Day Old Bread Philosophy

back into dream
coma mulch
fertilizer of god-sprout
mass-subconscious
uprising to be
caretaker, gravedigger
afterlifer
as ephemeral nourishment
born of glyph
desultory tales
chaotically feverish
splendidly ebullient
the divinic cycle
the ecstatic system
the seraphic spiral
around and around
gods boil, evaporate
condense
water anew
never ending
as long as
man is dreaming
steady
mold growing
colonizing necessarily
as population outsizes
devouring the spoiled
no longer edible
bred beyond benefits
except for nightmares
and here are the devils
joining the circle
hand in hand
twirling, spinning
let’s rock, let’s go
kumbaya my lord
kumbay-motherfucking-ya!

Pious Silence

Fear’s rank perfume spewed up
geyser-like from the Fed
nearing the anniversary
of the great Twin Tower Terror
the U.S. government
inflamed the trembling cowardice
of its citizenry
broadcasting a toxic combo
of paranoia, fear, hatred
stoking distrust of the other
warning of the stakes of the war
an ever-expanding endless struggle
between us and them
west and east
on the television
a small congregation of Christians
hear the reverend’s final “Amen”
and as they leave
he cautions them
to “please be careful going home”
to be quiet about their gathering
to keep their faith hidden
and then the brave protestants
creep out the cellar door
dispersing into the settling gloom
as we’re told
the terrorists
want to change America
what if… they ask
America wasn’t America
this is the foul seed
fallen from the sickly Bush
finding purchase in the fetid soil
of the paranoid patriot psyche
sprouting, blooming
producing poisonous berries
greedily consumed
by the nation’s most gullible
most timorous, most cretinous
what they saw
when they saw that propaganda
was what the propagandists
wanted them to see
evil Muslims
persecuting brave Christians
whereas what I saw
when I saw that steaming heap
of AD Council fertilizer
was, Yes!
Why not!
Shut the fuck up about
your stupid god damn religion
all of you
Muslim, Christian, Catholic, Mormon
Buddhist, Taoist, Jew
just keep it the fuck to yourself
Yes! Hide it!
hide it under a bushel
shove it up your ass
fuck off with it in a big
burning ball of towering destruction
Yes!
that commercial spoke truth
please,
for all of our sakes
all the religious
Sh!
take off your cross
tear down your cathedrals
bulldoze your holy shrines
and once and for all
just fucking… SHUSH!

The Five

Five appeared atop the hill
cubes with skin
like glistening white fish
seen in shallow waters
bodies rippling in dappled light
through the boughs of the holy trees
that grew there high
south of the city
in each of the five mysteries
was a blackened archway
of such darkness
sight skittered across
unable to obtain purchase
like children’s hands
upon the greased piglet
that opens celebratory
breeding days in spring
into one such arched door
a slave was sent
passing into pitch
and the entrance
grew over
a thin membrane
quickly thickening
and then soon no more
evidence of its existence remained
into another a warrior went
armed and armored
into another a warrior went
empty-handed and skyclad
into the fourth
a virgin woman
new to her blood
and lastly an elder
wise, mother of nine
grandmother of thirty-two
great grandmother of a hundred twenty
great-great
to over five hundred
in she went and as the others
no egress
no attacks could breach
no scar upon it or any
neither crease nor dimple
simply smooth silvery flesh
and seasons passed
and the haunted cells remained
unweathered, unchanging, calm
vines grew not up their sides
birds shit not upon them
hounds did not dare piss
then one day
six moons after
the great comets third run
before the dawn
they did vanish
and to the city gates
which in their days did not exist
came the slave, the warriors,
the virgin and the matron
and the city opened to them
it opened to the legends
to the ghosts, the gods
who they all knew
and to whom
for so long
they fervently prayed
never straying
in their devotion
their ultimate belief
that one day
they would return
to rule
and that is just what they did
each of the five
with his and her own rules
own laws, own methods and customs
own favors and miracles
and thus divided
they turned to conquest
each in their own direction
the religion of the Slave
was devout obedience
of the Armed Warrior
bloodshed
of the Virgin
self-denial and austerity
of the Naked Warrior
deception
of the Matron
fruitful multiplication
these became the five ways of the city
became the five ways of the world
an uneasy wary acceptance
existed between the five
an unspoken truce
to accept their differences
and live with them
but with no more to conquer
the world run out
they turned to each other
and questioned
the value of their peace
of their cooperative alliance
and all agreed on one last thing
to end it

Even Their Gods are Stolen

now it’s all white people
walking the flat pavement
piling into cafés and gastropubs
garbing in vintage apparel shops
places we used to call thrift stores
junk dealers, salvage
but not too long ago
it was middle-aged Latino men
stained white t-shirts
pulled above their bulging brown guts
they’d rub the protuberance
spit on the cracked, uneven sidewalk
drink from the can concealed
inside the black plastic bag
and then there were their daughters
an army of skinny teenaged girls
bellies full and round
pushing a baby in a stroller
that would soon hold two
and waddling three paces back
would be their spherical mothers
grown fat on bleached wheat flour
as if spectres from the future
haunting their lithe, nubile daughters
warning of the shape of things to come
but all that
that was a decade ago
now it’s all…
well, I guess I already told you
what it’s all now
yoga studios and acupuncturists
ain’t a damn thing
white people won’t appropriate for themselves

