Living my life

one breath

at a time

Maybe

a little too hard

for a well worn man

of my obvious limitations

Sharp pain explosion

Numbness spreads

Better lay down

and clear

my suddenly

dizzy head

Screams

and commotion

Sirens blare

My express trip

to intensive care

Men in white

wheel me in

Monitor my

life functions

beep beep beep

follow the bouncing

beep

High tech toys flash red

Tube goes

up my nose

Apprehension grows

Here we go

Close the show

Fade to black

Flat line melody

Step into

the white light

and don't

look back

The casual observer
and innocent bystander
sharing a bottle of transparency
down at Cafe Apathy

Putting their two cents in
the neon jukebox
they blare the latest hit
from the high profile band
Vox Populi

Well dressed media pundits
converge on the scene
to conduct yet another
well choreographed focus group
to tell us what it all means

An evening of cliche laden
conversation they will spend
leading the random sample sheep
to conclusions that meet the desired end

The well coiffed prop messiah
in the tailored suit
will be spoon fed this data eventually
in the spirit of self fulfilling prophesies

Which will validate the legitimacy
of his devoted apostles
who spread the word
of the second coming
to the disinterested patrons
of Club Apocalypse
who are too busy
achieving perfect numbness
to buy in to the consumable product
that passes for modern absolute truth

Let us concede

that hatred had

a really big year

Riding a seemingly endless
winning streak

fueled by mutual fear

and a sense of dread

that by next news cycle
any one of us
could end up dead

Constant retaliations
leave us seeking isolation

behind walls of false insulation

Treating the symptoms
without curing the disease
simply delays
the body's demise

If we are to survive

we gotta realize

we are one species

one humanity

sharing the same planet

for a limited time

No one country

No one ideology

No one theology

No one person

is better than the next

Peace will only come
to this troubled blue speck

with mutual respect

and global equality

I want to thank all of you who have read my poem "I Fell In Love With You" (POEM 99). I am truly amazed that so many of you fellow poets have found this poem to your liking, re-posted, left comments or just read.

I will do my best to read and comment on your poetry, to visit and say HI in some way over the next few days.

For a lot of you, and me as well, writing poetry is like breathing air, we would die if we didn't (not sure who said this first, don't think it was a poet, but an author), perhaps not literally, but definitely inside we would be dead. So for me your reading and all is like fresh air and I am amazed and humbled by all of you.

Thank you.
Aztec

You hit us

We hit back

Round and round

Punch and counter punch

Hatred is trending

Now we commence
once again
the ****** dance

to avenge Paris

and get our revenge

as humanity descends

deeper

into the abyss

of recycled violence