Chapbook

By the edict of the Culture of murder We accept it as the Cycle convinced We can’t change it A benediction of Cerebral emanation And the usual Invocation  Words Words Written in blood.

In the beginning We laughed a lot Years of friendship Titillating, chortling it didn’t stop Giggling like little kids Never quite sure why we were chuckling Every sentence like a joke Tickling, amusing, and yucking It up Now the laughter Turns to tears My friend, your illness Embodied all our fears In the end as I watch you Whither away What would I give for One more day Of laughter 

Thunderstorm Boom Boom Crack Sheets of rain billow from the sky A river rushes down the street It pools in places And then it races Past the sewer grates Past the storm drains Too much, too fast Boom Boom Crack Light and sound fill the air Thunder rattles the windows A line of silver streaks across the grays Of rain clouds Like death shrouds Blanketing sunlight, blue sky Too thick, too foreboding Boom Boom Crack Boom boom crack boom boom crack

Ekprhastic (a poem with allusion to another piece of art) A Starry Night Swirling blues and greens, Light and dark meet in a confusion That somehow soothes. Haloed stars, Cascading mountains, (Protective, yet foreboding) Perch above a  Serene and tranquil hamlet. The eternal cypress  In the foreground Beautiful and sad.

https://gods-and-demons.fandom.com/wiki/ Persephone Persephone and the Pomegranate Seeds Persephone they say On that fateful day When Hades forever bride she became Ate three lonely seeds, Three lonely blood-red seeds. But wonder you may On that fateful day Where Persephone did attain The lonely crimson seeds, The pomegranate seeds. Some storytellers say It was a muse named Empathy Forced to wear Hades chain. A melancholy shade, A lonely dark-souled shade. It was then that Empathy Gave the pomegranate to Persephone Knowing the lonely girl’s fate That Hades forever bride she’d be, That she’d be trapped like Empathy. And on that fateful day The dirty trick been played, Empathy no longer a shade Winked out after the deed That damned Persephone And left the world without Empathy.

Innocence lays silently in a crimson pool The pool, warm and thick and heavy With grief and fear and confusion A community in Mourning Yet not permitted to mourn. Disbelief morphs into anger But never acceptance. We can never accept the sacrifice Of our children For your metal. No more blood for your bullets. No more thoughts and prayers.   BTG 5-25-22  

I want to live in a world Inclusive, kind, full of love. Naive? I may be, But a peace sign and a dove Were once the symbols We held fast and proud. These were once the ideas We shouted frequently loud. It feels we have fallen Deep into despair. Fear and hate are the Things that we share. The constant struggle Between evil and good, Greed and giving, Peace and spilling blood. How did we manage to Get so out of whack? What can we do to Get back on track? Destroying the air, water, Flora and fauna. Destroying the balance We need for order. How do we return To that world we were creating? We must stop the fear; We must stop the hating.

Confined in this space I mark out my place A towel, an umbrella, my chair. The sun and the sand Cool drink in my hand A seagull, a seashell, salt air. Confined and yet free On the beach you can be Cheerful, content, without care.

He lumbered through the yard Stopped briefly to look at me Then sat heavily and scratched his Furry neck with large yet gentle paws He sat, his prominent nose in the air Catching scent of something Nodding his triangular head as if saying Yes, a delicious meal And disappeared through the houses Into the woods That bear That black bear Ready to tear apart  Some tourist’s trash.