Club Humanity

Let us concede
that hatred had a really big year

Riding a seemingly endless
winning streak
fueled by mutual fear
and a sense of dread
that by next news cycle
any one of us could end up dead

Constant retaliations
leave us seeking isolation
behind walls of false insulation

Treating the symptoms
without curing the disease
simply delays
the body's demise

If we are to survive
we gotta realize
we are one species

one humanity
sharing the same planet
for a limited time

No one country

No one ideology

No one theology

No one person

is better than the next

Peace will only come
to this troubled blue speck
when mutual respect
and global equality
begin trending

Night Terrors

Too restless to sleep

Too desperate to succumb

The banging bass drums
pounding exclamation points
deep into my consciousness

Swirling scenarios collide

All lead to the same inevitability 

Past, present, and future
shacked up in the fog of obscurity

Just another late night obscenity

Sweat stains paint the bed sheets

A masterpiece of empty dreams 

Fixation Anxiety

..drip..drip..drip..

Convention demands this be

..fixed..fixed..fixed..

but I've become so accustomed
to this soothing defect
the consequence of silence
from such a simple repair
would lead to nostalgic despair
as I glumly reminiscence
about lost reassurance
from the melodic

..drip..drip..drip..

This liquid symphony

I would sorely

..miss..miss..miss

Dented Religion

Cue gratuitous sex scene to boost the relationship with the proper physical friction to validate this couple in a very natural way Moralists do say loose fornication outside of procreation is a carnal sin

An indecent abomination their version of God frowns upon

I say
with the greatest
of pious sincerity

FUCK EM

and the hypocritical high horse
they rode in on

Tinsel and Flash

When the No Nothings met
in the Great Hall of Ignorance
they were all quite self impressed
by their spectacle of shiny excess...

A love fest of flash over substance...

Potential encased in sparkle dreams...

The grand master mounts the stage

Proclaims the start of a new age
where camp is the new elegance
and extravagant irony reigns supreme

Text Based Confessional

I seem to have misplaced
the precious commodity
you trusted me to hold

This cherished stealth truth
formerly in my care
slipped through my fingers
and flew off into cyberspace

I rode that cryptic message
you posted late last night
in a desperate cry
to be read between the lines

I am your conscience

Now gone viral
cause deep down
you wanted to be self exposed
for the fake saint you are

Inside Job

Vomited all over a blank page

Took this instant finished product and called it art

For the work represents the inner me
unshackled by the chains of civility
with all those archaic rules
of proper literary etiquette

Like all clever inventions
it defies the standard intentions
to achieve respectable artistic conventions

As with all forms of communications 
the subject matter at hand
is prisoner to personal interpretations

So now I drop this wretched creation
on the doorstep of the public domain

Submitted for your approval...

Or not

Either way

I hope it at least speaks to you

Dumbing Down To The Ground

Once the shell of civility was shattered
by stealth forces embedded in our history
events began to spin out of control rapidly
as we were now descending without brakes

Panicked prisoners were we
Victims to the accelerations of gravity

The architects vainly tried to deflect fault 
of this tragedy they were now powerless to halt
but their creative rationalizations fell flat
in the raucous court of public disinformation

For fear was now the new currency
and the bill was coming due soon

From the depths of this dark anarchy
arose a demagogue with quick solutions

Hoisted high by the desperate mob
their newly anointed mad man
proceeded to systematically
dismantle the institutions
ignorantly blamed for our fall

Students of history
who warned this would not end well
were rounded up and labeled
enemies of the people

The war on rationality
would inflict numerous casualties
and in the end this mass stupidity
would bury our ignorant asses

Unchained Calamity

It only hurts when I sleep
when the safeguards
I constructed so meticulously
are lowered involuntarily
and the suppressed me
becomes liberated temporarily

These are only nightmares technically
but what makes it all so frightening
is the disturbing fear

What if the safeguards someday
fail to reactivate when I awaken?

