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The Benefits of the Doubt

By Cliff Lake
  The Benefits of the Doubt   Everything is a lie. That’s the bottom line. Everything is a lie. Every word, Every move, Every choice. Everything is a lie. But what is he afforded? The benefit of the doubt. Who benefits? Certainly not you. Certainly not me. “He doesn’t know what words mean.” An easy out. “He has dementia.” A soft cell. “He doesn’t read well.” “He isn’t intelligent.” “He gets worse every day.” And he slips through the cracks. Again. He slips through the cracks. Everything is a lie. I doubt the benefits. I doubt the performance. An adjudicated liar. A thief. A pretender. An escape artist. You’re buying it. I don’t. Is he crazy? Like the fox, as they say. How better to get the soft cell? Cultivate sympathy. No bunker bullet here friends, No, This fella has chosen the house option. Everything is a lie. You know this. You’ve said this. And then you give him the benefit. He isn’t ...
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The Rain Again

By Cliff Lake
  The Rain Again   Does the ocean need the rain? Does not the river fill it again? What lesson is learned from repeated pain? Does the ocean need the rain?   Consider this and explain: The miller does not sow the grain, It is delivered to be ground again. And yet the wheat does not complain. Nor does anything constrain, Nor does the wheat refrain, It simply grows without disdain, And we consider this mundane.   Consider man in the same vein: Unchecked power without restrain, Only interested in more gain, And the ever growing domain, Acquired by the more forceful campaign, And mowing down what he can’t contain. Into the ground the soaking bloodstain, And the wheat is fed and grows again.   Does the ocean need the rain? Does not the river fill it again? What more need it obtain? What lesson is not learned from repeated pain? Are not the sky and the sea but remote twain? Is it something beyond explain? W...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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The Better

By Cliff Lake
  The Better   Sitting in the high seat I am closer to the sun. The lofty perch I occupy Affords me so much fun. I hear your moaning squabbles, But nothing gets me done, Like the smell of counted money And the sound of the gun.   I sit so much higher On my overstuffed billfold. I am the seller and the buyer, And you are what’s been sold. Try to survive me if you’re able, But may I make this statement bold: If there’s no food on the table, There’s no way it can get cold.   Don’t judge me, I am better than you. Can’t budge me, What do you plan to do? Don’t grudge me, I am one of the few Granted all that I can ask, Don’t judge me, I am better than you.   I need not fear the newsroom, They’re here in my pocket. Likewise the courtroom supreme: The good old shadow docket. And what about the departments-in-law? I’ve got them on lock-it. And if I need some chaos stirred up, There’s the man with th...
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Location: 1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL 33480, USA
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Detached

By Cliff Lake
  Detached   The constant companion, The final fadeaway. The surprise abandon, No more dark in the day.   A loss insubstantial, A trailing sorely missed. So silently cancelled, The loss of the tryst.   My shadow has left me, I know not the cause. My shadow has left me, Under the sun all on my own. My shadow has left me And I am not who I was. My shadow has left me, And I am alone.   Eyeless gray reflection, Or shade sinister underfoot. Some unknown dissection, Something has come unhooked.   My dark silent accomplice, How far have you run? I am unmoored without compass, Unaccompanied under sun.   My shadow has left me, I know not the cause. My shadow has left me, Under the sun all on my own. My shadow has left me And I am not who I was. My shadow has left me, And I am alone.   Did I behave badly, Why was I disowned? Can nobody save me, Must I walk alone?   ...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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Dreamy

By Cliff Lake
  Dreamy   One-trick mirror and the long reflection, See myself clearer in vivisection. Fearing an interior misdetection Always getting nearer where the dark dreams beckon.   And here I am again, Found at the dark dream dead-end. Here I am again, Impossible to unattend. Here I am again, Less and less to recommend, More and more to apprehend, Dark dreams beckon like a friend – And here I am again.   The long forbidden corridor, Not quite so hidden as before, Forgotten horror kept in store, I am my own conspirator.   And here I am again, Found at the dark dream dead-end. Here I am again, Impossible to unattend. Here I am again, Less and less to recommend, More and more to apprehend, Dark dreams beckon like a friend – And here I am again.   With what do I contend? What reality to unbend? Some fantasy to amend, Hallucinations to defend, Or self-delusion that I tend. Still downward I desce...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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The Café of Discipline

