Tuesday, October 30, 2012

War

Strident pronouncements from the
pulpit of state
proclaiming superiority,
demanding loyalty,
stirring the shimmering
cauldron of fear,
tsunami of emotions
assaulting the senses.

War grinds on
poking desperate holes in
the fabric of reason.

Humans stand astride
the abyss of the damned
and plunge without reluctance
into the chaos of their own making.

War shreds humanity
under the staggering weight
of bountiful corpses
left bloodless,
discharged from the living
in a torrent of metal and fire.

Cycles of endless violence and
retribution,
falling upon
sharpened spikes
of hatred
ignorance
fear.



War glorifies pitiful death
upon the altar of
the unrelenting darkness.

I mourn for all the pointless killing,
for the gravestones piled high upon
the beleaguered hearts of all the mothers
who have wept over the ashes
of their vanquished children.

Wars' hollow victories
give succor to the void
and offer the promise
of future grief upon the bones of
fractured peace.

I mourn for needless suffering,
for the compendium of horrors,
for the blood and sinews of the
armies of victims who
fall to the earth so
thoroughly shattered.

War is carnage
unredeemed by the rhetoric of
shallow righteousness or
the politics of punishment
and retribution.

I long for a time when peace is
no longer a sentiment
reserved for the prophets,
not just a word used on
special occasions.


I long for a time when peace is
not simply a sweet turn of phrase
laced within the rhetoric of
the politics of deception,
but a way of being
within the substance of humanity.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Illness

 

Illness stalks

relentless desperado

unraveling sanguine dreams

disconnecting hope

from illusion.

 

Pandora's box of maladies

hidden in the attic

beneath the pile of

old photographs and faded momentoes

discovered and opened by

mischievous fortune.

 

Within life's unruly matrix

suffering is the host

humans despise yet

whose company is expected.

 

Disease has laid relentless siege

upon my family,

leaves me frustrated

i possess no power to

deter its blinding course or

avert its chaotic fervor.

 

Illness stalks,

indeed it must

allowing biology to pursue

its cyclic nature and

build anew from fallen timbers.

Disease has laid relentless siege

upon my family,

leaves me frustrated

i possess no power to

deter its blinding course or

avert its chaotic fervor.

 

Illness stalks,

indeed it must

allowing biology to pursue

its cyclic nature and

build anew from fallen timbers.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Curious Obsession

We dance by the window

shadows on the wall,

glance upward

at the wonder of it all.

 

Existence may have meaning,

desire its reward,

tomorrow may bring solace or

escape from blinding repetition,

yet i still choose to

capture fleeting moments with the

timbre and rhythm

that only words convey.

 

Consider it a sign

of childish vanity or

unashamed idleness

to be so possessed by

what is barely palpable,

lacking substance,

devoid of obvious purpose.

 

It is a measure of my weakness,

and my strength

a curious obsession.