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"muskets" poems
Look in the mirror Look at the clock Look at the time It never has stopped It only goes forward It's a one way walk See how you have been growing You ask yourself, "where have the days been going?" Time can only progress Yes, the river of life is always flowing We lived cabins And castles and caves We came from Adam and eve We evolved from apes From Socrates and Homer To Napoleon and Alexander the Great The minds that desired knowing And the enlightened ones glowing People can only advance Yes the river of life is always flowing Revolutions and rebellions Riots and revolts Great discoveries A key, a kite and a lightning bolt Great writings and inventions Innovations from inspiring jolts Improvement was showing To the future the world was going Humanity only began to develop Yes the river of life is always flowing Religions and sciences Economics and politics Television and radio Monarchies and dictatorships Tanks and machine guns Atomic bombs and battle ships We went from arrow shooting and spear throwing The muskets needed reloading To nuclear weapons Yes the river of life is always flowing Exploring new lands To find the world wasn't flat To find silver and gold And buried artifacts To establish new territories And expand the map The searching ship kept rowing As civilization went on growing Accomplishments of the past Yes the river of life is always flowing Boats and rail roads Fair trade and industry World wide markets Over land and sea To keep out nations going And stablize the economy But now every country has money that they're owing And the land that they're owning Is has evolved Yes the river of life is always flowing Social reforms Counter cultures fight They protest strongly For equal civil rights The world's in constant change Every day turns into night Every opening has its closing And then it comes back again As long as there's someone hoping Yes the river of life is always flowing We put people into space We have fought for equality Created a world from nothing And advanced technology We've struggle to go to where we are And continue to go strongly The opportunities fate has been bestowing We look forward to see what is ahead The memories and mysteries the hourglass is holding Yes the river of life is always flowing
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Apr 23, 2014
Apr 23, 2014 at 2:40 PM UTC
The River of Life is Always Flowing
Look in the mirror Look at the clock Look at the time It never has stopped It only goes forward It's a one way walk See how you have been growing You ask yourself, "where have the days been going?" Time can only progress Yes, the river of life is always flowing We lived cabins And castles and caves We came from Adam and eve We evolved from apes From Socrates and Homer To Napoleon and Alexander the Great The minds that desired knowing And the enlightened ones glowing People can only advance Yes the river of life is always flowing Revolutions and rebellions Riots and revolts Great discoveries A key, a kite and a lightning bolt Great writings and inventions Innovations from inspiring jolts Improvement was showing To the future the world was going Humanity only began to develop Yes the river of life is always flowing Religions and sciences Economics and politics Television and radio Monarchies and dictatorships Tanks and machine guns Atomic bombs and battle ships We went from arrow shooting and spear throwing The muskets needed reloading To nuclear weapons Yes the river of life is always flowing Exploring new lands To find the world wasn't flat To find silver and gold And buried artifacts To establish new territories And expand the map The searching ship kept rowing As civilization went on growing Accomplishments of the past Yes the river of life is always flowing Boats and rail roads Fair trade and industry World wide markets Over land and sea To keep out nations going And stablize the economy But now every country has money that they're owing And the land that they're owning Is has evolved Yes the river of life is always flowing Social reforms Counter cultures fight They protest strongly For equal civil rights The world's in constant change Every day turns into night Every opening has its closing And then it comes back again As long as there's someone hoping Yes the river of life is always flowing We put people into space We have fought for equality Created a world from nothing And advanced technology We've struggle to go to where we are And continue to go strongly The opportunities fate has been bestowing We look forward to see what is ahead The memories and mysteries the hourglass is holding Yes the river of life is always flowing
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80
It is snowing and death bugs me as stubborn as insomnia. The fierce bubbles of chalk, the little white lesions settle on the street outside. It is snowing and the ninety year old woman who was combing out her long white wraith hair is gone, embalmed even now, even tonight her arms are smooth muskets at her side and nothing issues from her but her last word - "Oh." Surprised by death. It is snowing. Paper spots are falling from the punch. Hello? Mrs. Death is here! She suffers according to the digits of my hate. I hear the filaments of alabaster. I would lie down with them and lift my madness off like a wig. I would lie outside in a room of wool and let the snow cover me. Paris white or flake white or argentine, all in the washbasin of my mouth, calling, "Oh." I am empty. I am witless. Death is here. There is no other settlement. Snow! See the mark, the pock, the pock! Meanwhile you pour tea with your handsome gentle hands. Then you deliberately take your forefinger and point it at my temple, saying, "You suicide ***** I'd like to take a corkscrew and ***** out all your brains and you'd never be back ever." And I close my eyes over the steaming tea and see God opening His teeth. "Oh." He says. I see the child in me writing, "Oh." Oh, my dear, not why.
