house on fire

flames appear
out of somewhere
in one minute
a licking flash and burst
into a small inferno
in two minutes
the ceiling catches fire
everything in the room
is burning
engulfed by fire
in four minutes
most of the house
is flaming
small explosions
fill every space
in six minutes
within that obstinate crackle
horror and conflagration
the entire structure
engulfed by fiery destruction
flames shooting
out of shattered windows
broken by small explosions
blaze fueled by tinder
and scattered ammunition
rupturing the gates of hell
in six and a half minutes
a gutted woman
bursts out
tumbling out
of her front door
in the next
instant
she runs back in
broken people gathering
in the token street
yelling for her
to please come out
another fifteen seconds
the woman emerges
falling down
those steep front stairs
crumpling to the ground
sobbing and hysterical
this is her home
in eight minutes
the two story house
is completely afire
that poor woman panicking
surely others manic
clearly neighbours
maniacal yelling
gathering onlookers
calling for someone
who is lost somewhere
in the burning building
another four minutes
the doomed house
is totally consumed
with rising flames
with raging fire
in thirteen minutes
the first police car
arrives with lights flashing
another two minutes
somewhere in the distance
a fire truck is screaming
rumbling towards the blaze
in fifteen minutes
after that first uncompromising flame
the first stomping fire truck
arriving to this tragic scene
clomping firemen are slow
pulling their limp hoses
like fumbling puppets
on crisscrossed strings
another stumbling minute
creeping crawling by
tangled time stops
universally still flying by
finally a gurgle and a trickle
water down a twisted garden hose
spraying from the first
thumping fire truck pump
the house is lost
someone inside
choked by smoke
fire wins again
consumed within those walls
someone burned
now dead
what could have been
should a forgotten candle
become a misbegotten wind
instead this crying disaster
those dreadful seconds
amount to lacking moments
precious raging minutes
apprising this catastrophic count
endless reckless inferno time
with its crazy feckless lustre
fire with its explosive bluster
infernus with its shocking crime

                 * * *

 

Haiku Monday

there are chairs in hell
but nobody sits on them
cushions aren't allowed

             * * * 

Nirvana loves soul
while heaven worries for as
thus this falling snow

            * * * 

God fed us diamonds
prayers did not relieve us
we spewed toxic waste

            * * *

 

we try so hard
trying to reach the top
sometimes on guard
wanting to turn around or stop
so many difficult years
trying to climb the tallest peak
if only we could be prophets or seers
knowing what it is we truly seek
sometimes we stumble and fall
there are those times
when we can't even speak
those trying times
we don't know anything at all
a few of us those lucky ones
learn to fly and seldom stall
so many lives
both daughters and sons
are blinded and confused
by some tragic pall
if God could see us now
standing here alone
if the world could be
honest with us somehow
running in circles
trying to find a home
wishing we could be perfect
those times we don't
pick up the phone
to hear what that other
person has to say
those moments
they come and go
we wonder if success and love
could ever stay
but the world
is so big and scary
so often our hearts
want to wander and stray
and if we think
we've reached the top
we could still go blind
we could still fall and flop
such is life
I heard someone once say
and we all eventually know
love cuts like a knife
we all eventually see
that hard times and love
changes our lives
sometimes we bleed
sometimes we fail
other times
we get what we need
if we can only survive
somehow continue to prevail
but reaching the highest peak
is really just a hope and a dream
real life is so often
too hard and too bleak
once we think
we've achieved something
we too often discover
life and success isn't what it seems
sweet honey turns bitter
true love is a dream

                 * * *

 

rage draws red lines
across fields of old snow
all those staged insistent signs
new blood spills freely
nobody really knows truth
as far as truth and propaganda go
everything is uncouth calamity
so with this late winter storm
bombs and death raining down
a low front with a morbid stench
frozen dead men are splayed
along with insolence in ragged trenches
exposed corpses displayed like stoic mosaics
torn and reposed in bitter tank tracks
forlorn as far as anything could know
everything is stark insanity
dark Orcs commanded to not think
ordered to attack and perform
hope and honour long dead now
only butchery and hate remains
so the hateful story always goes
these distasteful frigid times
of incorrigible destruction and incessant war
those despots making plans and more
guardedly perched in some far-off luxury spa
ensconced in some covert gold leaf mansion
drinking American whiskey and Russian vodka
quaffing heads off glasses full of zealous froth
crazed and polluted by war crimes and torture
drunk on barrels of ice cold Guinness draft
so much political need and monetary greed
so much for peace or rightful forfeiture
this war thought and heartless creed
deemed as military craft
while guts and blood
leave red hues on frozen fields
rearranged brains splattered
chewed up in shattered woods
blinded innocence and murder
litter torn up villages and city streets
so now survival is mere existence
how can hope weather another tragic winter storm
when there is no peace or compromise
now armed resistance is the crippled norm
how can forgiveness and hope ever rise
all those echoing cries from hapless dead
all these acerbic horrid bits and acidic acrid ashes
left by artful war's destructive stead

