and now the ocean
seems a little deeper
you died
and the world
seems bleaker
I can't hide
my tears
remembering
all those years
when my father
put his hand
on my shoulder
and said
"my son"
now that he is gone
it's only memories
that I can hold dear
it's those memories of you
that I see in my mind
feel in my heart
so very clear
so very clear

           * * * 

 

difficult years
back in the 1930's
world depression
those dirty 30's
so many political fears
bowls of dust
stealing away hope
streams of sad tears
migrating
climate change
more encroaching desert
2021
this approaching decade
reproachable political fraud
a dust bowl
so many eerie fears
1936
bold Hitler
that third reich
inciting old violence
that bold clenched fist
evening into night
world pressure
that nazi seizure
a moonlight reasoning
brown and blue shirts
a fascist tryst
those deranged years
changing gears
invoking
a storm of critical change
update
2021
odd peachy keen
add viral toppings  
severe pandemic fears
bringing out the dead
standup improv
morgues and morals
improv victim storage
taking it to the streets
cool and the gang
avenues of refrigeration
all those covid dead
winter in frigid January
2021
hoar frost
winter horror fest
Nero is fiddling
playing with himself
from what they've said
plucking
cat gut strings
tweeting gutting verbs
poetic Rome is burning
terror pact
riot impact
legal stead
regal plots
ignite signal fires
giving Blotto matches
he'll surely light towering infernos
flaming publican spires
mucking up atmosphere
sucking up oxygen
if the sky doesn't suddenly turn to fire
while the fetching sun still comes up
maybe
we'll survive
suffer this historic weather
endure all this overwhelming
bitching
enriched memories from 2020
grief and disbelief
stitching us up
still there are heroes
those superhuman
reaching out
singing angels
saving lives
compassion
help us
we're learning
yearning still
there are dark days ahead
tragic storms
we must navigate
turbulent waters
we must overcome
this ripping tide
arrest difficulties
lest brimstone and fire consume us
weather this present norm
so tempests don't drown us
whether people isolate
or swept away
continuance
we prisoners
at times flailing
like bawling cattle
hurried into perilous canyons
segregating biology
abandoning the world
ecology decimated
struggling we toil
where nightmares abound
roiling maelstroms
we are fearful
shackled
bound and confined
we seem to be awake
but everyone is tired
emotionally recoiling
everyone is struggling
environmentally sick
repressed and beaten
covid-19
a harsh depressing stick
pandemic paintings
tainting every political insurrection
more tug and thug insurgence
what quality of life
harangued by covid-19's emergence
another month long quarantine
another unforeseen quantity
death ahead
while the qualitative world blinks
quoting quantitative viral re-emergence
tread carefully
caught up by mutation
swept away in this respondent sea
head just above water
gulping injustice and chartered air
on the careless threshold
of reckless battles
feckless digital war
jungle drums pounding
mustering subjugated arms
denial passed into sweaty hands
commending angry insurgents
fingers and digits
firmly on buttons and triggers
guns emerging
automatic violence
we the violated
vacillating
vaccinating
vindicated communities
still
this corona virus
mocks us
still talking
mocking politics
haunting us
media directors
still balking
unhinged dictators
taunt us
solar events
sunrise to sunset
after the dark sets in
recording astronomical history
during the dirty 30's
blistered people
were borderline and yearning
most times definably hurting
existence
refined dust bowl life
repellent chaos and striking mystery
like appellant resistance
sightless balancing
on a keen edged knife
authority's commissary
dialects of public misery

 

  

                 * * *

 

now
that Christmas
has come
and gone
we raised a glass
or two
perhaps some sang
a Christmas song
watched a Christmas star
prophesy
divinity streaking along
by and by
cosmic brilliance
venerated
in the December sky
transilience
wintry January
icy temptress
a cold bleak month
concurrent
on its feisty march
with blowing snow
drifts piling higher
than cathedral spires
hoary old Jack Frost
trimming an icy world
glinting frosty crystal scenes
Christmas pudding dreams
these ruddy post Christmas days
dawning mostly bluer
if not whiter
finally
it seems
on our New Year way
forward and snowy
stay bundled
statuesque and knee deep
trundling toward wicked March
one can't help but daydream
imagine a spring theme
bowers of scented pink
wafting sweet perfume
fluttering cherry blossoms
a glorious annual scene
what a cherished season
beyond winter snowdrifts
renewable gifts
from goddess spring
utterly charmed
watch and wonder
ponder trying
sometimes alarmed
this winter thing
ice and blizzard cold
blustery and crystalline
mustering this January sheen
some deep human meaning
so many frigid caveman scenes
dreamy icicle arrays
frozen functional things
winter's February play
stray moon beams
shifting playful light
lighter February days
stay brave
old man winter
carving snowy lines
February valentines
migrating right
into March shamrocks
a sacred flight
into blessed April
those sweet scented things
punctually it seems
eventually
time brings
to mind
those treasured things
we remember
all those joyful Christmas songs
now that December
has come and gone

