America

When I was but
A homeless refugee,
America gave me
My liberty,
A place to grow,
Exist - to be,
Hold my head high,
Be free...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Carlyle Group

Ah, those members
Of the Carlyle Group
Design our wars
And many a scoop,
They set the prices
With the Saudis on oil,
Create propaganda on
Defending people and soil,
Make their decisions
On GW's Texas ranch
For the country's control
Through the Executive Branch,
Then, the muscles are flexed
By the chaps in the
Military-industrial complex,
Profiting by being heavily armed,
With flags all waving,
And the public
Conveniently charmed...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Why?

Millions were marked
For eradication,
Murdered. because of
Their Jewish persuasion,
Millions were enslaved
Because they were black,
Lynched - to keep them in check,
And millions still die
In religious wars
And the world wonders why?

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

The Children 1939-1945

Let us pay tribute
And never forget
The millions of children,
Gassed, burned - long dead,
With their lives they paid
Because they were
Of the Jewish faith,
Turned into smoke,
High in the sky,
Drifting by, drifting by,
And sometimes, a traveler,
Passing by,
May hear the wind
Sound like a child's cry
From clouds above
The Auschwitz sky...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

In my Garden

We live in an age
Of wars, killing and decadence,
Without rationality and common sense,
And sometimes this depresses me
- no end,
For I see chaos just around the bend,
Then I take my I pod and some poetry,
Read Heine and hear Mozart
In my garden 'neath the maple tree,
Surrounded by nature's beauty
Where birds and butterflies roam free
And happy thoughts then beckon me...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Life is a Tragic Comedy

Life is a tragic comedy,
A mixture of the absurd,
Laughter and misery,
You try to get all
You've not got,
But once you get it,
You want it not,
The gal you love and marry
Shares her passions with
Your pals, Tom, Dick and Harry
And your neighbors
Think it's funny
That your little boy Sunny
Looks just like
Your friend Tommy,
To top it off, you find
Your business partner
Robs you blind,
And in the end, George Bush
Sends you into a desert - far
To fight some sort of civil war,
Not for the flag or soil
But to protect his family's oil.

Yes, life is a tragic comedy,
Let's laugh and cry together,
My friend - just you and me.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Wrong Gal

One enchanted evening
I met the love of my life,
Seemed the only one for me,
Asked her to be my wife,
She sweetly smiled and said:
"Not on your life,
Though I'm superbly built
For male sexual gratification,
Strictly lesbian is my orientation."

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Specialization

Specialists who know
More and more
About less and less
Turn real progress
Into a mess,
Like doctors we know
Who only treat
The little toe,
To put us in condition
We need the family physician,
And in all othere areas
It's the same,
Cumbersome and negative
Is the specialist's game,
A philosopher/Renaissance man
Is needed as a president,
Not a political hack
As a White House resident.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Kurt - Born Vienna 3/25/1897

In my home - I sit alone,
Family, friends - all, long gone,
No one ever - comes or calls,
Stare all day - at empty walls,
Outlived everyone - too long,
Time I moved - along...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Bush's Facts

"My mind is made up",
Said our decisive Bush,
"All arguments can stop,
There is too much intrusion
Of factual confusion,
For when facts are denied
My world is simplified".

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Gypsy

Went to this gypsy
The other day,
A fortune teller,
Sits in the window
Of a small cafe,
She looked at the
Life line on my hand,
Said she:
"You won't get old,
Your life will soon end."
Said I:
"I lived my three score,
Won't die young anymore."
Her explanation:
"My eyes are afflicted
With macular degeneration."
Asked her about
The fate of humanity,
Said she:
"They'll blow themselves up
In the next century
Unless green house gases
Kill them before,
According to Prophet Al Gore."
Gave the gypsy a ten dollar bill
And walked out feeling a chill.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

His Single Status

His single status
Brought him great frustration
Which made him look around
For some suitable relation,
He found this knock-out gal,
A real sensation,
Discovered that her company
Gave him delightful recreation,
Made her his ever-loving wife
In an exquisite wedding celebration
But after a year of cohabitation
He found her to be an aberration
Giving him unending consternation
And one fine day he shot himself
In quiet desperation.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Never Forget the Holocaust

With infinite sadness
I recall the agony, the misery
Of my wasted years
Spent in Nazi Germany,
The camps, gas chambers and ovens,
My loss of dignity and liberty.

