-


all my mistakes in life
add weight to a scale
of self-judgement–

so far i sense
a balance—

yet it feels to me like
i've let so much ballast
get washed overboard...




s jones
2022



.

-


Momma died two decades ago,
she would have turned
seventy-eight to—day

i woke up and spoke with her
this morning, imagining her
with a long red Irish mane

about Daddy being laid up in a
nursing home, my brother and
i hoping to fix him before he
finally gives up

she said—  "nothing"

i think maybe this is because
she long ago saw the lights
up ahead, in a place where
human conversation would
be considered archaic

and birthdays rendered
as undefined

she is illuminated within it now,
there to later show the way for
the rest of us who continue
marking our calendars

as we persist here on Earth—
still enumerating yesterday,
to–day, and tomorrow...



s jones
30 Dec 2021


.

-


when the dinosaur roamed the earth
they made little dinosaurs that would
later wander upon its surface,

following in the footsteps of
their ancestors.

something fell from the sky
and made them all stop–

passing down to creatures of
the future a few precious bones,
fossilized feathers and footprints..

—

when mankind roams the earth
they make little men that will
wander upon its surface,

following bigger men.

something they have fashioned will
escape control and make them all stop–

leaving only to what few creatures
that may survive their presence—

an abundancy of ****...



s jones
2021


.

-

the Clause read–

"by signing, you agree to have
your imagery and collected works
manifested into any digital scenario

chosen by the staff, associates and
management of this organization
throughout perpetuity"

So,

does this mean Bob Dylan and
George Lucas might appear
side-by-side on TV some
Christmas Eve

as dying trees ornamented with
numerical fruits which dangle
from their frames like the

links of Marley's chains ?

given his extensive background
on the subject, Santa knows full
well this will eventually happen...


s jones
2021


.

-


decades ago this was a tasty
quick meal between ten
hour shifts and sleep

tangy cheese in a metal container
that i cooked on a burner as the
shells boiled to a full fluff nearby

i mixed in some diced ham that
in of itself could have filled
a morning omelet,
had i the time—

to—day’s products consist of
much smaller shells that boil
into gooey blobs

and cheese– sealed in some kind
of chemically pre-melted state
inside of a silver bag,

and ham—

packed in smaller cans–
very much tasting like
the machines that process it.

i wonder now what level of
creature is low enough to
be able to live off of this

to within what measure
of survival

or—

if in fact this stuff
could actually be
                            
eating  it...


s jones
2021


.

-

have you wondered how most of your
personal and medical information is
now documented by outside parties
on distant servers ?

you could imagine right off that it is not
quite like a filing cabinet with hand written
tabs that help sort important papers which
will reliably remain where you left them–

No..

much of the data is actually scattered
on "clouds" into positions that were
immediately available when it was
acquired and then deposited

so one may discover digital fragments of
a chat-room dialogue residing adjacent to
a photo of someone's aunt's latest birthday
cake creation, which in turn is situated

into areas where web browsers have placed
ad's about **** undergarments and software
storage solutions, very possibly right next to
the last character that you typed—

all this should be easily re-assembled on
demand if one clicks on the icon which
represents the thing being retrieved,

except for the fact that numerical crumbs
are inevitably shaken loose from improper
bit-positioning schemes, made possible
within a digital bureaucracy bent on sorting
through your under-ware.

i wonder now if tech will
advance to a level that renders

"Going to Heaven"

into being irretrievably saved
forever into clouds that wander
aimlessly adrift over Hell ?



­s jones
2021



.

-


what do you say to someone
you love from such a distance ?

a stroke could be measured by
how far it is from the first floor
to the intensive care unit

or from the steering wheel
to the door **** of the
hospital entrance

or from your drive way to
the spot where you have to
pay for parking

or from the handset of
your telephone to his ear—

exhausted,

you can only
whisper
into it—

"i love you Daddy"

and hope this time
he can feel your
breath...


s jones
Nov 2021


.