By Cliff Lake
  The Café of Discipline   Straight on, straight on, How else to greet the impossible dawn? Is it not enough to carry on In the Café of Discipline?   Enter friend, you’ve time to spend, All your fears we’ll soon transcend, Prepare for your unknown dividend, In the Café of Discipline.   Step in, step in, Where to begin? Come in, come in, Be filled to the brim, Check in, check in, Find yourself all unpinned, In the Café of Discipline.   More than a now and then, This hospitality we extend, Allow normality to upend In the Café of discipline.   We’ve sights and slights, remain upright, Requires quite the merest bite, We are gonna get you right, In the Café of Discipline.   Step in, step in, Where to begin? Come in, come in, Be filled to the brim, Check in, check in, Find yourself all unpinned, In the Café of Discipline.   Where are you going? You’re already here. What are ...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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Clarity

By Cliff Lake
  Clarity   The silent screaming darkness, Tunnel in, tunnel in. A release of the harness, The welcome spiraling. Clear-eyed and hungering, Shake off the cloying calm. Insensible encumbering, Release reason’s embalm.   The hesitation When you speak my name. I am no sensation, I seek the madness that you claim. What is this trepidation, I strain against contain - If I somehow don’t go crazy I will go insane.   The numbing shouting input, The silence of their eyes. The closeted output, The piercing in disguise. The poison in the comfort, The meaning in their ends, The scrabbling for more dirt, The nightmares one defends.   The hesitation When you speak my name. I am no sensation, I seek the madness that you claim. What is this trepidation, I strain against contain - If I somehow don’t go crazy I will go insane.   Echoes in the new dawn, Remnants of the night. Demons of a new spawn...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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The Real Fake News Fortnite Edition

By Cliff Lake
  The Real Fake News Fortnite Edition   Noting some rust on a personal vehicle, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has begun what he calls “a war on oxidation” in which he is calling for “excess oxygen removed from air and water which will also help prevent drowning in certain cases.”   RFK Jr. is also pressuring the FDA to investigate milk because of “invasive chemicals such as calcium and also vitamin D which seems to be causing a higher incidence of unwed mothers.”   President Trump today cancelled a dentist appointment as he “has many activities and golf tees to attend.”   Lauren Boebert cancelled her attendance at a local Colorado children’s event where her son Tyler was to be Master of Ceremonies claiming, “He won’t be Master of anything; this family has had enough trouble with that sort of thing in public.”   Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked directly if Donald Trump was the Messiah returned. “I ha...
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Location: Washington, DC, USA
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Rosy

By Cliff Lake
  Rosy   In his opulence he sat, He had never wanted for a thing. Allowing himself to grow fat, A child that had been made a king.   He sat at his table grand His ministers spoke of the people’s woe. Yet he would but survey his land, He needed not be vexed so.   Blindly their court will stumble on, Wearing their shades of rosy hue. Someday the walls will tumble down, And they’ll wonder how they never knew.   Never had he done deeds bad, A just and noble ruler he would proclaim. If only they had already had, There would be naught they could complain.   And so the king took comfort, And then another bite, He would continue as he had done, For he knew folk grumbled but out of spite.   So blindly this court stumbles on, Darkening their shades in rosy hue. Soon the walls will tumble down, How is it that they never knew?   Beyond the walls the people groaned, They could buy no meat nor ev...
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Location: 1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL 33480, USA
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Shinytown

