New page. Empty life.
Ink stains and blood drains away.
New life. Page fills up.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
WE FORGET WE ARE ANIMALS
We forget we are animals
defined by our biology,
determined in our theology
to become gods.
We claim supremacy
in our ability to reason.
Thus, science is treason
to our basest animality.
There is no true supremacy
in puppies seeking comfort in the pack,
but a leader holding back
its basest urges so they thrive.
Their is no supremacy among ants
plundering crumbs left behind
by birds with greater speed
after picnickers have had their feed.
Like puppies, birds and ants
we seek opportunity
and shared camaraderie
in order to survive.
Supremacy would deplete our strength,
interrupt the flow of shared effort,
deprive us of the joy of joint accomplishment.
It would make us less and steal our comfort.
Science steps in to stop such a fray
using reason to light our way.
Science untended
leaves a world upended.
Viral storms circle the globe
behind fires and drought,
rain and flood,
leaving illness and death.
Economies fall before we do
onto bended knees of recovery.
Myths replace stories
as reason loses glory.
We forget we are animals at our own peril.
We must forgo supremacy
to sustain democracy.
We must remember who we are.
Filed under Uncategorized
DAWN
Dawn
The dawn!
The dawn!
How dare Sun
show his face.
I’ve learned to live
outside his grace,
to fend for myself,
to bend and scrape
a life beyond his space.
The ice has packed
my heart contained
in frozen lace
where it feels safe.
Now, Sun would melt
my dreams away.
Filed under Uncategorized
NO REST in a NIGHTMARE
The dream that is America
died during the night.
The right to vote
and have that vote count
was gone with the dawn.
While I was sleeping
Lady Liberty lay weeping
at the second insurrection
which eroded the protection
of the democracy
we rely upon.
Democracy was killed in dark of night,
the moon’s reflected light
not strong enough
to stop the rape
of her freedoms.
We awaken worn and weary
from brittle dreams
to a new reality
forged in heated nightmares.
Dreams fade over time.
Nightmares hang on.
How long before we forget
the dream that was America?
Rest In Peace, Lady Liberty.
I cannot.
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TOWERS OF BABEL
There were rivers to cross,
then oceans;
and hills to climb,
then mountains.
Common language was lost
in failed use.
New languages grew
in its place.
The Tower of Babel could not be built,
but lay waiting,
for the day
boundaries could be crossed
minute by minute.
Applications translate
while we communicate.
Photos bound oceans.
News climbs mountains.
We build a common language
internetted, and interconnected.
No more need for State’s Rights when we
can all see a shared reality.
A united people is difficult to control
so Republicans lose their party
to the control of the trolls
who lay waiting under the bridges
we cross to meet one another.
And Right where we cross
they argue State’s Rights
to obfuscate and create
The United States of Babel,
making it impossible
to Build Back Better,
or vote.
And they do not stop at our borders.
Right wing trolls mine under the bridges
which unite the world’s democracies,
creating Towers of Babel
across the earth.
Filed under Uncategorized
GRIEF LINES ABOUT THE BROW
I held grief at bay
in tightened fists
determined not to allow
its escape, until I lay
it down upon the page,
Where it sapped my strength.
Taking up the pen
is little help today
when the nip etches lines
of grief about my brow,
too close to allow the flow
of ink upon the page.
Democracy means more to those
More recently saved upon its shores.
The lands of autocrats and hypocrites,
we thought, had been left
behind, beyond our pained sight;
now resurrected by the Republican right.
A Right reinforced by clerics bent
on reasserting ties long rent
between church and state,
Now reinstated by the Court
and pro-life misogynist dictum
making women victims.
The Right backlash to Obama
is a fierce and hateful trauma
which dares to take away
our diversity and our vote,
our personhood and culture,
our history and democracy.
Grief is still heavy today
but less than yesterday.
Today ink flows steadily,
freely, hopefully daring leaders
to find the courage to save the vote,
and this beloved country.
Filed under Uncategorized
NO TIME TO WASTE
Hours bestow the power
to dribble away
a perfectly fine day.
The mind has no budget.
The sets are free;
The actors free of equity.
The script entertains
every possibility,
until dusk drops the curtain
upon our play.
The hours of the night
require footlights
whose cost we often cannot pay.
Daylight hours are meant
to store treasure to purchase
all we have dreamt.
We rest most easily
and dream most peacefully
when day has been well spent.
Filed under Uncategorized
LEASHED EMOTION
We all see it. The Pope and I wonder “why ?”.
Pet owners walk right by
the unsheltered homeless
on streets where they lie
on cold pavement to pillow their heads.
Then stroll on home
to put the doggy in his doggy bed.
We all see it. The Pope and I wonder “why?”.
Children hunger for safe water, safe schools
and safety from gun play.
No leash on gun violence to save innocent lives.
While redesigned leashes protect thyroids,
keep our dogs safer than our children
who remain threatened by lead water and bullets.
We all see it. The Pope and I wonder “why?”.
Children and teachers drill “Run, hide, fight”
barricading doors, fearing for the day to come
when they will fear for their lives.
Trainers and doggy educators face no such threats.
Do animal shelters run such drills?
Would we permit such atrocities there?
We all see it. The Pope and I wonder “why?.
Pantries struggle to feed the working poor.
Tiny pets sit in purses on shopping trips to buy
shoes and jewels and more and more, always more
including doggy treats, and doggy sweaters, and doggy toys.
If only the needs of children and the poor
were handled with such concern.
We all see it. The pope and I wonder “why?”.
We mean no offense. We question the intention.
We unleash the suggestion there is a reason
we all see it. There is a reason to explore
the millions spent on pets that drives
a breach in social accord
played upon by those who seek to sow more discord.
Perhaps pet owners fill pantry shelves,
schools, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens
with needed goods and volunteer hours.
Perhaps pet owners are teachers and preachers,
nurses and social workers, bankers and barmaids
who offer their services to all in need of them.
Perhaps they, too, are in need.
Perhaps the loneliness engendered
by 5G speed-brokered connection,
and hanging on to a blue planet
speeding to fiery destruction
is soothed by a purring cat, or by stroking a dog’s fur.
Perhaps walking a leashed pet is the only control
they can imagine, the only comfort they can take.
Perhaps a generation splitting apart
heart by heart, takes heart from keeping
one friend, furry or not,
safe and alive,
happy and well.
Perhaps that pet fills their well
with love, repair and loyal care.
Perhaps we should all leash our emotion
and fear, and care for ourselves and one another
as we care for our pets.
Pet owners surely know this better than most.
They already have the skill to love and protect.
Unleash love. Harness loving acts. Save the world.
We all see it. The Pope and I question “why not ?”
Filed under Uncategorized
Filed under Uncategorized
BLOGGERS
Grief is palpable
hearts made of soft wool;
natural,
real,
felted by tears,
made stronger,
tightening bonds
across miles
circumventing the globe.
Likes on the blog
string together the yarns
of hearts attuned.
We touch.
We share.
We still care
enough to like.
Enough to tell each other
You are heard.
You are loved.
You are heart
of my heart.
We are in this
together.
Filed under POETRY, Uncategorized
