Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Blood Moon

Bible verse says the moon will turn
To blood to mark the coming time
When unrepentent sinners burn
In hell, and all the faithful climb
To salvation in heaven's bliss.
But science has shown humankind,
A lunar eclipse explains this.
Sun and Earth and moon all aligned.
The moon is shadowed by the Earth,
But still is tinted in sun light,
So appearing reddish. Tiz worth
Families taking in the sight.

Look my children to the Blood Moon,
And know it is your bed time soon.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Anatomy of War

Demmies accuse Repubbies of
Waging war on the fairer sex.
Women need to have more big gov
As the savior that protects
The woman's body, mind and soul.
Less Repubbies and Demmies more
Better assure this big gov's role.
Demmies do dirty in their war,
Hyping the woman's fate as dire.
Repubbies oft their own worst foe,
Casualties from "friendly fire."
Demmies count on this - doncha know!

Parties wage war in politics,
Waving weapons of hysterics.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Lily - Lincoln Park Zoo

At the Lincoln Park Zoo, it's me
In the African Journey yard,
A red river hog named Lily.
I'm first to see - quite avant-garde.
My fur is striking red, and I
Am a hog liking river flow,
To eat insects and roots nearby.
I greet pal hogs with breath I blow.
And I am also prone to sing
A song that sounds like the ballet
Stravinsky wrote - The Rite of Spring.
I think it sounds better my way.

Come and visit me at the Zoo,
And maybe I will sing for you.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Partisan Swat

'Twas in the year two thousand nine,
Prez Obama was on T.V.
A house fly flew in a fly line.
The Prez did swat. The fly dead be.
PETA was very peeved of course.
But politics the Prez assessed.
Prez Obama had no remorse,
Probably just a right wing pest.
Four years later, another fly
Did fly about the Prez's head.
But being a partisan guy,
The Prez did not swat this fly dead.

Repubbie flies - the Prez does slay,
But lets Demmie flies get away.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Name to Fame

Joseph Yule, Jr., the year born
1920 to vaudeville folks.
At 14 months, on stage he'd horn
The spotlight. First talked telling jokes.
Went to Hollywood, got the role
Of short series Mickey McGuire,
Changed to his legal name, a goal
That his producers did require.
"Mickey" okay but McGuire no
Held the Court when Mickey got sued.
The last name, "Looney" - maybe so.
"R" changed for "L" - not to sound rude.

Born for showtime till 93.
We're gonna miss Mickey Rooney.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Stay Home

Obama ran for President,
Anti Bush was his strategy,
Including the disengagement
From hawkish foreign policy.
Obama won not once but twice,
So most of We the People chose
To power down and risk the price.
History changes - the world knows.
Allies split up post World War II,
Commies versus anti commies,
Cold wars, hot wars as powers do.
Powers recycled enemies.

If and when World War III does end,
Who will be U.S. foe or friend?

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Kathleen Sebelius

Kathleen Sebelius, your life
Has mostly lived in politics.
You must have guessed you'd have great strife,
Stirred in the Obamacare mix.
As H.H.S. Secretary,
Righties charged you could do no right,
Lefties left you the scapegoat be,
Stuck in a tunnel without light,
Bounced about like a ping pong ball,
A tenure drowned in waves of blame.
You held your head high through it all.
With lots of class you played the game.

Kathleen Sebelius, be well.
Let your burns heal from D.C. hell.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

At the Farm with Sherry - LP Zoo

Volunteer Sherry with some worms
At Lincoln Park Farm in the Zoo,
Teaching kids in down to earth terms,
The vital stuff that worms do do -
Eat plants in, digest and out poop,
Fertilizing the soil to grow
More healthy plants - tiz a life loop.
Worms - human helpers - doncha know!
Handy to have in house and yard,
Old fruits and veggies - worms love most.
Kids do learn that it's not too hard,
And persuade parents to compost.

Sherry is a retired school marm,
But still teaching kids at the farm.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

TorGaymada

Tomas Torquemada named
As Grand Inquisitor of Spain,
Because Catholics then there blamed
Jews for causing them so much pain.
Catholics got in power, so
Punishing the Jews for the past
Became obsession, doncha know!
The time was ripe - Jews be harassed.
Fast forward to the gays who got
The power over those opposed,
And now the punishings are sought.
Repent or case never be closed.

