Monday, November 19, 2018

Parkland Florida and Beyond



Seventeen dead
senselessly subtracted
from life’s equation
by a young man
captivated by chaotic circuitry
within a storm-tossed brain,
in a culture where
compassion cannot compete with
allure of profit,
where madness has
ready access to murderous weapons
needless death of little consequence,
where mass shootings have
become mere punctuation
in the grammar of the
everyday.

Monday, April 23, 2018

Planetary Lament



Incipient joy of
each new morning
sunlight impaling this planet
with color and warmth
gift of life
harbinger of possibilities.

Magnificent eagle effortlessly
riding the air in a pageantry of remarkable grace,
engineering its nest
in liberating spring air.

Great hordes of wildebeests
migrating across the Kenyan plains
in the elaborate and relentless
search for sustenance.

Polar bears shimmering in the
light of summer sun,
symbols of both strength and
nobility of spirit
prowling on Alaskan sea ice.

Orcas among their kin
sleek and graceful bodies
moving in defiance of gravity
denizens of the vast oceans
where life itself began.

Evening cry of the owl
perched on a crimson-hued tree
in the light of the waning sun
preparing for the hunt.

Leaf cutter ants moving
in ordered precision
on the tropical forest floor
on their way to and from
their magnificent nest.




All this inimitable beauty
fragile and bountiful
held hostage
by the human penchant
for comfort and convenience.

All these gifts bestowed by nature
threatened by mindless hubris,
the promise of gold,
the possibility of endless riches.

World laid bare by such
trivial pursuits,
world made destitute by the
naked will to power,

Pointless folly of our collective endeavor
to fashion a life
with us at the center
endangering the very soul of existence.

So far removed from the
exuberance and vibrancy of nature,
we risk stripping the future of
meaning.

What is the ultimate reward of
amassing the trinkets that delight us
in spite of the ultimate cost?

If human life has purpose and meaning,
why are we so determined to unravel
the very essence of our collective future?

This vivid blue marble suspended in the cosmos
dancing around a yellow star at the periphery of a
rather ordinary pinwheel galaxy
among billions of its kind,
is our home.

This vivid blue marble suspended in the cosmos
upon whose surface we are mere transients
it is not ours to possess,
it is not ours to devour
it is not ours to profane.

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Welcome to a Society with its Collective Head up its Woeful Ass



So profoundly racist
that chose a leader
unabashedly a pathological liar,
profoundly troubled narcissist,
adherent to the distorted vision of
white supremacy,
known abuser of women.

So profoundly stupid as
to think self-proclaimed right to
firearms
more important than
health and safety of
its own children.

Regards anyone
exhibiting reasoned compassion
to be immediately
held suspect.

Finds
scientists contemptible
science as
inherently evil.

Prefers the big lie
over truth,
proclaims racism is dead
while black men fill the prisons,
democracy is alive
while wealth flows unimpeded
from the many to the few,
climate change is a hoax
in the midst of staggering data that
tells a completely different story.

Welcome to a society
with its collective head
up its woeful ass,
prepared to sacrifice the
future well-being of the species for a
fabulous yet delusional dream.