By Cliff Lake
  Shinytown   There is a road that ends up almost nowhere, Around the next curve, beyond the sun’s glare. Is it a secret enclave or merely a safe snare? Not much is heard from those who have gone there.   Tales have been told here, yes, once or thrice: Of sugar and spice and everything nice. Abandon all anxiety and take our advice: Allow yourself the embrace of the velvet vice.   Shinytown! So far off the beaten track! Don’t forget your sandals, Don’t forget your backpack! Shinytown! Once you’re in you will never look back, Shinytown is the original switchback.   Lay your cares in the provided ditchway, Enter at your own speed no matter which way. Here it’s always find your own niche day, And maybe for the sales pitch, stay.   No altered allegiances you need to attend, No adjusted arrangements you need to amend. Just access the appropriate alleyway and You’re not prepared for what’s around the next ben...
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Location: Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W Alameda Pkwy, Morrison, CO 80465, USA
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Near End

By Cliff Lake
  Near End   It is now very nearly the end, As down your rocky road you weary wend: Fallback positions you dear defend, Searching stony faces for a final friend.   The seeds of ruin spread in manure deep, Living off the backs of others, your return is cheap. You fear the judgement you will final reap, As off the precipices you created you leap.   Why don’t you remember where you came from? How will you answer the beat of your funeral drum? Your day of reckoning is approaching chum, Do you hear the beat of your funeral drum?   You show up in state in your soiled gown, While watching all your webs come unwound. See how your world goes upside-down, What an unwieldy fate you have found.   All of your plans go un-gelling, Every day more enemies need felling. Everything seems like it’s going helling, And yet you’re still the cat that needs belling.   Why don’t you remember where you came from? How will ...
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Location: Washington, DC, USA
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Flow

By Cliff Lake
  Flow   A standing stone, or just bare bone, A shadow beneath the trees. A fleeting song, we are not long, Merely faint notes on the breeze.   The rivers of time flow between the stars, Where are the islands of those streams? Though it seems in life we travel far, We may be merely our own dreams.   So, hurry, don’t worry as you scurry, Try to keep gaining in the chase! So, hasten, outpace them and outrace them, As the eons amass, we have but this brief taste.   Time erodes and thus leaves its mark. We so fumbling and eager in the dark. How will we manage the days we are given? We not so mighty under the infinite heavens.   We are moments that ripple barely leaving a trace. Years consume monuments, they erase the face. These aging hands, where does the time go? Nothing withstands the inescapable flow. Then hurry, don’t worry as you scurry, Try to leave a mark in this space! So, hasten, keep pace then a...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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Winner

By Cliff Lake
  Winner   What cold win have you got to now? Why does uneasiness still furrow your brow? How did the undercutting not work out as planned? Why has the victory left you this unmanned?   What are you chasing that never strayed? Was it yourself that you outplayed? What did you claim that would not belong? Was the knife at your back yours all along?   Who is inflamed with all your betraying? That is the shame of all your preying. Success you claim, but it’s loss you’re displaying, There is no game if you’re the only one playing.   What was gained at the end of day, Was it too little, will you not say? Are your actions too demeaning to defend? Was there ever a meaning to the end?   Why did the everything go sideways to the plan? You were the comic playing the straight man. How did the whole everything go so wrong? You were the fox in the chicken coop all along.   Who is inflamed with all your betraying?...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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Grapemine

By Cliff Lake
  Grapemine   Poison: The sweet perpetration. The societal sensation. A personal levitation. Poison ever the chronic conflation.   Venom: Some fearless flotation, Word of mouth mutation, Involved though no invitation, Your involuntary integration.   Prattle, tattle, What matter whose life is rattled? Chatter, ratter, Severed reputation on a silver platter. Hearsay, near-say, A small matter of peer-slay. Defame, inflame, The bodies lie shattered in the gossip game.   Scandal: Trade in titillation, Maybe fabrication, Some outright creation, Or oversimplification.   Rumor: Character assassination, Infamy without citation, Aspersion through fixation, Influence castration.   Prattle, tattle, What matter whose life is rattled? Chatter, ratter, Severed reputation on a silver platter. Hearsay, near-say, A small matter of peer-slay. Defame, inflame, The bodies lie shattered in t...
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Loopback