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Oh
Thunder birds Feathers made of light No crashing in the night Heedless heals shatter the ground Muskets silencing every warning Thunder birds Voices carry out songs No silence in the oblivion Hollowed breathing gasping oxygen Bullets' sonic reverberations Overpowering every whimpering Thunder Birds Witnessing every crime No veils cloud the terror Burning images through tears Weapons of desolation spark Smoke and fire to blind just eyes With every burning desire We were meant to love But instead fell low Construing our delirium As if by predestined design Without faulting the system Facilitating issuance of our sickness Restless voices trivialized To demobilize their power Appropriating oppression as ours
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Apr 26, 2013
Apr 26, 2013 at 11:31 PM UTC
Thunder Birds
Out on the marsh on a lonely night The wind soughs through his rags, The hat that’s pinned to his painted face, Flutters and soars, then sags, His eyes are wide and his mouth is grim As an owl is put to flight, And nothing but shadows will venture there For the Scarecrow rules the night. And back in the manse in a window seat The Parson’s daughter sits, She stares at the fluttering coat-tails, but In truth, is scared to bits, She watches the sails of the windmill turn And creak and groan in the gloom, As clouds come stuttering over the marsh In the rays of a Harvest Moon. The father is out in the donkey cart To tend to his aging flock, He’s left Elizabeth waiting there By the tick of the hallway clock, But out on the moors and beyond the marsh There rides one Highway Jack, A frock coat topped with a bunch of lace And a gold trimmed tricorne hat. He’s whipped the horse to a lather In a retreat from a new affray, For the magistrates have gathered Vowing to ride him down that day, The redcoats wait in the village Inn For the sound that they know too well, When the curate sees the approaching horse He’s to toll the old church bell. But the curate lies in a drunken fit On the floor of the old church nave, And soon, by matins his soul will flit From life to an early grave, Elizabeth sits in the window seat And thinks of the coin and plate, As the highwayman dismounts, and ties His horse to the manse’s gate. He beats on the door, ‘Please let me in, I’m weary and faint, that’s all. I wouldn’t abuse your person, but I fear my back’s to the wall.’ She leaves the seat and she slides the bar For bracing the oaken door, ‘I dare not, sir, I fear for my life, You’re safer out on the moor!’ Their voices echo across the marsh Like fear, distilled in the night, And something shudders out in the gloom And lurches to left and right, It seems forever, but now a sound Tolls out, like a final knell, For something, out in the church tonight, Is tolling the steeple bell. He barely makes it back to his horse When the redcoats stand in line, Their muskets fire a volley of shot And his coat turns red, like wine. They go to the church when the deed is done To say, ‘You have done well!’ But the curate lies on the cold stone floor, The Scarecrow tolled the bell! David Lewis Paget
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Jul 30, 2013
Jul 30, 2013 at 10:30 PM UTC
The Scarecrow
Out on the marsh on a lonely night The wind soughs through his rags, The hat that’s pinned to his painted face, Flutters and soars, then sags, His eyes are wide and his mouth is grim As an owl is put to flight, And nothing but shadows will venture there For the Scarecrow rules the night. And back in the manse in a window seat The Parson’s daughter sits, She stares at the fluttering coat-tails, but In truth, is scared to bits, She watches the sails of the windmill turn And creak and groan in the gloom, As clouds come stuttering over the marsh In the rays of a Harvest Moon. The father is out in the donkey cart To tend to his aging flock, He’s left Elizabeth waiting there By the tick of the hallway clock, But out on the moors and beyond the marsh There rides one Highway Jack, A frock coat topped with a bunch of lace And a gold trimmed tricorne hat. He’s whipped the horse to a lather In a retreat from a new affray, For the magistrates have gathered Vowing to ride him down that day, The redcoats wait in the village Inn For the sound that they know too well, When the curate sees the approaching horse He’s to toll the old church bell. But the curate lies in a drunken fit On the floor of the old church nave, And soon, by matins his soul will flit From life to an early grave, Elizabeth sits in the window seat And thinks of the coin and plate, As the highwayman dismounts, and ties His horse to the manse’s gate. He beats on the door, ‘Please let me in, I’m weary and faint, that’s all. I wouldn’t abuse your person, but I fear my back’s to the wall.’ She leaves the seat and she slides the bar For bracing the oaken door, ‘I dare not, sir, I fear for my life, You’re safer out on the moor!’ Their voices echo across the marsh Like fear, distilled in the night, And something shudders out in the gloom And lurches to left and right, It seems forever, but now a sound Tolls out, like a final knell, For something, out in the church tonight, Is tolling the steeple bell. He barely makes it back to his horse When the redcoats stand in line, Their muskets fire a volley of shot And his coat turns red, like wine. They go to the church when the deed is done To say, ‘You have done well!’ But the curate lies on the cold stone floor, The Scarecrow tolled the bell! David Lewis Paget
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65
When muskets shattered bones within the chest, an era slipped from time; new shadows born where history cast its cape on Budapest. Their fate entombed in honour; doom the guest. No haven in their valour, loudly worn, when muskets shattered bones within the chest. The sabre steel lies dormant in its quest, its master slain in scarlet fields of corn, where history cast its cape on Budapest. One leader freed; damnation for the rest. Thirteen there stood; thirteen then shot at dawn, when muskets shattered bones within the chest. These Arad martyrs, ever standing lest long centuries erode the passion borne where history cast its cape on Budapest. Glasses do not kiss, by grief’s request. Laid quietly the ghosts that gently mourn where muskets shattered bones within the chest when history cast its cape on Budapest.
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Jan 29, 2016
Jan 29, 2016 at 11:59 AM UTC
A Villanelle For Budapest
The Earth trembled As the rabbits marched down With strange twisted muskets and fangs in their Cowles. You can hear the cry’s of crows lost crowds who have obviously sent them around to hop one by one to lead you into the cold lonely ground Where you can only watch As the works of man Are razed to the ground
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Jan 17, 2022
Jan 17, 2022 at 8:18 AM UTC
Thumper
** I wrote this long ago for a friend with cancer - a small malignancy the size of a pearl in her lung. The hateful thing metastasised to her pancreas after two years in the shadows - she lost her battle last week. She was 73. She was firm friends with my mother my entire life, and her own children Isobel and Craig are like my own flesh and blood. I was unable to attend the funeral due to ill health, but she requested this poem be read out at her funeral - I'm sharing it here as a tribute to her, and I've changed names to preserve her privacy and dignity. ** This kingdom's hewn of time and words And glances flashing over Shadows, shapes and silhouettes And pearls of smoke and ochre. Rude invaders! Generals! Who dares encroach our borders? "Naught but pearls my princess, so We strike! At dawn! No quarter!". Set shoulders low and feet aplant And curl your fingers slowly. Your enemy is swift and lean, Ten thousand times below you. No mercy from a princess who Instilled in fresh disciples Wisdom, courage, whimsy, love and When it's called for... rifles. Gather muskets! Catapults! Oh marshalls! Summon nurses! The game's afoot and outcomes? Well, who dwells on whom we versus? For masses swell behind you and your Gleaming armour guides us. Swords aflame! We saw! We came! Wakes of pearls behind us! Ten years hence, one hundred, more Louises, Davids, Andrews, Will sing with you your victory, Sandy Alexandrou.
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Oct 18, 2016
Oct 18, 2016 at 6:38 AM UTC
Poem for a friend with cancer
In the midweek of twelves months I torched blunts and choked on wet smoke and chamomile tea. Fretting the niggling giblets of a queasy disrememberance of a sober stroll through your tossed hair salad. I managed to mangle  the marvelous gross lust of our impending delirium. i farmed bok choy to annoy our local siege. our muskets were polished with misdeeds. our demons barked, all coy and ravenous in the sweet diffuse of our useless aplomb. ginger rockets in our thespian numb. you Dis-Oriental surrogate Mom. You.... flame folding cranes, like a Japanese cancer with opposable thumbs. Unstoppable in the dead wink of an awkward eye upon your heaving ******* You burn regardless.
