Alan Gann

And What’s Up With the Weather

by Alan Gann

 Because rain falls sporadically and skies shift from light gray to dark.

Because politicians hide in the restrooms

Because the greatest generation squandered all its chances

and will not be given another

Because we dance to the talking heads

Because tourists expect to spend their dollars

Because my dad taught me to shoot a 22

Because winds finally deliver autumn to our doorstep and I do not wear sweaters

Because life and jazz both require improvisation

Because Walmart sells Guinness for 2 dollars less than my local market

Because what I believe doesn’t change facts

Because Ray Bradbury says we should jump off cliffs all the time

Because the children of teen mothers

spend more of their lives in prison and die earlier

Because twelve Senators gather for breakfast and prayer

Because Tony Romo can pass for 500 yards

and the Cowboys will still find a way to lose

Because Archer Daniels Midland uses government-subsidized grain

to make high fructose corn syrup

Because I miss getting up at 5A.M. to go fishing with my father

Because the president lunches with CEOs

and the Koch brothers can give you 70 billion very good reasons

Because geysers blow regardless of who isn’t watching

Because human beings are animals evolved from other animals ad infinitum 

Because every woman should have dominion over her own body

Because building wings is not so simple as writing a novel or launching a missile

Because the piano player launches into a slow “Mood Indigo”

Because abstinence is often more theory than fact

Because, day or night, the sun is still 93 million miles away

Because the confederate flag still flies over the old county courthouse 

Because I believe the right to bear arms is almost as fundamental as free speech

Because they took down the painting of Luther Burbank

spraying his field with Roundup

Because life is better with a syncopated beat

Because even blondes make jokes about our governor

Because I no longer eat meat and still love my country

Because the odds are always 5 to 4 against

and Vegas makes money no matter which way you bet

Because icebergs are melting

Because Exxon Mobil receives over a billion dollars per year in corporate welfare

Because the bass player didn’t get to sleep last night

Because our junior senator makes our governor look like a freak’n genius

Because smart is what we work to become, not something you were born with

Because two men can get married in New Mexico,

be arrested in Texas, and killed in Nigeria

Because all privacy is illusion

Because weak-willed players cannot hit a softball question out of the infield

Because if I carried a gun, I’d take a shot at the SUV that just cut me off

Because scouts learn how to light a fire without a match

Because each year Halliburton spends over a million dollars

on political donations and lobbying

Because shepherds watch for wolves and sheep need shearing in the spring

Because poll results do not change facts

Because nobody should have to choose

between going to the doctor and paying their electric bill

Because, day or night, the sun is only 93 million miles away

Because I no longer hunt or fish

Because the smartest teenagers will do the dumbest things

and the “off” switch is broken

Because the Attorney General says we don’t really do that anymore

Because the earth used to be flat

Because barbequed tofu will never taste like great barbeque

Because stained glass hides what is on the other side

Because clocks do not all tick the same

and Schrodinger never placed a cat in a box

Because every year, somewhere, the leaves turn gold and red

Because Congress will screw it up again and again and again

The sax player launches into a another solo, reaching for something beyond

          and must fail, else never play again.  .