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Dan Hess Jul 2019
Shots fired.
Casualty at 100%
Nothing is lost

Candid natural mutilation
View life from behind a fissure
See no truth that is not gain
Sacrifice null to the wisher

Those who fight for value
Corporeal nonetheless
Are made up to be heroes
And momentarily addressed

A cannon is an instrument
With blood the field fills
But who will be left standing
To write the final will?
Dan Hess Jul 2019
It was 3:00 pm on a Saturday
When I heard the sirens
For the fifth time this month
And watched as the paramedics
Carried his near-lifeless body to the ambulance
On a stretcher

I had planned to make this day
My escape, again, like
Every weekend I had
Just to forget
That we were constantly inching closer
To the realization of how fragile life can be

I knew then there was no escape
We could only hold tightly to the threads of hope
That tied us to a better future
Even as they acted as tourniquets
Which threatened to break our bonds
Sever our grip
Leaving us to bleed our unchecked emotions
Onto the always spotless floor
Which was her escape

We all have one
But his was fatal
And ours were not
And we could only watch and wait
Wonder whether there was
a God watching over us
Or our prayers were just
there to sit in our heart
And hold back our tears

So I stepped outside
As the neighbors did the same
And we gathered on our porches
Smoked our cigarettes, and watched
Because the pain of another is a spectacle
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Intelligence is irrelevant
Without offerance of incidence
To displace the weight of ignorance
Your inference is lauded in inconsequence
So take pleasure in existence
By making efficacious
Your predisposition to seek opulence
For, nor humility or ingratiation
Shall exceed the levity of elation
Wherein flux of information shared
Might unto oneself represent
Human glory, thus defined by presentation
And as such, we exhume growth
In spite of evanescence
Dan Hess Jul 2019
When he was a river
she was a storm cloud
and where he raged on
she followed
til he reached
a pinching point

He slowed
She swelled
He was coerced by the terrain
She was perplexed by the zephyr’s flow
But the pressure was undeniable

They took from each other
As they took to the currents
And offering change
They stayed enigmatically constant

As heat, like fire, made her rise
It drew them further apart
But, alas, still they were caught
In each other’s embrace
Now, only larger than life

Soon, she was full
And heavy, she began to fall apart
In silver lining, meeting his stream
They ran together, aligned
and coalesced with mother earth

His dams ran over,
his shores sank into themselves
They became one
And finally, meeting the delta
They were introduced to something
bigger than either of them
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Through emotion
Every aspect of existence achieves vibrancy
Every whim becomes a dream
For it is love that connects us
For it is beauty that inspires us
Doubt that impedes our worth
It is happiness that elevates us
Sadness that innovates us
And anger that inhibits our thoughts
Above all else, in the deepest crevice
of our conceptual reality, it is hope
Hope that brings light
to an otherwise interminable darkness
Reaching out to grasp a token of worth
Constantly moving forward
Despite ignorance in surplus
We are creatures of change
Hope
Love
Warmth
Inspiration
All things are brought back
to a belief in a better world
Dan Hess Jul 2019
I think fast, hop straight to analysis
Delve deep, ask too many questions
Even if I know the answer,
I'm just dancing in the act of it
This much expansion of my cognizance
Is really quite liberating
But who am I kidding?

I'm just
Setting myself up to be ******
When I act like a nut
Asking questions of such
Which should be plain to see
Putting myself in a rut
I'm just greedy

Or maybe I don't trust myself?
Maybe I'm just an oaf.
Or, perhaps I'm just going to hell.

What a joke, I'm just swell.
I'm a stand up guy.
Don't make me choke.
I can tell.
I'll be fine.

Don't you see,
I've been doing
The very thing
I've been describing
This entire time?

But it is so sublime
Quite enticing to rhyme
What beauteous words
You can combine

And yet, when beautiful things become masks of truth,
they are nothing more than fodder for pigs.
Dan Hess Jul 2019
If I am so inclined
To find myself
Of higher mind
Then I must be aligned
With true discretion

I am entwined
With humankind
To flitter on the wind
The fateful, new direction

So I must bide
In the divine
By keeping that within
Thus making thee
My essence

In walking blind
Into the light of time
Agape; akin
Transformed in efflorescence
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