Author Archives: gsrbtn

A writer, a father, a husband, and a concerned citizen of Earth.

On a Dime

Flipping between channels this morning.

Ja Morant dunk highlights and Ukrainians struggling for their lives.

NFL Draft teasers and Russian Cruise Missiles blasting into apartment buildings.

Safe in my power recliner, sipping hot coffee, my snoring dog at my feet.

Just a few weeks ago, like me, Ukrainians lived their lives peacefully.

I imagine my Ukrainian counterpart sitting in his apartment, watching TV, petting his cat, enjoying life’s simple pleasures.

Life can turn on a dime, especially after 4 years of an American president heaping praise on autocratic dictators – softening the ground for anti-democratic movements around the globe, lauding dictators for their “strength” while bashing long-standing alliances.

If you think what is happening in Ukraine today can’t happen in America tomorrow, you’re kidding yourself.

There are anti-democratic forces in congress, and the de facto leader of the Republican party continues to praise and refuses to denounce a murderous thug’s invasion of Ukraine.

Keep this in mind when heading to the ballot box in 2022 and 2024.

Democracy on Fire

Ukrainians are fighting for their lives and their freedom.

Their country is under attack, and their sovereignty is threatened by a thuggish dictator, drunk on nostalgia and looking to impose authoritarianism on a country that poses no threat to him or his country.

And rather than condemn the actions and motives of the Russian President, Mike Pompeo and Former President Trump praise him for his tactics, lending aid and comfort to a true enemy of democracy.

This is utterly unsurprising, as Trump’s 4-year presidency is littered with examples of praise for authoritarian rulers and governments. And don’t hold your breath for Republican leadership to condemn Trump or Pompeo, as today’s Republican party is infested with anti-democratic seditionists who are beholden to Trump and foreign influencers.

The threat to western democracy in Europe is genuine. Another Trump presidency would act as a linchpin and accelerant for anti-democratic forces abroad and in America.

We should all keep that in mind when we head to the ballot box in 2022 and 2024.

Presidential Document Archive System

Flushing handwritten notes down the toilet while your flunkies furiously pack away official documents to be taken secretly to another location is not the act of an innocent man.

President Trump’s behavior surrounding white house documents mirrors that of a meth dealer who hears a sharp knock on his door in the middle of the night.

Crap-casting Rogan and Young-loving Streamers

Crap-casting Rogan and Young-loving streamers

Fact-blasting moron, artists and dreamers

Free speech and fact breach, they dance and they stab

Truth in the morgue on a cold marble slab

Drip-drying wet naps on Vin Diesel’s Daisy

Popcorn and Pepsi with Martin Scorsese

Grifting and grafting on quaaludes and blow

Gaetz in sex traffic with nowhere to go

Oath Keeping Proud Boys, soldiers in waiting

“My Pillow hucksters” gaslighting and baiting

Fascists and fucktards fall from the sky

Democracy’s gone in the blink of an eye

Hopscotch and whiskey, Sorry and Twister

Rebellion and UNO with Vlad Putin’s sister

Records and transcripts get flushed in the can

Truth getting trumped by a fat orange man

Cow tipping junkies and pill-popping tweakers

Political flunkies in loafers and sneakers

Gazpacho Goosestepping Capital cops

Malevolent Marjorie, she never stops

Fuck headlines and deadlines

Bread, milk, and inflation

The next time you vote

for the soul of your nation

Carry integrity into the booth

Raile against liars

and vote for the truth

February, in the Warmth of the Morning Sun

I found a dead ladybug

on the sill of my window today

Just a few days prior

I witnessed her flying around my bedroom

and wondered,

trapped inside my sunny domicile,

with frost on the windows,

did she long for the warmth

of late summer days

and leafy plants on my kitchen patio?

She was a lifeless faded orange

hard, shiny, and smooth

her legs tightly tucked

into her flat underside

I slid her on to a piece of printer paper

carried her down the staircase

that goes from the bedroom to the kitchen

and placed her gently in a potted plant

in the warmth of the morning sun

The Masked Shithead

If casting Rudy Giuliani on “The Masked Singer” doesn’t make you question the state of our society, I don’t know what will.

That story exemplifies societal rot and apathy. A rating-grubbing stunt that also served as a slap in the face to American democracy and justice.

A gross attempt by the Fox-based television show to minimalize the seditious acts by Trump and his shit-sweating-democracy-subverting cohort.

Kudos to the judges who walked off in protest.

Was is Hope

Scattered thoughts

in worry’s kettle

they boil, bubble

and test your mettle

Your day gets buried

by tomorrow

Deep distress

morphs into sorrow

Sorrow blooms

into despair

With eyes shut tight

you cut your hair

You live your days

inside a stare

Stained coffee cups

are everywhere

The blinking light’s

unanswered calls

Just windows, ceiling,

and four walls

Kitchen trash

and rotting fruit

Dirty laundry

crumpled suit

Gripped by it

it sticks like tape

Thoughts are formed

and then take shape

and so, you plan

your great escape

Then . . .

The sun

Seeps through

the blinds one day

Her emergence

takes your breath away

You brush your teeth

You comb your hair

A welcome break

from your despair

You hope it lasts;

you pray it does

Then it dawns on you

That hope is “was”

Because . . .

“was” is change

always pending

A twisting road

unknown and bending

I was depressed

it went away

It stuck to me

but did not stay

It will return

of this I’m sure

Because was is was

it’s not a cure

Still,

keep “was” close

in your darkest hour

Because “was” is hope

and hope is power

Chrome Covered Rosebuds and Dyslexic Daisies

Chrome covered rosebuds and dyslexic daisies

Dirt-devil divas and wombats with rabies

Blue bloodless fem-bots

that drop from the sky

Misogyny dies in the blink of an eye

Dipshits in red hats with white MAGA letters

Grunge bands with new tats of Cobains and Vedders

Palm trees and face plants

a rip in the sky

Ginger loves Mary Ann’s Coconut pie

Deep-seated distrust and misinformation

Biscuits with deadbolts and sex doll inflation

Mad rants and just cants

a flask full of lies

The truth falls asleep to our sad lullabies

Sinatra and Martin, Carson and Rickles

Bone chips on blood-stained pennies and nickels

Douchebags and despots

About to ally

To map out our lives on the wings of a fly

Fearing Life

Life

A crooked path before us

 A ragged race we run

A 9-to-5 grind-to-dust

To keep pace with everyone

We take some time to breathe

A few weeks every year

Before getting back to rat racing

And being ruled by fear

Fear about finances

Fear about jobs

Fear about COVID

and Fascist-led mobs

Fear about terrorism

the Taliban and ISIS

Fear for America’s Democracy-crisis

Fear for our planet

increasingly warming

Fear of our fear

which is constantly forming

When emersed in fear

We don’t live our life

The roses and sunshine

Give way to our strife

And we just live to survive

On the edge of a knife