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May 8, 2013
May 8, 2013 at 11:53 PM UTC
The Arcanaeum Of Drudgery And The Unspoken
They call the ship 'Burden,' An indestructible vessel, Rival to the monsters of the sea. It's exactly what the people needed, For you see, In the depths lurked a beast. Eighty tentacles, four trade ships tall and wide, A hundred-thirty teeth when it's smile lied. They called it, "Kraken." It was nothing of the likes you've seen, Emperor of the dark sea. The Burden could hold fifteen hundred men, Arming harpoons, cannons, muskets, wit. The king ordered them to turn the seas red with gore, Call forth the Kraken, Strike it dead. Then to the king, They would drag back it's head. So come high-noon, The ship was in place, Above the deepest of sea caves. Letting forth crates of bait, Staining the waters of the sea, Until the sailors heard a rumble, Shake the Burden's iron shell. Up from the waters came long river's hell, Tentacles like spires towering well beyond the sails. But the crew held steady, "Tighten the ropes, arm our cannons," Cried the captain, "Then fire!" The seas filled with blood, The sky filled with gunpowder, fractured shells, A shriek rang out from the deeps. The cry of death, From the Kraken itself. Tentacles sinking away, "The head!" Cried the captian, So Lutenent Lucus dived after the creature. Tied by a rope, Pike in hand, The creature's head, He began to drag. Though, glancing over his shoulder, Through the murk he could see, The form of a woman swimming away. Some curse broken, he decided, A soul freed from grim reality. Peace.
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Jun 11, 2025
Jun 11, 2025 at 10:53 AM UTC
The Burden Sails Away
Five Hundred miles deep where the work has just begun the sweaty backs of Chinamen reflect the high noon sun Their hammers strike the iron stakes with a sharp resounding ring and they murmur ancient melodies to the rhythm of their swing a hundred miles deeper in an oaken-wooded glen rusty-bearded lumberjacks take up the axe again every man together brings the forest to its knees and grumbles songs of yesteryear to the beat of falling trees deeper still, the boys in blue staying true to form, pointing with their bayonets upon the village swarm they spill the purest blood over sacred ground their muskets singing fiery death with that wicked, wicked sound.
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Aug 13, 2015
Aug 13, 2015 at 12:03 AM UTC
Uncle Samuel's Continental Railroad Company
A million miles of light between earth and sky. a million miles of stars before the sun goes by. A million feet between a line in the sand. and I'm still not sure where I stand. A million feet trample the ground. A million muskets like trumpets sound. this is the moment to stand your ground. Where a million lives are lost only one martyr is found. and another star still shines in the sky. A star that stood for good men willing to die.
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Jul 6, 2015
Jul 6, 2015 at 8:38 AM UTC
good men.
Hissing hydraulic brakes your face was hiding. April wind was howling. Empty streets at 6 a.m. A song of dust in squinting eyes. You hunched your shoulders, pulled your hood back, smiled sunrise. Bus doors closed. We'd always leak away and trace these city limit lines 'til the night bled into day. Bend footsteps back t'ward sunburnt lines that cross the map of the town we lived in for all these sun-seared years. Sat South of love and East of friendship, but we feared nothin'! Yeah, we were pirates, with smoke mouthed muskets in hand. With full sails. And bold grins inscribed across each face. And, back here, I still roll through days on waves of Autumn wind and memory. Empty streets at 3 a.m. Walk with our ghosts; still haunt this town. You took your chances, and a Greyhound just past sunset--headed West. We'd always leak away, drive out past city limit lines. And we'd drive until the day- light bent rays back to eyes' red lines that crossed the map of the talks we'd lived in for all those wondering years, West of white lies and North of silence. Guess we feared something. But, now, what was it? And, now, where are you? Out West with full sails and clear eyes inside a sunset face?
