Afflicting Predator

 

We call him Dufus though his name

really is Rufus. Substituting the

"R" for a "D" more closely reflects

that dog's compulsive propensities.

Our two little sibling pups have made

the acquaintance of many of

their species in their yet-brief

lifetime. Their cognitive capacity

enables them to recognize which

among them are friends and which

constitute a problem. Dufus

represents a multiple problem

and so when we come across

our old acquaintance on our

woodland trails, like us walking

the newer generation of canine

companions, we keep an eye on Dufus.

As we stand and chat our little female

pleads to be lifted into my arms;

this from a blithe spirit with no

patience ordinarily to being carried.
Which leaves her brother vulnerable

to Dufus's typical manoeuvre where

he corners, then backs our little guy

off-trail hard against a tree trunk

while steadily gaining the advantage

his large muscular body sneaking

over the small silently quailing

back of our fellow prodding us to

swoop like eagles to extricate the

mouse from the elephantine

rutting intention of Dufus.

 

 

 

 

Hats? Gloves? Socks? Table legs?

Computer mouse? Zippers ... destroyed.

Books ... masticated thoughtfully.

They are ingenious in their constant

infuriating habits discovering

myriad ways to infuriate us with

their insistence on chewing foreign

objects not known to render taste

or nutritional value to any living

creature. A result of which is often

injury and sick bay. Yet to scold 

these creatures is an injustice for

they seek to earn our affection and

do so not inappropriately by posing

as little laughable clowns. They are 

an astounding pair of small black imps

impervious to instruction they view

no value in obeying. And they

represent an "in" crowd all their

own. They have their focus and

their inestimable values for they 

are incorrigibly infatuated with

impulsive inquisitiveness; in the

process completely disarming us.

 

 

Never Forgotten

This is the day of sacred trust
when the international community
has pledged to observe the
unspeakable tragedy of a people
whose presence on Earth was
selectively extinguished by state
decree and inhumanity on a
genocidal scale of unmitigated
horror that left a postwar world
reeling in disbelief. Never to forget
forever on guard, a recurrence
forbidden by all that is human
sacred and history-haunting. This
is the day that a gracious and
smiling Pope welcomes the head
of state of another Aryan nation
that threatens the existence of a
Jewish state, with annihilation
by yet another triumphalist 
ideology. While Europe, the 
charnel house of its Jews, now
awaits anxiously the imminent
opportunity to open the doors
of trade and profit to that
same nuclear-driven travesty.

 

Yiddish Gothic

Shtetl-born, the era of the
transition from Polish pogroms
to the Aryan Nazi Third Reich
establishing its death camps where
no inconvenient furor of protest
was anticipated, the presciently
few sailed off to America and
there finding no streets paved
with gold, men took humble
employment in the trade of
peddling; broken furniture,
trinkets, schmata, and live
chickens from farm to market.
Hard work for pittance pay,
while women laboured in
sweat shops now exploiting
poverty-stricken women in
the Philippines. He was the stern
unbending paterfamilias their
children enraged easily and at
their own risk. She was the gossipy
meek balabusta vainly stretching
hope to make ends meet. Their
struggle to survive taught their
offspring what the parents knew
by experience; the world was an
unlovely place with few beckoning
opportunities. The second generation
adeptly grasped those elusive
chances fatalistically inuring
themselves against failure
attracting to their worldly success
the envy and the enmity of the 
latest crop of anti-Semitic haters.

 

The Father The Son

 

They lean muscle   and sinew
into their work
minds free to wander
tongues hanging silent
in the roofs of their mouths.

Companions   they find comfort
in close presence
each teacher to the other
wordlessly
          carefully
full of care for the moment.

They are masters of the mind
but yet lovers of hand's efforts
they dexterously play ideas
one on the other
                casually
cut wood to fit delineated form
sand and smooth
            shave and stain
two jacks of variable trades.

 

 

Dunderheaded

 

Dunderheaded

Children subjected to medical experiments in Auschwitz.
[from The Pictorial History of the Holocaust, ed. Yitzhak Arad. New York: Macmillan, 1990]

Dunderheaded

It's a good trick if you can do it
and you can do it with winsome
sunny ways, placing the skills of
a thespian-born to the tedious task
of empathizing upon the grave
subject of genocide. The mullahs
of Iran set a rictus of scorn as they
contest the very notion of their
Aryan brethren plastering the
Holocaust into history while vowing
their effort will be far more effective.
On this solemn day of remembrance
Europe hastens to enrich its coffers
with Iranian trade and investment
just as surely as Europe's soil was
enriched with the byproduct of
carbonized Jewish lives consumed
in the Third Reich's crematoria.
But Canada has a junior Trudeau whose
official posting of commemoration
slides elegantly past awkward mention 
of Jews, while fulsomely lamenting
man's inhumanity to man. "On this
day", his statement waxes eloquently,
"we pay tribute to the memory of
the millions of victims murdered
during the Holocaust. We honour
those who survived atrocities at the
hands of the Nazi regime, and
welcome their courageous stories
of hope and perseverance", naming none
lest one give unintended offence.

On this day, we pay tribute to the memory of the millions of victims murdered during the Holocaust. We honour those who survived atrocities at the hands of the Nazi regime, and welcome their courageous stories of hope and perseverance.
The Holocaust is a stark reminder of the dangers and risks of allowing hate, prejudice, and discrimination to spread unchallenged. It also reminds us that silence must never be an option when humanity is threatened.
As we pause to educate ourselves and our families on the bitter lessons of the Holocaust, we also strengthen our resolve to work with domestic and international partners to continue defending human rights and condemning intolerance. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Intrusion

 

 

Man proposes nature disposes and so

should your plans for a briskly cold

winter day include a saunter

through frozen winter trails

to touch nature's raw mysterious base

yet be aware the forest has its own rules

of engagement. In the brief hush of

twilight when stealthy dusk begins

to infiltrate the fastness of that

elemental ecology the soft twitter

of birds as they settle for the night

the last scurry of squirrels as they

make for their nests prepares the

forest for daylight's expulsion where

above its canopy a crescent moon appears

wind no longer rustles dry leaves

the surrounding trees stand straight

as sentries questioning your presence

and all too soon your penetration within

that intimately closed system's unwelcome.