Tag Archives: existential

Early Delivery

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Long road nights,
away from cargo terminalled towns,
days passing by like strangers
across midwestern plains,
beating time chasing sundowns
roaring on into chimeras
of purple-flecked dawns;
sights and sounds streaming north
skies bleached passing fast fading
truckstops neon-pink motel signs,
listening to the broadcast game
fade in and out with
the commentators’enthusiasm,
a stray memory of
another game a long time ago
those watching it running down their
lives soaking in the tavern sweat;
Long road nights,
running that clock down,
passing anonymous cities
their silhouetted skylines,
on toward the rumbling
carotene-colored dawn
crashing down breaking
into the final day;
scouting for that dirt road
miles off the Interstate,
rolling up to the farmhouse,
rendezvous with the Man in shades,
and a bulky manila envelope
exchanged for the cargo manifest;
drums of fuel oil
and pallets of Ammonia.

Technical footnote:

ANFO Explosive –

Ammonium Nitrate is an adaptable oxidizer that works well when explosions are needed during mining or quarrying operations. When combined with fuel oil, it makes an effective explosive that has a wide range of applications.

Excerpt from a Fantasy:2

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             Excerpt from a Fantasy:2

Tin soldiers
on the nursery floor 
broken and strewn
their colours faded;
All along the endless hallway
ancestral portraits 
with verdigris etched like memories 
into their faces;
In the library
the morning papers
lie unread and neatly folded
the passage of time compressed 
graven on pages now
a patina of brown and yellow ;
Elsewhere in the grand mansion house
now aslumber,
hidden nooks and crannies
are dreaming dreams again.

Excerpts from a fantasy

4 Replies

When the dancing maidens 
stop their dance
and the band on the stand 
ceases to play
and the ballroom lights
are dimmed for the last time 
and the waiting carriages 
take all the guests away,
the grand mansion house
slips into its slumber 
and in its dream like state 
continues making merry.

Passion of the Christ

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Passion of the Christ

“Fifteen ” ,

” Sixteen ” ,

tears flowing like a tidal flood ;

” Again ! ” ,

” twenty-four ” ,

” twenty-five ” ,

blood coursing in scarlet rivulets seeping down ;

” Again ! ” ,

” thirty-one ” ,

” thirty-two ” ,

flesh flayed torn wounds open to the world ;

” Again ! ” ,

” thirty-eight ” ,

” thirty-nine ” ,

now sublime ineffable Grace subsuming all the hurt ;

and now ,

The Cross …

The evidence wasn’t in the nail-marks

that Thomas asked you to show him ,

it wasn’t in the tears that your Mother Mary shed,

it wasn’t in the arms of Joseph of Aramathea ,

nor in the crown of thorns upon your head ;

It wasn’t there when you walked upon the water ,

nor in the 5000 that your loaves and fishes fed ;

It’s by the promise of your Father

that Grace abounded ,

when at Calvary your blood was shed.

Moments

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Moments
Each moment that passes by

is just like the moment yet to come,

that has already been and

is here with us again

until its time for it to go

and another arrives in

anticipation of yet one

more waiting its turn;

Though all moments

truth be told

are the same,

clones of clones of clones

camouflaged as “time”

so as not to appear

indifferent to our rather mundane desire

to see differences

appreciate variety;

After which we conclude

that all of it really is

just a waste of time.

How a mother feels

21 Replies 
Don’t ask a mother how she feels
When a child leaves home the first time
Not for a sleepover or the weekend
or a week's summer camp,
or even an extended vacation
But when a child leaves, I mean,
like really leaves- to a land, far,
far away from home
Don't ask a mother how she feels
Not then, not anytime soon

For her emotions run high like a muddy river
Flowing precariously close to the river's edge.
Give her time, let her be
So, the silt of separation settles
on the bed of her soul.
Know it ain't easy; kind of like using one's legs
for the first time, after an accident,
or breathing on one's own,
after being on life support
Or giving up an addiction,

or waking up from a comatose state
She needs to learn to live
with her heart outside of her
so, don't ask a mother how she feels
when a child leaves to a land, far,
far away from home
Instead, watch- how she meanders gently
into a new restive course;
never losing track
of the rivulets that diverged from her;

believing, knowing deep within her
that they too shall carve their own path.
Watch in awe, instead,
as you would the first flight of a bird

Or the sprouting of a sapling, or
the emergence of a butterfly from a cocoon
But, don't ask a mother how she feels
when her child leaves to a land, far, 
far away from home
Give her time, let her be.

Crime Scene

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                 Crime Scene
A Police Cruiser
drives down the dirt road
the dirt road leading
to the farm,
the farm where the
bodies were found
buried back of the barn;
a Police Cruiser
pulls up at the main gate,
Red and blue and red strobed lights
flashing all around
here the bodies were buried
in their unconsecrated graves;
The Sheriff,
lean,tall and haggard
steps out of the cruiser,
surveys the scene
spits on the ground
and utters an inappropriate oath..

Fugue

4 Replies

                     Fugue
There are memories
which even our dreams
can’t unlock,
and there are dreams
we’ve yet to have
that will fill our waking hours
with dread,
what of those dreams
that still evade us,
those of which we
only have memories of
and which we dare not
unlock from within
our dreams.

Mystery of the Numbers

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What do the numbers do when calculators are switched off ?

And when they are switched back on again ,

will the sums add up the same as before ?

Have numbers taken to redefining themselves ,

their values ,their own worth in the hidden realm

where we can’t see them ?

Are addition ,subtraction ,division ,multiplication

set in their ways ?

Inviolable .invariable ,inexorable  or are they

a matter of conjecture ,interpretation ,uncertainty ?

Only the numbers themselves can truly know

what the consequences are of those policies

and principles decided upon in secret conclave ;

far from our gaze ,beyond our mortal comprehension

the sum of two plus two hesitates to give an answer .

 

Tomorrow and

6 Replies

 Tomorrow and 


When we  meet  our Tomorrow 
                  and
when tomorrow meets us,
in that sublime  exchange 
                  of
mystery  and revelation 
knowing in part then knowing 
even as we are known,
Tomorrow  meets  us
even as we meet our tomorrow 
Revelation  itself is a mystery 
                   and
mystery a revelation ;
exchanging all our tomorrows 
for one single,
sublime moment

that remains forever