Somewhat invisible, on purpose, and just as well
the mind mystically resides in its castle
- with the drawbridge up
most of the time.

The makers make
Everything
From everything
Hands into the void
Shaping matter
Parsing out particles
Passing electrical
Synapses to deduce
And reduce
Experience
To the simplest rules
Then changing the laws
Of science
Not god
But humanity
Making meaning
From the chaos
Imposing order
Through logic
The saving grace
Of this human race

If you say that a child should not go off to war
Then I say everyone I know is a child
Youth in wisdom and intelligence
Full of potential
Not made to waste in the ways of war
But blossom in the days of peace

I hear the hurting heartbeat
Stomped beneath
The bare ****** feet
Moving on in throngs
Of pulsing people
Pushing past
The blast of hopeful
The heated flesh
Dripping beads
Struggling to breath
Wearing weights
Drowning in a lake
Of fake fate
Sinking in the simmering
Pool of blood
Red painted streets
Children crying
The industrious lying
While trying
To keep up with
This brutal American dream

War makes its’ wicked artistry
Upon the flesh of humanity
Tearing skin
Inversing flesh
Transposing bone and skin
Organs and eyeballs
Such a sickening alchemy
And even when
The flesh remains
Untainted by such warring ways
The soul destruction reigns
Savaging mortal wits
Breaking stern hearts
And turning gentle folk
Into to mad man made monsters
All who come and go
And even those
Who come no more
Are disfigured by the
Horrors of war

We are not soldiers
But for every heart
That breaks yonder
Tears falling
Feeling loss
There are my brothers

For every mother
Aching with the pain
Of deprivation
Of sorrow for child’s loss
For anguish in imagined failure
To care for her kin
There is my sister

For every ounce of sand
Seedling buried in the earth
There is my mother

And for every shame birthed
That I took pleasure to learn from
In my labors and my leisure
There is my father

For everything
That is part of one
Whilst separate part of none
Riddles and riff raff
There am I
Related to everyone and everything
That grows green
Walks, crawls, slithers, or swims
Rots, falls, and withers
Therein all glory lye my kin

Violent ambitions open their ****** maw
Sharpens their mangled claws
Readied to strike
Not for what is right
But for something
That turns friend to enemy
Call their enemies a state
Hurt strangers and lovers
Out of love for gain
And the hunger
Which moistens their mouth
Is never sated
Thus with every bite
Another wound is born
Not fatal but crippling
That leaves us tripping
And tipping ever backwards
Towards the dark ages

Those in power
Play power games
But the people
Remain the same
Working hard to stay afloat

A president here
A king there
Prime minister
And other offices of power
Where power plays are made
But the people remain the same

Wealth is lost and gained
Then lost again
Passed on
To the wealthy sons
While strangers starve
While laborers struggle on
The whims of the wealthy
Impoverish us all
While people remain the same

Seasons change
As does the land
But the basic principals
Stand the test of time
Battles fought
Battles lost
Hungering poor
Lumbering fools
Politicians play Loki
As they are want to do
Tricky Tricksters
With labors few
But the people remain the same

Err I ever asked
Such kindness
Of such a few
Remember as remembrance are due
The heroic
Is but a dream
That ignores
The stable things
Fathers and mothers
Working to take care
Whilst those in power
Are nary aware
Play us as chess pieces
Hold different agendas
Move as the wind will carry them
But the people remain the same

We are human
Walking traumas
Left untreated
Open wounds
Being leeched
To treat
The wrong fever
It is incongruous
Being inoculated
Against the wrong disease
Vaccinated with apathy
So we don’t feel
The sores that bleed

But you have to laugh

We are mortal
Not merely men
Nor women
More like
All the things
Around and in-between
Searching
Sub-consciously
For peace
Trying to sustain ourselves
While losing
Everyone else
Crying

But you have to laugh

We are little boxes of flesh
Lego people made to fit together
Chipped
Scratched
Lost and found
Each stress tearing at our flesh
Rending our skin
Like a thresher
Building internal and external pressure
Till we need release
****** and or emotional

But you have to laugh

Ready to cry
Sometimes
We are ready to die
Till the brain twitches
Till the broken switches
Leave you in stiches
And you see something strange
Irony or absurdity
Life twisted in its purity
On the verge of exploding
Not really knowing
But something hits
Something fits
Presses the right button
Slapstick
Stupidity
Intellectual curiosity
Sanity flipped on its heels

But you have to laugh

A chortle a choking gasp
The tension breaks
The air whooshes past
You have no control
You have to laugh
The world doesn’t change
Much
The feelings are still there
But with each laugh
It gets easier to bare
It’s a chemical reaction
With endorphins and stuff
But I don’t think you care
It’s just what you needed
To fight off the despair

So I say it again you have to laugh

What brave world
That has such stolen lines
Borrowed times
Repeated in indignity
Never learning
But indifferent
Hero existing
In majesty
Only bare their images
In fairytales
And movie screens
Reality is far more complicated

I acquire
New words
Like
Disharmony
And
Acrimony

I acquire
New thangs
Like a car
A house
A Computer
And more and more
Till I am mired in them
Sinking in the mess
That I made
That sustains
My materiel goods

I acquire
New pain
Bubbling
And becoming
As tumorous
As the worse
Cancer
Desire is devastating
And distracting

I acquire
New knowledge
To cure this infection
This obsession
With things
To the detriment
Of human beings

In wisdom
The more I acquire
The more I let go
Trimming the leaves
That were crowding me
Pruning the trees
Of this materiel disease
Till I find the truth
Of you and me
And this relationship
Between us and our humanity

I acquire
The heart of my art
A soul shining force
Of love
And oddly enough
The more I give
The more I get
It is an endless bag

The foaming sea
The turtle stone
Marks the beach
I stride alone
Memories
Made of
Vain and venomous vipers
Stinging
Poisoning
The present
No longer pleasing
Convulsive flesh
No longer easing
But coughing
And wheezing
Snotting and sneezing
Waking to sleeping
Living while dreaming
Loving but leaving
I melt my skin
Loose what is within
My vice so called sin
Lay slip slip slipping
Drip drip dripping
Identity and vanity
Escape me
Eyes loosen from their socket
Lost picture burnt from
Mother’s never was locket
And I become the same salted sea
Distasteful, though birthing place
Of the entire human race
Drowning, oozing, and losing my illusions
Of once dear held humanity