Guide to the Other Gallery

by Dana Gioia

This is the hall of broken limbs
Where splintered marble athletes lie
Beside the arms of cherubim.
Nothing is ever thrown away.

These butterflies are set in rows.
So small and gray inside their case
They look alike now. I suppose
Death makes most creatures commonplace.

These portraits here of the unknown
Are hung three high, frame piled on frame.
Each potent soul who craved renown,
Immortalized without a name.

Here are the shelves of unread books,
Millions of pages turning brown.
Visitors wander through the stacks,
But no one ever takes one down.

I wish I were a better guide.
There’s so much more that you should see—
Rows of bottles with nothing inside,
Displays of locks which have no key.

You’d like to go? I wish you could.
This room has such a peaceful view.
Look at that case of antique wood
Without a label. It’s for you.

Being Happy

by Dana Gioia

Of course it was doomed. I know that now,
but it ended so quickly, and I was young.
I hardly remember that summer in Seattle—
except for her. The city seems just a rainy backdrop.
From the moment I first saw her at the office
I was hooked. I started visiting her floor.

I couldn’t work unless I caught a glimpse of her.
Once we exchanged glances, but we never spoke.
Then at a party we found ourselves alone.
We started kissing and ended up in bed.
We talked all night. She claimed she had liked me
secretly for months. I wonder now if that was true.

Two weeks later her father had a heart attack.
While she was in Chicago, they shut down our division.
I was never one for writing letters.
On the phone we had less to say each time.
And that was it—just those two breathless weeks,
then years of mild regret and intermittent speculation.

Being happy is mostly like that. You don’t see it up close.
You recognize it later from the ache of memory.
And you can’t recapture it. You only get to choose
whether to remember or forget, whether to feel remorse
or nothing at all. Maybe it wasn’t really love.
But who can tell when nothing deeper ever came along?

Republican Presidential Candidates - III

Might as well do this before tonight's candidate's debate, so here goes:

Tier 1 - Trump
rationale:  the feisty front-runner for now who isn't going away anytime soon

Tier 2 - Rubio
rationale:  hasn't looked hopeless, at least not yet

Tier 3 - Cruz, Jeb!, Christie, Kasich
rationale:  the only other candidates with even a slim chance of winning the GOP nomination

Tier 4 - the grifters, who I won't even bother to name
rationale:  in it for the money

Dark Horse - Paul Ryan
rationale:  may be the only possible GOP candidate who has a chance of winning in the general election

Last Day on Earth

by Lawrence Raab

If it’s the title of a movie you expect
everything to become important—a kiss,
a shrug, a glass of wine, a walk with the dog.

But if the day is real, life is only
as significant as yesterday—the kiss
hurried, the shrug forgotten, and now,

on the path by the river, you don’t notice
the sky darkening beyond the pines because
you’re imagining what you’ll say at dinner,

swirling the wine in your glass.
You don’t notice the birds growing silent
or the cold towers of clouds moving in,

because you’re explaining how lovely
and cool it was in the woods. And the dog
had stopped limping!—she seemed

her old self again, sniffing the air and alert,
the way dogs are to whatever we can’t see.
And I was happy, you hear yourself saying,

because it felt as if I’d been allowed
to choose my last day on earth,
and this was the one I chose.

The Future

by Billy Collins

When I finally arrive there—
And it will take many days and nights—
I would like to believe others will be waiting
and might even want to know how it was.

So I will reminisce about a particular sky
or a woman in a white bathrobe
or the time I visited a narrow strait
where a famous naval battle had taken place.

Then I will spread out on a table
a large map of my world
and explain to the people of the future
in their pale garments what it was like—

how mountains rose between the valleys
and this was called geography,
how boats loaded with cargo plied the rivers
and this was known as commerce,

how the people from this pink area
crossed over into this light-green area
and set fires and killed whoever they found
and this was called history—

and they will listen, mild-eyed and silent,
as more of them arrive to join the circle,
like ripples moving toward,
not away from, a stone tossed into a pond.

Republican Presidential Candidates - II

Since my initial post on this subject, two have dropped out (Perry, Walker) and a couple are lookin' pretty shaky (Paul, Graham), but the reality show goes on.  Let's get on with it then:

Tier 1:  Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina

For now, they're on top because they get attention, and how.  Trump is going to keep running and running and running given his ego and Fiorina is the only other candidate who can stand up to Trump's braggadocio.  You have to give Fiorina points for the sheer chutzpah of making a lying video after lying about a video in the last debate.  Not that the lies cancel each other out, of course.  I'm afraid it does say some pretty unflattering things about the GOP's base that no one dares call her out for being a liar.  I remember Barry Goldwater's quip about extremism in defense of liberty being no vice, but I do think he'd have drawn the line at baldfaced lying.

Tier 2:  Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, John Kasich

Jeb falls back after his inept debate performance and lackluster campaign in general, while Rubio moves up as a consequence of Jeb's weak showing so far, as Rubio sort of fills the same political niche as Jeb does - a kinder, gentler face of the Republican Party.  Cruz is certainly not that face, but he is now definitely the Tea Party's darling after Scott Walker's implosion.  Kasich isn't really at the level the others in this tier are at, but as he's still got some real advantages as a candidate geographically coming from a key swing state, so I rate him a bit higher given his potential, even though he's not polling well.  It's still a long way to Iowa though, and we'll see.

Tier 3:  The rest. 

Seriously, if anyone thinks Ben Carson has a chance, please, bet me a dollar and I'll pay you a thousand if I'm wrong.  Sure, he'll stick around while he can I'm sure, possibly longer than most of the other also-rans.  Mike Huckabee is a capable enough politician but has little actual support so he's just grifting, while Rand Paul may have some libertarian Republican followers he's still not exciting them enough to really matter, and I think Paul will drop out in the next month and just be happy to be in the U.S. Senate.  As for the kid's table candidates, I'm wondering why they're even bothering having a warm-up debate myself.

Democratic Presidential Candidates - I

As it's the eve of the second Republican Presidential debate tonight, I figure I ought to say something about the Democratic Presidential Candidates too.  Here goes:

First tier:  Clinton, Sanders

Rationale:  The only two currently in the race who are drawing serious polling numbers.  'Nuff said.

Second tier:  Biden

Rationale:  I don't think Biden will run but he is polling better than the rest in response to current doubts about Clinton, IMO.  Essentially, Biden's supporters are likely Clinton backers who are nervous.  I think the upcoming Democratic debates will be beneficial for Hillary Clinton in terms of getting her beyond the faux email B.S. that's been the preoccupation of the press.

Third tier:  O'Malley

Rationale:  The only other candidate who could possibly, if not bloody well likely, be the nominee.

Fourth tier:  Chaffe, Webb, Lessig

Rationale:  Running because they have nothing better to do and heck, look at all the Repubilcans running!

Basically, it's Clinton's race to lose and she won't.  She barely lost out to Obama back in 2008 and Sanders is not Obama - Sanders is from the far left of the political spectrum who is running to the left in hopes of shifting the Democrats leftward, and he's already succeeded in doing that while firing up the white liberal base.  But the cold fact is that Democrats won't win unless they get a big minority turnout, and when the dust has settled on the caucuses and primaries I expect Obama to do everything he can to get out the vote for Clinton, and Obama has considerable popularity where it counts.

The real danger for Democrats is that Sanders may well fire up his base so much that he alienates them from Clinton in the general election and that's when Ralph Nader decides to run again.  Do.  Not.  Want.   I'm sure President Trump's first act as President will be to gild the White House in gold leaf, and lots of it.  Americans deserve a classy President and a classy White House, don't they?