Shadow Box

Shadow Box 10/28/2014

You can hear the murmurs in the crowd

And you if are quiet

You can hear the muffled voices

And whispered anger.

Look back at the glass

And see the others looking in

Kept at bay

Through fear and threat.

What price is the truth

That people live in fear

And what is the cost

Of looking the other way. 

Its hard to be happy

When there is so much sadness

Everywhere you look

Starvation, pestilences and neglect.

Words are not enough

But it is all I have

So I spit them out

Awkward, jagged

And painful. 

Every effort is painful

As the world grinds to a halt

Slowly turning over

One half cold

And the other on fire. 

No matter how hard we try

Evil hides

And grows in the shadows

Spreading on invisible wings

Like a germ in a sneeze.  

I wish there was a way

That I could turn back the clock

To know more earlier

And change the future past.

But no man living

Can do that

And we are trapped by a life

Folded neatly into time. 

My dreams have not come true

And I sit in my chair

Alone in a tower

There is no safety

And there is no peace

Not without love

And not without God. 

Save me from me

And help me to remember

That I am loved 

Even here 

And even now.    

Victorian

Lathe and Plaster 10/27/2014

Today I am wordless

As my mind leaps

From place to place

Random, disjointed

Fearful and sad.

I am guarded

And I am alone

Untouchable in my chair

High above the street.

I can’t go back

And I can’t make it right

No matter what I wish

Or how hard I try.

It’s not enough

But it’s all I can offer  

An invisible promise

Suspended in air. 

There are many things

That I have dreamed

Some impossible

But others

I do not know. 

None of it, dies easily

And all of it hurts

Yes, even the good times

Unappreciated, and unfinished.

If I could

I would go back

And absorb every detail

Because memory

Only scratches the surface.

I want to crawl through

The attic tunnel

And follow it

All around the eaves.

I want to tear off the wood

Behind the fireplace

Uncovering the passage

That my father

Had forbidden. 

I want to climb the roof

And sit on a lawn chair

Watching the sunrise

Pink, red, and orange. 

Something, anything

Meaningful and authentic

Physically alive

And spiritually aware.

There is so much more

Than this day will show

As we keep our peace

And sigh in our sleep. 

We carve our names

But never return

Wasting away

And picking at our scabs.   

The past is like a haunted house

Like the one I grew up in

Viewed through a foggy lens

A beautiful and secretive ruin.    

The silent dead

Have no voice

And the silent living

Have no choice.

Half alive

And half asleep

Half understood

Mild, meek and dumb.    

Drop Box

Drop Box 10/23/2014 

A drop in the bucket

And the another day down the road

Packed like sardines in a can

Smelly, dumb, and dead. 

I tried and I tried

But it never changed a thing

As every action and reaction

Becomes predictable and old. 

Everything we love

Is watered down

A little more each day

As each shop is shuttered

And every custom forgotten.

The world goes on

Long after it should have stopped

But all because we have done nothing

It just slows to a crawl. 

You could see it all coming

From a million miles away

But still we swim downstream

On our way to the slaughter.

Warm in our office

High above the street

Manipulating numbers

And regurgitating ideas. 

Force fed down our throat

Since we were young

And now we

Vomit them back up

Into the mouths of the young. 

So what have they learned

Walking down the street

Easy prey for a reality

Of burning hatred. 

Innocent and pure

They have done know wrong

And yet we fill with them with falsehoods

That were never true at all. 

Shout it loud

And never take it back

That he who stands lives

And he who runs

Never lived at all.  

 

Clay meet iron

And flesh meet steel

One and a half over

But still,  plenty more to go. 

Turbulence

Turbulence 10/22/2014

Close your eyes and be still

Long enough

To notice, think, and feel

And then you can hear the echoes

Of other lives, yet unfulfilled.

Moaning over loss

And staggering cruelty

Unwritten and unremembered

A thousand years or more. 

There are always other things

Than what we wish were true

As the dirt in our eyes

Stings even more

When we wash it out. 

What we have seen, is nothing

Compared to what is coming

And whoa to them

That refuse to accept 

Obvious truth.  

Today we live through

The same day again

Just like yesterday

And the day before.

But the outcome

Remains changeable

Depending on what we do

And how we react.

We can weave through it

Unencumbered and easy

Swimming in the mainstream

Unimpeded by obstacles

Or Turbulence.

Or we can go uphill

Against the current

Wrestling with reality

And all that it entails.   

It is a hard thing

To keep on trying

Flinging ourselves upwards

Bloodied, bruised, and exhausted.

But try we must

Lest we float with the deadwood

And smash

Against the rocks. 

What is easy, is a trap

And what is acceptable, a snare

As we pour ourselves out

For nothing at all. 

Now is the time

To try something different

To turn the tables upside down 

To see the other side.    

When we open our eyes

The game is reset

And we live on, until it changes

Either for good

Or for bad. 

We could go down

Or we could go up

But he who discerns the truth

Resolute and unashamed

Shall live forever.  

Resonance

Spherical  10/21/2014

We swallow our days

Without taste

And we search for answers

Without vision. 

Nothing but a spinning cylinder

Inside a ball

Living on friction

And wasted energy.

The needle swings

From side to side

At first a little

And then a lot.

Tension builds up

For the longest time

Only to explode outward

In a sea of blood.

It was all built to fail

As all bubbles

Are destined to burst

Exploding in the void

And dropping us

In the drink. 

The levees fail

And the dam crumbles

Releasing the deep

To wash us away. 

Unrecognizable is the street

And unremembered is the past

As it is all covered over

In foot of mud. 

Mold grows

And wood rots

As pestilence spreads

In a thousand directions. 

But this is no surprise

As it has happened before

Long since covered up

And denied

Again and again. 

Listen to the hoof beats

And feel the heat

Coming through the door

As the fire burns

Out of control. 

The pin is pulled

And everything falls down

As men become as beasts

In a spasm of chaos.    

The stars spin in space

And the night sky

Swirls with ghosts

As we turn over

And open our eyes.