Pointless

 

US Soldiers near Afghanistan-Pakistan border

 

 

we chose the far field
the dun sands of scorpions
we scattered their venom
to stealth scarps of asylum
now they watch our retreat

 

(originally posted January 2014)

Skin

 

“Between Existences” by Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

 

 

mindless droning
repetitive tasks
keep us busy
without being busy
enough conscious
to sleep open-eyed
on the ragged thin
edge of existence
where love and hate
cut themselves
just to remind us
how good they
could feel if
we just put some
skin in the game

 

(originally posted January 2014)

Unnerved

“Moonlight Coming Through Window” by Oiiou

eerie moonswept shapes
chilling fearful sensations
unremembered dreams

Cold Harvest c. 1930

“Ice House” by Harry Gottlieb

brick by brick
block by block
silver surfaces
yield to assault
by saw blades
and chisels
ponds stolen
in pieces
contraband
cash crop
for poachers
alert for the
cock-snap
a landowner
shotgun might
crack in the
echoing chill

Post-Election

 

“The Argument” by Henry Lee Summer

 

this winter air burns

frigid flames scald the lungs

of the angriest minds

opposition arraigned

by the militant rasp of

each dogmatic breath

harshly hatefully haled

deep and dangerous

down inside lobes

starved for something

more rational something

more healthy more healing

than thermal malignance

created by rampant

intemperate conflict

of fire and ice

Sparks

 

Light Painting by Simon Berger

 

 

reaching backward
through sparks of
umbilical memory
seeking the source
of disturbances
plaguing the peace
of an age-advanced mind

reaching backward
through sparks of
confounding cosmology
seeking the source
of continuum
time curving space
in philosopher minds

reaching backward
through sparks of
progenitive affection
seeking the source
of sweet sentiment
free from the harsh
cold mechanical mind

reaching backward
through sparks of
enlightened epiphany
seeking the source
of the godhead faith
that nourishes
famished indigent minds

 

(originally posted January 2014)

Peace Through Strength

“Courage Bolstering Strength” by Carolyn Asha Young

resolute posture
gunbarrel cold to the touch
strong voice of silence

The Time Before Pain

 

“Dumb Pain” by Alexei Jawlensky

 

 

the time before pain
when fingers of birds
groped the poisonous skies
when fish walked on legs
from the fiery seas
I was man with a roar
in his thunderclap chest
a leviathan skeleton
smashing down mountains
in powerful moments
exquisite of truth

the time before pain
when the brain was
uncivilized stone
bleached by victories
tearing uprooting
huge primeval trees
used as clubs to beat
earthquakes on
cooled molten ground
sending signals creation
had proved quite sublime

the time before pain
oh so brutal and lovely
removed now by eons
too far to revivify
leaving me modern
but broken by hands
with seductive new
powers of mayhem
elite among healers
and murderers deaf to
my screams in the night

 

(originally posted January 2014)

 

Tammany

 

“Tammany Hall Ring” by Thomas Nast

 

 

belching bosses made
meals of the public’s own trust
ward heelers harangued
till good citizens buckled
their rigs to the hurtling train

 

(originally posted January 2014)

Peign

 

“Pain” Japanese Watercolor – Artist Unknown

can I kill it
deprive it
of power
by stealing
its name
a dead center
corruption
by altering
letters
a homely
deception
intent on
denying its
infamous rule
over jargon
of morbid
pathology
pray tell
what choice
do I have
but to try
given all else
resulting in
chronic cascade
of unbearable
failures