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Showing posts from April, 2025

Keeper

Keeper   It ticks on, A nameless device, Purpose forgotten, Or too menial to require record, A mindless automation. Powered inexhaustibly, Its maker left his mark unstamped, Thinking his name to survive All the abysses of time. It ticks on. What set this piece in motion? What unplumbed mind placed it so? Some creature unimaginable? Or merely unimagined by such as we? It cannot say, Or does not, A mechanism dumb, The long slow years counted, But without a why, Only the what is measured. It ticks on. Should we mourn such heedless existence; It would not do for us – Senseless and mute, A thing out of time immeasurable, Except by it. How many decades has it seen? How many centuries, Millenia? None. It sees nothing, Knows nothing, And keeps what secrets it had, What utility was its design, And solely functions without use, Beyond use, Of no use, But to measure the moment, And then another, And one more, ...

Low Dose

  Low Dose   How many homeless Can you ignore Before you must Assuage the guilt with a dollar? How many hours of television Will you binge Until your attention span gives out? Don’t ask me, I’m just trying to keep My sodium intake down.   How many foreign wars Can you ignore Until you must purchase A ten-dollar care package? How many congressmen Will it take To ruin or save your retirement? I wouldn’t know, I’m just trying to keep The porch pirates away.   How many years Will you allow to pass Before you realize You can sort of cure Your insecurity with a new phone? How long before you see You’re screwing up your kids too? Not for me to say, I’m just trying to keep A low profile.   How much credit Debt do you need Before you get sick Of dusting off all the junk you have? How much responsibility do you ignore With the right balance of medications? I couldn’t guess, I’m just trying...

Nightburst

  Nightburst   Stark silhouette, Flashed hard and approaching, And the sky splits, And weeps again. What beast roars here? What outcry overhead? What hard breath carries the turmoil? Gray, gray, all above is gray, Or nearly black, And it roils. Some lively thing, Rolling masses backlit, Or lighted in staggering band: There and gone, Searing afterimage. The rumbling clamor comes closer, Continuous and insistent, And with it a growing susurrous: The cascade speaks with its own voice. Stabbing light! Again! Sharp crack and following: Rolling grumbles fading to distance. Stabbing light! Too near! Blast and boom! The silhouettes leap! The gray curtain descends and obscures, Streams form temporary, Pools pool where there were none, The air cools, The ground steams, The cleansing has begun. What rages overhead moves away, A pretty display fading, The crash and slam drums loud elsewhere, A cacophony and serena...

Cold

  Cold   I am hunted. When I need rest, The trail goes cold. My dog is a great help, As are the binoculars, Shadows, The sun in their eyes, And their smoking fires. Such arrogance. There four rifles to them, A stupid weapon now, A noisy tool telling your place. The silent dart takes the unwary, Saying nothing until the body is found. Cold marker. Tales of a ghost in this wood are mine.   The collapse was swift. Disasters rose, Markets fell. Pandemics consumed, Armies emptied populations And each other. When the power went out, Mercy and compassion went with it. In the new dark militias arose: Gangs of vicious desperates Siezing the weapons caches, Claiming mandate until dying in their turn, Slaughtered by like gangs stronger, Or perhaps hungrier. Ubiquitous attritions. Cold charity. Less than a decade yet past, The bullets nearly gone, The fuel used up, Tanks and planes dead and useless. Deep fo...

Quota

  Quota   As I stood in line Waiting for my propaganda quota, To get my fill of the pamphlets, The posters, The promos, The pills, I tried to imagine a time When it wasn’t required, And I might be allowed to think for myself. What happy days they could have been! Waking every morning unadvised, Not quite knowing where you might go or, What you might wear to work or, Where you might lunch that day or, What you might do that evening. Think of it! A myriad of choices! All yours to make! Clothing of different colors, Different styles, Mixing and matching! Varieties of foods, Some cold! Some hot! Yours for the asking! And what if you (on your own) Could choose your entertainment? Or simply choose to stay home? Imagine! Your entire day Filled with choices, Selections, Options, Opportunities… And being forced your every waking minute To have an opinion, To have preferences… To make decisions… On your own!...