In dreams I'm haunted yet
By the millions of my people,
Tortured and dead,
Yet, I'm gateful still to be alive,
Amongst the ten percent remnant,
To escape and survive,
Able to tell the gruesome story
Of a time - horrid and gory,
So no one will ever forget
My six million dead...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

George

Don't put on George
All the blame,
He's just a puppet
In the power brokers' game,
A strawman with a small
But programmed brain.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Hitler's Perversity

Due to Hitler's
Insane ideology
54 million people
Were murdered
In wars and butchery,
But as a vegetarian,
He let no animal die
And no one understands
The reason why?

Interesting, how a man,
Blood-thirsty and gory
To the very end,
Can be a vegetarian
And staunch animal friend.
The explanation seems to be:
A schizophrenic personality.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Gods or Maggots?

It all depends
On what supposition
We want to put
On the human condition,
Are we the gods or intellect
Of this great universe
With powers to direct
Or just a passing incident
Without prior precedent,
A short interval
Of the specie - man
With no significance at all,
Or are we the maggots
Cleaning up a dying planet,
Removing all the garbage on it?

Yes - we can decide to see
Whatever we believe to be,
But man's true identity
So far, has been a mystery.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Opium for the People

Man's perverse religions
Are the creation
Of his imagination,
Inspired by the fear
Of death and the unknown,
Advocated by 'prophets',
Long - long gone,
An opium for the masses
So kings and rulers
Can use them as asses,
Still practiced today
In a shameful way.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

To my Young Friend

Spurn me not
With your usual scorn,
I was around
Ere you were born,
Taken many a degree
To make a better man of me,
Been through
The Holocaust and war,
Seen Einstein, Freud,
Hitler - the Czar,
Seen men die
And women cry,
Seen the devil,
Felt his sting,
Been touched by angels
With their wing,
But as I learn and grow,
I fully realize
How little we all know,
And you, my friend,
Should not walk tall,
Thinking,
You know it all.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Lonely Town

I am a loving woman,
Fit to mother and to care,
But I am over forty
And still not anywhere,
I have no husband,
Children, lover, friend
And no prospects of a
Decent man around the bend,
The man I waited for
Never came
And I am tired
Of the waiting game,
Once in a while
I have a one night stand
But always with
An unsatisfactory end,
My days I spend
Working as a clerk
With little income
And no perk,
In my closet hangs
An unworn evening gown,
I never wear it
In this lonely town,
I sit here in my
Little room each night,
Really depressed
Because my life
Is just not right.

They found her
In her room one morn,
Dead, in her new, never
Worn evening gown,
A note left on her desk:
'I cannot live in lonely town.'

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Fascism in America?

Slowly but surely we drift
Into a Fascist state
With Bush and Cheney
On the slate,
They do not care
What people
And the Congress say,
Defiantly, they keep
Imposing their own way,
If we don't stop them
We will rue the day,
Fascism will reign
And there'll be hell to pay.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Stage

By nature, nurture
And the fashions
We're caught by chance
In our lives and passions,
Assigned to play our roles
On the world's stages
As actors working
For their wages,
Like circus animals
Forced to perform in cages,
We laugh, cry and pretend,
Not knowing when and how
The play will end
And thus, we play our part
Till the curtain falls
And we depart.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Good Sperms

Maxi is the very best,
His brilliant sperms
Withstand any test,
The love of Florida ladies
Anxious to have
Outstanding babies,
Known far and wide,
For his kids are
Handsome and bright.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Failed Author

Redundancy is his speciality,
Of new ideas he's totally free,
His strength is the cliche,
The commonplace is just his way,
His boring books - self-published,
His image - happily demolished.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Last Stop - Vienna 1938-1945

One night, I went on the Internet,
Looked for my family and friends,
The murdered Holocaust dead
And found in Yad Vashem,
The Holocaust site in Jerusalem,
From Vienna, the listed evidence
Of their last places of residence
And also where they were last seen,
In Auschwitz, Kielce and Terecin,
With some pictures of the slain,
Men, women, children,
Family and friends who died in vain
And as I looked page upon page,
I was overcome by sadness and rage
And asked myself - why
God and the world let them die,
And for reasons of chance
Why - still here am I?

