The shortest day has passed us now.
We haven’t had to salt or plow.
Ignore the aging Christmas sweets
(that fruitcake, too, that no one eats),
recall the past months – skeptically —
and look ahead to what may be:
In Paris, Notre Dame’s restored;
they’ve hauled away each charcoaled board,
rebuilt the roof, made paintings bright —
but now the stones have all turned white!
The gray we saw for all that time
was just 800 years of grime.
Al Assad’s scurried out the door.
their family tyranny’s no more.
For Syrians who broke that curse,
let’s hope there won’t be something worse.
Ukraine endures, but for how long?
Our allies want Zelensky strong –
but how much aid will they deliver
Once Trump sells him down the river?
Trump 2.0 is on the ground,
Red MAGA hats are still around.
When were America’s “great” days?
Perhaps when Rutherford B. Hayes
enjoyed the President4ial power
helped at the 11th hour
by a deal that let him win
and let the South bring Jim Crow in —
‘twas springtime of our “Gilded Age,”
when plutocrats were all the rage —
a time that may be back today;
there’s lots of gilding, anyway.
Some voters claimed Trump’s sins did not
outweigh the business smarts he’d got;
a business genius? Sure (’cause we
all saw him play one on TV.)
Trump’s choices have made room for liars —
and a gaggle of deniers:
2020 was a steal!
And vaccine safety? It’s not real!
(Want whooping cough? Want polio?
Want crackpot theories? Hey, let’s go!)
That “climate change?” There’s nothing to it!
Sex offenses? Didn’t do it!
Deportations start next year.
How “mass” they’ll be is most unclear:
Who’ll feed the hogs and pack the beef,
keep greenswards free of weed and leaf,
clean up the rooms and bus the dishes,
bake the loaves and can the fishes?
Costs would rise and profits sink.
Some rich guys might complain — you think?
New Jersey’s skies were filled with smoke,
and then (and this is not a joke)
with drones that some folks thought (who knows?)
Might actually be UFOs.
Our skies stayed pretty smoke-free here —
which made it an unusual year —
and no one saw odd things fly by,
(but would it hurt to watch the sky?)
That music, could it be a knell
or just the usual carousel?
The music stops, you find a chair;
let’s look at who is sitting where:
Jay Inslee’s heading for the past.
Bob Ferguson is Gov at last.
Will Nick, the A.G., see his job
as suing Trump? It worked for Bob.
And Hilary, who has to stand,
has left behind the public land,
Now, Dave is there; some think that he’s
just right for forests and for trees.
At this point, optimism’s cheap,
but costs, as ever, will be steep;
so let’s recall at last report,
the state will be 10 billion short.
Are Boeing’s problems just bad luck?
A panel blew out; WTF!
The corporate learning curve looks steep
to quality from quick and cheap;
and focus — though it may seem rash —
on making planes, not just more cash.
Seattle won’t be closing schools;
the folks who run them aren’t fools:
Who’d want those parents off their porches,
wielding pitchforks, clutching torches?
Soon futbol will fill Lumen up
for next year’s soccer Club World Cup
where Morris and Roldan will see
Atletico and PSG,
and before that round is through,
Brazilian Botafogo, too.
Though JSN is now a star
the Seahawks aren’t getting far;
it’s true, they’ve finally begun
to block some guys and stop the run
(alas, less often than they should);
next year, who knows, they may be good.
Some anniversaries will come fast;
to point us backward to the past:
Five years ago, when we first found
that COVID 19 was around;
we soon learned words like PPE
and masked, and stayed home fearfully
while some thought it was all a fake,
and some thought masking a mistake
and some — it’s a familiar game —
still want somebody they can blame.
For orcas, it will soon be 20
(which, let’s face it, should be plenty)
years since they got on the list
that says that they may not exist.
Alas, they’re still not doing well,
as folks who count them sure can tell;
Their numbers just don’t seem to rise,
which shouldn’t be a great surprise.
When they get hungry, they all look
to find the nearest fat Chinook –
a splendid choice, yet sad but true,
Chinook have lots of troubles, too.
We all have things we like to eat,
without which meals seem incomplete:
like tripe in a menudo pot
or haggis to a hungry Scot.
Would killer whales be better fed,
If they preferred Big Macs instead?
A Trump obsession’s such a waste;
there’s such good stuff to see and taste,
so when the news inspires a groan,
enjoy that coffee and that scone.
Go take a walk from Pike to shore,
right where the viaduct’s no more,
gaze out at ferries on the Sound,
and maybe cast a look around,
down to the spot right where, we’re told,
the Portland brought its Klondike gold,
and where the seawall used to stand
between the water and the land;
it might be standing there today,
but gribbles nibbled it away.
Catch northbound ships in Bellingham,
Korean art at Asian SAM,
more local shows than you can count,
while downtown at the Paramount,
there’s “Hamilton,” Diana Krall
and down at Benaroya Hall,
some “epic” scores from films will be
performed soon by the Symphony.
,
And as the coming days race by,
check out what’s right before your eye:
a Douglas squirrel that scampers by,
a gliding raptor in the sky,
a nurse log velveted by moss,
a dog’s wet ball for you to toss,
a woodstove heating up the room,
a bright café in winter gloom,
a river of bright purple flox
cascading through Olympic rocks,
a field of lupine at Rainier,
quicksilver fish where water’s clear,
small frogs all greener than the grass,
small shorebirds swirling in a mass,
a team of horses set to pull.
Let’s see a glass that looks half-full,
and hope the whale J-35
sees this year’s newborn calf survive,
while kids in Gaza, warm and fed,
are not afraid they’ll wake up dead.
Instead of a mid-winter mope,
let’s raise a glass to what we hope,
perhaps a good Red Mountain red,
or just an N.A. beer instead,
to celebrate cool things we see
and give some thought to what should be.