Torquemadas are back today,
Grand Inquisitors who are gay.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Under Cover - LP Zoo

I have been lucky in the flow,
Though only here for a short time,
My pool is filled up - doncha know!
And runneth over in my climb
To reach the honor and acclaim
That others here can only dream,
Achieving the befriended fame
Of social media esteem.
Seeing the camera on me,
I flipped forth in my best appeal.
And it all went so swimmingly
For this so photogenic seal.

The Facebook cover - yes tiz true!
I'm the face of Lincoln Park Zoo.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Mother Gorilla - LP Zoo

M is for the Milk you do make
     to feed me so that I will grow.
O is for the Outings we take,
     me on your back and off we go.
T is for the Trees that we climb,
     swinging so freely through the air.
H is for your Help all the time,
     when I need you, you're always there.
E is for your eyes that watch me,
     making sure I am safe and sound.
R is for the Rompers we be
     Romping together all around.

MOTHER - thank you for all you do.
Your gorilla girl does love you.

Sense Sonnet - Chiller

Water Dumb

Pollution and climate change will
Destroy the water on the Earth.
In the end life form, thirst will kill,
No fire or ice - for what it's worth.
Water will flow with human greed.
Haves will have and have nots will not.
Govenments will use the dire need
To cling onto power they've got,
Until even elites drink dry
Because of profit "policy."
Some elites may even ask why,
As the thirstier they be.

Water, water, oh where, oh where?
There's not a drop to drink - soon there.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Trumpet of the Swan

I'm Louie, a trumpeter swan,
Born without a trumpeting voice.
I get something to get it on,
A real brass trumpet is my choice.
Made "fingers" slitting my webbed feet,
So I could play music notes more,
Taps, reveille and mess call beat,
Along with other songs galore.
Fans swoon to music from me swanned,
This trumpet of this swan all dig.
Come check me out at the bird pond.
Lincoln Park Zoo is my fav gig.

Yes, a trumpeter swan I am.
With my trumpet, this swan do jam.

Sense Sonnet - Chiller

The Chytrid Attack

Both amphibians and fungi
Have lived on Earth millions of years.
Frogs, toads and salamanders die
From chytrid fungi, it appears.
But humans only noticed these
Deaths just a few decades ago.
What's causing this spreading disease?
Humans may be too slow to know,
Spending most time on pointing blame.
Worldwide epidemic in scope,
Chytrid fungi have upped their game.
Amphibians have little hope.

Humans need be more than perplexed.
Odds are that humans will be next.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Hair of the Vicuna

I am the vicuna, I be
From South America up high,
Smallest of camel family.
Strangers alarm cuz I'm quite shy.
I have a fleece of golden brown.
The Incas used to treasure it,
Ev'ry few years, searching me down,
Shearing my wool, then to be knit
For royalty to wear in show,
As reincarnated live gold.
Usually, they'd let me go.
Wool is wool, but I never told.

If something of my wool you get,
It cost a whole bunch, you can bet.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Nixonoptics

Richard Nixon was seen and heard.
With JFK he did debate.
He might have won if just his word
Was how he did communicate.
But T.V. showed his puffy face
Against the handsome JFK.
In history - Nixon a case
Of how not to be on display.
At last as Prez, Nixon did choose
Few pictures, but tapes did abound.
And by that choice, Nixon did lose.
Should have been pictures, but not sound.

Truth of seen and heard be tricky.
Nixon should have been more picky.

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Zoo Do

Zoo animals - to be or not?
The wild animals have no choice,
As humans argue this a lot,
Cuz only humans have that voice.
Humans have, for better or worse,
Dominion over all on Earth.
The past shows this as mainly curse,
In how humans deem what is worth,
Making non human, human hell.
The power over life and death,
Will humans ever use such well?
No wild animal holds its breath.

Wild animals are in a zoo,
Because that's just what humans do.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Scary Safari

I'm on a zebra galloping,
A steep drop off to my right side.
Behind, a lion is chasing,
Showing its teeth - hard to abide.
A hippo runs in front of me,
To my left side, an elephant.
C'mon zebra - let's break out free.
Is this some sort of nightmare hunt?
The zebra does not seem alarmed
That all these critters are nearby.
But I'm afraid I will be harmed.
This safari does terrify.

