I’ll ask the gods to take my ears,
When they’re drowned in mournful cries.
And when they’ve seen too much suffering,
And too much pain, I’ll ask that they take my eyes.

Then to the gods, I’ll give my voice,
For it squeaks impotent here on earth.
Next cruel gods, I give my soul,
Though it’s found badly damaged,
And of little worth.

So I call to the gods, and I call out to Man.
For virtue! For justice! For calm.
To the wind I attend, and with the wind I wait,
But I’ve found that the gods have all long gone…

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                 Blueberries Ripening in Love

A blueberry bush
Clusters of little blue orbs
Maybe tomorrow?

As the embers rise from magmatic tides
The life we lived, loved in lusted lips
As we slid our pride between her fertile hips
We birthed the ******* of our own demise,
Now we can’t see beyond the tears from
It’s acidic eyes!

What have we done?
What have we done?

Oh father on high
Do you even hear us whimper?
The days grow short as the fires grow higher
Burning to find salvation,
Congregate the ground and let me dance within the sea of flames
Burden us no longer with misery,
Ascend us on high leave us not behind!

O father, what have we done?
What have we done?

Dark as black could ever be
Caught in a lungful plead to bury me
A thought dithers, as the light withers
Flesh flayed to the roasting pits
As the echoes linger,

She reaches from her core
To engorge on all the parasitic hosts
That rot her, treated her essence like a *****
We spoke of natural beauty,
As we ripped the limbs of her trees.
We spoke of natural beauty,
Piling high our heaps of **** —
Suffocating her shores.

The sky went black,
His voice struck,
Percussion in unison,
Opened wide the gates,
As unclean ones came,
Carry off the weak,
Carrion feasts from open graves,
This forsaken place,
God has left this waste
Weld shut the gates!

O father,
What have we done?
What have we done?
Oblivion!

Are you hungry enough to eat it?
If I were to claw my flesh like an itch
And rip through the dermis,
Until I’m pounding at the gates,
Break these walls to expose the wound
And tear from the valve.

Dangle it over your head,
As the beat dies down,
Go ahead, consume.

But what’s left of me,
Is compost for your
Garden full of dreams,
Grow with me
Into something beautiful
So wonderfully vibrant.
Painful and harmonic,

Even if I have to die to make it so
I’ll be there to watch it sow
As wildflowers bloom to take control
And our vines twist and tangle,
Up the columns, ageless.

Always your protector,
A dark forgotten aegis,
Sentinel in marble,
Robotic in my onslaught
But alive when the lights go out.

So consume,
I know you’re hungry enough to eat it
******* enough to take this,
One lavished lash at a time,
As I rip it out of my chest,
Beat fading in odd times
Take me in to be apart of you.