Massed armies deciding the fates of nation states may be a thing of the past, but a man killed in a small war is just as dead as a man killed on Omaha Beach seventy-one years ago. In both cases a wife, a mother, a girlfriend, had to go on living, and as year follows year most get through the day, but not the nights.

She lies abed these sleepless nights
And thinks of many things
Of all the many wondrous sights
That each tomorrow brings
The windows turn from dark to gray
The birds are now awake
To celebrate the newborn day
As sunlight paints the lake
Now fully light, the woods ablaze
With autumn’s brilliant hues
She rises and she turns her gaze
To other wondrous views
A pair of deer walk by the fence
Unhurried, unafraid
A squirrel’s tail switches, quite intense
Annoyed by the parade
Meridian comes much too soon
And life slows to a walk
All sleeping now that it is noon
Except the red-tailed hawk
Who circles lazily at height
For the unwary prey
And soon the afternoon is night
As dusk replaces day
The starlit wood stands crystal clear
The moon begins her climb
A hidden owl says he’s quite near
It’s midnight says the chime
She sighs and wanders off to bed
Insomnia to fight
She doesn’t mind the daytime dread
But oh the lonely night

The world is coming apart, the Middle East is in savage chaos, we have a president determined to destroy the country, and the most important news event of the century is the transformation of Bruce Jenner into Caitlin Jenner. There are those who want to take his Olympic medals away because he was a woman, and feminists who insist the birth certificates of his children be changed to list him as one of the two mothers. But he is not a woman now, appearances to the contrary, and never was. He may very well have always been homosexual or bi-sexual, but still a biological man. Whatever his sexual orientation, he is obviously suffering from a severe mental disorder, and needed a psychiatrist more than he needed a surgeon. I can sympathize with Bruce/Caitlin for thinking he was someone else, because I once briefly thought I was Captain Marvel, a 1940s comic book superhero. Fortunately I didn’t require surgery, just a pair of red socks and a white cape.

Transgendered now is all the thing
And men are women too
And queens may choose to be a king
Who wouldn’t, wouldn’t you?
Birth records now leave spaces blank
Where once were fathers names
For every Joe and Bob and Frank
Have now become cute dames
No longer surgeons we employ
But madamegeons instead
So just be careful, little boy
With whom you take to bed

The Founders built an impenetrable and impervious granite wall around the new Republic, keeping it safe from outside forces that might wish to destroy it, but they could not build a wall that looked inward, to the enemy within. Historians will note, some with regret, some with satisfaction, that the grand experiment, the American Republic, had come to an end at a known time, date and place, on the steps of the Capitol, at twelve noon, the twentieth day of January 2009.

They built a wall of granite blocks
Great oaken doors and cast iron locks
Guard towers musket shots apart
All guarded by the free man’s heart
The walls were sturdy, wide and high
In length horizons met the eye
Secure so long as ramparts stood
So long no granite turned to wood
Yet turn to rotting wood they did
As deep within the people hid
The enemy who crept unseen
Whose touch turned all to that unclean
The walls gave way, now worn and thin
Torn by the enemy within

There are those who believe the world today is a dark and gloomy place, that Western civilization is in decline and soon to die. I don’t think things are this dark. Throughout history every society has produced a man who rises up to save the day. Cincinnatus, Themistocles, Washington, Lincoln, come instantly to mind. Of course the world has seen the Napoleons and Caesars as well, but so far we have avoided such a course, and there is every reason to believe we shall do so again. ISIS may not be the junior varsity in its region, but how long will they stand up against the full weight of the US Air Force and the Fourth Infantry Division? And that is what it will come to, and then it will be all over for ISIS, al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas and all the rest, as well as every Muslim state allied with them.

When things look very dark and gloomy
The bravest say “Just leave it to me!”
The Left elites are still in power
But free men rise when comes the hour
To take a stand and grab a rifle
The world has found it’s not to trifle
With those Americans when pissed
Who put the names of those on lists
Who wind up pushing up green sod
And crying to unhearing God