The Year in Verse

As ’25 sashays offstage,
It’s time, as usual, to engage
In recollection of months past
While trying to see what’s coming fast.

Don’t greet the New Year with a curse;
So things aren’t great — they could be worse.
Can that be true? You know it can:
We could all be in South Sudan.

In ’26, we’ll celebrate
The Declaration’s signing date,
Since which, we all can say (come on!),
250 years have gone.

There will, of course, be celebration –
And a dose of trepidation;
Trump’s trashed Jefferson’s ideal
Just as it seemed a bit more real.
“L’etat c’est moi,” old Louis said;
It could have been our Prez instead.

Here atmospheric rivers flowed.
Real water covered field and road:
The Skagit and the Nooksack, too,
And the Skykomish, for a few.
And levies broke. That’s pretty clear;
Not down in Mississippi — here!
(To be a little more specific, In Tukwila and Pacific).

Cows marooned on higher ground
And mobile homes that bobbed around,
While houses filled with mold and mud,
Reminded us that flood plains flood.

Before we leave the holidays,
We should, perhaps,
reflect on ways
We’ve chosen to appreciate
Those folks who make our nation great:

The nicest little girls and boys
Got lots of sweets and talking toys;
The naughtiest got presents early
(They’ve no reason to be surly,
Though some may do so anyhow):
They’ve Presidential pardons now.

The Copa will be coming soon:
The local games will start in June;
How touching that the FIFA guys
Gave Trump his very own peace prize;
The shamelessness was off the charts
But may have gladdened White House hearts.
The fans, whom FIFA has ignored,
Might opt for seats they could afford.

Four outs were all M’s had to get
To play in their first series yet —
They didn’t get them, as we know;
The Dumper did hit 60, though.

Hawks fans are learning that it’s fun
To watch Shaheed take off and run,
And JSN go catch the ball —
Can that plus defense win it all?
The team is better than expected
(Trophies, though, still aren’t collected.)

Nostalgic sights we’ve now been seein’:
Gunboats in the Caribbean,
Just where they used to be, you know,
A hundred years or so ago:
Marines arrived in Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua
— sound the tuba — Veracruz makes many lists,
And then we’ve had more recent twists:
(The pattern, it would seem, persists.)

The Bay of Pigs did not go well,
But win some, lose some — what the hell —
Grenada? Well, we couldn’t fail.
And Noriega went to jail
So this is hardly a new trick;
We’re just repeating an old schtick.

And as for sinking boats with drones —
Were drugs on board? Ask Davy Jones.
They just keep sailing to their doom –
Drug boats or not, it’s still kaboom!

The President seemed faux-distressed
When someone asked his Saudi guest
About Khashoggi’s grisly end;
“Things happen,” Trump said for his friend.
A match made, as they say, in heaven:
Bone-saw man and 47.

To justify his policies
Trump has declared “emergencies.”
Do they pass the laugh test? No.
And lower courts have told him so.
But if the high court gets a say,
It may well let him get away
With Presidential bald-faced lies.
Why not? Facts are for loser guys.

ICE thugs in masks patrol the street
But always, as we know, discrete:
Not recognized by you or me —
They’ve hidden faces and ID.

A guy in Washington DC
A sandwich tossed at CBP
Which Justice called a felony.
Grand jurors, though, did not agree,
And then a jury of his peers
Who may be chuckling for years –
Tossed out a misdemeanor, too –
He threw a sandwich! Wouldn’t you?

Is Gaza seeing peace or war?
One can’t be certain anymore.
If you eschew semantic tricks,
You may prefer plain politics:
If Bibi wants those votes from you,
Go build a settlement or two.

Vlad Putin’s following his star:
That glorious U.S.S.R.,
While Erdogan would like to see
The Ottomans back, naturally.

Nostalgia for grand days of yore —
We’re not contenders anymore! –
Seems fashionable here and there;
It’s not just MAGA folks who care.
(For most, those empires weren’t much fun –
But hey, their teams were Number One.)
On our own right, some folks might like
To resurrect the old Third Reich.

The global right’s supposed to be
A key to our security
(Or so the government now says,
Which means, no doubt, so does the Prez.)
(Secure because Chileans may
Look fondly back at Pinochet?)

When government was shut down tight,
House members found it quite all right
To guzzle from the public cup
Without so much as showing up.

Can anybody qualify?
Why yes, the Constitution tells us why:
Those born within the U.S.A.
Are citizens on that very day,
As justices began to state
Way back in 1898.

Though Trump would like “birthright” erased,
The Constitution’s not replaced
So still Amendment 14.1
Informs us that it can’t be done —
Unless, of course, Supremes invent
New ways past text and precedent.

The socialists are coming – eek! –
And yet nobody seems to freak
Now that old nightmare of the right
Is creeping closer, day and night:
Will Wilson and Mamdani bring
A Kremlin taint to everything?

Free day care: would that be a threat?
Or folks who sleep where it’s not wet?
Our mayoral socialists may be
Blindsided by reality;
If so, they wouldn’t be the first
Ambitious mayors whose bubbles burst.

(Most voters won’t demand grand feats
If they can just maintain the streets.)
Bob Ferguson has said he plans
To fix our crumbling roads and spans.
He wants to build new ferries, too —
Which begs the question of new crew.

(These seem like real no-brainers, no?
But first we’ll have to raise the dough.)
State finances are looking rough.
Last year’s new billions weren’t enough.
Some Dems would like new taxes but
The Gov says he would rather cut.
He said the same a year ago;
We wound up with new taxes, though.

We’ll see what happens at the last;
Will legislators moving fast
To pass a bill they haven’t read
(Kick problems down the road ahead.)

Now Link light rail’s reached Federal Way,
But West Seattle? Who can say?
Eight billion for four miles of track?
Perhaps it’s time for scaling back;
Or possibly for something brash:
Like laying rails on piles of cash.

By digging in the Sussex ground,
Some archaeologists have found
That folks made fire there, they know,
Four hundred thousand years ago.
Those folks weren’t just like us all;
They were, in fact, Neanderthal —
(But go ahead and show some pride:
We have some of their genes inside.)

So maybe take a broader look;
Go see a movie, read a book,
And sometimes let your focus shift
From climate change and White House grift:
If you look skyward pretty soon
You may behold a super moon
(A wolf moon also, so they say,
Though wolves may not come out to play.)

Check out Impressionists at SAM
And old French guys in Bellingham.
In January, Meany has
Some dance that’s paired with Latin jazz;
The Paramount, however, is
The place where you can see The Wiz.
And if you want witch hazels, know
The winter garden’s where to go.

In summer swim a mountain lake.
Find mental pictures you can take:
A ferry deck, a sunny day
The city rising from the bay;
A hyper kinglet’s ruby crown,
A giant nurse log’s mossy gown;

A dog that’s waiting by your feet
Because she knows you have a treat;
Fresh bread that’s baked with local grain;
Chanterelles that rise in autumn rain;
Ripe huckleberries picked up high;
Perhaps a slice of apple pie.

Beneath a roof if we feel rain,
Let’s toast in tariff-free “champagne”
Hope some old dogs will learn new tricks
And wag a tail for ’26.