My head is beginning to pound.
I get off the merry-go-round.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Time to Merge

The world needs to incorporate,
And be run as the biggest biz
With the board of directors' slate
The wealthiest prize that there is.
Every baby born gets free
An equal number of shares, so
A livelihood guarenteed be,
And all can strive for C.E.O.
No wars and stuff will be condoned,
As bad for biz. Baddies will get
Old fashioned publically stoned.
A firm example must be set.

It's coming sooner than we think,
The pure utopian Earth, Inc.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Microaggression

Microaggression - a big word
For an interaction that's small.
A slight that's said, a slight that's heard,
Some human stuff that's in us all.
Race, gender, sexuality,
Religion, culture - all that stuff
That makes you different from me.
I speak without thinking enough,
Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not,
But I do say and you do hear
Something hurtful - little or lot.
Flight or fight options of such fear.

Microaggression - wrong or right?
Macroaggressively we fight.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Eekquality

Listen my children, you shall hear
Of how the U.S. Department
Of Education did appear
At a Michigan school to vent
Outrage that boys' bleachers were much
Nicer than the girls' bleachers were.
Such inequality was such,
A tear down boys' seats must occur.
No rising tide lifting all boats,
Better all boats be in the mud.
Equality - big gov promotes
Equal is easier with crud.

Some boys and girls have learned at school,
Dumb equality is the rule.

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Owl Care

This snowy owl left the arctic,
Flew South to follow lemmings trail.
As food they are my fav'rite pick.
In D.C. I landed my tail
On a building's hot chimney top,
Burned my feathers, fell to the street.
A bus drove by - gave me a pop,
Looked like I would be bird mincemeat.
But then some humans rescued me,
Implanted hand me down feathers,
Fixed all my other injury.
Soon I'll be fit for the weathers.

In D.C., since being hurt there,
I signed up for Obamacare.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Coreless

Teaching the 3 Rs to the kids
Is called a new name - Common Core,
Full of confusing teach hybrids,
S'posed to improve overall score.
Many teachers and parents gripe
That the new stuff is a crap mix
Of flawed theoretical hype
From iv'ry towered politics.
Of course it's math - dollars and cents.
Just read that writing on the wall.
The kids are of no consequence.
It's give the shaft called Core to all.

Reading, writing, 'rithmetric come
To  Common Core that equals dumb.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Mission Implausible

The U.S. used to go to war
With the prime goal of winning it.
What was all of the fighting for?
Hell - force the enemy to quit.
Leaders sold us that we should fight
Afghanistan - a war for good.
Taliban wrong and U.S. right.
Years later, in all likelihood,
The U.S. will have spent good blood
And treasure, not for victory,
But for a mission made of mud,
A dirty mess of history.

We're losing in Afghanistan.
The winners are the Taliban.

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Come Climb with Me - LP Zoo

What's a gorilla girl to do?
Nobody now wants to hang out
With me at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
This is what boring's all about
I've got my own playhouse right here.
It's always time for a play date,
Like when I looked into a mirror,
And thought I had found a playmate,
And one that could do just what I
Was doing at that very time,
But then took off - I don't know why,
Just disappeared when I did climb.

C'mon - you can hang out with me.
All you need do is climb this tree.

Sense Sonnet - Chiller

Danger Species Act

Called the Endangered Species Act,
(ESA) is s'posed to protect
From the human species that's whacked
Mother Nature, leaving lots wrecked,
Digging out the oil, gas and coal
Is what the humans get off on.
Burn all up now is the prime goal,
No matter what else just gets gone.
Conservation, a noble trait,
But not noble greed is the crux
That in the end will seal dire fate,
This lesser prairie chicken clucks.

Endangered - no, a danger - yes.
The human species should be less.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Big Flipping Deal

The Affordable Care Act is
A flipping big deal, pro or con.
Demmies and Repubbies fav biz -
To flip an issue on and on.
If con - beginning of the end,
If pro - end of the beginning,
Both using trick bags to pretend
D.C. can govern - just nothing.
Affordable - D.C. don't Care.
Spending is D.C.'s practiced Act.
Lies and deceit go flipping there.
For We the People that's a fact.

A big flipping deal in D.C.
Means big headache for you and me.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Pay for Pal

As a taxpayer, I am tired
Of paying military bills
Where the U.S. has not been hired
By other nations for its skills.
It's time for all so called allies
To pay more money for defense.
It's time the rest of the world buys
For cash in bargained recompense,
The stuff the U.S. top brass think
Is needed beyond U.S. shores.
Then military wares that stink
Will not be wasted in the wars.

