10th Anniversary of 9/11

Thrice injured on 9/11

First, the loss of precious lives
American and foreign
On that day
And many more lives on many following days

A second loss
When told to keep shopping
While they prepared unnecessary wars

Third, lost opportunity to re-examine policy
And affirm humane values

Instead, we got a Middle East abyss of blood and dollars
Revealing the sham of our assumed betterment
And our complicity in failure

Parents Withhold Water - Boy Dies

This title in my local paper
Is not news to me
So many people are ignorant
And cruel

The child, a bed-wetter,
Was being taught a lesson
And now we are all taught
We often are a vicious specie
And radically unsympathetic

He was enduring a one month
Court-ordered custody visit
When he called his grandmother
To say he was afraid

3/4 of the earth is covered with water
But there was not a drop for this suffering child
Now let us cry
And water his grave
With our too late tears

Grant unto these parents, O Lord,
Eternal thirst