in great penury
he twinkles in happiness –
rich man in disguise

To Whom it May Concern,

My blood begins to burn
and I’m compelled to spurn
the current plans to turn
our mascot to a worm.

The members from my firm
cannot stay taciturn
when our alumni learn
that strangers overturned
the past we had governed
because they’re all stubborn,
seeking to be modern
and spread, exploit and churn
their folly and their germs.

I urge you to discern
the consequence you’ll earn
unless you can confirm
our legacy long-term.
We will not adjourn
until it’s reaffirmed
that history is stern
and keeps our old pattern.

If you do not concur
and submit to our terms,
then surely you will yearn
for courtesy interns
as funding will downturn
and we will watch you squirm
like spiders in an urn
at the point of no return.

Sincerely, Dr. Kern

Prose
A waterfall
Black and tarry
Flavoured waves of licorice
Lapping like kittens
Against the shore
Her garden is not one of Eden
But one of thorns
Dark and bruising scrub land
An ink stain against the sky
Filthy with life
A broaching scuffle
In richly opulent underbrush
A white and twisted creature
Seeping with magick

When is a man destitute? Destitution
is not being impecunious. If ever you
are poor, you are poor of heart. If ever
you are without, you are impoverished
of spirit. When coins of kindness cease to
flow from your being, then you are destitute.
Wealth is not worth.

Copyright 2019 Tod Howard Hawks

Fractured light gleams off the walls
Reflecting off the Rolex strewn casually across his immaculate desk
Its platinum plating smirking at the watchers
From under the diamond rock.

He wanders through the halls
Stares at the struggles of those below him
Through the translucent walls.

Reaches out a hand
But can never touch the world
Obscured by the diamond windows
That are his prison.

Tilted, rounded walls make caricatures
Of lives, of livelihoods, of people
Like funhouse mirrors in the playground
Of life.

He winds his way through the streets
Of those outside his cell.
Staring through the milky panels
That bar him from his subjects.

Though he can never touch, never truly see
It is he who holds the power
above the watchers below.

Aristocracy is opulence:
encrusted with diamonds.

I've amassed an abundance of
frivolous jewels; they adorn my
band of silver filled with prestige

Atop a catafalque, the morbid pedestal lies placed up ahead
Beautiful casket of pale birch laced with marbled ornament
With a flower orangerie settled upon final resting bed
Grand expensive suit fitted perfectly the dead man, toes to head
Funeral home better than his living home; lived cheap, died rich instead
All costs money he never had
Oh the luxury of being dead

Howard Robard Hughes
Famously rich recluse
Dreams led him to the lap of luxury
Followed by nightmarish mysophobic OCD

Rich ******* aviator Howard Hughes
With movie starlets kept himself amused
Dated Katherine Hepburn
Bette Davis took her turn
And still more, which kept the tabloids confused

Born Howard Robard Hughes to a rich family
With English, Welsh and French Huguenot ancestry
Enjoyed a successful multi-faceted business career
But aviation and aerospace were his favorite frontier