                          * * *

 

in the end
darkness won
stars and suns
exploded in a violent fury
creation disintegrated
everything and everyone
into a mix of River Styx slurry
black holes consumed themselves
heaven related and relented
into that hellish well
no high or low sound
any and all screams and yells
profundity relinquishing profound
silenced in that final violence
everything had been released from hell
so much for solace and insolence
even too those hell hounds fell
losing all their shameful bite and howl
lest there be less
even more horrid somehow
accompanying this tragic mess
all surrender was lost
taking all in all
with that abhorrent din
forever and always
wasted in that violent fall
forever and eternity
was finally done
all creation was lost
along with infinity
what a catastrophic cost
neither care or sense
was done and done
no less it was not perfunctory
for darkness was truly first and last
God was sucked in
as emptiness was the final cast
into that destroyed void
both future and past
were unemployed
so darkness
in the very end
had finally resolved
virtually all invention and creation
yet not by conclusive invitation
nor recompense or constitution
in the definitive end
disengaging institution and absolution
everything was gone
in the ultimate end
ignorant darkness finally won
totality was done and done

                   * * *

 

when God comes
to pluck out our eyes
when God comes
to cut out our tongues
when God comes
to puncture our eardrums
when God comes
to tear out our hearts
when God comes
to tell us how wrong we've been
we will see
in a certain light
we will speak
knowing soul is right
we will hear
lightning in the sky
we will love
since heart and soul provide

               * * *

 

those profiteers
those prophets
those profitless
numbers in equations
those things I recall
some of those
I wish weren't true
I don't like those thoughts
thinking Sylvia is dead
why can't beauty remain forever
or are memories
meant to make us cry
all those things
making us wonder why
those profiteers
those prophets
those profitless
making history
mysteries mixed with complex
gathering wheels and round things
things that spin and turn
completing creation's cyclic vortex
this current circle
spinning fervent memories
we always return
fire and water
those prayers
the sum of things
such a profit
smoke and mist
amen and amen
so the prophets say
those profiteers
profitless
what would they say
memories of wealth
all those numbers
prospective health
all those prophets
what to do
hold fire in our souls
hold water in our lives
sacred profit
such a joyful kind
with love
renewing our hearts
filling our minds

            * * *

 

so the sun fell
that burning orb
into some deep well
where blazing love
burned itself to hell
somewhere high above
beyond the far horizon
fire threatened peace
killing every peaceful dove
so the moon flew away
weeping tears about lost love
love just couldn't stay
another gigantic earthquake
giving peace a primal shove
so when the primeval sun
refused to rise and shine
with the impassioned moon
flying off to some distant
sacred realm and time
cruel hate stopped
the world from turning
impartial fate
resolved that love
couldn't replace or halt
our human hearts from yearning
cruel hate had resolved to stay
scorn with its impartial well of darkness
stopped the loveless sun from burning

                       * * *

 

I don't want to go to Mars
I wouldn't see bronze turkeys
or herds of wild deer there
Mars would be no Sunday picnic
no vast forests or deep seas
no air or water there
no birds trilling in the air
Mars ain't no beatnik spot
not a soulful poet
or musician singing
about our human cares
about this earthly lot
Mars doesn't have amphibians
it's void of plants and horny toads
no life giving plants or oceans
nor fragrant chants or flowers
no winding roads to follow
not even gleaming diamonds
or the draw and weight of placer gold
Mars is barren and very sad
far off Mars is old
nothing there will ever be glad
happenstance with all that dry rocky red
whatever atmosphere Mars once had
because of something God once said
it's simply gone forever
a story which can never be reversed
dry red Mars is ultimately marked
stark by irreversible voids
things on sad vacant Mars
must be worse than coarse
Mars is ultimately lonely
life on Mars would be oh so bad
I don't want to fly off to Mars
I'll stay here on supreme mother earth
this refined vibrant planet
a divine place of lasting life and birth
sacred earth our one and only home
the only fruitful garden we earthlings
have ever cultivated or gladly known

                       * * *

 

the last time
I saw your smile
that last time
I kissed your lips
the last time
we said goodbye
sadness filled my heart
that last time
I touched your hand
it seems forever
from where I stand
with that great distance
between us now
I can't help but know
eternal sadness
as it fills my broken heart
as it overwhelms
my lonely wounded soul

