angel grace

like a psychedelic memory
a raw electric experiment
a junk dream
her life approaches grace
as if it were the vivid silhouette
of a dazzling half-drunk angel
she can’t quite catch
an absurd shimmering miasma
lost in inner space

Silenced Whispers

I.

Riding westward rails,
government sharpshooters
slaughter fields of collapsing bison,
an undulating agony
that quietly sinks
into putrid piles
abuzz with flies.

They are opening a path to the future!
Building a brave new world.

Westward Ho!
Westward Ho!

Little regard falls to the lives this land-lust fouled.

Indigenous people
dance a sustaining give-and-take
with the earth.

Balance.

US policy fractionates land, and disregards people.
This is what my history books never told me.

II.

Today.
A stand of bouldered cliffs
whispers near the Dearborn River
when the air is cold enough
to lift its voice up
from the depths of its creviced nests.

It murmurs of murders
and beasts riding beasts
iron across rock
shooting and falling
sighing a message of massacres
when the freeze frees the stories it speaks.

The Dearborn’s solid surface
reflects clouds rolling past.
Crows call out from fence posts,
as the cliffs mark history’s march
toward tomorrows through this day.

A shot rings out,
and a rock chuck falls
from the face of the cliffs
silencing the whispers.

Modern sharpshooters hoot and howl
as they run toward the rock chuck’s carcass.
One of them lifts it high above his wool-capped head
spitting tobacco and cursing commendations
in his common tongue.

begetting now

I.

George Washington Carver said
“Anything will give up its secrets
if you love it enough.”

Receptive awareness
measures experience.

Mindtalk screams.

Judgements here--
Judgements there-
Passing judgements everywhere!

II.

Tighten, clench.
Listen to your voices tie you in knots.

Loosen, relax.
Attend to the physical aspect of breath.

All-helpful quiet fills.

Receptive awareness
measures experience.

now begets now begets now begets now

May all beings be happy. May all beings be blessed.

“Anything will give up its secrets
if you love it enough.”

Villanelle against Divisiveness

Divisive agendas inhibit discussion.
Psssst! Spread the idea: public schools are “government” schools.
Uncover the world, teach children to cut a critical path through public discourse.

Free-thinkers belittle evangelists sermonize.
Right-winged agenda undermines the radical Left.
Divisive agendas inhibit discussion.

Obama encourages the setting of educational goals.
Schools provide places for students to “opt out” of presidential addresses.
Uncover the world, teach children to cut a critical path through public discourse.

Threats of governmental abdication of parental control over children
mask fears that children, when allowed to think critically, draw conclusions of their own.
Divisive agendas inhibit discussion.

Children become policy makers, teachers, lawyers, and priests.
Plotting a course in any arena requires an in-depth analysis of the big picture.
Uncover the world, teach children to cut a critical path through public discourse.

Agree or disagree, but let the children listen to their nation’s president
Teach them to consider the message he sends with discernment.
Divisive agendas inhibit discussion.
Uncover the world, teach children to cut a critical path through public discourse.