The Crucifixions

Spread the Word

A Parable of Reversal

By Moristotle

I have revised and retitled the parable “Easter Uprising,” which appeared on April 30, to try to better express my central idea for the poem. A few days after that version appeared, I thought about adding a third stanza, but I quickly saw that some rewording in the second stanza could plant the cross on firmer ground.
    Finally, eight hours before scheduled posting, I made one more change: at the end of the first line of the second stanza, I changed “restoration” to “resurrection.” And then, at last, I saw what my muse may have been trying to tell me all along – the January 6th insurrectionists were, in effect, attempting to resurrect Donald Trump from the crucifixion he seemed to think he had suffered in losing the 2020 presidential election.

Goines On: Nazis...and Trumpzis?

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An epiphany had come with such force during a recent night that it rocked Goines: If Trump is as dangerous and destructive as his actions demonstrate, then it seemed fair to draw a parallel between his followers and Hitler’s followers of 80 years earlier (and neo-Nazis subsequently). Did unsympathetic relatives of Hitler’s Nazi followers have to gulp and tighten their mouths as Goines did with his Trumpist relatives? Weren’t they, effectively, Trumpzis? Was such a comparison of Hitler’s followers to Trump’s a fair one, or was Goines’ muse going nuts?

Goines On: Getting to agreeing to disagree

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Goines’ relative who slipped an evangelical pamphlet in with his Christmas card refused at first to discuss politics with Goines. Curbe (his name was pronounced the same as Kirby) insisted at first that they would just have to “agree to disagree.” But Goines nevertheless managed to engage Curbe in more than a dozen email exchanges in which they told each other their primary political principles. Perhaps surprisingly – and reassuringly, for the sake of family relations – they seemed to pretty much agree on the ones they actually discussed:

West Coast Observer: The comedy isn’t funny

By William Silveira

The persistence of local Trump support – that is, around my part of California’s Central San Joaquin Valley – is baffling. To write a whole column about it would be a challenge I’m not sure I could meet. Trump is our Comedian in Chief, and it is sad that too many people still find him entertaining, not to mention what an insult it is to the American taxpayer that his or her dollars go to pay for Trump’s road shows, like Monday’s in El Paso.

Could this happen? Yes, theoretically...

The following letter, written by Gary Livacari—and appearing on TomPaine.com on December 1, 2006—posits a remarkable and "impossible" (but nevertheless intriguing) set of circumstances:

Re: Iraq’s Reality Bandwagon

In all sincerity, the only way out of this mess is if, in the face of continuing calls for Bush and Cheney's impeachment, they are convinced to resign for the good of the nation by the republican hierarchy. This would make Pelosi president and she would be under immense pressure from the left wing of her party to withdraw the troops immediately.

Obviously, this calls for a limerick. Give me a few minutes. I'll compose one while I'm installing a bathroom exhaust fan.

Ah! Better yet, you compose one. I'll insert it into this post later, along with the one (or more) I come up with.

12/7/2006. Inspired by Southern Writer (serving, I guess, as a sort of muse), I just wrote:

Hey now, wouldn't it be preziosi
If both Bush and his Bela Lugosi
    Resigned their post
    Or gave up the ghost
And the presidency fell to Pelosi?

And, now that I've gotten off the dime, Serena Joy has written:

It is a limerick, for true,
Bush and Cheny, Moristotle does rue.
    If they gave up the ghost,
    I'd propose a toast
To a whole new motley crew.

And I say:

Thanks, Serena, for the valiant entry,
To my own verse apt and complementary.
    May Bush and his pawn
    Forever be gone
And nevermore claim they're landed gentry.