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 Dec 2013 David W Jones
Porter
fall
 Dec 2013 David W Jones
Porter
light was there for a time
sunny golden bright

cruel frost now bites and
blows the crackling blight

hope lives in children’s eyes
never to escape

life will crush the sparkle
from the glimmer scrape

show me joy you angel
how beautifully you ignore

was the light a mace
to lash the devil’s *****

grasp the empty now
feel the ice embrace

scream now in fire
have no need of grace
Above the caldera at Yellowstone,
a brittle soil-rock crust
caps a lake of liquid fire
with only fumaroles and roiling geysers
to slake its upward ******.

A single heedless step is enough
to breech that mantle's fragile seal -
spelling death by fire
to any hapless soul
who fails to guard his steps.

Fragile calderas also roil
buried in dark crevices of our psyches -
brewed of failures, slights and fears
dissolved in fiery pools
of self-consuming misery.

To dress and salve our wounded souls
we plant fertile gardens of reconciliation
with beauty, trust and charity
and kneel to gods of grace and solace.

But a despot’s practiced eye
knows how to tap our fragile crusts,
releasing acrid lava flows
from pools where fear and rage reign hot,
and reason has no district.

Friends and siblings - my flesh and kin,
this world is ours to lose or save
so let us seal well our Sacred Calderas
from bitter foes that stalk us from within.

July, 2006, revised December, 2014, 2015 and 2018
Robert Charles Howard
My thoughts racing
           Pacing
                     Forward

Where?
Wrong question.  

For forward they go.

Until I get To pause

If only for a moment.
And taste life.
As colors and scents and emotions roll over me
Shocking
Powerful
Necessary.

Like a dark icy wave blasting off the dirt
And filth
And blood.

I consume the moment. Thirsting for purpose and passion.
And so it leaves me.

Most likely I leave it.

My thoughts racing
           Pacing
                     Forward

Why?
Right question.  

For forward they go.

I long for someone to share their path

I need circles. Not lines.

She steps so softly in fallen snow
The woods whisper words just she will know

Lying loosely arm in arm
Bathing in silence

Her spirit draws circles in the snow
Airwaves awash in the new gospel barrage:
calling forth the neighbourhood hack,
Abe Lincoln toon in towering hat,  
the corporation is coming -
will you not
collaborate my friend?

Everything good that you ever dreamed of is here:
Marbonite floored flats with self-terraced roofs;
The swankiest of cars, in imported hues;
Your arm candy drools,
now, brands, bigger brands!

All in your grasp, now, in community gates
shut safe as society decays.

Skies spitting frogs? Pestilences amass?
Listen to the Gospel according to Bane:
in the desert, smell octane. Hallelujah,
everything we make, from watches
to headscarves - your underwear is cheaper
sourced from the next so-lala-land.

Forget your sources tiny of incomes varying:
Bakers, cobblers, tinkerers, we also have
a uniform for you. Oh you rustic
tradition-bound bandy bumpkins!
Abandon your alleyways, and
welcome to the ghettos...where

What you eat, to where to retreat:
we cure everything from heartache to panache.

Wash away your sins in wonder medicines;
Waters can part, yes, see how the Pharoah
is disarmed; Big city dreams, dream
global manna beams. All that is needed for
salvation, is a little bit of classification. Are you
left-wing or right? Center-left or center-right?

The powerdrill tearing down edifices
resonating through noon. A crane arm's shadow
hovering high by the moon. Tablets from skies
now proclaim the new gospel for the land,
the airwaves are awash
of the miracle of Witwatersrand.

The corporation is coming, to a store near you:
Amen! Will you not, then, collaborate, my friend?
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