Terms of Surrender

When I began to skim through
the tragedies of the day
over my morning coffee
and high fiber corn flakes

When I conveniently commenced
to compartmentalize and relegate
the daily fire storms of humanity
to the spam folder of my soul

When I found myself fleeing
directly to the sports section
for all the scores
of meaningless competitions
performed by sweaty
millionaire gladiators
in tax payer funded stadiums

It was then

my heart ceased to beat

and capitulation

to the cynical apocalypse

was complete

Mass Cleansings

Your thought process
was obviously compromised
by the steady stream of lies
that you were subjected to
when you were impressionable

Now commences the process
of scrubbing away these propaganda stains

Your thinking must be trained
to associate bodily pain
when radical ideologies
attempt to penetrate your brain

We will get your head right
even if it means loss of core values
infected by this insidious freedom virus
that has seduced many fallen patriots

Valentine's Day 1918

We greet the dawn
from our bed of mud
in a nameless place
that we must defend

Bland rations digested
we prepare our weapons
loading up ammunition
for the coming demolition 

In the cathedral silence
prior to yet another battle
my weary eyes
can see
the cloud of death
now hovering over me

Attack and counterattack
two stubborn forces
dance over charred real estate
in a fiery embrace

Late in the day
as the sun yields the field
I feel that warm sting
ripping through my heart

The bullet forged for me
that I never did see

On my back I collapse
my extremities going numb

Alone with
my crimson unrestrained

Life ebbing away

My fate now written

I'm a casualty today

Into the ledger of death
with tears in my eyes

I gasp
fighting to my last breath

I see the fading sky

The last scene
before I die

And my last thought
is of my first love
far away
beneath the same setting sun

Into the light 
I must now go

but I know

we will be
together again some day

Demolition Position

Let's take dynamite
to the walls of hatred

Hit it hard from both sides

Pulverize all prejudice
that built it brick by brick

Build a new bridge
from the rubble of ignorance
and speak not
of past impediments again 

Truth Written In Pencil

What use to be before
now is no more

Nary a trace 
of yesterday's reality remains

Speculation now saturates
revisionist history
as PHD's pontificate unrestrained
their best pet historical theories

After many high priced consultations
scholarly consensus now proclaims
what had passed for absolute truth
back in the day
never really was

Interpretations have been revised
to polish the textbook lies
that will exonerate departed martyrs

Victims of unyielding authorities of the past

Bone crushers of  contrarian dissent

Self righteous burners of all heretics
who did not salute the dogma
of a black and white world
science defined as flat

Remember this lesson
next time a self righteous fool
preaches to you about absolute truth 

A Thousand Points of Tripe

Random patterns

Orbiting constantly

Prisoners of gravity

Can you dig my analogy?

I'm communicating metaphorically
about the human condition
and it's relationship
to Universal laws
when coincidence exceeds
the laws of probability

Or maybe...

I just smoked some bad weed
so my perceptions are clouded
and this flash of insight philosophy
can certainly be doubted
though I rigorously contend
when the fog clears finally
we should be able to find our car keys

Body Work

What a mess am I 

To such an extent
I probably will die

Not an uncommon fate

We all have expiration dates
hard wired into our souls

For this biodegradable species
is an inherently flawed model
and when not maintained properly
our lights often darken prematurely

So a little self maintenance would not hurt 

Nationalists and Zealots

For the greater glory
of the Red White and Blue
let's ship your children off to war
to fight and die for fabric on a pole

Of course the other side
spins similar propaganda
for their version of God

Better salvation through religious genocide

Tis such a rigged game

A deadly mind control charade 

Religion and ideology

Incestuous fuck buddies throughout history

The Big Con run for influence and money

Always to profit the powers that be   

These insidious forces
screwing us royally behind the scenes 
who in the end are the true global enemy

Poetry 103

Fuck Yeats and Wordsworth
Screw Whitman and Dickinson
Joyce and Angelou too

Fellate Ginsburg
and your precious Bukowski
while you're at it( gasp)

Go curl up with these moldy dead poets

Dazzle the world quoting literary ghosts

Spare me the lecture on their modern relevance

I'm more concerned with hearing your words

Wanna write poetry but not sure how?
Since you never learned in school
how to write a proper haiku

Can't find a decent tutorial on YouTube
on proper iambic pentameter construction?