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Jun 22, 2015
Jun 22, 2015 at 3:03 PM UTC
Passenger
Memory takes me back to long ago. I can see the deck of the slave ship I came on, smell the salt air and the hot vinegar used to clean away the escaping stench below the deck, hear the sound as male slaves exercise, as crew members play fiddle music while chains thud hard from the dancing amusement of the slaves. My home was near the River Senegal on the coast. The slave traders ships brought colered cloth, beads, *** and cowrie shells to trade for our black flesh. Father raised cattle, rice and maize. This ebony man traded muskets, gunpowder, needles and colored thread, for what he grew. On the day of our capture, we marched during the long day tied to each other, given only thin meal and warm water. Tiredness bore down on our limbs each step. Canoes came on waves toward us. Fear moved down the chained line of men. Women and children were separated. Our clothes were taken. Standing naked, mouths were opened, and muscles felt. We had to jump up and down while moving our arms. Chosen ones were branded on the skin. I screamed loudly until my voice refuse sound. The time for hearing is gone. Rapid waters filled with blood, as some are tossed into the sea, for circling sharks to dine on. The ship offers only sixteen inches to hold me, others have two and half inches if tightly packed. Bodies are in the hold, secured down by chains that are nailed. Faint cries of agony beat on my ears like drums. I try not to breath in the rancid smells of those who have soiled themselves. Air is limited. Mutiny usually takes place within the shoreline. Because when at sea chances are less to escape. Slaves who simply refuse to eat are force fed with the speculum oris which is placed in the slave's mouth, opening the jaws then food is pushed in usually rice or millet. Crew members tried wash away stench of blood from floggings, feces, ***** from between decks until this day the stench still remains. Living as a slave while your soul is dead is a living horror.
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Aug 30, 2013
Aug 30, 2013 at 9:32 PM UTC
PASSAGE BY VICTOR TRIPP
Memory takes me back to long ago. I can see the deck of the slave ship I came on, smell the salt air and the hot vinegar used to clean away the escaping stench below the deck, hear the sound as male slaves exercise, as crew members play fiddle music while chains thud hard from the dancing amusement of the slaves. My home was near the River Senegal on the coast. The slave traders ships brought colered cloth, beads, *** and cowrie shells to trade for our black flesh. Father raised cattle, rice and maize. This ebony man traded muskets, gunpowder, needles and colored thread, for what he grew. On the day of our capture, we marched during the long day tied to each other, given only thin meal and warm water. Tiredness bore down on our limbs each step. Canoes came on waves toward us. Fear moved down the chained line of men. Women and children were separated. Our clothes were taken. Standing naked, mouths were opened, and muscles felt. We had to jump up and down while moving our arms. Chosen ones were branded on the skin. I screamed loudly until my voice refuse sound. The time for hearing is gone. Rapid waters filled with blood, as some are tossed into the sea, for circling sharks to dine on. The ship offers only sixteen inches to hold me, others have two and half inches if tightly packed. Bodies are in the hold, secured down by chains that are nailed. Faint cries of agony beat on my ears like drums. I try not to breath in the rancid smells of those who have soiled themselves. Air is limited. Mutiny usually takes place within the shoreline. Because when at sea chances are less to escape. Slaves who simply refuse to eat are force fed with the speculum oris which is placed in the slave's mouth, opening the jaws then food is pushed in usually rice or millet. Crew members tried wash away stench of blood from floggings, feces, ***** from between decks until this day the stench still remains. Living as a slave while your soul is dead is a living horror.
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“Clear the way, boys, clear the way” said Meagher astride his steed. The fighting sixty- ninth stepped forth, they were not afraid to bleed. Upon St Marye’s heights Cobb’s Georgians waited, behind a low stone wall. The lads attacked that stout defense – how senseless was it all. There were Irish too up on the hill and they saw the Emerald flag. “Oh God, what a pity! Here come Meagher’s fellows” one Irish rebel said, But all obeyed the order given; to fill the air with lead. The sixty-ninth could not reply, they all carried antique stock. Muskets are no match for rifles at the distance they attacked. They climbed that rise into a storm of canister and shot They got as close as 40 yards before their surge was stopped. Sixteen hundred had started out from the little town below, They took the fight as far as any of mortal flesh could go. As darkness fell upon the field there were wounded men and dying. Some muttered prayers in their foreign tongue, how pitiful their crying. It was a dark December for the army Burnside led. Fourteen assaults in all repulsed with eight Thousand Union dead. With eighty percent casualties Meagher’s boys had it worst of all: Fewer than three hundred were left to answer the roll call.
