A swarm of angry gulls
is whirling overhead.
Our breaths both reek of ***.
And there's a fire on the deck.

Baby, grab what you can while the grabbing's good.
We misread all the maps and we misunderstood
the pulling of the currents in our poison blood.
                    So we'll split up
                the spoils in the hold.

     Yeah, then we'll send this ****** below.

I'm laughing in the rain,
drinking in the Crow's Nest.
You're inhaling all the smoke
from the flames down on the deck.

You're crying in the wind.
I'm leaping in the drink.
You're tangled in the rigging ain't ya, babe?
This ship's begun to sink.

You're always ******. I'm sick
            of your ****.
So let's raid this leaky schooner,
then we'll scuttle it.

Baby, grab what you can while the grabbing's up.
We ****** up reading stars and the compass now.
Avowed we'd only drift until the tide went out.
But we're lost and favored winds ain't enough.

Buddy, grab what you can while the grabbing's good.
We misread all the maps and we misunderstood
the torrents and the waves in our raging blood.
                    So let's split up
          all the plunder in the hold.

     And then we'll send this ****** below.

Silence.
Loud music, high pitched screams
Infant wailings, adult shrills
The cacophony of it all
Silence.

Surrounded by it all
Silence?
Absence of these?
Or peace within me?
My silence, perfect

Silence
Whirring fans, revving engines
Croaking frogs, buzzing flies
The beautiful discord of it all
Silence

Jackie come sit with me
I have been waiting so long.
Come hold hands with me
Then I’ll know nothing is wrong.
I will try to do better this time.
Jackie please try not to be
Seethingly angry and snippy;
Completely ******* at me.

I know I should have thought
Before I laughed loud like I did.
Now I wish I had closed my mouth
And had gone someplace and hid.
But, can’t you see that sometimes
Not laughing is quite a hurdle?
Especially the way you look when
You wiggle into your old girdle.

I’ve told you many times before
I prefer your body without one.
But you insist on wearing the thing
And won’t quit until you are done.
So, that’s all fine and very good
If I am not in the room with you.
You insist on dressing in front of me
And you can’t claim you never knew.

Because I giggle and laugh at it
Every time because it is funny
And I can’t help myself, even though
I know your mood won’t be sunny.
Telling you I have never liked girdles
Or things like those awful ***** hose
Doesn’t seem to mean a thing to you
So, that’s just how it all goes.

Every time you put that thing on
And when I laugh you get mad.
And I am ashamed to admit it
But it’s the best time we ever had.
You wiggle and I giggle, and then
You finally get it on and glare at me.
It makes no sense that you insist
On forgetting our marital history.

The eyes of God regard man, waiting, watching,
And the eyes of man search for God, praying,
Our souls are lost, they cry.
Torrents of lies pour from the mouths of children yet unborn,
And whips of racism render the skin of our souls blistered and torn,
This world is broken and lies in shambles, war drums litter the streets,
This world is rabid, and with it come the rabid men, dancing to the beat
Of mad men and demons. The paupers pawn the poor,
And the poor pawn the paupers.
In this world I danced for tepid water, and sang for stale bread,
I crawled through streets with cobblestones littered with lead,
I saw the dying children, their eyes pleading with a God, any God,
They begged for redemption, and they pleaded for rest,
In this world I saw the hearts of priests and nobles impaled on rods,
And I watched the virtuous have their robes stripped off their *******,
In this world of mine, men and demons are now one and the same,
And together they shall all rot and burn in unyielding flame,
Nothing remains constant, except the eyes of God, watching, waiting,
Nothing remains constant, except the hands of God, waiting, unmoving.

Sometimes I turn my head
showing my pain by averting my eyes. Nothing I've
done to deserve this, by how you treat

my old words becoming something static.

Many mistakes made cannot be
mended though I owe myself a smidgen
of humanity. So when these eyes crave a

golden horse for lost carriages and
then lash from dissatisfaction you can soothe
in my silence and disbelief for hole heartedness.


© April 22nd 2014

It was an opera in that everybody had grown fat
every movement was stylized and expositional
the faintest grin
the miniscule teardrop
even an emotion that barely registered came out over-inflated;
encircled in greasepaint, underscored by full orchestration, embellished by stiff and grandiose choreography.

It was an opera in that we yawned,
shifting in our seats, checking our watches, yearning for the curtain call.

It was an opera, but it was mostly life
in that it had no final act, ending or closure.

The mind is comfortably numb
Unaware of the repercussions
Holding guard at the gates of Eris
Invoking the discord with intensity
Gazing endlessly at dull perceptions
Anarchy is just a breath away
Holding our breath just to stave away
But the cries of horror are unheard
The mind is comfortably numb