Wane

What old men love
depletes
as expansiveness contracts
the boundaries of their life
their time
like a receding tide or hairline
leaving exposed anemones or liver spots
to bake in the sunshine of neglect
dry-out, scorch, peal and flake
like a high desert lake bed
all hope burrowed deep
clock ticking
on an increasingly futile wait
for a diminishing return
all that is left
is hard and bitter
their only passions
are distrust
prophesying doom
sowing the fear
a lifetime given
to collect wisdom
trashed
in favor of harboring lies
nurturing falsehoods
milking assumptions
the old men scoff and sneer
consumed by passing years
the old men snort and jeer
wrapped up within their fears
others, younger
younger others
passing the gluttering fluorescence
they do not understand

…

When did I make it
out of the day before yesterday
missing my chance at a dream
to live in a world without me?

Sinners Roasting on an Open Fire

The white Christ comes
birthed on a solstice night
under churning nuclear fire
guiding the mages three
born in a cave
born in a stable
the tale is fluid
sometimes time stops
sometimes not
or a skeptic’s hand
bursts into flame
flesh melting in glops
onto the ground
crying in anguish
for being so stupid
as to doubt
the mother’s hymen integrity
a message
from a burning bush of another kind
God punishes inquiry
despises investigation
it’s an oft repeated lesson
free will gets you punished
hell, free will is why any of this is necessary
a savior
redeeming all the sinners
who given the choice
choose wrongly
and must be disciplined
unless they accept this baby Lord
as divine, as the key to the Kingdom
but choose that wrong
and your chestnuts roast on an open fire

I Wish I Was in Deutschland

I go 20%
not to exceed a dollar a drink
tonight at three-fifty per
take 35 cents
times 2
70 cents or a buck forty
every two
in this way I am quite particular
so I go
a dollar tip the first
50 cents the second
and alternate like that
from there on
exceeding 20 percent
by just a little dime
this I deem adequate
it isn’t noteworthy
tipping this way
certainly I’m gaining
no special service
but obviously
I’m just looking to get by
do right by the bartender
without killing my wallet
through gratuitous philanthropy
after all, in Germany
I’ve been
they don’t tip at the bar
In Germany
businesses have this practice
quite foreign to America
of paying their workers
a wage they can get by living on
without having to rely on the charity
of those they serve
I wish it were that way here
I doubt it ever will be
I’m a realist and a drunk and old
I’ll leave changing the system
to sober young idealists

Curse of Liberty

Liberty is a curse
when the corporation is a person
granted all the rights of man

a man

for the corporation is not female
it never needs worry
about contraception, pregnancy and abortion
and the corporation is not just any man
for the corporation is not black
it never needs worry
about racial hatred, prejudice and discrimination
the corporation is not homosexual
it never needs worry
about inequality, bullying and suicide
the corporation is not poor
it never needs worry
about healthcare, housing and finding its next meal
the corporation is a straight, white, wealthy human male
and when it serves its agenda
the corporation believes in God, country and family
it believes in the inerrant, eternal truth of the Bible,
when the passage suits it,
but when chapter and verse run counter
to maximizing profit
and the shareholders’ needs
then those parts can be forgotten
for the corporation
is not going to clothe the naked
care after the sick
or visit the imprisoned
for the corporation is those things
it is a prison
it is sickness
it is humanity stripped bare of its humanity
prick it and it does not bleed
tickle it and there is no laughter
poison it and it lives still
but wrong it
and see it wail, lament and roar
see it plead and demand
see it named a person
see it reap its revenge
see it lay the curse of liberty upon our land

Vote G.O.P.

What could explain
a political party defined
by their condemnation of the needy?

When their membership chastises the poor and homeless
for a failure of banks
and a housing market collapse;
When the party adherents
blame women for rape
and non-whites for welfare;
When these Republican cunts
praise the corporation
and shit on regulation;
How is it
that many of those most effected by their policies
defend them the most?

What cynical game do they play casting an unarmed black teen as villain
and George Zimmerman,
armed neighborhood vigilante, the hero?

Is it all an act this:
their descent into paranoia, conspiracy,
biblical literacy?

Do they play the long con:
an extended telling, retelling and re-retelling
of the Big Lie?

A pyramid inverted
the narrow 1% at the tip, making the base
(and how the Grand Old Party loves their elite base
as George W. once said, “Some people call you the elite;
I call you my base.”)
those noble “job creators”
who by their decent hardworking nature
support the heavy burden of all the laboring class leeches
the public sector mooches,
teetering overhead, ready to fall

How long can power maintain deception
by deliberate obfuscation and sleight of hand?

Nothing up my sleeve
if you’ll look here…
ignore the offshore bank accounts
the wealth hording
and avaricious short-sighted depletion of natural resources
ignore that and looksie over here…
Oh No! It’s –
MINORITIES!!!11!
They’re stealing from hard workers;
taking government handouts…

Why should they eat when they own phones and televisions?

And don’t forget about the gays,
the abortions, the atheists…

Will you stand by and allow
all these liberals to mock God’s law?

Answer me that,
God-fearing man.

