Rev Tiernan ORourke

Rev Tiernan ORourke Jun 2011

one hand

one hand does not know what the other is doing
one hand does not care what the other is doing
one hand makes **** sure the other doesn’t care
one hand has cancer
one hand is bleeding
one hand left a long time ago
one hand got lost in the war
one hand remains
one sick hand
one broken hand is left
to do the work of a thousand

Rev Tiernan ORourke Jun 2011

This World Does Not Hate You Child

The world does not hate you child
You simply were not born to live in it
It is not your home
You were made to dance with stars
Upon galaxies
Through black hole arches
Clothed in the silken dust of constellations
Painting pictures with the brilliant pixels of a hundred million distant suns

Rev Tiernan ORourke Jun 2011

If I or i LOVED or loved YOU or you

If I LOVED YOU, I would change the world for YOU
Yeah, if I LOVED YOU
I would get down on my knees and beg for YOUR acceptance
I would build YOU a temple, and a holy city
I would make the world bow before YOU
Yeah, if I LOVED you
I would rearrange the stars in the heavens
To center around you
I would organize world peace
To keep harm from you
I would harmonize vibrations like Buddha
Write you eloquent poems like Pablo Neruda
I would pound my heart into my sleeve
I would carve it into the mountains
I would sing you a thousand love songs with the voice of the ocean
I would caress you with the embrace of the breeze
I would embrace you with the loving strength of the typhoon
I would make all that is mine yours, but not before I made ALL that is mine
Simply to give it to you
Yeah, I’d do all of this and more
If I loved you
But as it stands
i am fearful
i am meek
i see you and i avert my eyes, not in disinterest, but in fear
Fear of rejection
Because it is not I that LOVES YOU
Or I that LOVES you
Or even I that love you, or YOU
But merely i, nervous, insignificant i
That loves YOU

Rev Tiernan ORourke Jun 2011

As I Sit Here Plagued by Forgetfulness

as i sit here plagued by forgetfulness
i realize that i am happy
i realize that my imagined suffering is a form of denial
that in actuality i do not care
i believe that i am content with my lot
that all i desire is what i am doing at present
that i will in fact realize my greatest desires in life
and that all the hatemongering i have been spoonfed
will also run down the cosmic drain
like so much curdled milk and mildewed honey
and that i will achieve happiness here
in this beautifully stark wooden chair
i will be happy
as soon as the final drops of detritus drip from my nose
and the final watery remainder of my brain matter completes
the Rorschach stain on my shirt
and i can no longer reason or comprehend
i will be happy.

Rev Tiernan ORourke Jun 2011

I know you

I know you
All of you
You the spores
The tendrils
The green shoots of a mighty tree
I know you
The perpetually in-the-back-ground
Those wallflowers
Silent spectators
Standing as character foils to the revolution
The anti-rebels
The sedentary
I know you
The viciously unchanging
I have seen you
I have felt your inert presence
Your supreme lack of influence
Your defining apathy
Your ignominious existence
And your abhorrent sanctimony
Yes, I have been one of you
But I have grown from you
And I hope to, by my mere existence
Prove
That you are not permanent
That something can become of you
Because, as I have said
I was you
But now
I am not.

Rev Tiernan ORourke Jun 2011

Sympathy

I see you there in the corner
Your voice trembling with fear
And I see you there on the pedestal
Your fist raised high in your patriotic fervor
I see you there in the church
Your body tense, in frustration, at the failure of your coin operated god
I see you there in the gutters
Clutching your alcoholic life preserver
I see you there on the battlefield
Leading the forces of Armageddon to victory
And I see you there
In a hospital bed
Old, weak, and impotent
Yes, I see you dying
I see you there, having achieved your ultimate goal
Fulfilling your emptiness
And I see you there
Under the brightly painted jackboots
I see you there lighting righteous fires from your state of perdition
And I see you, unconquerable
In exquisite defiance
As a burning testament to the strength of your revolution
I see you at both ends of the gamut
In strength and weakness
Sickness and health
Oppressed, Oppressor, and free man
And I wonder how I
In my alien skin
Could walk among you
Breathe your air, and bleed your blood
But I know that I cannot
So I watch as I have for ages
Your beautiful drama
And dream of the day you will reach out to me

Rev Tiernan ORourke Jun 2011

Opposed Forces

War
And peace
Love
And hate
There is a great dichotomy that exists here
Funny that the two should be able to exist simultaneously
In such a small area
Also kind of funny
That we fully embrace opposites
As brothers
For what is war?
But Peace’s ugly brother?
And what is Hate?
But that which gives meaning to Love?
How can we know light?
Except by that which saves us from Dark?
How can we know Health?
Without having Sickness lurking over our shoulders?
Safety is nothing
Without Fear
And all that we know to be GOOD
Only exists because it is defined by the BAD
And that to which we know no opposite
We take for granted.
Look at the air
The air is thankless
Because we do not know vacuum
So maybe
Only those that have felt the tendrils of suffocation
Are thankful for each breath
Just like only those who have starved
Are the only ones thankful for each bit of food
And just as the starving hate the glutton
So do the sick silently hate the well
And as we the sick slowly waste
We watch the well in their ignorant euphoria
And dream of a day
With the sound of flutes
And drums
When we will complete our wasting
And become nothing
And maybe
In nothingness
Be free
And healthy