i was brought up to
read books and play the
violin

i am from the heart of the
world you
know

a place among thieves
a place among business aspirations
a place among the pines

actually like a
postcard however
someday a clan of

gory
icy
determined

men came into town
men who took up
residence

between pines and a business park
buildings were built by the
men of the clan:

silver paint
giant offices
porsches
lambos
maybachs

gory
icy
determined

men had come into town
yelling in strange terms:

brate
hajde
jebi se

unexpected assassinations
executions of local mobsters
****** threats on judges

jebi se
brate hajde

old methods
new turf

a war began
mob against mob
murderer against murderer
man against man

this place where i
lived
this place among
pines

turned into a war zone
year 2019

the clan threw grenades
the mob deployed snipers
the clan deployed snipers
the mob threw grenades

same old as history
repeats itself

corners packed with hordes
willing to die
armed with

machetes
pump actions
rocket launchers
a tank

this place where i
lived
this place among
pines

turned into a war zone
year 2019

I used to watch Thomas the Tank Engine as a child,
now it's called Thomas the Train.

I have pictures with Thomas the Tank Engine,
not Thomas the Train.

I love Thomas the Tank Engine,
not Thomas the Train.

Why did they change it to Thomas the Train?

He's a tank engine...

He's Thomas the Tank Engine.

they will not live
they do not live
as I stare at the tank,
willing, hoping, praying for motion
nothing

they say the third time's the charm
we reassure each other
as we pour the remains away

so many regrets on choosing brine shrimp
my initial joy in the lab goes down the drain
with the dead
brine shrimp

Men, boys really, subject to the will of their government.
Young, virile, the perfect soldier.
Ready to have his humanity ground away.
No matter the location to be airdropped into,
War will be there to erode his sanity, even his own morals.
The loved ones he held so dear back home.
Now fly and flutter out the windows opening.
No matter the nation, the man, the morals, the goal,
The soldier will always be the one.
Who greases the great wheels of war,
With their sweat blood and decay.
With the kings and dictators,
Presidents and prime ministers,
All vying to win a war,
While sitting in their ivory towers.
Barking out orders to generals
to be barked in turn to peons.
This shall go on for eons of millennia
As it always has.

©BAS

The outside is blue
And shaped like a bowl
Perhaps a tank
Perhaps the air I am breathing
Is water
I float in space
No, I swim

I am not a human being
I am a fish in a tank.


--Eleanor Rigby

I fear the bass and treble.
The Stuka's nasal voice ringing out.
The tremulous earth beneath two treads.
The planet itself was set to tremble.

I fear the detonation.
A whistle in the darkness.
Harmonizing bass and treble.
Imminent inflammation.

I fear the bass and treble.