Abyss

 

Double Crested Cormorant by Audubon

a cormorant settles
the swell of my chest
lunar tides ebb and flow
beneath rice paper skin
its blue disc of an eye
tracks anonymous prey
lurking somewhere
within fleshy oceans
vague shadows that dart
near the surface elicit
its quarter note calls
before plunging its beak
into tumbledown tissues
diving the chasm where
once beat a heart at the
precipice gone now to
swallowing depths out
of sight sunk in endless
black swirls ever down
into bottomless madness

 

 

From my books Bohemian Scents and Legacies (vol. 1)

 

The Little Pastor

 

“The Three Metamorphoses” by Werner Horvath

 

(Regarding Friedrich Nietzsche)

 

nihilist superman
angry at the timid
derived the moralities
of master and slave
virtue personalized
making each man a
godself unchurched
disabused of all limits
imposed by humanity
sheer will to power
revered as the life-force
that animates nature
perspectivist intellect
smashed all divine and
mundane objectivity
burying thinkers from
Plato to Kant with
a soil that celebrates
relative subjective man
in a state of vainglory
incarnate all leading
directly to why this
iconoclast died in the
mesmer of madness

 

 

From my books Bohemian Scents and Legacies (vol. 1)

Non Compos Mentis

“Lost Identity” by Henning Kles

 

edges of madness

disfigure identity

cut by cruel cut

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Private Demons

“The Demon Flying” by Mikhail Vrubel

the drumbeat that no one hears
rumbles over and under electrified skin
raising follicles up into tiny volcanoes
bristling with vibrating hairs
that prickle the sulphurous air
apprehensive antennae
pointlessly searching for danger abroad
unaware that it swims underneath
airless membranes of reason
submerged in cold currents
of viscous mucosa
irrational medium nourishing growth
of bi-ovular twins
paranoia and manic delusion
stalking even before legs develop
gripping without any hands
vital organs of shadows with slithering tails
and reptilian wings
who slip inside walls to only emerge
when doctors and nurses
retreat from the room
with their keys

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Twilight

 

“Wetland Twilight Abstract” by Philip Johnson

 

 

madness cohabits
dim crepuscular hours
with unquiet genius

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Loose Hinges

 

Untitled – by Mark Rothko

 

 

 

climbing the afternoon

hand over hand

on arthritic rungs

pausing for sips

from a dry canteen

no relief for old men

escaping from cobwebs

masked with teeth-baring

grins to fool the spiders

sure what was lost

must be somewhere

above the evening

but under the sly

trapdoor moon

 

 

(originally posted June 2013)

Abyss

Double Crested Cormorant by Audubon

 

a cormorant settles
the swell of my chest
lunar tides ebb and flow
beneath rice paper skin
its blue disc of an eye
tracks anonymous prey
lurking somewhere
within fleshy oceans
vague shadows that dart
near the surface elicit
its quarter note calls
before plunging its beak
into tumbledown tissues
diving the chasm where
once beat a heart at the
precipice gone now to
swallowing depths out
of sight sunk in endless
black swirls ever down
into bottomless madness

The Little Pastor

“Friedrich Nietzsche – The Three Metamorphoses” by Werner Horvath

 

(Regarding Friedrich Nietzsche)

nihilist superman
angry at the timid
derived the moralities
of master and slave
virtue personalized
making each man a
godself unchurched
disabused of all limits
imposed by humanity
sheer will to power
revered as the life-force
that animates nature
perspectivist intellect
smashed all divine and
mundane objectivity
burying thinkers from
Plato to Kant with
a soil that celebrates
relative subjective man
in a state of vainglory
incarnate all leading
directly to why this
iconoclast died in the
mesmer of madness

Psychotica

“Progress and Psychosis” by J Ethan Hopper

 

let’s dance
on the shoddy parquet
that maddening marquetry
inlaid by angry fingers
resurfacing
prefrontal cortex
for violent release
of uncontrolled impulse
devolving the limbic
paleomammalian
instinctive self

let’s dance
to the devil’s own beat
that maddening metronome
urged on by angry fingers
disarranging
chords of compunction
for vicious release
of unrestrained mayhem
subverting the conscience
morality pissed upon
flushed to the sewers

I don’t care
why we dance
broken brains or sheer badness
who gives a rat’s ass
just so long as they
lock us both up
and then melt down the keys
into molten revenge
or burnt reckoning
either way putting us
where we belong

Madness

“Ghost of Madness” by Miki de Goodaboom

the inmates are outmates

escaped the asylum

with campaigns of keys

smuggled in by a

mindless electorate

straightjackets pinstriped

and pleated respectably

demagogues rattling bones

of dead dogmas that

echo with craven canards

a most artless display

of insanity normalized

raised to a level of influence

bound to derange

a democracy founded on

rational principles