As the world heats up the institutional glaciers are melting
Revealing the boulders that were trapped in the flow
Erratic stones that can be chiseled away and made into art
Monuments to mankind’s ability to make progress
Humanity (choose your own adventure)
Can we reach our better side
bringing hard work to new visions
or are we only fight or flight?
Thoughts and prayers sent up the flue
papering over our divisions
all the hate we thought was through
We are made of contradiction
making peace is part of us
but fighting wars is our tradition
We are conflicted, we are still one
a little hope would be a plus
it seems so long ere the day is done
We can act with malice and spite
or press forgiveness to our hearts
fighting upwards to the light
Isolation in a divided nation
our brains are made for social smarts
stewing in our own frustration
All alone in our four walls
will our future be secure
drifting sadly through drafty halls
Turn to the very last page
willful pique or mindless cure
will it be peace or curdled rage?
“Listen Up” (COVID-19)
Listen to your heart
Your friends and family are hurting.
Listen to the keeper of your soul
Up there is love worth courting.
Wounded (She Doesn’t Read My Poems)
My wife doesn’t read my poems
Unless I write on light, airy, happy things
I really don’t blame her
She was there in the dark times
And watched me live through them
She doesn’t enjoy watching
Me rip open old wounds
To see if the maggots
Are still lingering inside
She doesn’t know
The names of my demons
But she knows their sounds-
A scream out from my sleep
She knows how they feel-
As I alternate between clawing at her
And pushing her out of bed
To get her down
Below the line of fire
Another soldier to save
From the deadly battlefield
She knows the demon’s shape and smell-
I’m suddenly upright at 3AM
Stagnant and salty in my cold sweat
I dreamt again of the day I stood up tall
Atop the armored vehicle
To prove that it was safe
To get everyone to stop firing
To try and get a grip on
Indiscipline driven by fear
Exposing myself yet again
Because someone needed
To calm the panic
Of overactive imaginations
And that task fell to me
Because it was my responsibility
To assess the risks
And to get the job done
Sometimes in my dream
The sniper IS still there
And I’m wrong in my assessment
So I don’t walk away
After standing up
To get everyone’s attention
Instead of being in charge
Of evacuating the wounded
In this dream, I’m on the ground
At the Casualty Collection Point
And Doc Turner is trying
To get the bleeding stopped
As the demons circle round me
I hate being wrong
And not being in control
Then suddenly I’m bolted awake
Sitting upright in a cold sweat
And I can feel the maggots
Crawling around under my skin
And I’m never completely sure
If this means the wounds are rotten
Or if this is medicinal-
The eating away of dead flesh
So that only living remains.
Philosophy More than Poetry
This is not a poem to glorify war
Though it may seem that way
To those who do not know
What we know
(Oh, what we know!)
This is not a poem to praise America
Though it celebrates an idea
That once was
And can be again
(Liberty Enlightening the World!)
This is not a poem to castigate anyone
Though it may burn
And stick in the craw
Of many who read it
(Ruminant fiber for our system!)
This is a poem about the lethargy of excess
And the revolution it spawns
In the belly of the hungry
Because inequality breeds contempt
(Desperate people doing desperate things!)
This is a poem asking people to wake up
And understand what is happening
As binary politics and policies
Rip us apart as a people
(Divided electorates are divided and conquered)
This is a notice that we are in a psychological war
For the soul of what it means
To be a People, United
Americans
(The City on a Hill!)
We the people have been sold
As an offering
Fattened Cattle
On the altar of prosperity
(Lambs to the slaughter!)
In our national capital and statehouses
They gerrymander away
Our Freedom, our Voice, our Future
For profit and power
(Litigious society in chains!)
On the newsroom floor they package infotainment
Having nothing to do with keeping the people informed
Better to keep them enflamed
So that money keeps pouring in
(Ignorance makes the chains feel lighter!)
On their “smart phones”, the people play games
Content in complete ignorance
Watching gladiators in the arena
As Rome burns around them
(The Republic becomes an Empire)
Barbarians at the gate, look on in approval
As the empire consumes itself
Rome’s “Crisis of the Third Century”
Alive and well today
(Where is Marcus Aurelius, our philosopher? Vegetius our reformer?)
Army marching victoriously to battle to battle
Winning with great violence
Unchallenged at sea or in air
Yet losing war after war
(Strategy that can’t survive an election cycle is no strategy at all!)
Trapped by Thucidydes against all comers
Active foreign policy everywhere
Stretched beyond our means
Undermined by friend and foe
(The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must!)
And so it comes full circle back to We the People,
Who revel in our ignorance
And allow our politicians to poison us with bad policy
Putrid meat flavored to tastes like honey
(Buying up our favor with scraps of cake)
Unless we awaken from our slumber
And take back our birthright
First will come the Revolution
Then the Thermidor
(Our vanity a bonfire, Liberty Enlightening the World)