I suggest you don't fret ignorance of archaic rules

Just say what you need to say

Let your heart and soul guide the way

Don't let structure impede your course

No need to count syllables like a monkey 

Leave that to the English Lit professors
in the corner stroking their hard ons
over the majesty of classical poetry 

Consider The Source

Before spilling your confession
when offered redemption
by those who were offended
do a little self assessment
if the sin they say you committed
was truly a major transgression
or just an over reaction
by self righteous
overly critical
hypocritical
dickheads

The High Cost Of Nothing

The commissar of commerce
took a high level confab
with the czar of finance
to discuss the collapse
of public confidence

After weeks of statistical chatter
and thorough graph analysis
neither one of the experts
could figure out
what the Hell was the matter

So finally the President deemed
a blue ribbon task force be convened
to determine once and for all
the cause and effect of this economic fall

Of course this being
a production of government
meant millions would be spent
in fruitless pursuit of where our money went

Two years after the charade began
they produced a 600 page document
which no one would ever read
lest their eyes bleed
and their hearts break
thinking about the abject waste
of the pot calling the kettle black 

Wither Gutenberg ?

Final words
from the final chapter
of the last book ever printed
now that hard copy is officially dead

'To be continued... " it read

Delicious irony

A fitting requiem
for this closing chapter
of literary history

Or maybe tis a warning

A sentence of prophesy
if the entire world wide web
ever got permanently hacked 
and all our precious
hand held devices
became pricey paper weights

Library doors would be unsealed

Book stores could make a come back

Is this a dream or nightmare?

Tis probably a question
of which generation hymn book
you grew up reading from 

Gender Blender

Went to the men's room
for a quick pee

When quite unexpectedly
a she dude in a sequin dress
had the same action plan
in the urinal next to me

Could not contain my curiosity
I just had to sneak a quick peek
at the serpent mighty
rising from his thicket

Of course he caught my eyes
sizing up his privates

In my embarrassment
I muttered softly
“I’m not that kind of guy”

He hiked up his lace panties
and advised me and my homophobia

“Neither am I”

Oh Say Can't You See

This rock I picked from the rubble
of the latest calamity
fits my hand so perfectly
I almost hate to throw it
at our oblivious enemy

Of course I am required
to avenge sins of the past
so I throw the projectile
and score a direct hit 

We scurry a hasty retreat into darkness
to avoid being payback targeted 

Everyone riding the cycle of hatred

A litany of futile gestures  

The whole eye for an eye bullshit rap
we as a species can't ever seem to get past

Bird In A Box

I like my box
though I use to not
relish the restrictions
cause I had been indoctrinated
by the whole freedom myth

That "birds need to fly" bullshit

So one day I flew away

Crash landed

Bad choices

Shit happens

So I traded in my wings
for the safety of conformity

Now I like my box
and the security it brings

False as it may be

Since life does have a way
of seeping through
these little cocoons
and permeating
our orderly containers with stains

At least I still got
these crumbling walls
to keep me company 

Since I did pay a steep price for them 

So This Is Low Self Esteem

... one hundred pounds later
I have become the fat fuck
I never thought I would be

Obesity sort of snuck up on me

Denial will do that to you
but the mirror eventually
shatters our best self deceptions

Tough break for my enlarged heart
now struggling to propel blood through
gooey blubbery clogged arteries

At least this battle will be short lived

Then the arduous task falls to my pall bearers

Hopefully they will be in better shape
than the load they are hauling was

Wither Americana

The MAGA legions
wear red threads made in China
and preach American exceptionalism
dispensing missives of ethnic nationalism
that have sparked conflicts
throughout history

Wrapped in red white and blue
the  America First crew
eschews the world view
for a narrow myopic reality
that have fueled wars
throughout history

Peeking out from behind the wall
the protectionism mob
of anti globalism guardians
practice excessive tariff levies
guaranteed to wreck economies
that have led to recessions
throughout history

and so it goes...

