To All My Fathers
All my fathers are now gone with the transit of Venus. They have all toed the line. They have made all of their deadlines. So many accomplishments. So much community built and rebuilt. They were all well respected and sometimes feared. For men can speak with their fists sometimes quicker than with their lips. All ...
The Mask
The mask is put on wet like a warm wash cloth. Slowly it is pulled skintight, downward. Your teeth grip a mouthpiece so there is no breathing but through covered nostrils. No eye holes. No mouth hole. No nose hole. No movement at all. No chance of freeing oneself. Strapped down to a table. No ...
Waiting to be Led
It is the phone that dehumanizes. Through distance. The one who answers. Their lack of empathy The voice message menu. The voice recognition. The wanting to talk to a human. To not be delayed. To feel that you are important enough to answer. That you are not a number. That your records can be reviewed. ...
The Prophet Motive
We pool our resources We list our skills and passions. We ask how to be a good neighbor. How to reach out, educating without alienating. How to find one common cause. How to find our prophet motive. Doing good without compensation. To become whole inside this global nation. Fear can be crippling as we face ...
Chrome
I wear a mask and suit each day to work. Plastic and chrome. Black jacket, black tie. I am one of a billion. Same suit, same mask. Nothing new to task. Back to the future is my home. Where my beat’s and rhythm’s dance. Neon eighties bass. Boom boxed in. Deep craters of twelve inch ...
The Zimmerman Rewrite
I surrender I. Flight not fight. Not seeking to invite another strike. Moving ones weight to another state. No gun needed to subdue anyone running from you. No more snake eating its tail. No more head to swell. This short exchange is done. Both opponents live on. Both soon to rise. For I surrender I. ...
Unrestrained
I am that part of you that grows without restraint. Dividing inside your skull. Growing as I pull matter together and apart. I don’t know your name. I don’t know your words. I don’t define me. Like the air. I blow sublime. I am a tumor. I am cancer. A word with so many connotations. ...
Time Lives Here
You and me as we see. Key deer and iguana. An alligator or two. Large Gambian rats and peacocks too. A land wild and free. Settled by man but constantly humbling. With its beauty. With its water surrounding. With its one road running South. No going around. No not being on the island for we ...
Peek-a-boo
I dislike people asking me how I am. Generally, I am well. Or some version of well, depending on varying definitions. But being unwell has never got me anywhere so I see no point in it. My doctor once complained to me that people complain too much about common ailments when they should just accept ...
The Trigger
I sit here looking at the barrel of my gun. It is the loaded, same commercial rerun. Looping, NOW, only for a limited time. Two shotgun shells genetically loaded. So many pellets they can disperse. Blending into healthy tissue. Turning the good into the worst. Inserting stress, not easily withstood. Both shells are lodged inside ...
Graduation
I graduated from building blocks to tic tac toe. I graduated from Tonka Trucks to Lego. I graduated from Ewoks to G.I. Joe. We pass the baton from one generation to another. Degrees earned and Resumes written. Skills acquired and careers gotten. I remember sitting in school thinking about all the nonsense I was ...
Children of the Flame
Hands in soil as we toil. Labor intent on solving hunger and thirst. All spare ground newly found and used to farm. To mend. Roofs turned into nurseries. Muscles tense. Tendons enhanced. Working hard for this, our second chance. Time is transient. One day moves into another amended only by the seasons. All movement set ...
The 100th Monkey
We work our days. We continue to play as Dividends are bundled and traded. Futures bet against and faded. So that we might extract oil from sand To keep the same experiment going, again. Continual growth no longer charted. The population has boomed And we all know there is little room. Peak oil has passed ...
The Removed
Removed. The enemy is a target A bullet is a round. A village is down range. All tools to rearrange ones humanity. To make killing easy. One shot one kill. All soldiers drill drill drill. Removed. As we find photos. Soldiers pissing on bodies. Abusing prisoners, no apology. With ten years of Gitmo. As children ...
A Grand Mal View
My skull in a clamp as the seizure set in. My entire body lifted and twisted. With my bone flap adjusted. Brain matter open. If only one millimeter off I wouldn’t be here today. A slice of nerve. Too much blood lost. Brain swelling costs. Cranial pressure off. But I awoke just fine. Left leg ...
The Butterfly Effect
Another year as nostalgia bites. As memories fight. So many tragedies. So much pain. Targeted. Politicized for monetary gain. As the calendar unfolds. The day’s story told and retold, again. Twenty-four-seven. For where have we been? Humans are capable of such magic. Some, gifted shamans create culture. Some, cursed vultures eat their own. Whatever media ...
The Hunt
Tribes holding tight to tradition. Stone aged warriors hunting boar. Bare chested women preparing for tonight’s feast. Ring nosed and ancient. Skin tight, muscled agents. Singing stories of ghosts and spirits, and the magic of the animals. All speaking unique tongues. Tribes living next to each other. Territory not marked but known. Land connected by ...