By Cliff Lake
Loopback   Have you seen the sniping sabotage, Cryptic campaign camouflage. Petty plyings that go pale In the light of bared betrayals. Have you seen the misdirection, Self-inflicted prepared projection. Have you seen the galloping guiling Behind the superficial smiling.   Round and round, Who is it that you confound? Up and down, Isn’t the injury inbound? Pound and pound, Watch all the mistakes compound. Down and down, It’s just getting this lost… That you’ve found.   Treachery in ready residence, Capitalize on the captured confidence. Dare the duplicity dispense, Sellout is some sort of self-defense. Forked tongue duly doubletalks, Backpedal in sorry squawks. What more will you heavy hawk? Enough with the seedy schlock!   Round and round, Who is it that you confound? Up and down, Isn’t the injury inbound? Pound and pound, Watch all the mistakes compound. Down and down, It’s just getting this ...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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Player

By Cliff Lake
  Player   The table was never level. Solitaire was never dealt. When the cards are shuffled, The losers ante in again.   The chips are soiled and broken, The players worse than that. The cards are marked but can’t be read, Until you already hold them.   Never asked and in the game, No seat at the table to reclaim. No winners, no hall of fame, Play or fold, it’s all the same.   Only the dealer touches the deck, Every player makes their own rules. Try to focus on the cards you have As the smoke fills the room.   Players drift in, players fall out, The drink passed around freely. You pay for the perks you never requested, The doors are locked, and how did you get in?   Never asked and in the game, No seat at the table to reclaim. No winners, no hall of fame, Play or fold, it’s all the same.   The cards are dealt in the endless night, The dealer has all the chips. You wait for the pl...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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Sorrowsong

By Cliff Lake
  Sorrowsong   I heard whispers on the spring breeze: A celebration beneath the trees. It was arriving as soon as soon, Under this spring’s fullest moon. The procession began late afternoon, And on the wind a nameless tune. I followed, wandered far from home, To spy this observe all alone.   And I sing my sorrowsong Beneath the smokestain moon. Of a world that may be gone, And is long past it’s noon. Still, I seek the fairy ring Once known on forest loam, And if I have to, I will sing And there will dance alone.     I trailed these animals both great and small, They gathered ‘neath trees stern and tall. Assembled in a faintly glowing ring, From the darkness I heard voices sing. Music as water cool and clean, Or visions of a world that might have been. I watched from cover lying prone, Though they were many, I was most alone.   Hear me sing my sorrowsong Beneath the smokestain moon. Of a world t...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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Erasure

By Cliff Lake
  Erasure   Figures in the mountains where nobody lives, What guidance did these artworks once give? Blocks of stone transported miles, Arranged in purposed astronomical style. Civic projects erected by unknown race, Mammoth structures millennia in place. Their technology we cannot surmise, Ancient wonders that baffle the wise.   Lost knowledge we cannot bestow, What did they know and where did they go? So much of the past is gone – Misinterpret and move on.   Wars recorded between city states, Mythologically now we appreciate. Wonders written that are lost to time, Fables now or mere child’s rhyme. Cataclysms and horrors become fiction, Fears of what happened once are superstition. Heroes and villains known only by name, Legends only and no one to blame.   Lost knowledge we cannot bestow, What did they know and where did they go? So much of the past is gone – Misinterpret and move on.   Why is the...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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Circus and Clowns

