CliffSongs

  Inconnu   He slips past you seen, Unrecognized as friend or enemy, He is a moment un-momentous. A breath perhaps, undrawn, Maybe he was here, Maybe he mattered, Maybe it doesn’t matter if he did once. Did he stand next to you at the deli, unnumbered? Was his money given to the great machine That grinds away behind our every action Ravenous as death, And just as insatiable? Did he fall in? The noise of it almost imperceptible? The John Doe given his two lines in the local paper, His eternity ending there. What memory could that evoke? Or does he yet live, As gray and formless to everyone As these words now make him? Why can’t you remember? Why aren’t you trying?     Cliff Lake 9/30/2022 Copyright © Clifford Lake 2022

  Uncolored Eyes   Do you avoid asking the questions, Of those things whose answers you do not wish to know? Have truths slipped past seen and unrecognized? Have they been recognized and allowed past? How would you know? If you could ask one thing, Would you dare an absolute truth? Can a truth cause lasting harm, Or, Would a lie be the more damaging over time? Which will you risk? Whom do you fear more, A stranger with a gun, Or a friend with a knife? Would you ask me questions you won’t ask yourself? Would you hear the answers? Would you leave them unasked? Do you truly want to hear what you wish to be told, Whether it bears any truth, Whether it leaves you unlearned? Would you know the difference? Do you want to know the difference? Do you see with uncolored eyes? How could you know? Do you want to know?   Cliff Lake 9/29/2022 Copyright © Clifford Lake 2022

  The Degraders   The spite that binds, The malice in loss, Cruelly retaliating injury not yet earned, Now more certain through barbarous act. Maliciously unkind to people unknown, They warm themselves with shallow affronts, Hollow congratulations of inconsequent malfeasance. Detaching themselves from compassion they outrage, Effecting little more than insult and indignity. Pettiness is their brand. Outrageous in their racket, They rage that they are forgotten before they have begun, Prescient of the inevitable. Noxious opinions farted from the studiously uninformed, The willfully imperceptive, the emphatically unread, Braying into a cacophony they cannot overcome, They needle those that cannot avoid the prick, Rendered impaired by hurts they could not deflect, Because life is cruel to the innocent and the guilty without bother. Such niggling actors, They portray themselves as guardians of truths concealed, They are the bullies the...

  Q’ing Up   They seek to be made holy through the denigration of others, Baptized in the sins of the worst among them. Consigning themselves to overweening, overarching avarice, Stumbling towards the nearest justification they can find. Lost in the frozen confusion of their unrealized ambitions, Their anger fueled by the willingness to be lied to. Searching for clues in bubble gum wrappers, Satisfied only by the increasingly outlandish. Constructing frail formula from the ragged ends of mistaken follies, They imagine new truths discarded tomorrow. Fueling an anger shared through an imbalanced conduit, Drinking the bitter dregs they wallow in freely. Coherence anathema to forgone conclusions, Rationale a poison to deductions premade. Conclusions to be enforced through sacred bloodletting, God granting them sufferance to persuade in pain. A mob formed from the self-indulgent, To prop up the monster that they strive to be. No turning back ...

  Do Not Speak to Me of Christ   Do not speak to me of Christ if you will not feed a stranger. Do not speak to me of Christ while watching others drown in debt.   Do not speak to me of Christ as children lie bleeding and politicians profit. Do not speak to me of Christ as you jack another round into the chamber.   Do not speak to me of Christ as you claim control of another’s decisions. Do not speak to me of Christ if you can claim rape is the will of God.   Do not speak to me of Christ if violent repression of anyone is your path. Do not speak to me of Christ if hate is always your first thought.   Do not speak to me of Christ while you practice intolerance. Do not speak to me of Christ as you spurn those that are other.   Do not speak to me of Christ while you glorify those unholy. Do not speak to me of Christ as you idolize the unjust.   Do not speak to me of Christ if you are plotting vengeance. Do not...

  A Song for the Damned   Where are you keeping your special knowledge,   Where is it hidden from those that don’t know? Where did you get answers to unsolved enigmas? How will I know if I know? Does your new erudition explain things that you do not control? Do these secrets make plain what you do not understand? Will you not share proof of your convictions? Are your beliefs merely rooted in sand?   There is no hate when you walk in The Way, There is no injury in reaching out, You cannot be damaged by showing some sympathy, Find out what real love is about!   Are you in opposition to the good of heart? Do you find empathy weak? Do you spurn the caring one that is truly courageous, That stands in resistance to the hate that you speak? Why is your satisfaction in cruelty, Which requires teeming cohorts to survive? How long before you find that your blind fealty, Leaves you just a drone in the hive?   There is ...

  Parry   I stood in the dark Unraveling my confusion Looking for an answer For all the questions asked. I stood in the dawn Grasping threads of illusion Asking all the questions That I did not want answered. I stood in the light Dispelling all the rumors Getting all the answers To questions I hadn’t asked. I stood in the dusk Ignoring all the murmurs Fending off wrong answers And hoping I wasn’t asked. I stand again in dark Masking my confusion Wading through the answers No longer afraid to ask. I am waiting for the daylight No nearer to conclusions Waiting to make answer To all that I’ve been asked.   Cliff Lake 9/10/2022 Copyright © Clifford Lake 2022

  An Affirmation   Are you where you thought you would be? Are you the person that you once meant? Have you seen all you wished to see? Do you wonder where all the time went?   When will you know the last truth? When will you sing all that is unsung? When will you have asked the last question? Have you accomplished all that can be done?   Is there more to what you already know? When will the last bell be rung? Have you moved past what you once intended? Can the pendulum be all unswung?   Do regrets keep you in a stasis frozen? Have you adopted shadows shamed? Can you unwalk the paths that you’ve chosen? Can your aspirations be somehow reclaimed?   Can an atrophied spirit be unwithered? Will you be more than what you are not now? Are you caught in an eddy in this life’s river? Have you already taken your final bow?   Does not the sun still rise for you shining? Do not the birds still call for you t...

  Seeing You   Behind your cracking walls of stone, You’re hoping I just pass. That I will just go on my own, And not notice that they’re glass. Imperative I not see in, No stories to be told, No whispers of collective sin, A trail you think’s gone cold.   You won’t suspect I’ve really woken, While you cowered and you slept, You won’t believe I see you, It’s too much to accept. You don’t know I’m right behind you, You don’t see the closing net, You only know the secrets that, I know that you have kept.   You speak of all the anything, You’re telling creaky lies. You think you are deflecting, There’s holes in your disguise. I know you will never come clean, You’ve dragged too many in, But I have facts unforeseen, Your excuses have worn thin. You won’t suspect I’ve really woken, While you cowered and you slept, You won’t believe I see you, It’s too much to accept. You don’t know I’m right behind you, You...

  Balances   The pendulum has begun it’s swing, Though evil does not see it yet. The arc has begun its return, The median will be reached. The counterbalance has been adopted, Nature will not be denied. The ballast is its own weight, Stability finds its own level. Darkness has always been followed by light, Which is it that banishes the other? As the tides come in, so they also go out, What is exposed when the waters recede? Every action has a cause, every cause calls for action, Be careful of the seed you sow. The ravening will devour itself, If it cannot feed on the just. Hatred has no cure but death, If that is all that you made of. The end always has a beginning, And the end is because of the beginning. Parity creates itself, Like water, actions must be flush where they exist. The pendulum has begun its swing, Have a care that you are not in its way.   Cliff Lake 9/1/2022 Copyright © Clifford Lake 2022