Pay up or shut up world - here's why,
The U.S. cash cow is milked dry.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

American Kestrel

American kestrel am I,
One of the falcon family.
On fine feathered wing I do fly
In search of prey that I may see.
Sharp of eye and talon and beak,
I scan my playground down below.
Tiz like a game of hide and seek.
Flying into headwinds that blow,
I become a predator still,
Awaiting movement of some prey
That I shall then attack and kill,
And eat my bounty - nature's way.

Aloft in the wind I hover.
Prey pray to make it to cover.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Camel Lunch

Three camels went to meet for lunch,
A veggie diner with entrees
That the camels did like a bunch,
Salads full of different hays.
And while they ate, they gossiped 'bout
The latest naughty they had heard.
The humans were the worst, no doubt.
Anything, ev'rything - absurd!
So staying clear of human stuff,
Lunch for the camels was a break
To try to just relax enough
To tolerate for human sake.

The camels often met this way,
Usually on hump Wednesday.

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Poor on Poor

The inner city's where I roam
With all the other kids like me.
The streets are the only real home,
And that is where we'll always be.
Most moms and dads look for the Man
To give 'em money to get by.
Survival is the only plan,
Cuz all that's for sure is to die.
Out there we know we're just a stat,
Bounced about like a ping pong ball.
What percent of poor are we at?
And will that percent ever fall?

Been born into this neighborhood,
And gonna grow up to no good.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

My Right Side of History

You are being very bad now,
And history will prove me right.
I've given you warnings - and how!
I just hate it when we do fight.
Think of the future for us both
When history does judge both us.
For me there will be a mild oath.
For you there will be a harsh cuss.
Not too late for even you yet.
Come get right with me - what the heck!
The both of us will do reset,
And please get your boot off my neck.

On history's wrong side you be.
Come on the right side - be with me.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Free to Lawbreak

The Founding Fathers, yes indeed,
Believed in religious freedom.
Most of the Founders of the creed
Of Christian, but all deemed welcome
To be of any faith as long
As laws of the State be obeyed.
At times beliefs can just be wrong
Against the rules the State has made.
If a believer interacts
In the society as a whole,
Then any religious abstracts
Must work within the common soul.

Religious believers be free,
But need to do so legally.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Python on Path

A Burmese python, I got born
In the Florida Everglades,
Where native critters are forlorn,
Ending up as digested preyeds.
And so some meddling humans stuck
A GPS inside of me,
Took me off twenty miles by truck,
And let me go. How would I be?
Well, it's stars I be checking out
To do my navigation roam,
Giving those humans little doubt
That I knew how to get back home.

Where I was born, I plan to stay,
Cuz where there's my will, there's my way.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

We be Herd

The Demmies and Repubbies herd
We the People this way and that.
Ev'ry election gets absurd.
Deja Vu and We are back at
The same ol' same ol' politics,
Finger pointing and shifting blame,
Headlined by some mess in the mix.
Obamacare - this season's name.
Odds now favor Repubbies to
Whack the Demmies in this next round.
And then Repubbies will just do
More mess, and Demmies will rebound.

We the People swing to and from
Like herded sheep, cuz We are dumb.

Sense Sonnet - Chiller

Psycho Pilot

A plane missing suspiciously,
Theories on what happened to it,
The pilots under scrutiny,
Something rotten from the cockpit?
Someday perhaps computers will
Fully fly a plane humanless,
Computers - less likely to kill,
As humans do with commoness.
More and more passengers will doubt
Their pilots' motives as they fly.
Passengers can hardly bail out.
Psycho pilots - passengers die.

How 'bout pilots of Air Force One?
What kind of mental checks are done?

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Bossy

Bossy Nanny State does command,
For the good of society,
Saying the word, "bossy" is banned,
Cuz little girls grow up to be
Afraid to be a leader lass.
No girl should be called such a name,
Even if a pain in the ass.
Stereotyping is to blame.
Bossy Nanny State thinks it's time
To make this "B" word be unspoke,
And saying it is now a crime.
Bossy Nanny State does say, "No Joke!"

Being bossy is still okay,
But say "bossy" - you're put away.