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

On Beauty

Have you not worshiped
Beauty from afar,
A scenic view, a poem,
Music or a movie star
And thought why heaven
In its grace
Granted divinity to nature,
A phrase, a melody,
A lovely face
And wondered gratefully
Why the sublime
Can be heard or seen
At the most unexpected scene?

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Donald Trump said...

"The worst President
We ever had",
Said Donald Trump,
A rather clever lad,
And most Americans agree,
This fellow, Bush,
Is a catastrophe,
By the majority rejected,
By a Supreme Court elected,
With freedom of choice
And democracy neglected,
This presidency started as a fake
And wound up as a gross mistake.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

The Stain

Most men are stained
With some hidden flaw,
Evoking self-disdain,
Leaving their egos raw,
Their painful blemishes
Which at their souls do gnaw,
Evoking pity - often blame,
Turning their lives
Into a macabre game...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Rose

I loved Rose once,
I loved her twice,
But she complained:
"What about thrice?"
"That's my full score",
Said I "can do no more."
"Then, lover boy", Rose said,
"You get the sack,
I am a nymphomaniac,
For me, twice just won't do,
I'll have to get somebody new".

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Eel

They played a trick
On dummy Yentz,
They put an eel
Into his pants,
Yentz took a look
Below his cuff,
"Knew you were nice
And long enough",
Said Yentz with great surprise,
"But where did you get
Those pretty blue eyes".

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Religious Fervor

They pray for their salvation
To their heavenly master of creation
Although they do have no idea
Who this mysterious ghost could be,
They kneel and pray incessantly
Which proves to one and all
The values of insanity...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Love in Paris

Meet you at the Hotel Paree
On the Boulevard Sans Soucy
Tonight at half past nine,
I'll be yours.
You'll be mine,
In a rendevous - divine,
A break from
Marriages in decline,
Not your husband to hear,
Not my wife to see,
For one glorious night
Together we'll be,
In flagrante - at the Hotel Paree,
In the City of lovers - Paris
On the Boulevard Sans Soucy...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Prom Pregnancy

Took Mary Lou out
On my prom date,
Kept her out a bit late,
Apparently went too far
In my Dad's old car
During the night
In a chancy moment
Of supreme delight
And now, Mary Lou
Is with child
And the parents
Went wild,
While I feel a chill
Because the old folks
Are in for the kill
For I want to tarry
And Mary Lou
Wants to marry.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

On Hamlet

To be or not to be?
If it's 'to be',
He takes his chance
On fickle destiny,
Perchance, a decent life
Or abject misery,
But with the 'not to be'
He ends it all
Before the fall,
Yet, before ending
Struggle and strife,
He better consider
Reverence for life.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Save the USA

Everyone worries,
People are killed,
Everyone cares,
To object,
No one dares,
Bush running wild
Like an unruly child,
(To put it mild),
Money is printed,
Too much is minted,
The dollar goes down,
Ruining the States
And many a town.
When oh when
Will we stop this clown?

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

A Theory of Nothingness

The reality we perceive
Is only created by our senses
And/or a response to them,
For nothingness is the state of all
Matter which is just pure energy,
Strings of electro-magnetic waves
Translated through our perception
Into the appearance of matter,
Hence, the Big Bang,
One concentrated atom of energy
Bursting into a universe,
Perchance, contracting again
At some future date in repetition
Of an endless process
In a world which seems
But never is...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Ted's Doll

"Ted, don't call me your doll again.
I feel like a puppet without a brain
And deeply resent such disdain",
But one fine morn she woke in her bed
To find her Ted very still and quite dead;
Tearfully she kissed his pale body and said:
"Here's your doll, my beloved Ted."

