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 May 2015 BellaBloom
Mike Essig
How far is it really from the murdered children
dead in the snow at Wounded Knee
to the crows eating the frozen eyes of German soldiers
before the gates of Leningrad?
How far from the hanging flesh of Hiroshima
to the piles of bodies at My Lai?
I have watched the news for 50 years
and it all seems like reruns to me.
So on the advice of a frisky, fearless wise woman
I stopped and now although death and destruction persist
I am free to concentrate on the things that matter to me.
Anyway, if the world ends, someone will let me know.

  ~mce
RLA
 May 2015 BellaBloom
Mike Essig
We flew into battle
like young Gods,
but fell from the sky
like shattered birds.

  ~mce
A war of choppers ridden like chargers by young men who thought themselves invincible but were not.
 May 2015 BellaBloom
Mike Essig
Hope
 May 2015 BellaBloom
Mike Essig
Hold the feathers.
Soon enough
the earth will turn
and it will be
tomorrow
in the only world
I am certain of.
I do not require
anything more
than that.
   ~mce
 May 2015 BellaBloom
Mike Essig
Today I am holding on tight to nothing
and it is just enough to keep me breathing.
How marvelous to be an ordinary artist
who can survive on so little.
You taught me that a kiss matters
more than all the pain and terror on earth.
I leave the world's problems to its big men.
I am a small man working only on problems
a small man might hope to solve.
Why are there birds? What do dogs think?
Why do cats purr both when happy and sad.
Why do you taste like lost oceans?
These are the mysteries I care about.
The curve of your cheek matters more to me
than stock markets, earthquakes or wars.
My hands caressing your human *******
matter more than tsunamis and revolutions.
Your voluptuous *** speaks ****** volumes
about where the world should pay attention.
I would gladly lie down with you in Eden
smelling of apples and the loss of eternity.
I sing only for helpless humans and animals.
Let the wealthy and powerful purchase their
own poems though I doubt they even care.
I am content to feel the texture of your hair
and celebrate your green eyes with humble words.
We are human, we are warm and we are here.
That's enough for me, maybe more than I can bear.
I am holding on tight to nothing and I do not fear.

~mce
for RLA
 May 2015 BellaBloom
Mike Essig
The miles between us
are like sewing needles
each with a thread
the exact color of sadness.
  ~mce
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