So many tears

So many tears
September 17, 2005

So many tears,
so little time.
I cry for each moment past,
a lapse of something monumental -
a mere moment that was hardly momentous -
and mediocrity washes over me in waves.

For if nothing
defines the present
than what will be left for others to read -
our temple walls are whitewashed,
the hieroglyphs of the pharaohs speaking
volumes of our more enlightened past;
our digital legacy lingering in the metals
reforged into plow and scythe,
encrypted data -
names, numbers, fortunes, secrets, thoughts, and all -
held in rough hands and working the land,
feeding a family and far too few friends.

And what, then,
of this bleak future?
It unfolds before me in patterns I recognize,
the path is well trodden, beaten down again and again;
so little time at my disposal, such a shame to spend it all running in place,
so many tears are falling that I wonder how much of this world they will erase.

Copyright (c) 2005 Everett Ambrose Warren

pillars of salt

pillars of salt
September 17, 2005

morally bankrupt
on throne of diamond and gold
calling out for blood
"I am peace and love"

a city washed away
in sin, so you say
no angels trumpet this
only devils sayeth so

your forked tongue
gives you away
the only pillar of salt
lies in your heart

cast out your demons
false holy man,
for whatever harm they do this world
they shall visit upon you for all eternity

Copyright (c) 2005 Everett Ambrose Warren

comeuppance

comeuppance
September 17, 2005

standing
drying
dying
cut
twisted
mother, i thirst
mother, i bleed
mother, i die
absent
an answer
for the hairless ape
declares her dead
seizing power
he manipulates
for it is his way
life destroyed
paved over
mindless
he aligns
her virtues
against the design
forcing her
to his will
for it is his right
and she must yield to him
until her life fades
and he holds in his claws
her corpse
and sees it
as his own

Copyright (c) 2005 Everett Ambrose Warren

irritants

irritants
September 17, 2005

Fate?
I won’t call it so,
for I dislike names as such.
Names speak of limitations, binding a thing
beyond its ability to be.

A plan?
The blueprints are there
in the rivers and the trees and our veins.
An intelligent design, perhaps,
but mankind is doing their best to change that.

Evolution?
It would be nice,
but we seem to be stuck in a rut.
In a hundred million years, the ancestors of our current chimpanzees
will be explaining the dead end that was humanity.

Overreacting?
Far from it - for while
the chimpanzees can practice sustainable
agriculture across a broad and varying range of foods,
we have but few staples and literally work them into the ground.

Extinction?
So damn superior,
we aren’t bright enough to see it.
Our interests are always paramount - our society so fragile,
yet the tattered edges are never our own threads.

Hope?
Yes.

Love?
Yes.

It is possible;
Yet while some
try so hard to wash away the irritants
they merely replace them;
for whether the relocate them or remove them,
always and more so, they become them.

Copyright (c) 2005 Everett Ambrose Warren

(no subject)

That's it for yesterday's poetry output - normally, I'd spread those out over a week or so (seems like I only get to write on weekends, and not often enough on them...) but I won't be able to update again until Wednesday or later...

Now, off to pack, shower, drive down to Philly, and then eat dinner aboard the Moshulu... and hopefully avoid the Eagles home game traffic along the way.