Remember BENGHAZI!!!11!
Vote for the GOP
Take a stand for anti-humanitarian humanity
Vote GOP!!!

Visionary Fall-Out

Insularity of vision
foments ignorance
volcanic upheavals of arrogance
it is a pressure cooker
a hundred atmospheres compressing the blood
the weight of the world wobbling on their shoulders
venting impotent puffs of angry steam
with their eyes shut tight
they grope blindly in the dark
always finding they stumble
into the willful wilds of the mind of God
from this savage Eden
condemnations thunder
perfect storm clouds of perfect hate
a rain of driven nails
stabbing hard from Heaven’s heart their enemies to the cross
against this terror of sightlessness
an umbrella is needed
a shield of education, world travel
broad and wide access
to the viewpoints and minds of a million others
opens the pro-social roads
closed to anti-social conservative thought
the vile ideology of individuality
that keeps brother from helping brother
and sets sister against sister
in a selfish pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps world
compassion is anathema
the drowning man should be let to drown
the weak, infirm and crippled crushed
by the strong, healthy and able
and which you are, happen to be,
all depends on the time and the breaks
the wise, wide and open know this
the others – the blinkered, narrow and shut
pay the architects of their oppression
get caught in the fall-out of their own beliefs
left there, radioactive, to suffer
they turn to the enemy, begging
specially pleading
how despite the need for a hand out
they are not one of the mooches, the parasites, the takers
of all the people
they deserve assistance
after all, they’ve given so much themselves

A Satan’s Work is Never Done

When I see one
diligently hunched over it
highlighting, underlining
making scribbles in the margins
a hundred stick-it notes
fanning out like a turkey’s tail
to mark special pages
I feel unsettled
a small gnawing fear
for being too near to this madness
the fervent biblical mania
to me
resembles nothing short of demonic possession
an impression, to be sure
as ambivalent as a chocolate cracker
but what else
aside from neurology
could explain a man
hands clasped in prayer, thanking Jesus
for the Tommy’s chili-cheeseburger
he is dead set to ingest
nothing but Satanic influence, surely
seeing what vile shit a man might be served
and still thank the Lord
why, that’s precisely the prescription to boost God’s confidence
and isn’t that the true purpose
of what Satan’s all about anyway
an ego-boosting Divine fluffer
always there to show
that guys like Job
love Him for who He is
and not the gifts He gives
that’s probably why
when I see one of these Bible nuts
I feel the urgent need to flee
that’s Satan’s handiwork
and it’s not that he’s being a bad guy
he’s only trying to keep God’s feelings from getting hurt
by having one of those contemptible atheists
so near to one of his staunchly devoted servants
you see, God’s simply not good at defending Himself
He’s emotionally fragile
and it takes just one non-believer
to totally make Him lose His shit,
blast America’s gulf coast with a hurricane,
and run off to pout for another 2,000 years
“If that’s how you guys feel
then maybe I’ll never come back…
Thpfft!”

The Blame

When the walls disintegrate
and the ceiling falls in
when the knees begin to bleed
and miles remain to crawl
when all is raw disillusionment
and the wounds refuse to heal
that’s when life truly begins
and what a crime it is
how many people have never lived
their home, their health, their job
tidy and secure
in isolation
ears stuffed up with cotton and string
steering blindly clear of reality
crashing headlong into scapegoats

They are people
who must be given their problems
troubles granted to them by the brave loud howlers
of TV news, radio and net

Consumed by the first world concerns
of welfare fraud and gun control
of high tax rates and wars abroad
driven mad by it
they spit, curse, sneer and scream
their lips are crusted in white sputum rage
their eyes strain from the sockets like dogs
at the furthest reach of the leash
one day their faces will be volcanoes
blow molten blood
straight into the face of the fascist opposition

They are brought to fits by their comfort
luxuries unimaginable half a century ago
deliver them to misery

Reclined right there in the easy chair
the cause of their grief and failures
is put before them
slipped out of the television
like a plateful of meat into a tiger cage
the blame lies with those
who have come to the time
when life truly begins
when the knees disintegrate
and the miles fall in
when all is a raw crawl
and disillusionment refuses to bleed

Hidden Life

You don’t want to be larger than life
constantly conspicuous, looming over it
casting long shadows over others
like some monstrous hell-bent ogre
the key is to not be seen
to get smaller than life
to hide from it in the shadows of others
skitter along the wall skirting
slip into holes unseen
creep out of sight
like a thief all in black
latch onto life’s underbelly like a flea
out of reach of paw and claw
supping what you will
where you will

Insinuate yourself invisibly into every crack and corner
poured in like mortar between the bricks
but indistinguishable from the wall
building higher and higher
until you are hidden high above it
no face and every face
and all those who can’t see you
do not know
their labors are yours
to your benefit, in your honor
they piss their lives away
in a vast deluge tribute to you
of a million wasted days
spent humble in cheap suits
on knees before God
in aimless serial marriages
and you are too small to see
ensconced so deep within the machine
you are the machine
but even if they could see it
it wouldn’t matter
you’d still be safe because they believe
it was supposed to be