Louder

Louder

 

 

You’re a bonehead, sir.  It just came out.
Of that fact there can now be no doubt.
No conviction is firmer.
Though it once used to murmur,
your stupidity now starts to shout.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Really Hard

Really Hard

 

 

You made it really hard for us
by telling your unwelcome truth.
You wouldn’t turn aside — and thus
you made it really hard for us.
When honesty’s imperious,
we always find, it’s quite uncouth.
You made it really hard for us
by telling your unwelcome truth.

 

 

–Tom Riley

A Welcome Cataclysm

 

A Welcome Cataclysm

 

 

The pope’s encyclical at last is inked.
The problem now is climate change, you know–
and one-world government is set to grow.
I wish that idiots would go extinct.

 

 

–Tom Riley

In Sede Petri

In Sede Petri

 

 

At sin’s tit, Hell on discontent suckles.
Hordes advance, and the world order buckles.
Every day, Christians die.
And the pope?  What a guy!
He is fishing for climate-change chuckles.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Advice to an Arms Manufacturer

Advice to an Arms Manufacturer

 

 

The pope says you’re no Christian?  Oh, fudge!
From your business, though, I wouldn’t budge.
Wish his judgment away–
or pretend that you’re gay
so the pope says he’s not one to judge.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Yet Another Book

Yet Another Book

 

 

He’s written yet another book
that promises then disappoints.
My review stands.  Oh, have a look:
he’s written yet another book
that can’t do what it undertook
to do, that’s broken at the joints!
He’s written yet another book
that promises then disappoints.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Evil Plan

Evil Plan

 

 

I came up with an evil plan.
Too bad my inner child was good
and would not serve the outer man.
I came up with an evil plan.
Still, we do only what we can–
and then, perhaps, regret we could.
I came up with an evil plan:
too bad my inner child was good.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Gun-Free Zone

Gun-Free Zone

 

 

You’re standing in a gun-free zone.
Thus, you are quite without defenses.
Your vital organs ought to groan
with fear.  Oh, good:  your belly tenses!
The first wild guy to break the rules
will rule the area completely
and see no cause to spare the fools
who kneel or cringe, then beg him sweetly.
In other places, it’s not so.
The criminal who sends lead flying
has no assurance that his show
will be as clear and satisfying
as he has planned beyond all doubt.
Another guy can take him out.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Nihil Consummatum

Nihil Consummatum

 

 

Watch him go!  It is making me dizzy
to behold him.  He’s not human, is he?
My eyes can’t be relieved.
Though there’s nothing achieved,
nonetheless he stays frightfully busy.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Measure of a Man

The Measure of a Man

 

 

“I shall do something useful!” he shouted.
But the world, full of obstacles, doubted
that he’d ever succeed.
It obstructed his need
to achieve — and, defeated, he pouted.

 

 

–Tom Riley