By Cliff Lake
  Circus and Clowns   Commander-in-Chief that can’t get it Strait, Won’t understand that they won’t take the bait. How did we ever become the lightweight? Will we or won’t we negotiate? How long will we claim we have a beatdown? How many officials’ noses are down in browntown? How long before the Navy sinks and drowns? What this circus needs is more clowns…   Rotate, misstate, spin and spin, Declare every new day another win. Bloviate, dictate, drool and grin, Let the voters take it on the chin. Rotate, misstate, spin and spin.   There are witches in Monterey they say, Another bootlick lucks into payday. Another toddler in line for war play, Completely untrained so anchors aweigh! See clown number one continue to fume. See him infect every newsroom. See the last adults save some from certain doom, See them keep the looney boy out of the room!   Conflate, frustrate, spin and spin. Make sure the donors never ta...
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Location: Washington, DC, USA
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A Breakdown of the Unit

By Cliff Lake
  A Breakdown of the Unit   The unit was broken early And sent into the world.   Twist and twist, Mangle and mash, They misshaped it in their amusement. They were horrified at the result. Realignment protocol was instituted, But the chassis had been warped, Though the veneer applied Lasted for long enough. The veneer was deemed enough.   The unit was broken early And lurched into the world.   The unit operated below spec. The unit operated outside projected expense. The unit was adept at the incomplete task. The unit was proficient at the aborted task. The unit showed promise in waste of resources. The unit was loud. The unit kept getting louder. The unit was janky.   The unit was broken early And broke much in the world.   The unit was oiled vigorously. The unit was oiled often. The unit could not get enough oil. The unit produced smoke. The unit produced waste. The unit demanded mo...
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Location: 1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL 33480, USA
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Now Then

By Cliff Lake
  Now Then   Now some crazy thing your attention snares, You can’t get away and it isn’t fair. Now someone else’s something electrifies the air, Now some new reality frizzes the hair.   Now is another day just full of fuzz, Hearing all about who does not and who does. Now something else is all the buzz, Now you have to care because.   Hearing the why, wherefore, and how, The noise that steady creases the brow, So much opinion through which to plow, Lost in the static of now.   The constant abrasion to the brain, The constant derision buried in false claim. The constant deflection as the treasuries drain, The constant direction to set the world to flame.   Now I keep hearing of peace through might. Now I keep hearing only the rich have rights. Now I keep hearing all the lies take flight – Now I have trouble sleeping at night.   Hearing the why, wherefore, and how, The noise that steady creases the ...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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Holistic Ballistic

By Cliff Lake
  Holistic Ballistic   The dog is on the rooftop, The barn under the owl. The band is playing shortstop, Behind a stolen towel.   Forty one and one to go, Do you display avowal? Lost and down and out you go, Can you use a stolen towel?   Round and round, See the Sound, Long before you run aground. Town to town, Fall dumbfound, In for a penny and gone outbound.   Tricky dickies slipping mickeys, The orchestrator calls a foul. Sticky quickies tricking prickies, Effected on a stolen towel.   Round and down, Outta town, Walk in sunlight all ungowned. Crooked crown, Clown and down, Miles to go and still unsound.   The dog is in the kitchen, The mouse relieves the owl. The band is playing nonstop, Do you have the towel?   Down and down, Here unfound, All of the voices are unsound. Round and round, Go to town, One bad penny and still outbound.   Round and down, O...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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Relics of the Long Sleep

By Cliff Lake
  Relics of the Long Sleep   Legends that arrive from somewhere deep. Stories that we somehow reap. Secrets we were never meant to keep: These are the relics of The Long Sleep.   Why do our dreams seem so aglow? What have we lost of the Long Ago? What did we spend and what do we owe? We dreamember what we used to know.   We don’t know what we don’t know, We try to learn but we’re so slow. Visions come and visions go, And leave us with what we don’t know.   What ancient memory did someone sweep? Why must we pay cost so steep? We somehow must make the faithful leap To collect our relics of the Long Sleep.   Stolen strength or merely lost? What vital knowledge have we tossed? A history now over-glossed: Mythologize a holocaust.   We don’t know what we don’t know, We try to learn but we’re so slow. Visions come and visions go, And leave us with what we don’t know.   Trials we ascend grow ...
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Location: Wichita, KS, USA
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