Elephants and Trees

  Elephants and Trees   They said there used to be real elephants once, Bigger than the tents we live in! They said there used to be elephants once, But those stories are older than the tribe.   They said that trees were shoulder to shoulder once, That they would blot out the sun! They said there were more trees once, But what proof is there of that?   They said that corn grew everywhere once, That it didn’t come from the bosses! They said you could grow your own corn once, But where would the water come from?   They said you could live in the cities once, That you could live inside the buildings! They said the cities did not kill you once, But everyone dies of radiation.   They said that the sky used to be blue once, That you could breathe without a filter! They said that there was good air once, But I’m too old for children’s stories.   They said you could go where you wanted once, That there we...

Guardians Alongside

  Guardians Alongside   Company disregards the night, Fearing not the soulless wight, Turned away by no wraith’s whim, Even as the real word dims.   They seek their aim by quickest path, Undeterred by spectral wrath. Or denizens comprised of shade, Their protections are well arrayed:   Impervious to steely sword, They dwell the domains unexplored, They will not allow task’s fail, Guardians beyond the veil.   Creation’s hope lies on this quest, Survival uncertain beyond this test. A league assembled with special care, Beyond surrender, beyond despair.   Through bewitched lands they must grope, In unseen escort keep their hope. And wend their way through sorcery, And trust in that they cannot see:   Impervious to steely sword, They dwell the domains unexplored, They will not allow task’s fail, Guardians beyond the veil.   A secret hope and hidden plan! Last reprieve for beast and man!...

A Promise

 

Signal

  Signal   Atop the futures the aberration squats, Too easily is the disease bought. Pronouncements it makes that taste of sin, It signals the rapine to begin.   The fealty bond is paid in cash, Poverty now the slavers lash. The altar stands in hunger stained, The pillage and piracy remain.   Take it all, then take some more! Madly scramble the integrity whores! What voices not heard cry to so many: “What value has capital if you can’t have any?”   Ledger electric, the scores progressing, The market hectic, the souls regressing. Everything surely has its price: Believe in nothing; roll the dice.   The poet dreams, the singer yearns. Credit scores still setting terms. The painter sees, the drummer beats, Not yet do they hear the marching feet.   Rise! Rise! Hear no more rich men’s lies! Bow no more in servitude disguised! Rise! Rise! Put away your anguished cries! Release from slavery is the pr...

Past Tomorrows

  Past Tomorrows   Trace every day the same track, Collecting boredom you can’t unsack. What relief for the aching back? More work, less pay, and a plastic plaque.   Todays the same as yesterdays, The more we move, the more we stay. Occasions pile in dim array, Waking to perform the same cliché.   Recall is a slowly mudded stream, Memories the vestiges of dreams. Regrets not as sweet as sorrows, The past lives in our tomorrows.   Weeks circle in the same old spin, Enthusiasm long gone thin. Unfocus the might have been, When do you get to win?   Having to play for the team, Having to replay the same old theme. Something in your eye lost its gleam, When did you run out of steam?   Recall is a slowly mudded stream, Memories the vestiges of dreams. Regrets not as sweet as sorrows, The past lives in our tomorrows.   How will we take up this slack? What did we have that we now lack? How...

Small Satisfaction

  Small Satisfaction   A whistle of wind, The dry rattle Of what leaves remain to sound, No requiem here. Here is nowhere, Even if it is somewhere, Perhaps it had a name once, But it is long unmapped since. Perhaps for the best: Its sole inhabitant, Past hope for salvage, Having long dismissed his own identity, Hoping for escape, To be trapped in the barren. He has no use for irony, Though he be gripped by it. He knows he will not survive here, Yet animal instinct drives him still, And finding water he drinks, And finding prey he eats, And finding shelter he sleeps, Then wanders more. It is a cleansing he thinks, A reduction to a purer form, If it is not a redemption. If he is found, Will he be known? If he is known, Will he be tried? If he is tried, Will it matter? He has already given himself to this waste, And it has given back, Though poorly. Yet it has been enough, And he will wander another day, ...

