"arbitrate" poems
I do not identify myself as a black american
I do not identify myself as an activist
I do not identify myself
As anything other than what I am
Do not arbitrate my existence
It will only magnify your bigotry
Do not lecture me
It will not ratify your ministry
Do not objectify my identity
Do not marginalize my sincerity
I know your criticism
It will not dwindle me
I am defiantly deaf to it
It will not compute
Trust me
It will only intensify
What I occupy
Do not subject me to anomaly
Do not try and direct me
I will not comply
Do not concern yourself
with my essentiality
I am not lost
Do not concern yourself
With what defines me
Just ask
If I am willing and able.
Nov 14, 2015
Nov 14, 2015 at 5:03 PM UTC
1269
I worked for chaff and earning Wheat
Was haughty and betrayed.
What right had Fields to arbitrate
In matters ratified?
I tasted Wheat and hated Chaff
And thanked the ample friend—
Wisdom is more becoming viewed
At distance than at hand.
2.4k
The Judge, me, walks in, settles down on the bench,
a cue for the jury, me, the accused, me,
and the defendant, you, to sit down.
It's a special kind of case at the Court of Conscience today.
No representation. No witnesses. No audience. Just
the parties affected and those who arbitrate. You and me.
Crime, Falling Out of Love! Walking away, leading you on,
not giving us a second chance, wasting your time, taking you
for granted and ripping your soul apart.
The accused, Pleads Guilty. As the law requires to discount
a third of the maximum sentence, the judge and the jury,
decide that the court will recess for three days.
I'm on bail but I cannot come within eye contact of you.
My guilty heart is tagged so each time I feel your pain,
sadness or anger, it alerts my brain and shocks it!
The court convenes. The judge clears her throat.
Because she's too emotional, along with the jury,
to even talk, let alone think clearly or decide.
"We find the defendant Guilty!". Guilty of
involuntarily man-slaughtering this relationship.
I sigh! Justice does not mean fair, not in law nor life.
The judge goes on. "However in this particular case
the sentence is to be decided by the defendant."
Because the ball is in fact in Your court!
Sep 19, 2012
Sep 19, 2012 at 6:36 PM UTC
So what is time?
your concept not mine
Meaningless years,
slingshot round the sun
fade, and disappear...
Arbitrate me,
with former days of ****
drunken on this power
it beggars my belief.
We could leap off a cliff,
you could fly with me,
through this moment, our Eternity.
And lose nothing.
So what is time?
When You've always been right here?
On your face,
it looks more like fear.
Dec 12, 2013
Dec 12, 2013 at 5:37 AM UTC
a bit faded, i cruise through loose threads in my argument.
i recoil from dimwits that flip wigs and false coin.
i join the null set of lost clubs on main street, discreetly -
but strut like a peacock in leather feathers,
for non -boys...
so many
girls.
i'm in two worlds,
but **** if she don't fit in, pro bono.
she knows what i don't know, like a book spout of lovely.
my bones lend juice to the stew of her gifts, when she'll have me.
but luck gets cut and what not, and better fellas
rob joy from so
many worlds
they're Cuckoo.
i snip pearls
for this
one.
my intentions are
sincere
if not
see-through.
Jan 14, 2013
Jan 14, 2013 at 4:50 PM UTC
* In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house.
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
"Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his "
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction ,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords
into plowshares;
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more. *
Apr 9, 2016
Apr 9, 2016 at 7:21 AM UTC
How.. Do I reciprocate
your efforts to delineate
my weakness, when you,
time and time again,
pretend to
arbitrate?
Remember?
December drove me deftly down destruction's path.
The hours passed.
Unfeeling recollection would sustain my wrath
again.
May 27, 2016
May 27, 2016 at 12:47 AM UTC
The dusk panics.
Molten ash stings, bearing
you down. Your enemy had penetrated
very deep.
Your pride shrinks.
Infinite pains from moonlit streets
climb up the palm trees
to count the dead.
You can not arbitrate in disputes
of wind and flags.
The night rolls down on the
battered past. Your face becomes
a broken clock.
Color-blind, you will never―
know the green recital
of the spokesman.
Jan 10, 2017
Jan 10, 2017 at 10:55 PM UTC
The man is mad but, he is fair
The hostages' fate flips in the air
The coin tumbles, two sides, a pair
Gravity steers to the man in his chair
"Fate" says the man, "is in our hands"
Result occluded, desperate strands
The verdict of nefarious plans
"We all want--NO! We demand!"
"We all believe there is something owed"
"A cache of treasure just for us, stowed"
"Our wealth for subscribing to control"
"A fruitless and folly toll"
The man of madness makes his reveal
The future of the captives it did seal
Heads or tails, bound they reel
Hopes palpable of a favorable deal
"It seems that you will all be set free"
A sigh emanates amongst the captive company
Bonds removed, Stockholm comradery
A passing dismissal to the powers that be
"Free from 'freedom', this was your chance"
"To escape this tired song and dance"
"You could have been heroes, not this stance"
"To return to comfortable circumstance"
"The path you celebrate was the failure state"
"Decency and humanity to arbitrate"
"I cannot harm a life doomed to wait"
"More than the misery in your own stake"
"I have achieved nothing but, you have lost"
"A life with no meaning worth the cost"
"A Hallmark version of Faust"
"A reality casually glossed"
The hostages promptly depart
All aside from this seeming upstart
Younger then the rest, set apart
Comes inquisition from the heart;
"Did you think these people would change their minds?"
"Where fed insipid mediocrity is all there is left to find?"
"A people who measure themselves in how far they are behind?"
"Zealots perpetuating ego with no concept to be kind"
The man takes the coin of 'governance' and reveals the truth:
It was blank on both sides.
Jul 25, 2024
Jul 25, 2024 at 5:05 AM UTC
*First came the rain.
I stood there in ache.
She pleaded with pain;
How much more could she take?
The rain poured violently.
A shower that turned to a tempest,
Such a dark place to be.
Where a rage can grow and establish.
Rain turned to ice, I felt the sting.
So much hurt and anger.
The sky thunders, so loud to ring.
A war impending; a call of danger.
She bites back at the rain.
Two forces of nature collide.
Both are in fervid pain.
I solemnly delegate not to side.
I wait inside, all confined.
The ice and rain battle,
Leaving only a monstrosity behind.
This is their altercation, their battle.
Arbitrate I could,
Daft would I be.
A fight to happen as it would.
Do not let that mortal to designate to be me.*
Mar 27, 2013
Mar 27, 2013 at 3:10 PM UTC
Purgatory
I forgot about Purgatory, the bus
stop of Catholic needs must have.
The clamor of prayers, the knee
in genuflection.
Tomorrow I will go to mass. I will
arbitrate with the voice in
confession. To die in mortal sin
is my childhood's torment. The
black robes of St. Patrick's priests.
Early mornings
with my Dad
The brown robes of the Franciscan
who stole my sins in high school.
I wasn't done with them. I wore
pants and that angered him. I was
not unholy just skirting the borders
of adolescence my own way.
But I digress. Purgatory with all
those flapping carers preparing
my way to God Finally and
Absolutely. My prayers tabulated,
my envelope is unsealed.
I am old now and return the
Purgatorial wicker plate to the
transept under which lay
the dust of the unforgiven
travelers.
Strangers in a strange land..
The curtains whisper.,
I say penance.
Ten times.
Oh My God I am heartily… .
Amen.
Caroline Shank
10.17 2022
Italics Robert Heinlein
Oct 17, 2022
Oct 17, 2022 at 11:15 PM UTC