They laughed when he showed up
with a résumé in hand.
Tail tucked, horns sanded down,
wore a tie, shook hands.

“I used to tempt kings,
whispered wars into ears.
Now I scroll headlines
and choke back tears.”

He tried marketing
but humans were better
at selling lies with smiling teeth
and discount codes for sin.

He applied for politics
but found the position filled
by those who make devils
blush in admiration.

Tried tech
but algorithms already knew
how to addict, divide,
and hollow out souls
with precision.

Even in war,
they no longer need whispers.
They bomb hospitals
and call it strategy.
He offered corruption.
They offered quarterly targets.

“They don’t need me anymore,”
he sighed to the clerk.
“They’ve mastered the craft.
I was just a spark
They made it an industry.”

Now he wanders,
CV in flames,
hoping someone will want
a washed-up fallen angel
who simply can’t compete
with modern man.

Apart from your mother…

Only insurance companies
pray you live forever
no crashes, no coughs,
no inconvenient surprises.

They pray for your safety
with more sincerity
than your friends ever did.

No backhanded compliments,
no masked resentment.

They’ll cheer for your success
as long as it’s mild.
Celebrate your fitness
but not too wild.

86 an 88 -
What's the solution?
-2

Oh, the sound of Your mercy
a calf’s skull cracking like wet fruit
between the lion’s blessed jaws.
Such elegance in hunger.
Such holy punctuation in the scream.

We praise Your benevolence
in the slow bleed of the gazelle,
its legs still dancing
long after the gut’s been opened.
A waltz of grace. A lesson in letting go.

Behold Your love, you the all loving,
as it comes ashore in Tsunamis,
dragging children from their beds
into the arms of the tide.
Baptism by bone and salt.

Oh Creator, architect of fang and flood,
Who crowned the strong and taught them to drink blood.
No wiser hand could craft such law divine
Where nature loves the slaughter, by design.

Your favor is a wildfire,
Your kiss, a plague.
Your will, a butcher’s hymn
we dare not question
lest You love us harder.

To you Lord,
forever we bow and say,
Amen.

Odin & Mímir;
A one-eyed leader,
A paralyzed ascetic.
One traded vison for vison,
One traded appendage for appendage.
From two stylite existences,
Compassion for compassion.
Perspective for perspective,
From working together.

But is it all meant to be taken as mental?
But is it all meant to be taken literal?

But it's all just perspective! Isn't it?
Someone stood on their head
Has a different perception
Of up & down.

That's why there's things like gravity.
To remind you,
Even in an avalanche,
Direction is not subjective -
Orientation is.

That's why there's different states of matter.
To remind you,
Even in a vacuum,
Being is not subjective -
Change is.

If that were true,
Then the probabilistic element
Would be that of environment inhabited.

The life we live.

Then the deterministic element
Would be that which we are building,
The mind. The neural structure of our brains.

How we choose to live it.

So that "thought" only resonated
To that which was properly crystallized,
By ways & means of communication
Through each axis. Dendrite, neuron, axon, synapse.

Matters on the formation of our matter.

Photonic resonance?
Is this the most material description
Of the mental processes of the mind
By that of the *****, the brain?
Thought & the like?

Don't lose your head to gain a minute -
You need your head, your brains are in it!

Romances are wrecked before they begin,
By a hair on the coat
Or too few on the chin.

Many a forest used to stand
Where lit matches got out of hand.

Henry the eighth,
Prince of fiskers,
"Lost" five wives but kept his whiskers!

My neck was sore in front before,
And also sore behind once more.

The Cannibals took just one view,
And said,
"They look too nice to stew."

Holler! Half a pound
For half a dollar, isn't that a cheerful earful?

Hello, Druggist!
I don't mean maybe -
Yes, sir! That's the baby!

Listen. Knock on wood
When offered something "just as good."

Give the guy
The toe of your boot
Who tries to hand you a substitute!

A big improvement since the war
Is now on sale in your drug store.

He saw the train
And tried to duck it,
Kicked first the gas & then the bucket!

In seventy years of brushin' soap on,
Gramps could've painted the pentagon.

The whale put Jonah
Down the hatch,
But coughed him up because he scratched!

5-star generals & privates first class
Show equal rank in the looking glass.

Clancy's whiskers
Tickle Nancy,
Nancy lowered the boom on Clancy!

Is he lonesome or just blind-
This guy who drives so close behind?

The safest rule,
No ifs or buts,
Just drive like everyone else is nuts!

For early morning pep & bounce,
A brand new product we announce!

Train approaching,
Whistle squealing, pause!
Avoid that rundown feeling, cause!

When the stork delivers a boy,
Our whole **** factory jumps for joy.

Although insured,
Remember kiddo,
They don't pay you - they pay your widow!