             * * * 

 

so we are prisoners
that life has built
chained to our miseries
all that pain we have felt
when there is no hope
when we don't feel love
when we don't know
how to be happy or cope
when the blazing stars fall down
from the brilliant sky above
so we are monsters
love and hurt has created
wearing masks of darkness
realizing our earthly fate
when sadness grips us
by the bloody throat
when feelings drag us
so far down
we can't see light
through all the dark
I can't help but wonder
about those seeds
desperation has sown
if we were angels
if goodness and love
filled our hearts
perhaps this life
would be a happy dream
instead of all these nightmares
that tear us apart
if we weren't prisoners
of our own making
if we could see the light
if it were only love
we were taking
along the road
of this difficult journey
perhaps we'd always see
what was right
perhaps eternal good
would accompany us
soar with us
on this eternal flight
that day we fall down and die
when our souls have departed
when friends and lovers
have said their final goodbye
that moment of mortal death
when we finally see
all the love and light
finally break our prison chains
shake this earthly pain off  
find ourselves rising up
where we find hope
and truly fly

             * * *

 

those pills
in my hand
each one
some lost dream
that whiskey bottle
empty on the night stand
that straight razor
clutched in my fist
just another carpe diem item
on my disillusioned list
some trill sound
deafening my soul
some free bird
flying free
soaring high above
all this broken bleeding ground
flying free
just letting go

           * * * 

 

these two thumbs
my father's long universal thumb
on the controversial right hand of God
my mother's irreversible thumb
bound to that majestic left hand of God
attached to this garden of Eden
one playing one side
of this earthly sacred drum
one drumming and strumming
across the continental other side
singing about what is to come
plucking out some parable
somewhere between rhymes and verse
lofty heaven and sacred earth
balanced between each universe
irreverent death and reverent birth
balancing incarnations it seems
creation with this consequential art
making an existent world go round
half of my blessed father
a restless male charter
half my divine mother
creation's sacred female part
so we are celestial and enabled
that one providential thumb
hitch-hiking
across the vast universe
that other one
bitching and liking
tell-tale recitations
crossing both my arms
reciting harmonic songs and verse
placing my two hands
upon this sacred table
clasped and praying
pin points of my being
lyrics that are strong and able
sometimes lost and unstable
cowering beneath this human family table
these two towering thumbs
on these two powerful hands
reaching out for truth and love
thoughtfully creating and thinking
about the sentient world below
always prayerful and preaching
about a covenant of worlds above

                     * * *

 

those ghosts
I see
haunting me
digging up
all my buried sorrow
I'm crying in the night
something deep inside
writhes inside me
eating and chewing away
at my problematic soul
continually telling me
it's normal and okay
to be depressed and sad
but it's not vanity or okay
that I'm always alone
some moaning spectre
whispers about the morrow
wailing over troubles in my mind
something truly terrifying
always horrifying me
that menacing knife
grasped in my trembling hand
constantly carving away
I don't want to know how deep
I regret what I might find to say
slicing through my memories and dreams
nightmares taint my being
while I'm dreaming and sleeping
nightmare ghosts taunting me
wanting me to go
just what I'm thinking
like I'm still alive
just what I'm seeing
into some unseen realm
those capricious torrid things
I see and most often feel
those horrid phantoms
that seem all too real
stealing away hope and love
I wish and want to feel
tearing at my hopeless soul
searing pain pealing away
life's passion with its sacred seal
if I were okay
all those rakish ghosts
if I were whole
would never say
my sorrowful failure is real
all those spectres and phantoms
from night to night
I'd somehow hold at bay
from day to each new day
good thoughts and dreams
would come and stay
all that costly wonder
wouldn't let me flounder
trouble wouldn't follow me
wanting to see me
fall and blunder

             * * *

 

I stared at the sun
and the sun burned a hole
through my wounded soul
I watched the moon
and the moon stole
all the love I had held
in my bleeding heart
I felt myself surrender
as love disappeared
I lost myself
haunted by all life's drama
my itinerant phone rang
but I would not answer
since that pathetic device
had ruined my pitiful life
I closed my eyes
letting sorrow
carry me away
I swam to the centre
of a fathomless ocean
reflecting on drowning myself
along with all my failures
I found myself guilty
because of my own soul's sake
I dug a pitiless grave
wanting to bury myself
beneath all my grief
I turned myself over
in that deep grave
thinking I'd rather die
before I wake

             * * *

 

line of sight
this view
our vision
to each
their own
light drizzle
darkly light
spectral division
one eye
on the prize
one eye
we see
we realize
things differently
no wonder
we're hard
to understand
what words
seem right
comprise this view
individual sight
to each
what is truly right
we reach out
within our own
towards some light
wanting to finally get home
wanting to find what is right

