Category Archives: poems & short jabs

form the wagons into a circle

Form the Wagons Into a Circle

There are
patterns.


There is
method
to madness.


There are
secret chambers
in the
heart where
everything
is done
with an
abacus.


There are
three dimensions
of physical
reality that
keep us
from seeing
beyond.


All dimensions
beyond are
degrees
of awareness.


Sensing that
someone is
hiding behind
the door
with a
butcher knife
is not
awareness,
it’s a
function of
physicality.


What we
call awareness
is physicality
at war
with itself.


We’re lumps
of physicality
being jerked
around by
space &
time.


That’s
why we
invented
God,
gave him
a virgin
mother &
a working
stiff father.


But just
you wait
& see.


On judgement
day all
this dimension
business
will come
to a
screeching halt.


On judgement
day we’ll
rise up
fully intact
& stay
that way
forever in
heaven where
space &
time don’t
exist.


Old age
& decrepitude
& death
won’t exist.


Don’t believe
everything you
read in
the papers.


Don’t believe
your own
eyes.


All this
fourth
dimension
stuff was
cooked up
by scientists.


& now
they’re
trying to
tell us
there
are more
dimensions
still,
maybe ten
of them
maybe a
hundred.


Enough
is enough.


Form the
wagons
into a
circle.

Leave a Comment

Filed under poems & short jabs

life is chancy

Life Is Chancy

Life is
a porcupine.


Life is
a skunk.


Life is
a barracuda
& a
coral snake.


Life is
a landmine
& a
steel trap.


Life is
a declaration
of war
under a
high-flying
flag.


Life is
chancy.


The same
quill that
pens great
novels signs
death warrants.


The perfume
on your
dresser comes
from the
skunk
in your
crawl space.


The barracuda
mounted on
Hemingway’s
wall with
the hook
still in
its mouth
watched thru
glass eyes
as he
blew his
brains out.


The legless
beggar on
a heat
vent in
Seattle was
a hero
until he
stepped on
the mine.


The fox
chewed his
leg off
to be
free of
the trap.


The hunter,
consumed by
the bitterness
of failure,
beat his
son &
broke his
bones.


The bones
healed &
the son
went off
to the
next oil-
driven war
& massacred
women &
children who’d
lived their
whole lives
in poverty
making nice
things
for us
to wear.


Right,
what about
the coral
snake?


Such a
tiny thing
of bright
segmented colors,
lying still
in the
hot sand.


When it
strikes it
puts a
quick end
to everything.


It lives
in the
mind, the
sum total
of our
terror that
we bury
deep with
false hope.

Leave a Comment

Filed under poems & short jabs

last resort

Last Resort

I waver
in &
out of
value systems
I used
to hold
dear.


They grown
fainter
with each
passing year.


I’d better
do something
quick, what
with winter
coming on.


Maybe organize
a few
Saturday night
penny-ante
poker games.

Leave a Comment

Filed under poems & short jabs

lightning rod disaster

Lightning Rod Disaster

It was
almost dark
& he
stepped off
the curb
into the
crosswalk
right in
front of
my van.


I saw
him in
time &
slammed on
the brakes.


He stood
there in
the middle
of the
road glaring
at me,
his hands
in fists
on his
hips, a
lightning
rod for
disaster.

Leave a Comment

Filed under poems & short jabs

suffering turns into song

Suffering Turns Into Song

I know
about the
offsprings
of consciousness,
about past
histories
& future
histories —
all life
is history.


Of course
this will
never fly
as a
master’s
thesis except
in the
School of
Hard Knocks.


The rest
of you
can sit
back &
eat your
free lunch.


There is
a pain
threshold
once you
cross it
suffering
turns
into song.

Leave a Comment

Filed under poems & short jabs

dead dream

Dead Dream

I had
a dream
that I
was dead.


When after
two weeks
I didn’t
wake up
I began
to suspect
it wasn’t
a dream.


I wondered
if I’d
been cremated.

Leave a Comment

Filed under poems & short jabs