Events will spiral out of control

Of course
those pulling the strings will profit

Strife will be the norm for the rest

Perhaps this time
our ignorance proves fatal

Death being the ultimate destiny
of all empires throughout history

A Day In The Strife

The alarm clock tolls
earlier than I need

Out of bed I roll
with all my aches 
and creaky joints
that scream out middle age 

I feel old

Thread bare and worn

Way too much time spent
on self induced detours
that took me 
to my home here in Nonessential 

Not enough minutes left
for a course alteration
to offset the accumulation  
of time wasting trips 

Missing out on all the things
I should have done 
and could have been
when I was young
and so full of potential

The die is cast
buried deep within
the sins of the past

For an aging plow horse
saddled down
with all these
useless regrets

Pigging Out

You can comfortably exist
within the narrow parameters
of standard contentment

Max out your credit cards
on superfluous excess

Social media boast
about your choreographed happiness

Maybe level set with medications
when you conscience starts to ache

Mute that nagging voice
when it whispers 
about a life that is so fake

You can comfortably exist

Contently suckling on society's teat
with millions of ravenous piglets

Growing more bloated by the day

What a great ham sandwich you will be
when the butcher comes to visit

  

Men Overboard

DUCK AND COVER !!!

It's payback time

The shattering of past inequities
for misdeeds committed by our side 
though we were not participants
in any offending situations

We're all gonna take some hits

Penance for sins we did not commit

The whole guilt by association bullshit

Just hope this sledgehammer
out of control pendulum
does not leave any permanent scars

It Is What It Ain't

Truth is
not made of steel

It's a pliable material
we easily bend 
to fit our current needs

A gloppy balm 
to soothe the stinging realities
of abrasive conflicts

An application
of convenient definitions
to justify the rationalizations
of our orderly hypocrisies

Truth be told

True is false

Nothing more than lies
wrapped in cotton candy alibis
and shiny contrivances

Did You Hear About....

Step right up
my fellow misfits
to the social media trough
and confess your best sins
for text backs of cyber sympathy
from your faceless friends
who secretly revel and gossip
about your human failings
with that smug superiority
that pollutes the airwaves
of the online sewing circle cathedral

Down Draft

Trapdoor opens

Floor support is no more

as we struggle to prevent
our tragic descent
into the waiting arms
of Chaos Town

A disintegrating place
with crumbling infrastructure
betraying a proud history
of empire and power

Now a mountain range
of smoldering rubble

where frazzle is currency
and the truth served up daily
with a dash of absurdity

cause tragedy
becomes comedy
when it marinates
over the centuries

and all the survivors
who fell through the floor
unknowingly become
the shadow ghosts 
of post apocalypse 

Do you recognize
these apparitions
and the truth behind
their plummeting demise?

They are us

and our sin
was arrogance

The recurring
poison of humanity
throughout history 

Reminiscing at the Ostrich Cafe

Down at the Ostrich Cafe

the wifi accessible crowd

plugs in their wireless buds

and blasts the pop culture loud

in an effective attempt

to drown out the protesting hordes

marching right outside their secured doors

seeking to improve this flawed world..

I sip on my sugary latte

and fondly recall

those bygone days

when music and dissent

were one and the same 

Dealing For Eternity

Back in the day

I use to consort
with demons
of ill repute

We sinned
just for the Hell of it

Made up
our own rules
along the way

That was me

A pagan disciple
of immorality

Until  I found religion
on late night TV

An infomercial
for this
amazing
miracle product
called Jesus

or maybe

it was some sort
of magic mop
that sopped up stains

In the end
tis all the same

except the mop
comes with a money back guarantee
while Christianity
is an all souls
all sales final
total buy in commitment

Exit Carnage

Don't wanna fight anymore
in the political maelstrom
not dissipating any time soon

