CliffSongs

  Home is Where the Assault Rifle Is   The promises deflated, The charts pointing nowhere. The statistics dancing to the strident melody, The midnight rant, The better bully welcomed. What warm air can further pump the ego? More guns. Get them out on the street where they belong! Bring the fear home. Show the world! Flaccid power display. Shake your fist at the lies you tell: That’ll show ‘em! Bring the fear home, Swamp the streets with the unnecessary, How that wets the pants! Power over your groupies slipping, You show them more guns, That’s entertainment! This is the circus, Will they do without the bread? Have you found your Colosseum, Or the Bastille? More guns then! Bring the fear home! March the military round and round! When two or more are gathered in democracy’s name, Is that a riot? Certainly some find your moves laughable… And some find lockdowns distasteful, And most of those voted for… More guns th...

  Dead Silence   Why do you shout so? You have been heard before. Though not all your words have been so clumsy. Still, some have disguised their intent. Too long you have professed charity, Too long you have written the moral. Too long behind the compassionate rifle, Too long taking careful aim. Soiled virtue your superhero cape, You become the cartoon villain. The generous hand can also wield the whip, What price goodwill? Transactional friendships tire eventually. Broadcasted voice gone strident, Your red glare rocks the ramparts, Stripes and stars inverted fly. Has your twilight come at last? Or is dawn yet coming, Not as much a rebirth as a lesson: Dark will not endure. Will you again be a giant, But more gallant, More genial, More grounded, And less grinding. With such hands, Giving could be lavish, And still provide comfort at home. No miser has yet carried his savings beyond. Let these times be the pain of g...

  Copping the Disguise   Cop the disguise, Terrorize.   The smiles into eye unentered, Poison penmanship dripping gratitude barbed, Shared experience of shared invention, Doubled faces birthed of troubled graces. Manipulators manage, Missed messages mangled, Mixed messes meddled, Maimers most malevolent.   Cop the disguise, Terrorize.   Led astray by one’s own lead, The path accelerates, Going inward, Getting nowhere. Fly, you fools! Choose your misdirection! Onward, onward! Where have you gone to? Where are you now? Who are you now? You’ll never tell.   Cop the disguise.   Choose your form, What will you do when the label comes off? Unmoored association, Unmasked aberration, Unhinged accumulation, And above all: Constant customization. Can you still hide behind the shine When the chrome has got too soft?   Terrorize.   Presume, present, placate. Practice ...

  Contested   The rose in the garden stretching thorns, The sweet embrace awaits… An innocent lambskin concealing wolf within (my what big teeth you have). Access the displayed beauty, Win more than the proclaim. Experience warns: Not everything is as it seems, Caution is valor’s better measure, The thorns revealed, The teeth unveiled, Let the bloodletting begin. Poison points made, Does the other know? Education ensemble escape enactment, This game has no winners. What can one make of the separate claims? Depends on who they’re talking to – They never sound the same. Suffrage! they exclaim to one another, The refrain rings hollow third party. Cracked mirror reflections cast, Jagged perception presented. Exposition elapses elusive, Can’t be seen through selective confusion, Occam discarded. The thorn that pricks itself, The pelt that gnaws at the caught leg, The venom sweetened served, The side-eyes of the each, T...

  Place   There’s a dark place You never go there You can’t go there It’s too dark there Sometimes you look at it The dark place   Why is it so clean You haven’t gone there No one can go there You don’t go there   Because of the bad thing Because of the what did you do Because of the why did you Because   Why is it so clean You never come here You are here   Everyone saw it Everyone saw you They saw the what did you do One of them asked why did you They did not ask again None of them asked again None of them can ask again They always ask again   Why is it so clean No one can come here You are here It’s so dark here At the dark place But you can see You always see You can see the what did you do Until you can’t look anymore Then you don’t see   There is a dark place You never go there You can’t go there You always go there   What did you do? ...

  Belief Brief   You found comfort in the chaos crew, Gave meaning to your misconstrue. You let your reason come unglued, You let yourself be roughly wooed. Fantasy fiends you would have slew, How you narrowed your own view. You took the bait right on cue, How did it circle back to you?   They cobbled up the secret sign, Invented history to pine. Painted for you ragged decline, Dazzled you with new design. Set beasts to freely malign, Reminded they are not your kind. Gave you codes to nightly untwine, And what you read between the lines.   What do you perceive, What have you conceived? Do you live the dreams that you have weaved? Do you really believe What you want to believe, Or do you believe that you believe?   Complication, complication, This no longer a flirtation. Complication, consternation, This is you as a causation. Fantasy enacted damnation, A nightmare of your formation. Frustration, m...

  Readying   I have spoken of wars long ago, But some knowledge I put aside – Now there is more that you should know, For we will again be sorely tried.   The black steeds and blacker brand, Axe and sword and pike and pole, To come against our sleepy land, And leave no inhabitant whole.   The ancient enemy returns, Trial and misery carried. We must face this calm and stern: Innocents are sorely harried.   Gloved hand, curled fist is unhidden, Oiled words spake by split tongue, Tribulation follows unbidden – Too long have our bows lain unstrung!   In dense wood or in hidden hill, Some are bonded with secret seal, They recognize they old ill, They polish shield and sharpen steel!   The token you too must now bear, The foe would have these, our demesnes! Together son we will now fare, He gathers his war machines.   I have taught you rod, fist and steel, Your arrow flies from deadly eye...

  Conundrum   A puzzle I set before you: Why did this time go so astray? Who was elevated against odds: Crawling creatures that dark the day. Bums and rogues and criminals, Slopped their way up and hope to stay. See them prancing before you, Oblivious of their decay.   A conundrum some fail to see, Too beholden to iniquity. These uncomforting truths they must flee, The enigma ages ungracefully.   The lies that put them where they are, Their power maintained through hearsay. See them lined up against you, Arranged in tidy disarray. They remain envious of The things they cannot take away: Love, and light, and laughter, Saved up for a rainy day.   The conundrum fits too closely, Too beholden to iniquity. These uncomforting truths they must flee, The enigma ages ungracefully.   The query is already in your mind – It becomes clearer every day. Is it really such a mystery, Why it on our minds so we...

  Cold River (Psalm for a Dictator)   Cold river running, Hot-blooded gunning, Cold-hearted cunning, There’s a cold river running.   A cold river is running through humanity, A love of hate built into the machinery. The empires built on inconstancy, Grand efforts cover for the discrepancies. Allow the nurture of degeneracy, And promote all the favored conspiracy. Disallow all claim of illegitimacy, Row the cold river running through humanity.   Cold river running, Hot-blooded gunning, Cold-hearted cunning, There’s a cold river running.   Pursuing genocidal insanity, While they are pursuing their mark on history. Disregarding description of infamy, Known as infamous is still a legacy. Require their wants met in immediacy, Serving themselves only; this dire fantasy. Consequences met with their hilarity: Flooding a cold river through humanity.   Cold river running, Hot-blooded gunning, Cold-hear...