  

              * * *

 

my marriage
like my life
lost
somewhere
out in the wilderness
some days
we would stand together
staring into the pit of hell
other days
we were dying of thirst
lost together
in some parched empty desert
when grievous night came
I tended fire
while you slept
safe in your cave
when you woke
you attentively watched me
set fire to tenuous love
together
we watched resistant love
writhe and burn
together
we saw
our insistent dreams
go up
in rustic smoke
and mystic flames
together
we crashed
we burned
together
we shoved love
out the cave door
together
we powdered charcoal
blackening our arms and faces
one by one
we left
ashen hand prints
artistic depth
displayed on our cave wall
framing historic decorum
fingerprinting our souls
along philanderer love's emotional mall
stretching
we reached out
extensions towards the furthest stars
but came up light years short
landing on the dark side
of the passionate moon
beyond the emancipated stars
our fanciful dreams
like a creeping nebula
uttered words
scattered sentences
remarkable
that strange place
lost together with the human race
searching for relentless love
in endless reckless outer space

 

                    * * * 

 

in Hadrian's garden
dinner theatre
music with feasting
dessert by the metre
orgies without pardon
gatherings of warriors
some murderers at least
lounging in silk
on gay robes
relaxing on satin pillows
all those key garden flowers
blooms sweetly scented
and those official fellows
maids and maidens
earthly beauty
so heartily entranced
bountifully enhanced
long tresses
all that golden
flowing hair
floating there
on Hadrian's spring-fed pond
dappled with sunlight
bright and emboldened
molded by ancient time
sculpted marble
fountains with Venus busts
a lot of gussied fuss
cascading ripples
sweeping o'er polished rock
arousing Aphrodite
her swollen nipples
standing shafts of spray
midst rushing applause
while the Empress
expressly pisses
her gold and ivory sink
such splendor and creative spillage
expressions of splashage
dripping down
streams of wet
colourful mosaic
segments of mirrors
displaying every privileged sense
hence the modern world
centuries of much has changed
since old Hadrian's time
we're recreationally enhanced
artificially perchance
the weekend games
Sundays and Saturdays
every Emperor's
republican fame
and those fabulous gardens
something more prosaic
opulence still remains
but Emperors
are queer folk
shear elegance
lusty profane intention
but it's more reason than rhyme
in this current season
of digital treason and insanity
digitizing humanity
every rich man's familiar scheme
seems more like a pillar of shame
since this modern world
a simply artificial game
where corruptible plastic
becomes commercial
no Rasta or Jehovah name
still this public domain
hanging revered gardens
anticipating Babylon
more dinner theatre
some historic fame

              * * *

 

you are so stoic
like the deep sea
i wonder
if you cried
when your beloved
dog died
those novel oceans
of saints and fables
those voracious megalodons
such unstable prophecies
oceanic dreams
but prophetic you
are an insatiable river
flowing your statutory way
gravity articulating
every dangerous curve
carving perilous canyons
every mysterious earthly path
relying on mature existence
layers of geologic resistance
does future
God weep
as Pacific volcanoes erupt
consuming pacified earth
sea islands growing
molten lava glowing
creative stoic tears
like emotional glacier life
conflicted after birth
i remember commotion
on that day
when I found you
washed up
dashed and reticulated
breathing but barely alive
chronic on that cold stony beach
every consummate tide
a high storied deluge
flooding our lives
sometimes joy
perhaps salvation and refuge
but then there are tears
washing over contused souls
crashing on that last day
finally lovers
when the sun rose
titillating a rosy hint
on lofty peaks
and I saw you
a silhouette
perfect and naked
standing still and wet
yet without shoes
so quietly barefoot
as the tide changes
we walk together
talking quietly together
our quavering imprints
guivering footprints
on the glowing sand
we slowly danced
undressed
casting long shadows
beyond twilight
beckoned at last
by the partial moon
before marshal midnight
I threw you
back into
the waiting ocean
where everything
verily is strange
percolating
being
the ocean brings
is deep
and oft estranged
those things driven
by the enlivened sea
with every tide
the sun is given
so silent reality
surfs stoic life
real ideals
high truth in balance
wandering and blundering
together
on this cosmic ride

           * * *