Animal flesh is the heaviest, densest food. The highest frequency food is fruit, which is woven light, the sun spun into crystallization as its rays are knitted into nuts, its beams stitched into blueberries.
At a distance the photograph of the bombing
of Gaza portrays only streaks of light.
It is those who are bombed who smell the blood,
hear the screams, and see the panic as dead
children are pulled from the rubble. The victors have bulldozers, tanks, drones, the homes of those they've evicted. The poor have slingshots, but like ancient David they will prevail against this modern
Goliath. It is time for the UN to mediate and enforce a peace treaty.
SHANTISWARUPLAARA
Sanskrit for a human being fashioned of peace
The stars' silent light
winking through the night
Fireflies moving stars
Soundless is their light
as are the best teachers
whose auras without words
grant gifts of insight
Good old Mother Death
For at the ends of our troubles
We can run into her arms
Sleep the endless sleep
And dream of better things
These harlequin masks I've worn for so long
They won't come off of my face
Every day, with different people
A separate reflection looks back at me
I do so many things
That I don't want to do
“Oh be careful little eyes,
Oh be careful little ears”
For what we've experienced
Will never leave us
Why do I want people around me
When all I do is push them away
Why do I build myself up
Only by tearing others down?
Every single note was a song in itself
And every little breath was a melody
And I, a painful ripping squeal
That bellowed from inside of me
Her crimson lips had softly smiled
As she sang angelically
But no more than a dissonant chord
Was the best that I could be
Oh, angel of the nightly song!
How wrapped in you I have become!
How can I go, and sing alone
Shouting like a falling drum
I can't forget your heavenly voice
That pierced the ever-present noise
Through sky and the pervasive smog
To me, whom naught but death employs.
I can't tell where I'm going
Don't know where I've been
But I feel I'm moving quickly
And I guess that's all there is
I've gone round in my head
Side to side within
Reason had too much sense
Foolishness left me behind
Walking to a dirt-road crossroad
Guess I'll say hello
Whiskey from the heavens
Daniels in my veins
Traveling to hell on that southern gothic train
Baptized my humanity in the river
Left my soul with the morning star
Guess I've lost it all
They say that those with nothing left
Have nothing left to lose
Well hell, I'm far past that
With no future, and no past
Don't mess with me, son
Or my face will be your last
Whiskey's long gone now
But the moon's still shining bright
And there's heaven to gain
But hell to pay
The brass is still warm
But I'm cold as the grave
Ashes, oh ashes
What were you before?
The flames came a-knocking
And burned down your door!
While dancing and singing
In raptured ascent
Your memories of life
Have all but been spent!
Ashes, oh ashes
And dusty dust
Were you a vehicle
Given to rust?
Perhaps once an instrument
Known well to sing?
Death gave you beauty
Where is it's sting?
Ashes, oh ashes
You've made such a mess!
You're on everything, everywhere
That you could access!
Had I known that you'd make
This place look like snow
I would not have made you
In this chateaux
Ashes, oh ashes
How you do inspire
Myself yet to build
Another fire
Though I hope that this time
You won't land on my face
Or leave your mark
ALL OVER THE PLACE!
The clock ticks across the waves of time,
I count them, watch them, wishing I could
change the course of time,
Crest, trough. Rise, sink. Tide in. Tide out.
I fell from the cliff into the waters below,
freezing, sinking; the roots I had gone.
All things blurred; salt steeping into wounds,
I'm a relic of an era long gone.
And I can't turn back time.
The storm rages on and I suffocate
in the depths, dark and deep,
dislodged out of time,
days gone. Dimmed.
And I can't turn back time.
A pyre, past lit,
A catalyst to combust or
A path, of possibilities, of
probabilities.
Time consumes, the tide comes.
The fire within, held close and tight,
The only thing to keep warmth,
Stare at the fiery beacon,
and learn to yield the inferno.
Don't let the flame consume you,
Lest it burn you back to the depths,
Don't the fire go out,
Lest time claims you forever.
Mimic the light in the distance,
so far gone and stolen away,
To a place that cannot see backwards,
But still a beacon for pathfinders,
And I'll use time instead.
Burn, contort, shape, and meld
the future to your will, and
blazing into the future is now
all I can do.