TRAGIC Poem: Scammers, by Peter A. Weinberg

1.

He guiltily looked at pictures of hurt young children
Told himself he was a psychologist and did it to
better understand his patients—That was a lie
Caught at this he received a ten-year sentence
in a federal prison, a sentence that he didn’t survive
He never hurt a child—looking at the photographs was
his attempt to vanquish his own sad, violent childhood

2.

I’m retired yet I still have nightmares about my
working days—But they’re false
Nothing real bad happened then
Now, I’m in my seventies and all sorts of
scammers take me, an old man, for an easy mark

If we fail to care for the earth it will, in order
to preserve itself, kill us all

Scammers will tell you of their rock-like belief
in God who is with them throughout their days
(Jesus is my savior) That they’re patriots
(our country—hooray USA) and that they
are very good people, very good people
whom you should trust

I’m having none of it

As a form of life, were I to believe in God,
it might comfort me to convince myself that the evil
will suffer and fail and the good will win every battle

Nonsense

Socrates taught us that there is no worse fate
that can happen to a person than to learn to hate
knowledge, truth and reason—He didn’t fear death
because he knew (was convinced) that when
the soul leaves your body, your soul is immortal

Work distracted me from melancholy

I can both believe and disbelieve
in the immortality of my soul
When I die will new generations remember me
or will it be as though I never lived at all?

As for hell, hell isn’t anywhere
if it’s not here with us on earth

3.

Oh how they love those cats and dogs
They find the affection in them that they can’t
get from other humans—“My dog taught me
how to love” “I love my dog”
“I hug my bug-eyed cat”

Its senseless to look for in others that
which can only be found in yourself

I knew her for quite a long time
I’m still not sure about her
especially when she aggravates me

She’s highly neurotic
Somewhat exotic
Very erotic
I loved her

If your passion comes from great love
and you’re young
The wisest thing to do may
be to yield to it with everything
you’ve got

4.

The United States is slowly becoming a police state—
with unmarked vans, masked police, secret lists and
false denunciations
With loyal powermongers in charge
who don’t know what they’re doing

As our mean-spirited Russian friends brag
“Give us a person and we will find some sort
of treason”

In their day they thought Mussolini and Hitler
were the greatest politicians in the world
But there’s no such thing as the
greatest politician in the world
Mussolini was shot to death by partisans
and together with his dead mistress displayed to the public
Hitler committed suicide
Caesar, who “boldly crossed the Rubicon”, to destroy
the Roman Republic was assassinated
on the floor of the Roman Senate

48% of the American public are ignorant idiots
And our “dear leader” with his cuts to their education
aims to keep them that way

He too, like any scammer, pretends
to believe in God—Celebrates Easter
in the White House—However, he doesn’t
even pretend to admire the kindness of Christ
He’s cruel, unruly and in search of revenge

This lying scammer got elected, as they sometimes do,
by telling lies to the naïve American people
Our billionaires tried to pay him off—
As when Hitler was elected, eminent civic leaders
thought they could control him
They couldn’t control him and instead
became his puppets
Just like any dictator our “dear leader”
can’t be controlled by such billionaire trolls
He won’t be their puppet because
he’d much rather be their king