One Can Only Laugh

Gorillas in the wild, despite the token news seen good, near their inevitable extinction.

One can only laugh.

By my last count, at least half a million U.S. people die directly from omnipresent cigarette consumption (and its ubiquitous air-polluting smoke) yearly.

One can only laugh.

And the behavior’s kept legal.

One can only laugh.

That doesn’t take into account the fatal fires so caused by such acts universal in smokers’ homes … and in our fields and forests.

One can only laugh.

Cigarettes remain quite legal even while government’s too costly obsession with less harmful marijuana proceeds apace and unabated.

One can only laugh.

We live for our addictions.

One can only laugh.

Including that of accumulating an obscene amount of wealth.

One can only laugh.

Farmers and megacorporations saturate our so-called foods with durable poisons while yet in ground—till those same neurotoxins/hormone adulterants become a permanent part of every one of us.

One can only laugh.

We serve at their meal our sadly discouraged chickens bits and pieces of themselves and other sadly discouraged chickens.

One can only laugh.

We get fatter every day.

One can only laugh.

A planeload weighs more every day.

One can only laugh.

Northwest’s planes do not fly … except for when they’re late.

One can only laugh.

We burn up regular/plus/premium as if there’s no tomorrow.

One can only laugh.

We say we care about our children even when we don't.

One can only laugh.

Since acts of smoking scrap more children’s health and lives than anything else we may do (or not), we ought concern ourselves enough to respond effectively.

One can only laugh.

And of course we don’t.

One can only laugh.

The president starts and fights a war he did not/cannot justify or win.

One can only laugh.

Katrina’s fallouts persist.

One can only laugh.

We burn our foreign bridges while terrorists grow stronger.

One can only laugh.

Our misnamed healthcare megasystem lies hopelessly charred and broken.

One can only laugh.

We soon die without those prescription drugs we think we need, and that because they’re too costly.

One can only laugh.

We soon die when we take those very same drugs … because they’re too damned deadly.

One can only laugh.

A competent, uncorrupted FDA, like WMD in martyred Iraq, is lost and can’t anywhere be found.

One can only laugh.

Responsible government is an oxymoron.

One can only laugh.

Outside the realms of common human fault and foible, while we live we’re not noticed. 

One can only laugh. 

If by the oddest chance we are when we die, we’ll soon be forgot.

One can only laugh.

No matter what we do, we are marked for death.

One can only laugh.

I’d say more, but I laugh already too hard for my heart’s well-being as is.

One can only laugh …

Or cry.