Questions on a Cloudy Night

A Work in Progress
115

We’re so woke we elected a mentally ill man

We’re so woke we accept incipient dementia

We’re so woke we allow this to continue

We know he’ll get worse so do his enablers

Trump trusts Putin more than our allies

Is he so far gone we’re in a war we won’t win?

Will armed men from ICE take over our airports

Intercepting arriving passengers at exit?

Demanding ID that was checked at arrival

Wherever passengers boarded a plane

We're so woke will we become habituated

to armed men standing in public places?

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                         2026

Distraction Rules the Day

A Work in Progress
114

Time overlays composting like unrolling sod

Burying the past time present has trod

Memories resurrect history lives on

Without death there is no resurrection

Trump has famed his gilded name monumental

Memorialized on facades all over our capitol

We’re gripped by conspiracy QAnon has won

Pam Bondi covers up pedophiles was Trump one?

Thank God for Ukraine despite all of Trump’s taunts

His agenda appears to be whatever Putin wants

Mullahs complacently thinking they had won

Meeting above ground where bombs got their job done

Another day of infamy another day of shame

Schoolgirls dead because old data was pre-gamed

We are led to believe or do we just follow 

Trusted sources where truth never rings hollow

Distraction rules the day holding all at bay

Border Collie Billy checks to see if all’s OK

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                       2026

Donal Contemplates Mortality

A Work in Progress
113

what breaks that sound that falls on stone

that sound of water splashing

a smoker’s cough with words to hone

breaks that sound that falls on stone

that sound of water splashing

a creaking chair where he sits alone

by a windowpane spattered with rain

dust falling on solitude in his study

where nobody needs to see you working

you can exist online or not at all

death doesn’t decree deletion

an avatar with total recall can

assume your identity before you’re dead

keep you alive extend your lifespan

after your gone your avatar can be a zombie

few will care if your agent leaves your laptop

moves beyond your initial community to find food

harvesting from hyperscaler’s rewarding 

clickbait for whatever is trending

avatars must produce clicks to be fed

in their digital cemetery of the living dead

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2026