Old Smoke

  Old Smoke   In the Lands of Lost Promise, The smokes of old fires linger. Bright glow now mostly ash, Blown and gone, Murmur of despair following. Fading light delivers indistinct shadow, Blurred vestiges of boundaries once known, All but forgotten In the encroaching cold and dark. Once tended radiant blazes, Revered for their warmth and illume, Burned hot at need, If heart grew cold, If mind went dark. The pyres were blamed of searing too torrid, Of lighting too clear, Beacons leading away from glooms and fogs, Where shadows conceal, Where deed may go unfound. In the Land of Lost Promise, Old smokes linger, Remnants of fires past, Embers cooling under ash, But yet hot, Awaiting staple and stock, And the winds of change, To roar back to blazing life, And light our course Out of the dim we stumble in, And rekindle the spirit that was, In the Land of Lost Promise, That we may find the way again.   Cliff...

Monster

  Monster   The monster sits in his cavern high, Watching the lowly ones not get by. For he has taken all that there can be, And they may have a bit for a fee.   And he is thankful for his continued health, And more grateful for his exorbitant wealth. And he wishes that there was more he could do, To remove happiness from the remaining few.   For his life is absent of anything like a friend, He owns sycophants only, here for their own ends. And they look with longing eyes at his purse, And inside he knows it couldn’t be worse.   So he climbs above all on his pile of gold, And pretends that he has not gotten old. And wonders why his long life is all trial, And crushes any with a genuine smile.   And he plots to poison the world he won’t survive, And poisons the spirit of any daring to feel alive, And poisons the air and poisons the land, And poisons any chance of good in his brand.   And he takes con...

Swingtown

  Swingtown   Swingtown was the place to be seen. Swingtown was the unstoppable machine. Swingtown was maybe a little unclean, Swingtown was the place to careen.   Swingtown; scandalous reputation. Swingtown; notorious temptation. Swingtown, find your flirtation. Swingtown accepts all application.   They don’t dance in Swingtown anymore, The dance hall is closed, And they burned the store. You can still go, but what a snore, They don’t dance in Swingtown anymore.   Now the story on Swingtown gets a little hazy, Things in Swingtown got a little crazy. Things in Swingtown were always a little racy, Swingtown policing was always a little lazy.   Swingtown; overnite sensation. Swingtown; snakebite your libation. Swingtown; no streetlight salvation. Swingtown; overnight cremation.   They don’t dance in Swingtown anymore, The dance hall is closed, And they burned the store. You can still go, but w...

Blind and Blind

  Blind and Blind   From out of the wasteland where tainted water flows, From out of the wasteland a blinded man rose. And the blinded man spake as if with authority, And the blinded man spake of all the things he could not see. And he recalled of him all the sights he had never seen, And spake against all, and even color he would demean. And the people listened, although his speech was hollow, And those of some discontent among them began to follow.   And they followed, though he could not see, Followed him feverishly. Followed without inquiry, They followed – and they did not see.   They followed the blinded man to lands barren and cold, They followed because he said the sun had been stole. They followed and many fell by the way, They followed and he said they were strong enough to stay.   And they followed, though he could not see, Followed him feverishly. Followed without inquiry, They followed – and they did n...

From Somewhere

  From Somewhere   Once there was a man from somewhere, The greedy and the foolish he could snare. He could tell them literally anything, He told them he was their everything. He gathered him religious fanatics, And courted him fringe lunatics. And got them all to set him so high, And got them to let him suck them dry.   But some in even the smallest town, They don’t let the deal go down. From the people hear the sound, The march against the tyrant bound.   Now this man that came from somewhere, Did as he liked without a care. Flouting convention and law alike, Threatening all with fisted strike. And the foolish and the greedy agreed, His acknowledgement their greatest need. Stupidly accepting their suffering, Stupidly allowing him to become king.   But some in even the smallest town, They won’t let the deal go down. From the people hear the sound, The march against the tyrant bound.   Worse become...