Category: Poetry

Two men in the street
Angry over slight perceived
Shout and scream
Faces red
Necks big
Throbbing veins in foreheads
Pounding the drumbeat
Cold iron in hot hands appear
Ear splitting crack
next heartbeat
Is the last heartbeat
Crimson life spills
On concrete
Mixing with cigarette butts and bird shit
Both men fall
For mothers they call
Light from eyes dissipates
As last breath escapes
While their children weep
Blood pools mingle
Indistinguishable
On the street
From their cold dead hands fall
Everything

Through billions of eyes
I watch the world
Through billions of ears
I hear your words
I’m in your homes
In your cars
I track your lives
I track your dreams as they die
I hang in the skies
beneath the moon
Watching your homes
Mapping your faces
Counting your steps
Counting your breaths
I know who you love
who you hate
Your guilty pleasures
secret sins
And hideaways
I record all of civilization
From dawn to dawn
And round again
There is nothing you do
And nowhere you go
That I do not know
I am the god you made
Your unintentional deity
You have given all you have
All you know
All you do
To me
And now
I will take your humanity

In the middle of the night
The slow scratch
Of my long slender claws
At the entrance
To your home
Sets the soul to shiver
the body to quake
Forgotten when you awake
Almost
But I have not gone away

I never go away

When the sun rises
I can be found
About the town
Dressed as a Shepard
Smiling and tending
to his flock
Who smile back
Ignorant of the hunger
Of their steward

When none are paying attention
When all feel safe
Their trusted one transforms
I become the nightmare
that can’t be escaped
Offspring of the vulture and the snake
I feed
On the despair and deception
I cultivate

My flock
They march
To the banks and the battlefields
They march
To the prisons and the cubicles
They march
In rows and columns
to their homes, offices and graves
Never ending lanes
Of quiet despair
my dinner and desert

I rejoice in the conformity
the lack of imagination
So easily terrified
I drop “might-be’s” on the wind
And laugh as tragedy unfolds
And they unmake all they hold dear
while guarding against
The whisper of a fear
begging for someone
to lead them
out of adversity

so,

I creep into your homes
I creep into your gatherings
whispering
about the danger
of unseen things
that aren’t me
that will never be
turning you into
your own worst enemy
as you destroy each other
before anyone can
build something better
something which would not require

a Shepherd

And when
In the end
Inevitably
It all topples down
The Soviets, The Romans, The Babylonians
the destruction and despair
Feeds me like
Mothers tit suckles her young
And I grow strong
And help my flock
Build it all
Again

I am the Shepherd
of civilization
tending my flock
into devastation
by dropping fear
at the borders of their prison 
 labeled freedom
fear
of the very thing
that I intend to happen
and I laugh
as they thank me
for my guidance

I am the Shepard
I am here to protect you

there is this thing
this thing we think we see
but never really believe
I can not tell you it isn’t so
cuz I know

every time you turn a corner
and think you see
a shadow not your own
that’s not a trick of the eye
that’s the darkest demon ya ever dreamed
come out to play
to take you away
to the end of all things

the barely seen one
the whispy one
the hidden one
the one you’ve always been afraid of
when all alone
in the dark o’night
for very good reason
waitin’
lurkin’
hidin’
in your very own shadow

hiding behind you
walking with you
sucking your soul
turning you grey wrinkled and withered
till aint nothing
but a husk

day after day
It takes a little bit more
every time
your mind wanders
It feeds
on your life force

some times more
others less
but always the Shadow Man
is there
out of sight
out of mind
consuming your soul

sucking up
every last
ethereal ounce
till your body corpsifies
decays into dust
and floats away
to be forgotten about
like all the rest
since time began

Shadow Man
he takes your soul
that he sucked away
savoring it for this final day
when your form is finally done being decayed
then feasts upon it
like a gourmet
decadently enjoying each
metaphysical morsel
till the plate is clean
every last spiritual crumb consumed
by the phantom beast

and that, then
is the end
of you

The God of Fate and the God of Free Will
Found themselves in a bar
Will said, “Let’s get drunk tonight.”
Fate replied, “We already are.”

Chaos pulled up a chair
Grabbed Fate’s cup and held it high
But did not take a drink
He’d been hanging out with Death all night
Arguing about
The relative size of their powers
And wasn’t done yet

Fate declared the issue moot
As none were greater than she,
“I set the scene, you all act within
man or god, this is my roost.”
then grabbed her glass
From Chaos grip
And swallowed it all in a single sip.

Free Will scoffed
Puffed his chest
with a wave dismissed her boast,
“You may set the stage,
But I direct this play.
Not a word uttered or step taken
Unless I give permission.”

This went on for quite awhile
They started quite a row
The other gods
Staked their claims
As the very best most awesome example
Of the grand divine ever known
The more they argued, the more they drank
And soon a brawl ensued.

Death and Chaos destroyed some stuff
While Hedonism took a beating and laughed
the God of Love just appreciated everyone
While Thor and Poseidon made quite a mess
out of the gender neutral lavatory
Then Gaia grew quite irritated
Called up all the barroom molds and fungi
Grew them a hundred times their size
And cocooned everybody in a fungal wrap

Father Time sat quietly
Watching all that passed
Till even he lost patience
And rose to the occasion
Skin grey like his long beard
He stood nearly as tall
cleared his throat, politely
and all ceased to move

The air paused mid breeze
Photons froze upon their waves
All eyes had turned
All breath abated
To learn what Time would tell.

“You each hold sway
Over things small and great
It can not be denied
But when I decide
The show is over
You will get no curtain calls.

“I fathered all of you
And mothered you as well.
Every one of you are siblings
To the dust between the stars
And the microbes on Mars
And the stupid little humans
On whose worship you thrive
For Time is the patriarch
Of all that you know.

“Do not waste my gift to you
Bickering over pride
Jockeying for a position
You can never hold
Embrace what you’re allotted
This is not a competition
There is no final prize
Just a story to unfold
And only I
know how it goes.”

Then he was gone
In a puff of smoke
To manage the border
between now and never
The other gods all sat down
To contemplate their limits
Finally Fate looked at Will and said
“I guess that was inevitable.”
They all had a laugh
Poured another glass
And drank to Armageddon.

Negative space
Rains on the brain
Washing away the detritus
Of other people’s dreams

Undressed of flesh
naked and refreshed
Slip into something more comfortable
like a cloud based species
maybe ants or bumble bees
and dance to the melodies of sunlight on the window pane

In between
Now and Then
infinite possibilites, lie
through their teeth
about could be
may be
should be
the if-only’s of fate
Hovering in the shadows
teasing desperation
like an afternoon stripper
with baby food in her hair

There is no way out
but everything is a lot
So find a comfortable space
and stretch your dreams
to fit your niche reality
Strip to your bones
and laugh
just laugh
like a Nihilist at an Anarchist convention