Poem for Pete

                       

Photo by Bob Hakins

his heartbeat

        our rhythm

his family

        our community

his love

        our love
                                               
his smile

        our smile

his spirit

        our comfort

his gift      

        our reward

his battles

        our hope

his victories

        our joys

his courage

        our caring

his memory

        our dreams



-in memory and celebration of Pete Devine, 2026



Ken Owen
August 2026

Evening Journal: August 2026

 

The House Always Wins

Trading in the financial markets

with insider information

is now completely legal

as long as The Don gets his cut

Trump Media & Technology Group selling early access

to market-moving White House social media posts.

08/01/2026 

“There’s nothing we could do to rein in the president.”

John Cornyn, U.S. Senator, R-TX

“The first step is identifying the problem.”

Bill W., Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous 

08/05/2026

I write poetry for people 
who like me will never feel comfortable
crafting casual conversation using words like
diaspora, zeitgeist, and gestalt

08/06/2026

One of life’s few certainties
regardless of the angle
is you will never get 
all the crumbs out of the toaster

08/07/2026

"Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this 

 in 1621 in order to stop celebrating colonialism.”

Francesca Hong, Wisconsin State Representative, 
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member

A big tent is fine

but it looks like the DNC 

needs a bouncer 

and a red velvet rope

08/17/2026

What good is poetry
if it reads like a locked door
and leaves a clouded mind
fumbling for a key

– respectfully frustrated and inspired by
Philip Lamantia (1927 - 2005)

08/21/2026

“We don’t think that anybody should have the constitutional right to double-digit returns on their investment.”  

Gustavo Gordillo, co-chair of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, who lives in a $1.5 million Brooklyn home that his parents bought for him (currently under renovation) 

It seems the work of leaders 
attempting institutional reconstruction
can only be done from white houses 
under domestic reconstruction

08/22/2026

More disappointing than the actions
of the Man Who Would Be King
is the inaction from those 
with the power to remove him

08/25/2026

The joy in discovering poems
so amazingly beautiful and resonant
that you let the morning coffee go cold
without a second thought

with thanks to Audrey for sharing 

the poems of Andrea Gibson (1975–2025)

08/26/2026

An indifferent student as a young man

now an autodidact with a failing memory

I fear my life’s path has me heading 

right back to where I started

08/28/2026

"Tonight we will try to understand why Donald Trump 

hates Canada and respects North Korea."

Jeffrey Goldberg, host of the PBS program 

"Washington Week with The Atlantic"

These days find an alarming number

of strange reports you’d never expected to hear

flying right through your medication

each night at 5:00pm

08/29/2026

3:30 a.m.

3:30 a.m.

Woke up exhausted
from flying around 
the skies of Dreamland
trying to understand 
all that chaos

3:40 a.m.

Everyone knew 
I wasn't right for the position
a failed interview
but I grabbed the guy’s guitar
and saved it from the rain
so they were nice to me
when they let me go

8:30 a.m.

Morning coffee
wondering how 
the mind picks random bits 
of imagery to stitch together
and if it ever really sleeps

August 2026
Van Niddy Press

The World is on Fire

 Lovely Weather We’re Having

The world is on fire
all across the globe
Canada, Europe, North American Midwest
while the Southwest floods
and the Northeast 
gets an introduction to tornadoes

as we lie here quietly 

under a blanket of fog 
and keep our longing for sunshine to ourselves
and watch the news and see the world climate 

turning and burning
with Mother Earth showing her anger at being ignored 
and we just stay silent, turn up our jacket collars 

and mumble our thanks 
for slightly cloudy and 62° and a light breeze 

with an overnight low of 53° 
and if we keep our complaining 

to a reasonable minimum 
we are rewarded each day at 3 PM 
with a brief appearance and a gentle kiss from the sun 
thanking us for our patience. 