My views on the controversies of the day
simply don't matter anyway
and the crushing redundancies
of these circular arguments
is really wearing on me

So whether you wanna #MAGA
or ride the #Resistance
please proceed without me

I'll take my seat in the peanut gallery
and hang there until a return of civility 

Pretty Chicky In A Cage

She desired to be
more than your eye candy

Weary of being a lust magnet

All she wanted was respect

The crime of our cosmetic society

So obsessed with surface beauty
we never allowed ourselves to see
the light trapped within the pretty shell
that eventually became her living Hell

Long after the sultry corpse icon 
became the stuff of cultural legend
her well chronicled tale of tragedy 
is still buried beneath the glossy pics
celebrating an innocent sexuality
that was as fake as her naughty smile

Fire Sale

We set a vagrant on fire last night

He did not seem to mind

It being a chilled evening after all

Admittedly twas an impulsive thing to do
with consequence we should have foreseen
but nobody thinks ahead these days
where instant gratification is the rage
as we swept away his charred remains

Now our sins are all over the Evening News

Transgressions gone viral on YouTube
cause everyone with a phone
is a documentary director 

Social commentators now torch our asses
with their self righteous views
about the decline of Western civilization

Political pundits of course chime in
citing our deplorable actions
as proof positive
that our blatant insensitivity
is a metaphor that represents
the current administration

After this high rated media investigation
the cops felt compelled to lock us perps away

We did not mind all the notoriety
as we were now trending celebrities

Loss of freedom a fair price to pay
since we were not into liberty anyway

The Write Stuffing

I was there that fateful day

when Jesus rode in

on a gorgeous white horse

and cast Satan away...

OK maybe twas a close approximation

of a semi apocalyptic situation

 I viewed on a stream

that may have been a dream...

I'm allowed my binges 

of required exaggeration

to make the story flow...

It says so right here on my poetic license

I bought online for 99 cents

though it may be approaching literary expiration. 

The War Show

Dust off the off the old generals
Prop them up in front of the map
of our latest war event

We'll get back to porn stars
and pee tapes next week
but now we gotta hear experts speak
about our cool tech weaponry
and how we gotta make Syria
safe for democracy

Blessed Be Woman

That shiny golden cross
is a beacon to the lost

Dangling proudly erect
above your ample chest

Guiding wandering eyes
to the plunging neckline
and the canyon exposed
in a grand confluence monument
to the spiritual and animal
needs of man

That sly smile discreet

when our eyes did meet

was divine revelation

and a shared confirmation

of my duel admiration

Tis a Troubled Puzzlement

Too many loose pieces
clutter up the puzzle

Our former point of reference
now nothing but a faded picture

Masters of the Universe
have gone missing

Reliable sources now insist
they never really existed

Which means there is no salvation

We are on our own for answers

(sweeps puzzle off table)

(assumes fetal position)

Guns and Sympathy

Let us bow our heads
over the mangled corpses
of the latest nightmare

Victims of our sins
who would not have died
if only we had done our duty
to protect humanity
instead of taking the blood money
which paid for today's
prayer of hypocrisy

Circle Jerk

The old man we use to torment
keeps dying in my memories

We pack of snotty brats
probably hastened his demise
with our relentless attacks

How I wish I could go back
to offer my apologies
for every single cruelty

Now I am the old man

Victimized by time
and howling young hyenas 
bludgeoning me with karma 

Formula Worship

Here at the Church of Pragmatism
our functionalist congregation
prays to the Gods of Logic
and orderly sterility

Stored in a warehouse cathedral
of black and white theology
the pilgrims are stacked and categorized
as all personal relations
are compartmentalized
to a spreadsheet equation
that attempts to summarize
the complexities of this
illogical human existence

Shoot The Town Cryer

Outraged commentary

about our failing humanity

streaming 24/7

on multiple social media outlets.. 

The posting of great revelations

about life's many inconsistencies

while tweaking hypocrisies

that serve only to confirm the obvious...

:

Life is inherently unfair...

Guess what?

NOBODY CARES