Shadow Refugee

Here in the shadows

I persistently exist
on the periphery
of decent society

Shrouded
in the anonymity
that darkness brings

Conveniently
side stepping
my incriminating
yesterdays

Here in the shadows

Been hiding out

for so very long

I've forgotten

the truth of myself

The War Is Always the Thing

Only the names change
but history plays
on perpetual loop

Playing out
before our eyes

The formula
for modern war:

CREATE DEMAND

Terror groups well financed
sprout like weeds

Infecting our fun house internet
by calling us bad names
and trolling God in our face
like we did to them in the Crusades

Wreaking havoc
with our pals

the human rights
challenged sheiks
who feed us
our fossil fuel fix

We are afraid !!

and
when influenced
and manipulated
properly

we fearfully
line up
and scream
for war

PROVIDE SUPPLY 

War is never cheap
in our capitalist 
military industrialist 
complex economy

Luckily
we've got plenty 
of companies who windfall profit
from Homeland Insecurity

Taxpayers got deep pockets
when it comes
to not getting
our boys decapitated
by masked fiends

Pom pom politicians
macho talk
and stop fighting
with each other
to unite
in a flag waving orgy
to preserve our way of life
by killing
the universally reviled bad guys

and away we go

the money flows

to a war they say may NEVER end

since their is no enemy flag to capture

no capital city to liberate

Not even an ideology 
to defeat
like the Cold War

CA CHING!!

A steady flow of income
for the rest of the century
to the merchants of instability

Those war profiteers
who behind the scenes
have pulled the strings
throughout human history  

All they need is a boogie man

A simple embodiment of evil
the media can fixate on

Saddam
Bin Laden 
Isis

Cartoon villains
straight out
of central casting

Create demand

Provide supply

Manufacture them both

Corner the market

Soak up the blood money
from the comfort
and safety
of their palatial estates

Human history on a loop

Only the names change

To Do or Not To Do

If we are to be defined
by the choices we make

then we must
also be assigned
by the choices we don't

Acts of omission
can either diminish
or uplift us

It's no wonder

that with all these
variations
permutations
and their consequences
we get paralyzed
with indecisiveness

Best to not over think

Trust first instinct

Make your play
as best you can

and

don't beat yourself up

over flawed decisions

True Believer

If you came
face to face
with the truth

Would you recognize it?

and if you did

what would you do
with that
precious commodity?

Can we even believe
the perceptions
and all the biased slants
we perceive?

These self made
barriers
that cloud our reality

Questioning what we see

Doubt creeps in 

Is truth a possibility?

We know it has to be

out there somewhere

Soul Collector

Angel of Death

Always lurking
on the periphery
of tragedy

Ready to load up
harvested souls
for his long time boss 

Cares not if you protest
or cry about your fate

You can't negotiate
your way
out of eternity

Nothing personal

Just mortality

When Men Were Women

Compromise

Give it a try

You will find
cooperation

reduces
frustration

and 

enhances
your reputation

Compromise

You know what guys?

