Juxtapositions

Moon dances in the evening sky

breezes stir the myriad blossoms

trees flick branches

at passing birds in splendid flight

summer day is awaiting its

canopy of darkness.

This wondrous earth

tentacles of life invading

every rock,

every minuscule pool of water,

every bit of dirt,

even scalding desert sand is not immune

to life’s entreaty.

Yet, in spite of this

incessant beauty,

earth is sorely plagued by

endless human folly.

Blood is drawn from shattered bodies

limbs are splintered and made useless

skulls crushed from the weight

of war’s endeavor,

mothers divorced from their children

taken by the sharpened rapier or

blunted stone,

husbands denied their wives’ embrace

separated by death’s dominion.

Wondrous beauty of this planet

deadened in the eyes of humans

bereft of love and

fashioned into mindless warriors

wedded to the darkness of

futile hatred,

subservient to absurd notions

blinded by vacant and moribund ideas.

What will become of our earthly home

when the air grows fowl from

the pyre of our collective madness.

What will become of our fathomless oceans

when finally bereft of the living.

What will become of our sanguine dreams

when the ominous clouds of our own making

overshadow all the sweetness we might

otherwise envision.

Moon dances in the evening sky

breezes stir the myriad blossoms

trees flick branches

at passing birds in splendid flight

summer day is awaiting its

canopy of darkness.

Ode to Manhattan

The Nooksack River

Mt Baker and Shuksan

Mt Rainier

To the Illusory World We So Adeptly Created

I live in a world

with its codified rules

its expectations neatly packaged

orchestrated songs whose melodies

i was taught to dance to

a proud product of social engineering.

Cities already built

wars already fought

with the foundation already in place

for those conflagrations destined to come.

I could be a soldier if necessity demands

expected to be a patriot always

inequality natural

bigotry acceptable under the right conditions

poverty always a possibility.

Taught to be subject to the whims of economics

instructed in the insatiable laws of commerce

always a consumer

forever a commodity.

Instructed in the many forms

endless nuances of the trivial

swimming in that endless polystyrene sea

where conformity abounds

exotic nature neatly packaged in

colorful and inviting travel brochures.

Love is tolerated within limits

while the powerful polish their swords

with the fire of hate in the

belly of oblivion.

Unhinged from the breath

blinded of the ability to see

divorced from the power of nature and

the very root of our beginnings.

Deluded into believing in this

Insanity.

Branded with the conviction that

This

Is

All

There

Is.

Ageing

Ageing

No amount of ointment

adeptly applied

or

ancient remedies

buried in an artifact

from the ancient past

will stop

time’s relentless forward motion.

No obscure and ingenious formulation

assembled by a

team of brilliant chemists with a

penchant for innovation

will forestall mortality’s reach.

Molecular biologists and wily botanists

may conspire to unravel

the elusive signature of senescent genes

as they must

yet

ultimately someone will note their noble efforts

when their obituaries are finally written.

Along the inexorable continuum of

life’s journey,

the mind may seem less alert,

the body less able to

exercise its powers in

the arenas of art and love and industry.

No amount of artful dodging

intricate paraphernalia,

ludicrous camouflage,

or absurd denial

will keep us from our

ultimate and insistent dissolution

into artful and chaotic oblivion.

For this

                        we should be thankful

for this escape

from a world so plagued

by human endeavor and the

suffering it engenders.