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Mar 13, 2016
Mar 13, 2016 at 11:16 AM UTC
Uncommon Valor
There’s an old saying that Texas just might swallow the whole ****** world someday. Well it’s an old saying of mine but I can hardly believe the world ending without Texas swallowing a great deal of it considering these canyons, mountain-eaters, big enough to hide every cowboy snake and buzzard that don’t know any better. The thing about Texas is you can’t see the end of things here and people call it big. The thing about Texas is everybody calls it something big when it’s really something stretched. Texas took a turn for the worse, warred with Mexicans in 1836 and never recovered. All that revolution, rusted muskets, wormwood, spilled into and on golden-brown cattle land, turned it dry-blood red. All that red, and Texas, she blushes. Texas, shy, ravaged, stretched. 1836 and she’s reaching for the Gulf and the East and West coasts and Montana and if we don’t fix it someday Texas just might swallow the whole ****** world. One Spring I myself kicked around a little dry-blood dirt. By Summer I had my fill. There’s an old saying the only way to leave Texas is dry-throated and drenched, brokenhearted and better if you swing it the right way . 4 O’Clock Texan Suns scream thirsty yet we leave the place drowning if we make it at all. That’s the thing about Texas, though, it sneaks up, an axe and a smile and you can’t trust anything about it and you fall in love too easily and the thing is the axe doesn’t bite so much as knowing the handle came from the same forest you never questioned, where step 1 is breathing and you actually did it; the thing about axes though is that breath might still be inside the handle and it’s just sitting in there dead dead dead and heavy Pine. Austin at night becomes a family of burning eyes in the desert. Sun and trees, and it’s green. I do not think these trees grew naturally. I think these trees were put there.
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Feb 15, 2012
Feb 15, 2012 at 10:09 PM UTC
Texas, Part 1
There’s an old saying that Texas just might swallow the whole ****** world someday. Well it’s an old saying of mine but I can hardly believe the world ending without Texas swallowing a great deal of it considering these canyons, mountain-eaters, big enough to hide every cowboy snake and buzzard that don’t know any better. The thing about Texas is you can’t see the end of things here and people call it big. The thing about Texas is everybody calls it something big when it’s really something stretched. Texas took a turn for the worse, warred with Mexicans in 1836 and never recovered. All that revolution, rusted muskets, wormwood, spilled into and on golden-brown cattle land, turned it dry-blood red. All that red, and Texas, she blushes. Texas, shy, ravaged, stretched. 1836 and she’s reaching for the Gulf and the East and West coasts and Montana and if we don’t fix it someday Texas just might swallow the whole ****** world. One Spring I myself kicked around a little dry-blood dirt. By Summer I had my fill. There’s an old saying the only way to leave Texas is dry-throated and drenched, brokenhearted and better if you swing it the right way . 4 O’Clock Texan Suns scream thirsty yet we leave the place drowning if we make it at all. That’s the thing about Texas, though, it sneaks up, an axe and a smile and you can’t trust anything about it and you fall in love too easily and the thing is the axe doesn’t bite so much as knowing the handle came from the same forest you never questioned, where step 1 is breathing and you actually did it; the thing about axes though is that breath might still be inside the handle and it’s just sitting in there dead dead dead and heavy Pine. Austin at night becomes a family of burning eyes in the desert. Sun and trees, and it’s green. I do not think these trees grew naturally. I think these trees were put there.
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7
The night winds sing, the chorus rings through the dead hour of the valley. Hear it, the music of the wolf’s pain. Against the backdrop of the new moon, high on an icy blue rocky ridge with the pine trees stabbing the black sky, there shivers the weeping wolf. *This day he has lost two precious things...* Hunters came bearing muskets, bayonets and torches. They rampaged through the wood shooting everything that moved. The air hung heavy with the stink of the musket shot. The wolf’s mate, a beauty amongst beauties, had been suckling her pup when a hunter’s sabre silently sliced through her fur and cleaved her silky shoulder. Death silenced her and snatched away her pup.