The next day they found her,
Open eyes - shining wet,
With a gun in her hand
And a bullet in her head.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

War, Oil and Veterans

We send our precious kids
Into the meat grinder - Iraq,
Supposedly, for country and for flag,
Yet, in reality, not for liberty or soil
But for the war profits and oil,
And then, when our wounded kids
Return for proper medical care,
The shoddy treatment they receive
Is patently an outrage and unfair.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

On Cliches

Does 'the calm
Precede the storm',
Is it a cliche,
Is it a norm?

Yes, cliches are widely used,
Mostly, they are quite abused,
But, frankly, I knew
They are often true.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Mary's Last Fling

I still hear
The magical
Music today
When I dream
Of that small cafe
Where we danced
The night away
On my last fling
Ere you turned gay...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Dream on...

The tragedy of life
Lies in the fact
That you get
What you want
Or not accomplish
What you desire,
Better to stay hopeful,
In expectation,
Than have your dreams
End in cessation.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

The Drug Cartels

Diligently, they lobby Congress
And the medical profession
To enhance their predatory concession,
Don't give a damn about the public
For only profits are their one obsession.

Americans would like to know why,
Due to exorbitant prices,
Our people are allowed to die,
And thus, the nation
Looks accusingly
At a corrupt administration.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Liz

She's my loyal, loving wife,
Stands by me
Through struggle and strife,
She's my very best friend,
On her I always can depend,
From youth's first blush
Till life's sad end
We're always together
Hand in hand,
She's the best part of me,
Without her
I simply cannot be.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

A Gem

She's a loving woman
Of outstanding quality,
A strong yet quiet personality,
Beneath an outer calm,
Great sexuality,
A one man gal,
A real good pal,
Blessed with a fine intellect,
A gem - for anyone to wed.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Stage of Life

We are all actors
On the stage of life,
We put on
Our little spiel,
We strut, pretend,
To audiences
We appeal,
Attempt successfully
With life to deal
And then we take
Our little bow,
The curtain falls
And we withdraw...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

We shall overcome

Abmadinezhad of Iran,
Palestine's Hamas and Hezbollah
And Jimmy Carter of America
Are heavily employed
In seeing Israel destroyed,
They cannot see a Jewish State,
It seems to violate their faith,
Forgetting those ancient news
That from Abraham to Jesus
Founders of their religions
Were all Jews,
Despite all this,
Israel will survive and overcome,
No matter what its enemies
Are doing and have done,
We lasted more than
Five thousand years
Defying obstacles and fears.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Credit Cards

Americans go spastic
Chasing the plastic,
They cannot live apart
From their holy of holies,
Their credit card,
While the banks
With tongues of honey
Collect huge interest money,
Hell and heaven bent
Towards thirty percent,
Setting a consumer fee
High enough for bankruptcy.

Yes - live today
And pay tomorrow
Will cause ruin
And growing sorrow!

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Old Camp Memories

Often do I dream
Of the old camp
Which left on my life
An indelible stamp,
Up in the Alpine Hill
Where in my youth
Of life and love
I had my fill,
Spent years up there
In happy bliss
When we escaped the war
As homeless refugees.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Poor, little chap

Poor, little chap
Took the fall
Upon his masters' call,
How this Mafia
Can rule our land
Is hard to understand.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Who are those Gods?

Who are those gods
Who, supposedly,
Determine man's fate?
Why are they hiding
Behind some heavenly gate?
Where are they now?
Where have they been,
Those gods who no one
Has never, ever seen?
Are they some unemployed
Prophets' invention
Who created their images
At some convention?
Are they the opiates
To placate the masses
To turn them into
Quite obedient asses?