                * * *

 

life's relative fusion
a timeless reflection
some cognitive holy grail
filled with fright and confusion
an energetic connection
to go left or right
turn at this inner intersection
somewhere between soul and sun
a soulful inclusive correlation
another earthly mortal fission
that next enlightening selection
life's grounding atomic division
splitting the round world
revised between splintered production
what exactly did God envision
with that thought of portal reproduction
enter divisive nuclear destruction
reminding us of Godly introduction

                    * * *

 

that starlit night
marauding bears came
to chew on truth and apples
stealing away lives and offensive fruit
everything dangling from weeping trees
all I could do was cower and wait
hope humanity might somehow survive
that cold deep river washing over us
unrepentant leviathans kept prowling
reaching far into that retentive darkness
pulling down incentive fear and quivering branches
all those ogres striving to corrupt and devour
the night's dark ripe fruit
that dark shivering night
hungry too a succubus arrived
striving to captivate and encapsulate
all our tangled mortal souls
all I could do was wait and pray
all I could utter or even think to say
let destruction pass over this place
all I could manage to hope for
that demons would go blind and never stay
so many rigid and gruesome nightmares
as the angel of death flew by
wanting to steal souls and lives away
all I could do was shut my startled eyes
try to keep out that surreal dangerous dream
total surrender wrapped in my trembling hand
as demons of death came near to deliver
haunting moments of misery and sadness
now the worst of the worst is about to come
what could we do but consent to demon gladness
deep in our fragile souls we seem to be struck dumb
as the night turns even sadder and darker
deepened by evil's destruction and deplorable sum

                                  * * *

 

here is
conundrum
what dream
are we in
what version
every which way
diversion
some worm
crawling
tunneling through
our lives
one variant
then
consent and nonsense
perhaps
another incident
this dream
what isn't
it seems
one
conversion
admittedly then
revision
another intention
above us
outer space
below that atmosphere
mother earth
the human race
which face
will you
maybe today
naturally wear
perhaps tomorrow
might not
be there
no matter
how high
we fly
to soar
and try
how deep
we tunnel
and burrow
so much sorrow
one version
immersed
in violence
egged on
clerical derision
arms and legs
flailing
thought and mind
in every direction
ultimately failing
to clamber
out
of this present
shell
disentanglement
another conversion
of heaven
instead of hell
insertion
a power well
deep
in mother earth
mysticism
for what
it's worth
this other
direction
where compassion
sometimes dwells
this other
passion
invention
in another
replicating
penultimate convention

             * * *

 

body
what body wants
so hard to ignore
breathe
what the heart does
what the mind absorbs
strange
dreamers and thinkers
physical brain range
rhythm
like a slow comfortable
some tingling rhyme in life
lordy
sparkling eyes and shining locks
just how your body looks
ego
just another inner vision
luminaries and just me pleasers
statement
so we're all body rated
such an anatomic fate
segments
these digits and extensions
catalytic parts that drive us insane
all those astronomic moments
self-image
mirrored beauty in a painting
regal and so purely staged
aging
every year we're changing
but justly stated
it's body rearranging
stead
words asking for more
heartfelt prayers might help
amens incited in our heads
swallow
much love and light
this imagined hallowed body
radiating our emotional plight
body
those rugged parts
that give us life
body
those precious parts
that seem so right
body
this maternal state we're in
those material parts we unjustly hate

                       * * *

 

when we're so broken
we don't find legs to stand on
our shattered lives
those crazy things we used to dwell on
my broken heart
all those mistakes life plays upon
if I could change anything
I'd change the way we were
if I could have anything
I'd let love be a precious cure
when you fell
I tried to carry you home
when you cried
I didn't want to leave you alone
even though the sun shines
even though our hearts beat
I remain so broken
all my mistakes I never want to repeat
even though you said you loved me
my mixed-up mind would not let me be with you
even though you said you cared
I dwelt on things that were untrue
all this pain we feel
all those sweet kisses we have missed
why can't I ever see
know the things that bring us bliss
if the stars stopped shining
if the sun suddenly went out
where would love be then
would love know what it was all about
but I'm blind and dumb
my heart is the sum of all those things
when we fall apart
should love still know how to sing
or will we always cry
when love suddenly disappears
leaving us in that painful dark
all our love and all our fears
love with its impassioned truth
leaves us broken for years and years
if we weren't so broken
if love could save us
all those tender words we've spoken
would mend our broken lives and hearts
but love couldn't find a way to save us
all this love that's broken
all those harsh words love has spoken
when all we really want is love
when words don't cut it or make it true
what could we think
what should we do

                          * * *