Lori Jones McCaffery

Lori Jones McCaffery Feb 3

Worrier

I’m trying so hard to maintain the flame
But my candle continues to flicker.
I’ve shielded it from the heaviest winds
But the breezes of sameness assail it.
I can’t see my way if it goes out completely
With darkness now poised to swoop in.
ljm

Health problems that cause depression.

Lori Jones McCaffery Jan 26

SEED

A mustard seed
Is a mountain I can’t climb.
My faith can’t move
A single grain of sand.
ljm

The smallest of all seeds yet big bushes grow from them

Lori Jones McCaffery Jan 26

ATTIRE

You wear a cloak of gentle beauty
To hide the spiteful evilness
That fills Your soul
And poisons any hope you have
Of Heaven here on Earth
Or some day in the future
ljm

Do you know this person?

Lori Jones McCaffery Jan 21

TRANSITION

The slate is clean, as it should be.
The chalk’s beside it on the table.
But this is not a quiet room in
Peaceful calm surroundings.

The table is knee deep in mud
Of the most obnoxious ugly kind,
Spread deeply as far as eye can see
That must be somehow waded through,

Avoiding getting mired in it or even
Falling down and getting coated
With the muck that won’t come off
And will smear the pristine slate

To make unreadable any words
Of kindness, justice or fair play
That those unsullied might have written there
In hopes that all the fear was fog

And somehow we will find a way to
Sweep the mud into the drain
And justice wash away the stain
So Democracy can rule again.
ljm

Analogy attempt

Lori Jones McCaffery Jan 18

EMPEROR ELON

I’m a man named Elon Musk -
Rich beyond imagining;
And I just bought myself a country.
I get to say which way it goes
And who will do my bidding.
My monkeys are well trained and willing
Waiting for my every word
And I have many bold ideas.

I decide what papers print
And who is running Germany.
I may buy myself an island.
Greenland may not be for sale
But there are ways to cinch the deal
If I decide I want it.
Each dollar is a warrior
And I control that army.

I’m a man of untold power
Derived from marks on modern scrolls
Stored in vaults of 1s and Os
That multiply at my behest
And give me rights the ancients never had
To buy my way from Egypt’s sand
Into the gilded halls of history
Ensconced in Washington DC.
ljm

We may have a President, but like it or not, we also have an Emperor
and he wears handmade clothes.

Lori Jones McCaffery Jan 9

SECOND TERM

Four years is a long, long time
To watch what we’ve long worked for
Erode bit by bit or in big chunks.
How will we survive the watching
While being headed off at every curve
By sycophants who stand in line
To get in on the unearned spoils
Of ravaging ecology, economy
The middle class and truth.

Fourteen hundred and sixty days:
What can we hide in basement corners
To keep it from being broken or soiled.
What can we bury in the back yard garden
To know it’ll still be there for us to use
When the ravaging is over and we can breathe
And try to reassemble democracy
From the leftovers and the cast-asides
That evilness bequeathed to us on leaving.
ljm

Prices are not going down.
Immigrants will still pour in.
They'll tell us that we're better off
And hope we do not notice.
Prove me wrong and let me love you.

Lori Jones McCaffery Jan 9

STAGECRAFT

I don’t know what I should do.
I can’t manage to get beneath
All the layers of artifice
To finally find the genuine me.

Who is this wounded entity
Wearing the face of an actress
Stumbling across a dim-lit stage
Living her life for an audience.

Where can I go to find the answers
To all the questions that nag me
And why are there no real denouements
To all all the theatrical plots I live.

What soap can take off all the makeup
Applied so thickly with loving care;
And when it’s finally washed away
What kind of person will be standing there.
ljm

NY Eve Introspection