The world is on fire
and the gods keep sending 

floods to the wrong places
but we only do short bouts of worry 

and complain quietly
because 

I’ll be long dead before this shit really goes south

meanwhile the gods keep screaming 
at us to wake up and get it right
but their aim ain't what it used to be

with their angry tornado breath 
landing in the wrong place to wipe out

the trailer park full of people that voted for the guy

who took away the wind turbines 
because there is no money in it for Big Oil
and took away subsidized healthcare
because there was no money in it for Big Pharma
who needed all their profits 
to sell you their drugs on the nightly news 
that you now can’t afford
that would help you to not have a panic attack 
while watching the weather report 

but you should ask your doctor if it’s right for you
and don’t take it if you are allergic 
because it may kill you 
which would severely impact 
their bottom line 
as well as yours.

San Francisco, CA

August 2026

Evening Journal: July 2026

You can witness

the true measure of someone

by observing their reaction

when you tell them “no.”

“The whole system is rigged, it’s a total witch hunt,

and nobody has ever been treated as unfairly as me

because they won't let us do what needs to be done.”

                                                — Donald Trump

07/02/2026

​

Tonight I heard

“bombs bursting in air”

they were fireworks

In some places

they are real

Thankful

to be here

no matter what

​

07/04/2026

2016: “Trump is cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit. 

But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they'll realize it.”

2022: ”The president is right. I wasn't always nice…but he has 

revealed the corruption in this country like nobody else.”

–J.D. Vance

                He was right both times. 

07/06/2026

While driving in San Francisco 
I am averaging twice per trip,
for how many times I scream
“Get off your phone 
and drive your shit!”

07/07/2026

Even with this administration’s

propensity for diversionary tactics

“taking one for the team”

just took on a whole new meaning

Lindsey Graham

1955–2026

07/12/2026

DNC PTSD

Whether cognitive decline (2024) 
or questionable tattoos (2026) 
denying the obvious
is no recipe for success

07/13/2026

They say AI language models are soulless creatures 
that have become experts in guessing 
the next word you want to hear
like politicians only smarter

07/14/2026

A General (2023), a Congresswoman (2024), and a Senator (2026) walk into a bar. The General says, “I need to use the restroom,” but never comes back. The bartender asks, “What’ll it be?” The Congresswoman says, “I’ll have a Lone Star, but make it quick; I have to get back to the home before bed check.” The Senator just stares at the bartender and doesn’t say a word, so the Congresswoman says, “He thinks you’re a reporter. Just wave a $100 bill under his nose; that’ll snap him out of it.”

07/15/2026

When even your fledgling
bought-and-paid-for state media channel
fact-checks its Great Leader
perhaps there is still hope for a free press

CBS News fact-checks Donald Trump’s 
Prime-time address on Election Integrity

07/17/2026

Load The Gun, Drop The Shield

The Department of War has declared the annual influenza vaccine 
"overly broad and not rational” but mandatory testosterone checks 
will keep our troops “on the leading edge of lethality”
…as long as they don’t get the flu.

Health mandates from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

07/18/2026

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney 
should impose tariffs on the toxic air 
that has been emanating from Washington, D.C.
since January 20, 2025

Donald Trump threatens to impose tariffs on Canada 
due to toxic air from wildfires

07/19/2026

Lately I would rather watch 
 ‘Leave It To Beaver’ reruns than baseball 
because my team’s bullpen pitching 
is a hunk-a-junk

07/20/2026

I might feel more comfortable about 

the rapid weight-loss craze if it didn't seem 

like I was surrounded by the skeleton warriors 

from the ‘Jason and The Argonauts’ movie (1963)

07/21/2026

By infuriating election officials from both parties
with unfounded claims of incompetence
Mr. Trump has ensured the upcoming midterms 
will be the most scrutinized in our history

where 
lack of evidence
will once again
invalidate speculation

07/24/2026

History Lesson

By posting signs outside national history museums 

declaring some of the facts inside as inaccurate

Mr. Trump is contributing a modern-day demonstration

on the historical practice of ‘whitewashing’

07/26/2026

“Every man who has a journal is a narcissist”

Katie Miller, former communications director for Mike Pence and wife of Stephen Miller, in response to the public release of Dr. Anthony Fauci's personal pandemic diaries.

You just never know 
what outlandish things people will say 
to save themselves when being accused
of consorting with the enemy

07/31/2026