the annual gift-giving hectivities
in advent time
       when we are

            supposedly

      expecting the birth of our savior
defy traditional ideas
    of quiet meditation
drowning the sense of wonder
with relentless jingles for super discount sales
of things neither we
        nor anybody else
        really needs
even though they suggest we
        and whoever we give those goodies to
would be beyond  the moon

somehow
      Christ
       in spite of all this
gets born

I played with words
much like I fed the birds

    one morsel here
          another there

then suddenly became aware

they pulled together
     and made sense

have been a player ever since

Mercurial, though we be, since man emergeth from the trees
To embrace his fellow souls amid cooperation’s folds.
None other, fur or feather clad, reached forth and uttered, good or bad,
Hail brother, being unrequited,….”To win this war, we must quest united!”
No other beast on this blue globe, cooperatively, together strode.

And thus began progressions haul through ranks of eons conflicts’ pall,
Through battles’ halls of discontent to mans’, today, God like ascent.
Where humankind alone now rules to all, beneath, subjected tools.
Where excess reigns and egos flame where sunsets’ bloodred stain remains.
Fair or foul, our status quo until that dice roll kills the show.

The dice careen across the floor, We hold our breath, aghast, once more
Despite the crown atop our head, the wrong outcome ….may see us dead.
The fools wield the fiery lance encumbered in this rolling chance,
Should ballistic missiles fly existing global harmony, shall die.
Fair or foul, our status quo until this dice roll shows what goes.

M.
11 January 2020
On the precipice of global economic chaos in the standoff twixt Iran and the Trump Administration.

The way was steep and rocky
A cliff on one side and a drop on the other.
I had not worn my hiking boots,
They were too old and broken down
And I could not afford new ones.  
My flimsy little tennis shoes
Felt every stone and crevice.

The wind was colder than I thought
Against my light-weight summer jacket.
I had no mittens for my hands
So I kept them in my pockets.

The sun was out when I began
The air was warm and the wind was calm.
The path was smooth and leveled out
With lovely vistas to be had.
I strolled along among a crowd
Of friendly, cheerful people
Until the path began to rise
More steeply than the posters showed,
And folks began to drop out one-by-one,
Not willing to surmount the rocks
That cropped up in the winding way.

I had a need to see the top
So I kept taking one more step
And one more breath of mountain air.
Cheerfulness grew difficult
As bigger boulders blocked the path.
But there was always a way around,
Although the footing was unsure.

I once looked over the drop on my left
And was gripped by paralyzing fear;
But I feared more to end my quest

My feet were sore, my hands were cold;
My nose was red and running.
But I could see the banner at the top
And my name was written on it.
Suddenly I was not alone
And I was not a failure.
I did what others could not do
And did it on a shoestring.
I had no fancy gear or help.
I climbed that mountain on my own;
So don’t tell me what I can’t do.
ljm

an au revoir here penned,
man on a cliff doing a spring, fall over cleaning

a few rusty drafts still needy for completely
but you know times up when tide rushing out
and on your leg is a big red rash that wasn’t there
when you waded in a few minutes earlier

tastes changes, like seasonal entrees on a restaurant menu,
seasons come and go, reappearing, but last years dish,
out of style, except for the occasional recalling

the body and the work must together concert,
poetry like a lifetime of lovers, you leave them behind
for loving them too well, using up the verses left inside,
then comes the time when love dries up and the words concomitant

the nighttime scraps will still be kept in that sewing box,
that storage space rented on a 99 year lease
but now for my eyes lonely only, this nub is stubbed,
this last one, at last, succinct

au revoir mes amis