Welcome back

 

 

 

 "In the 1980s, researchers excavating a cave in the Judean Desert, in Israel, uncovered a seed that was subsequently dated to sometime between 993 and 1202 AD, making it approximately 1,000 years old. Testing of the seed suggested that it was still viable, so the research team planted and tended to it. A little while later, it sprouted. Now, 14 years later, the tree has grown to maturity.....The researchers have also found that the tree belongs to the genus Commiphora, which belongs to the same family as frankincense and myrrh."

 

While you were away trucks and chainsaws

were invented and used to clear the land 

without much thought or consideration with

fire that soon grew to consume whole forests

across the land now naked empty afraid 

back then you spread shade on Crusades and they

fought over gods and Dominion that we see today

and, believe or not, the return of mad kings

and their henchmen and women who should

know better but don't and prove that every day

sorry to have to tell you this but it is as ever

what we now call amiss and you are living

with this, again.

 

 

 

To a Certain Cedar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You held me up high among

the others on that wooded glade

in the close shade on sunny days

I was always eight years old 

back then even when I was

nine or ten climbing trees or

sailing seas away from home 

across the yard or was it a harbor

and you a mast with provisions 

stored in your limbs the insects

discovered overnight (another sight)

are you still there today you are

for me and will always be.

The ask

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You asked for my opinion

one day when supporters 

prepared for dark responses 

for flashing lights and fears

we walked along the road

where it would happen

your home before a siege 

I don't know what I offered

then but I do know you asked

so open to others and their thoughts

in a world of thoughtlessness 

a gift from you unforgotten

were it now I would say 

please stay, for awhile as

we pass the time of day.

         -  d.o. for Randy Kehler 2024

Down with the Kingmakers!

 

 

 

It is Independence Day 2024 as I write. It's rather ironic to be celebrating our independence from the old British monarchy, from the whims of King George when the majority of our own Supreme Court have just turned the United States of America into a kingdom.  Our President has been granted full immunity from any official acts he might perform in office (can you believe it?). The "gift" is little short of The Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz) of 1933 in pre-war Germany. But wait, this is the USA. We don't do kings, right?? Correct.......BUT since we have one now perhaps there's someway we can turn the clock back.

How about demanding "King Joe" pack SCOTUS with justices who don't have fascist tendencies? FDR threatened to do that back in the day. Did he really have the power to do such a thing? If so, and those clear thinking justices become the majority, might they revisit the immunity decision and reverse it? I'm no lawyer or student of the Court but if that is doable what's to keep us from acting on it? Presumably there is not enough time to do that, if it's possible, before the election in November. In that case, could our new King delay the election? It all sounds a bit crazy, yes?  

Of course it's crazy. We have gone down the proverbial rabbit hole in this country since His Malignancy took office in 2017. The MAGA death cult has transformed the once "Party of Law & Order" into a sham, an evil clown show your grandparents would never have conceived of as they put out Old Glory in front of their homes on the 4th of July. 

 

Every Tree Everywhere All at Once

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A message to loggers or others with
An axe to grind have you thought about
Being kind to your children or
Theirs and theirs and on who now
Depend upon trees capturing carbon dioxide
And storing the carbon within themselves
And the soil below or
Did you not know about the emergency
We are beginning to see a
Climate in chaos with life threatening heat
And rubble of your home at your feet or
Water thigh high on your street or
A new plague that may meet millions
And defeat the civilization you need
To survive a future so bleak and likely
Not the one you seek? 

Better Than a New Idea

  

What could be?

Roots

 

It's called a family tree but it's hard to see

much similarity though we all are here

on and in this land in need of air and

of course water and beings we do not

see moving about us and on us here 

seemingly forever and ever even as we

humans cut away at them for warmth or

utility without much thought or empathy

trace your relations truthfully across

the land and sea into the soil and depths

all our relations together.