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Feb 4, 2011
Feb 4, 2011 at 12:30 PM UTC
The Night of the Weeping Wolf
Let my past be published now, I care for it no longer; Look between my righteous things To see I was the wronger. Gather all the worries I'd fret about in winter; Shove them off the highest cliff, Make them crack and splinter. Traipsing in the gardenside, Dancing in the hollow; Feeling for a mason's nook, Sweet Amontillado. Down within the castle walls, Down among the relics; Bearded faces line the halls, Lilting in Goidelic. Slowing pace to stop and smell Of a strange antiquity; Thinking on a silver day That happened once in Brittany. Countrymen with muskets bared, Bent on fiery shot, Pounced upon the zealous rogues Of Napoleonic lot. Wand'ring mind, drop your guard, Stop your nagging ways; Hark! the drap'ry's bold aura Welcomes warmer days. Happiness is fleeting, Sadness is extinct, So let my every passing thought Be mindful and succinct.
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Feb 22, 2018
Feb 22, 2018 at 1:06 PM UTC
Poetic Afterthought
Things that turn purple: Feet, when exposed to the cold Food, when exposed to oxygen My face, when exposed to fear To my habits To my past. The mention of tying a noose brings pictures to my mind Of how I used to plan my own death While paging through a magazine in a waiting room Ready for the doctors to see me To tell me I wasn't that sick Because they didn't know the things I did to myself I covered up the sliced layers of my skin quite nicely With different grades of fabric The belts tied in the shape of my neck Hung like skeletons in my closet People kept telling me it was his fault I was so distraught But that did not make me feel any better They would constantly tell me there were support groups for the molested That I was not alone But there is never any solace in being a statistic Numbers burn across my skin like matches Each additional time I heard them The skin would bubble and blister Forming a new wound for me to later pick the scab off If the world did not do that first. Through therapy, I learned that When I try to carry the pieces of me That are bigger than my hands can hold That are sharper than my flesh can take That are wider than my unwieldy body Even though I didn't think that was possible I crumble like the walls of Jericho When an army came rushing the city limits. My past is an armada that rushes full speed through my chest Piercing me with swords and muskets and bullets Causing me to bleed and rot from the inside out Causing me to fall away like petal from stem Causing me to implode silently And maybe a sign of this disaster A symptom of this sickness Is discoloration. Things turn purple As a result of prolonged exposure To their personal kryptonite.
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Jan 6, 2015
Jan 6, 2015 at 11:46 PM UTC
Things That Turn Purple
Things that turn purple: Feet, when exposed to the cold Food, when exposed to oxygen My face, when exposed to fear To my habits To my past. The mention of tying a noose brings pictures to my mind Of how I used to plan my own death While paging through a magazine in a waiting room Ready for the doctors to see me To tell me I wasn't that sick Because they didn't know the things I did to myself I covered up the sliced layers of my skin quite nicely With different grades of fabric The belts tied in the shape of my neck Hung like skeletons in my closet People kept telling me it was his fault I was so distraught But that did not make me feel any better They would constantly tell me there were support groups for the molested That I was not alone But there is never any solace in being a statistic Numbers burn across my skin like matches Each additional time I heard them The skin would bubble and blister Forming a new wound for me to later pick the scab off If the world did not do that first. Through therapy, I learned that When I try to carry the pieces of me That are bigger than my hands can hold That are sharper than my flesh can take That are wider than my unwieldy body Even though I didn't think that was possible I crumble like the walls of Jericho When an army came rushing the city limits. My past is an armada that rushes full speed through my chest Piercing me with swords and muskets and bullets Causing me to bleed and rot from the inside out Causing me to fall away like petal from stem Causing me to implode silently And maybe a sign of this disaster A symptom of this sickness Is discoloration. Things turn purple As a result of prolonged exposure To their personal kryptonite.
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45
Buzzing cries are muffled under forests of crimson flags that march towards the city square, rippling with intent. Banners are crude in attacking today but naive when dreaming what could be: ‘Poetry is in the streets’ they cry, ‘Tis forbidden to forbid!' Granite towers high above protruding into nothingness, sheathed in angry cloud as rulers sit inside, poker-faced, pondering Inevitability? ... Well-placed muskets spew forth shrapnel as white-hot death enters bodies that fall to the ground, their fists still clenched in unyielding rocks. Out leak scarlet legacies; The blood is striking against the snow. ... A forgotten placard sits, buried half in mud. Red letters still visible it reassures that two and two no longer make four.
