yesterday
made appearances
in Tennessee

attending a fundraiser
for Republican Senator
Lamar Alexander

and speaking
at a state Republican
dinner in Nashville.

Even the President
of Nashville's Tea Party
Ben Cunningham

called the speaking engagement
"extremely unfortunate"

but he did crash
a bachelorette party
and the ladies loved him

though they probably
didn't bring up
too many

deep political questions
and he didn't make them

so it's really too bad

because were he
not embroiled
in a few too many scandals

the poor guy
would make
a great politician.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Vetting Our Affairs

President Obama
"with considerable regret"
today accepted

Eric Shinseki's resignation
as Secretary
from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The president described
his "commitment to veterans"
as "unquestioned"

and his "service
to our country"
as "exemplary"

As with other
behemoth institutions
it's usually the case

that neither genuine mistakes
nor "on-purpose accidents"

can be squarely placed
on the shoulders of one figurehead

but regardless
seeing that figurehead

take responsibility and do
what he or she perceives as honorable
is noteworthy.

And may those Republicans
who in February rejected a bill

pushed by Senate Democrats
to expand veterans’ benefits

when the bill turns up
again next week

be able to do the same.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Words Mean More

Maya Angelou's life
was her own

but she gave
to us pieces

describing 
and standing by
to continue to describe

through ink on paper
or waves in the air.

So what does it matter
that she spoke and wrote

and taught college
and marched
and researched and sang

and reported and acted
and inaugurated

in her one life?

What does it matter

one more Renaissance woman
growing up black and poor
in the South

and becoming a figurehead
of what one person

can do and overcome
and walk through?

What does it matter
that you didn't always
think of her

but she was just there
doing what a literary
fixture does

being present

and that now any tribute
to her

comes out feeling
like a cliche
not nearly as well written

as the one life was lived?

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Infallible Deniability

There once was a church
run by big Catholics

who taught God's Word
in the form
of outdated semantics.

Responses to child abuse
were neither swift nor profuse

until Pope Francis said
he had had it.

So the pissed-off Pope
decided he'd rally

and meet with
Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley
(of Boston).

His tolerance sits
right at zero

which really shouldn't
make him a hero

but it gives dear
old Holy See some
desperately-needed "vitale".

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Out of Memory

Maybe there's something
the anti-war people
are missing

because even as technology upgrades
to do the dirty work

of more and more troops
on the ground

even as information
we can know
about a country

is so up-to-the-minute
minutely small
that we miss
the blurry big picture

even as the old guard
rightly becomes

more accommodating
to historically ignored
or shunned demographics

they still find reasons
to protest it.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

To the Republic

Congratulations Petro
"Chocolate King" Poroshenko
the billionaire confectioner

for winning
the presidential election
in Ukraine today
with 67 percent of the vote

and of course to the voters
who turned out

in record numbers despite
"Russian-backed separatist groups"

who "sought to disenfranchise
entire regions"
with "provocations and violence"

as written by Obama
in a statement today

a president whose victory

was only possible
because ceaseless calls
from citizens like him

from people who were
not running for office
just wanting a voice

were answered with laws
to reduce the degree of untruth
between America's

flagrant bellowing proclamation
of democracy

and its practice.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

West's Wing

People like Allen West
who juggle

the two taxing
and multifaceted responsibilities

of hosting a Fox News show
and representing the Tea Party

can always be counted on
to bolster progressives' determination

to do right by our nation's
Thai-American immigrant female Iraq veterans
who lost both legs in combat

and won a Purple Heart
for their brave service

such as Tammy Duckworth

who like other Democrats
was thought to have diminished
the significance of Benghazi

by serving
on a special committee
to further investigate Benghazi

that consists only
of members of her party

(so unlike the GOP
they must have
an ulterior motive).

Why else would he say
"I just don’t know
where her loyalties lie"?

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Human Rights

Eighty US troops
have been sent
to neighboring Chad

in a growing international effort
to rescue the girls

kidnapped by the Nigerian
extremist group Boko Haram.

With great power
comes the great responsibility

to recognize if
and if so when and how
power should be used

so that might can make
or at least contribute
to right.

Sometimes you should stand back
sometimes you should meddle

but sadly
even morally-necessary meddling
holds risk

and the only thing to do
is prepare for it
and head into the storm.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Second Amenu-ment

On Monday
Chipotle Mexican Grill

in response
to the 10,000-signature
Moms Demand Action
for Gun Sense petition

prompted by several gun aficianados
bringing loaded semi-automatics
into a Dallas restaurant

made the decision
to ban gun-carrying customers
from the premises.

It seems unlikely
that our Founding Fathers
intended our right to bear arms

to extend to conscionably-delicious
Mexican chain restaurants

but then again
they didn't have to worry

about servers
skimping on the guac

in their carnitas burrito bowls.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

Boy Genius

For anyone concerned
about Hillary Clinton's

current brain status
since last year

like the well-wisher
Karl Rove
who was responsible

for propping up
Bush's brain
for all public appearances

(also known
as being a Senior Adviser

and second in command
after Cheney

with his own
affairs of the heart)

here are words
from the concussed person herself.

"When a question is asked
it has to be answered

in a serious fashion
if it raises
a serious issue

even in
a ridiculous way."

So in short
yes concussions are terrible

requiring sensitive medical care
and generous
time allotments for healing

but she still has
more brains left

than some
of her GOP opposition
started with.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.

It's Their Time Now

Barbara Walters' career
outlasted the acceptable use
of the term "newswoman".

She rose
from pouring tea

as a "Girl"
on the Today show
in the 60s

to becoming synonymous
with being a willing listening ear
to the noble

and the vile
and the morally dubious.

Then she was a measured
thoughtful contributor

on her all-female
daytime discussion show

(more than a PC
demographic cross-section

meant to nominally satisfy
some quota
for tritely-chattering ladies
visibly on-screen)

"The View".

And contrary
to popular memory

Katharine Hepburn was the one
who herself brought up
that she "felt like a tree".

What response
can a good interviewer give

but to ask her
"What kind"?

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.