Cooperation
is NOT a sign
of weakness

It's how we play

the modern

androgynous way

Touchy touchy

Feely feel

Hop in the blender

Close your teary eyes

and get your ass

gender homogenized 

Angels With Smudgy Faces

To all you
pure bred 

stuck up

holier than thou
moral angels

who sit
in perpetual judgement
of us
freaks and sinners

toiling away 
in the muck
of this existence

Your self righteous 
indignant indignation

truly
inspires us

to shock you
even more

with our indiscretions

Just let us be

and

while you're at it 

look in the mirror

to straighten
your tangled hypocrisy

Sledge Hammer Man

True poets

craft
language
elegantly

Words flow like satin

Caress the eyes

Sooth the soul

Waterfall rhymes 
cascading kindly
across eager eyes

They elevate us all
with grace and style

True poets
are timeless

I on the other hand

scratch uneven
forgettable phrases 
on sandpaper

Coarse verse bursts

Abrasive syntax 
irritates the eyes

Abuses the ears

If you choose
to read me aloud
there is
no flow to be found

As I blast away
at my own 
hypocrisies

picking the scabs
of comfortable fallacies

painful as they may be

My heart exposed
to the scrutiny
of all to see

Even the fears
of my poetic
inadequacies
you are reading here

I am not a true poet

I am just a blue collar guy
killing time

Desperately typing
and trying 
to make sense somehow 

before my battery dies

Making Change

Forces of change
on the move again

Into the breech
their army ascends

Barrier busters
one and all

Bloodied 
yet unbowed

Shoulder to shoulder
the hard line forms

only to shatter

disperse

and reassemble again

on and on
they come back
for more

What drives them?

As the launch
yet another
charge toward the wall

Taking the hits
from the stagnant men
on the other side
desperately trying
to hold back the wind

The howling
marble dogs
of yesterday
won't yield
their positions
without a fight

but history
portends

in the end

the future

always wins

Net Gospel

Truth

is not always clear

Shades of perception

blur what appears
to be reality

No one can deny

when a lie goes viral
it comes alive

racing round the globe
at cyber speed

we as a species
need to perceive 
more accurately

and always

CONSIDER THE SOURCE !!!

Violins and Fireworks

Ladies,

Try to understand

To a man

Love
is a
scary mystery

A jig saw puzzle
forever missing key pieces

Lust
on the other  hand
is a warm primal surge

Passionate urges
so much easier
to comprehend

Love is ethereal

Lust is sensual

When done right
they unite
under cover of night

A rock and roll symphony

Violins and fireworks

STONE THROWERS

In our jungle
if you stumble and fall

as our breed tends to do

the self righteous crew
will circle
and then
descend on you

With pointed questions

as they exploit the breach
of your transgression

and when you confess

to your sin and seek
absolution  

The howls reach
a fever pitch
as the predators
close in
on their wounded prey

A media feeding frenzy
as they rip your flesh viciously
with their bloody hypocrisy

Cause when all is said and done

Controversy sells

and we all want to be

on the holier than thou side

as the pack picks their teeth
with the bones of the deceased

and patiently waits

for the next gotcha feast  

Late Nite Beacon

Night light

Night lite

Do I spell you
with a gh or t?

No big calamity

with language
abnormalities

Just gimme
enough sight
to see

the toilet

where I gotta pee

twenty times a night

Violent Reaction

The older I get

The more life 
I have seen

The horrors
of inhumanity
splattered across
my flat screen TV

My dreams we can rise
above our bloody history

constantly battered
by the misery we've
inflicted on each other

Senseless violence
the life and death norm

We even sell it
as fun and games
viddy products
to the kiddies

Carnage celebrated 
as cultural reality

This use to make me angry

but the constant daily
saturation
has made me 

immune from outrage

My veins now run 
cynically numb

I expect the worst
from humanity
and am
rarely disappointed

I do so
hate being this way

When you lose hope

you are truly lost

Jungle Warfare

The new comer
tiger in the room
gets into it
with the legendary
800 pound gorilla
who previously
had always gotten his way

The brash cat
obviously
was not impressed
by the past
established cliche

Because he was
top of the food chain
in his prior domain

His royal highness
Lord Lion soon
joins the rumble too

He has that whole
"King of the Jungle"
thing to defend

After the epic battle
over pride and title
had run it's bloody course

The combatants withdrew
to lick their wounds
and reflect on their positions

The wise owl
who witnessed the fight
from a safe height
landed and proposed a solution

Why not
join forces and peacefully
coexist at the peak
of the pyramid
and pool their powers
to defeat the scavenger
hyenas who profit off
the labor of others?  

They all agreed
to live in harmony
and focus
on their true enemy

Will the truce hold?

We shall see

Assigned Seats

I AM NOT A NUMBER!

I am an individual

A member of the human race

Amazingly unique

Who the Hell am I kidding?

To the powers that be 

I'm just a blip
in the data base

A stat gnat
on a spread sheet
to be measured
and quantified

Totally marginalized
into the homogenized
numerical soup
of high tech
21st Century inhumanity