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Jun 15, 2012
Jun 15, 2012 at 11:08 PM UTC
sunday morning revolution
The 19 murdered and martyred children and the 2 murdered and martyred teachers who taught them in Ulvade, Texas were a collective Christ. They, like, Christ, were crucified, but by an endless stream of raging bullets that pierced their hearts and souls, killing all of them. **** Trump, Cowards Cruz and Abbott, and other members of the American Fascistist Party (formerly the Republican Party) also used the same trigger that has now murdered and martyred thousands and thousands and thousands of Americans. Indeed, all other members of the American Fascist Party have implicitly been pulling the same trigger. The Second Amendment was drafted and ratified to protect the right of all citizens of the United States of America to possess legally muskets, not AR 15s. America is now apparently not only dumb, but also, and most egregiously, numb. TOD HOWARD HAWKS
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May 26, 2022
May 26, 2022 at 12:09 PM UTC
A COLLECTIVE CHRIST
In mettle, in pure gallantry They storm by foot to war Muskets set, blades sharp and strong To fight in blood and gore The tyrant entices them with gold Chance anew at life But those poor souls, they never knew They’re in for woe and strife With pride inlaid within their hearts They bid their wives goodbye. In agony, in shadow black They’ll soon fall and they’ll die And ask themselves on verge of death What was it worth it for? To march away and give their lives Away to death at war
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Sep 6, 2013
Sep 6, 2013 at 8:35 PM UTC
Soldiers
The telex caster flickers on and the chap from the BBC, states the last of the balloons are erected we are ready for lift off Slowly the land pulls away from the earth time to rule Britannica most glorious going where the winds takes us and where we land, we will take as ours Using only sound weapons and the whispers of cold winds we are so ready to take seizers for this is airship Britain, full of lunatics All don their red jackets men, women and even children no more muskets or marching for this land is made for fighting We are the now the Kunstprodukt so ready for war, and so wanting ready to take back what we have lost this is battle of airship Britain Only the elite will attire in black for they are the hard core warriors and they will jump into action before we land, and play dangerously We will rule where the wind takes us for Britain is not on the map and soon we float over to you and land on your ****** lap By Christos Andreas Kourtis aka NeonSolaris By NeonSolaris © 2012 NeonSolaris (All rights reserved)
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Nov 27, 2013
Nov 27, 2013 at 7:43 PM UTC
Airship Britain
My armies are in full retreat: the cannons cold, boots worn down, muskets jammed and rusted -- Well fought and ready for rest. My men seek shelter deep, deep enough that hands cannot reach, and they shall stay there for, perhaps, ever. I was always told "no," that money ran the world and a passion for words will not be enough, that I will fail... So my army is in retreat, tired of fighting a constant defense, using our last resources to build a keep to lock away every imaginative flutter of golden butterflies, and hide away any stray flicker of a thoughtful flame. The oak trees of my mind's forest have been cut down, nothing but stumps and leaves and the smell of industrial smoke from the bark of my oaks. This time next year, I hope not to be completely dead inside that, somehow, deep in the keep of my soul, a willow will weep beautiful tears for lost soldiers and fallen oaks. Perhaps the keep will thrive, fighting off the countless sieges and housing pilgrim dreams. Perhaps the conquerers will be kind, offering mercy to the innocent and a quick death to the ones who deny "no." It breaks my heart to call retreat, but a small, crumbling, wounded dream is better than no dream at all.
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Jan 2, 2015
Jan 2, 2015 at 9:30 PM UTC
My armies are in full retreat
Postmortem thoughts raced in his head The wet-blanketed machinery post war over-head Tassels in the stream wave lengthened and abated Left under wrought iron, muted and latent   Grave-full the wondering over hills Smoke ridden skies play fiddles for thrills Marked a deserter a coward to-be Stave joins the uniform woe is the helmet free Consumption as the assault forum Malaria under tent field wounds Strategically sound mortals woven and bound Orders on muskets, send out the hounds! Bought for the trade ore a plantation plow Burned to rubble soot and sow Family mantle abandon its urn No food for the season now is their turn
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Jul 24, 2019
Jul 24, 2019 at 5:18 PM UTC
The Forgotten Hero