Jesuit Date Night

In his treatise
On Somnambulatory Copulation Strategies
Saint Thomas Aquinas suggested
to, in the sleepwalker’s path,
lay a coin
and he who stoops to acquire
is not a man of the Lord
rendering unto Caesar
and thus as worthy
a good bit of torpid buggery
as any secular ass
however, a second suggestion
was laid out for when
slumber-bug might be found
staggering off from bed
on either an early or late Friday
to simply dab upon prick’s end
a dab of fish glue
and thereon stick
a morsel of pork
and if when waved below
slumberous pedestrian’s nose
their mouth doth water
and hungrily yawn
then jam all in, thrust content
until thou art jolly
and thy load is spent

For clear reasons
one might guess
from the flock these teachings were deemed
in dire need of remaining concealed
as much as all God’s glory
is considered a must to be revealed
this was one of the cases
where it was assumed the masses
would find questionable
the theological issue
and veritably, too much to swallow
amongst, however, the clergy high
in close regard to this day
is the seminal work held

Accuracy

God is a wicked excuse and a wanton explanation
imbeciles thus contented
who favor validation of belief
over historical accuracy
prefer for their behavior
an easy answer
opposed to honest examination
hold in their wretched hands
dangerous antisocial power
for either you reject lies
embrace evidence
or wallow in filthy deception
cloaked in a cowards camouflage

Those discontented
who favor fact-based truths
over subjectively soothing stories
prefer experimental results
rather than personal assertions and anecdotes
hold in their whispered hands
the delicate breath of society
built on reality
prone to precarious shifts
upon the progression of learned ways
for either you accept truth
dismiss conjecture
or flounder in ideals wasted

Damn Aliens

A bit confusing but not entirely inexplicable
look upon it religiously if you like
kind of a day of judgment
resurrection of the dead thing
or see the situation as it is
the monomaniacal pursuit
of a ferociously advanced alien species
determined to absolutely
never ever
in no damn way allow
any single experienced mind to wisp into nothingness
time and space are no obstacles
and when that’s the case, shit gets hard to grasp
so, like, say you died in 1994
it’s then that their dusters swept up your soul
unless you had Alzheimer’s or dementia
or a brain damage of a physical nature
in which case they collect your consciousness
before its onset or occurrence
everyone’s immortal – it seems simple
except you died in 1994
they harvested your head in…
well, a year so far out, man
it’s a meaningless number t
hey came back for you, for your brain
end result
you don’t exist for billions of years
but to you it’s continuous
although you know it’s not
because on their far away planet
they hadn’t evolved until…
again, way in the future from where you were
and furthermore, once developed, their technology
which allowed them to get to 1994 in the first place
also allowed them to shunt their technology back
back to the beginning, therefore,
now, please focus
you’ve always been
even while you once were
living that natural life of yours
with Mom and Dad, cousins and grandparents
but since you existed before all that
and since you failed to exist for eons
is it you? really you? or a trick?
for example
you’re reading this now
you have yet to be dead
but there’s another you
present since just after the big bang
that’s what they say anyway
here – somewhere – right now
kept going in their alien soul cage
and since it already was you
it doesn’t give much of a shit about you
they won’t explain the physics of this
usually an inquiry provokes a shrug
a dismissive wave of the hand
and a curt, “Bah!”
thus even the most scientific oriented
must accept it with a Kierkegaardian leap of faith
making even immortality
an unbearable mystery
filled to the brim with idiots
pointing to a lack knowledge
an absence of information
and shrieking their ever-living afterlife heads off
about God
fucking depressing that is

Message in a Bottle

Universalize your actions
imagine all
behaving, acting
doing as you do
I think this was Kant
how he perceived
a moral world ought to be measured
you are the yardstick
that’s right
you
you miserly asshole
you self-obsessed cunt
you hateful fuck
you can’t justify
you just keep on keeping on
watching Fox News
listening to Rush radio
shopping at Wal-Mart
eating fast food
wearing sweat shop shoes
donning white hoods
voting Republican
ignoring facts
shitting and pissing and belching and bitching
what a world you’re making
thanks, thanks a lot
I thank you
my son thanks you
future generations thank you
for to them
your selfish heartlessness today
is a message in a bottle
a clear moral choice
and a lesson in reasonable justice
to crush and kill your kind on sight

Accountability, None

mysterious ways are bullshit

honest work is done openly
subject to criticism
reasons must be given
for the methods used

without regulations and oversight
there can be no trust
what faith can be had
for undertakings performed in secrecy

when there is failure and malfunction
we demand an explanation

people don’t put up with this behavior
from their public officials
from police, plumbers
or even from the damn waiter
so why in the fuck
would they put up with this garbage
from their God?

Sophisticated Theology

It is the wont of God
to not do things
He is completely capable of doing.

Theologically, this problem,
or if you prefer
language less loaded,
this issue,
concerns wickedness.

Specifically,
God’s unwillingness to halt it.

To explain this,
free will has been developed.

If there’s evil,
then it’s caused by the will of men.

God refuses to interfere.

This is sophisticated theological reasoning.

God is reduced to an impotent braggart,
like a child
who taunts petulantly,
and says,
“I can do that, but I don’t want to.”