There's only one conclusion:
Our homemade gods
Are a delusion.
The power which created
This vast universe,
The stars, the earth, the sea,
Is far beyond our philosophy.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

A Streetcar to Eternity

I'm on a streetcar to eternity,
Life's trip with stations on the way,
I travel on my designated rails,
From top to stop each night and day,
Some stations are sunny, nice and bright,
Others are dark and dreary as the night,
I try to leave and not remember them,
Forget their shadows of plight and fright,
And then, when I reach that final stop,
I'll say the trip was quite allright,
But this is it - my time is up...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Six Million

There, but for the random fate
Of graceful fortune do I go,
Survivor of the Holocaust's fiery glow,
Still wondering just why
I was to live and did not die,
Not be just smoke up in the sky,
Still part of the remnant of my people,
Scattered wide and far,
Survivors, born under a lucky star,
Sweet world, each day, given to me,
I'm grateful just allowed to be,
Lie in my garden, my mind at rest,
Feel free in this land which is the best
Enjoy sunny days and moonlit nights,
Live in a place where I have my rights,
But often, looking up at the cloudy sky,
I see the six million riding up high,
With plaintive voices I hear them sigh:
'It was not right that we had to die,
Remember us, do not ever forget
The camps, the ovens and the dead!'
And then a haze comes over my eye
When my escape makes me
Feel guilty and I cry...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

The 'Philly' Cheesecake

Mom and Pop and little Billy
Love to eat their yum-yum 'Philly',
Makes our cheesecake a real dilly...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

In Dreams...

In dreams
I long for loved ones yet,
Family, lovers, friends,
Long gone or dead,
They visit me at night
While I'm asleep in bed
And when I wake at dawn,
Memories of them sweetly
Linger on and on
But they - are gone...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Labyrinth

We wander through
This labyrinth called life,
Along its many twisted paths,
Some strange, dark and forbidding,
Others sunny, bright and light;
Often we're lost in life's labyrinth,
Exploring unknown paths,
Trying to find our way which,
In the very end, leads us
To the eternal nothingness
We always feared...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Above all...

Above all,
To thine own self be true,
No matter what the world may do,
And know thyself and who you are,
Than, in your life you may go far...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Treasure the Moment - Friend

Treasure the moment - friend,
Your journey may soon end
For death lurks just around the bend,
Don't dream of futures or the past,
Enjoy the present - it does not last,
We all live on the razor's edge,
Capture live fully and live it fast.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Auschwitz in my Dreams

Living in comfort and luxury,
Enhanced by the good life and liberty
My life's course runs along happily,
Yet, often in the still of the night
Or by the dawn's early light,
I wake frightened, sweaty and damp
When in my horrid dreams
I'm back in the concentration camp,
Bodies hanging on barbed wire,
The smoke of burning flesh
Rising skyward - higher and higher,
The naked rushed into the gas chambers,
The steady burning of the ovens' fire,
Those six million of my honored dead,
They'll never leave my dreams - my bed...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Religion?

Religion is but a subterfuge for fear
Of unknown horizons
And our mortality,
And thus, we invent gods
Who don't exist
In various phases of an unreality,
Each faction claiming
Gods with better qualities,
Uttering prayers and
Nonsensical banalities,
Only resulting in religious
Wars with great fatalities;
Forget your gods, you fools, I'd say
And face up to this world's realities...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Speak to me

Speak to me young maiden fair,
Tell me that you really care,
Show me that in thought and deed,
You my love do really need,
And I'll love you to the end,
Be your ever loving spouse,
Even though as time goes by,
You may turn into a louse...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Modern Society

Our modern society
Is of an increasingly
Decadent variety,
No formal propriety,
Growing anxiety,
A lack of sobriety
And no stability,
An outer glossy shell,
A turbulent inner hell,
Polished - externally,
Demolished - internally,
Behind a smiling face,
A lack of love and grace.

If there be gods,
They would say - yes,
Humanity is one holy mess!

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Lament for my Soldier

He was only nineteen,
Of life and love
He'd little seen,
He was my only son,
Sent to Iraq,
And now - he's gone,
He was my life,
My sun, my moon, my star
And now, with broken eyes,
He lies in fields afar,
Killed in an unnecessary war...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz