May 2013
“The position of the clockâs hands seem to be growing ever more irrelevant to me....”
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Stream of Consciousness
It is of course silly that one must preface the following argument with a small notice condemning murder and the murderer, but it tends to be a useful though unimportant endeavor. The primary point here is a critique of the death penalty and the state bringing upon a person found guilty of first degree murder the compulsion and necessity to plead for her own life in front of a jury. A fundamental...
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Roaming
My lone hand felt her, And chords of trembling pleasure Then made sweet music.
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A Small Thought
It was in the United States that I learned of people punching through walls. I do mean the literal act of sending one’s fist into a wall and cratering it in the process. Until then, this was a foolish idea to me as my study and very close observation of architecture had taught me that buildings were constructed with cement blocks at least 6 inches thick that had been left to harden under the...
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Tragedy
Warm blood and hot tears streamed As the pools of tragic emotion teemed Time was now thought a long, sad tune Most felt at the humid turn of June. History was a fine song to tyrants An exalted ode to warring migrants Who sought and expanded empires With the brutality of red fires. “Malcolm! Malcolm”, the widow cried With all suspicion her husband had died Felled with a violence at once...
“The internet has turned me into a cynic. These days I hardly believe anything I...”
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Tales of a Shadow
Gentle silhouette - It told of nimble limbs and The neck of a swan.
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Scent
I gathered the dead petals From the white window sill, Descended from sunshine To the cold shade of death. They withered some more in My hand, before crumbling To finer pieces and assuming The resemblance of blood. This had the effect of sending Me into some momentary Confusion, as I suddenly began To wonder if I had cut myself. Sometimes, it is by surprise That I am taken, as I realize that...
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Untitled, Owing to Sheer Frustration
Donald Rumsfeld has apparently written a book entitled Rumsfeld’s Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War and Life, and of course one has to make do without the 2 minutes that are inevitably squandered in a fit of laughter. Owing to the massive disasters that emanated from America’s war policy (though here I must stress that the Defense secretary hardly formulates policy,...
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Jolie
What is in a face? Simply muscles and bones, with A mind to move them.
“If the whole story is true, though how could it be?; then I say there will be a...”
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Jeune
The wind took off from a great beyond, Where eyes could not witness, nor the Other senses take note of such stirring, In a fleeting span, it embraced the tranquil Qualities of a lonesome feather. The feather rose ever slightly from the Wondrous green grass, and appeared to Melt and change form into a flight of Migrating birds; and in that moment, I Called nature my darling mother. I, its young...
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Storm
It’s quite a thing to see the end Before actually crashing into it; The convulsing storms gathered Overhead and though it was already Night, I knew the sky had somehow Gotten darker; The fright thus began Its embrace of our shriveling nerves And courage became a relic of the past. The waters chopped against the vessel And this creation of man was now in a Skirmish with one of nature’s...
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The Reader
I opened a leather-bound book And read from the first word to The triumphant last, seduced by Its love of the dead, and recoiled By its tragedies of the living. Unable to adequately grasp its Discordant yet harmonious chords I was reduced to a false conclusion. And there laid another sadness - That the author had poured such Profound and heavy meditations Into a tome, with his body was now awash...
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Ayana
Ethiopian born, She was woven in history Spanning east to west.
“The law ought to be written not with the guilty in mind, but the innocent.”
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Uncrossing Stars
The bliss beating through Heart and pores was at odds With the vast reaches of space That existed just beyond the Contours of our taut skin. This love was a secret tongue, A foreign language, an alien Jargon, that could not be Understood by the other Inhabitants of our old city. The romance that bound us To each other was in opposition to The arguments of nature, though Reason and mystery knew...
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Her Eyes Are Closed
She sleeps in wonder Gripped by dreams and reveries Prostrate on rivers.
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Her, In Shadows
Goodbyes were sentimental And devastating affairs, and I had the terrible habit of Prolonging such farewells. A note about her: She was Lovely and remained composed Of the silent tunes of grace. I had told her she was too Beautiful to love only one soul, Try as she may to guard Against its wiles and promises The world had to have her - A pretty feast for ravenous crows. The planes steaming above...
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On the I.R.S.
Forgive my reach for the contrarian position on this pertinent matter, but the only thing I find egregious about the issue of the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservative political groups for further scrutiny is the fact that their focus was solely on organizations on the right. The net needs to be widened here to include all such groups seeking tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(4) of...
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The Falling
Behind the high rich walls Dreams were nearly reached, Grabbed and felt for an instant Before melting into the night air. The gilded halls had their promises And for a fleeting moment Oaths were kept, and the designs Of hopes began to materialize. Satisfaction thus took some form As the self-written story approached The triumphant conclusion Imagination had so demanded. But it is a thing of nature...
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Purple Inheritance
The children of kings Are nothing but mere heirs to The vengeance of men.
“I owe a longer allegiance to the dead than to the living, for in that world I...”
– Antigone; Antigone, Sophocles
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The Princes of Troy
Tamer of horses, Soother of other men’s wives - These sons of Priam.
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The Pillars of Madness
There is of course a considerable lot wrong with religion. In the ignoble ranks lie untruths about our origin, all life and the universe; the contention that humans are at the center of the cosmos when clearly we are not; and the argument that all of matter is arranged and designed with our individual lives in mind. These are nothing more than the conceits of solipsism, and manifestations of a...
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Zeus' Daughter
Could it truly be The Aegean was crossed, and Troy burnt, just for her?
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Self Doubt
Can one trust memory - Images of a past come to Be loved? I began doubting the histories Written, the pictures painted, The sounds recorded - Wondering just what powers Of deceit the mind Does hold.
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American Narrative
In recent weeks, journeys aboard the train and other excursions have been marked by sightings of people reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. This is all obviously in anticipation of Baz Luhrmann’s cinematic adaptation, but it must be noted that half a million copies of the lovely novel are purchased annually. Though even here, some qualification might be needed, as the book...
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Memory
Speak to me of time, Days gone by and friendships had, So I know they lived.
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An Evening With Elie Wiesel
I had been tempted to entitle this piece, A Night Spent With Elie Wiesel, but the word “Night” is of great significance to the man and his story, and as I headed south on Lexington Ave, I concluded against it.
As Elie Wiesel walked across the stage to the chair and finely carved wooden table set up for him, the packed auditorium rose in applause, and I was seized with a sense of...
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The Unquiet Silence
The exile was self-imposed, I retreated to the edges of my mind Where light was scarce and the Grounds were mostly unlittered by The remnants of mundane and Quotidian thoughts, with stray Bits of happiness, to boot. In this desolate wilderness, One imagines the benediction And pleasures of quietude, Where all inconveniences and Dreads, losses and regrets, can be Warded off with some sense of ease...
“Early twentieth-century Europe was a continent of monarchies. Of the six most...”
– Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914
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Sweet Melancholy
Romance in sadness, I gathered aches and beauty In her open eyes.
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The Society of Schoolboys
Fists cocked and eyes blazed, I felt the cold mud cradle As I fought giants.
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A Small Note on the Military
The arrest over the weekend of Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, the U.S. Air Force officer in charge of the department’s sexual assault prevention program has shed further and much-needed light on the plague of rape and other sexual misconduct and criminality within the armed forces. The problem has now surpassed all descriptions of it as a matter of a few bad apples spoiling the bunch, and it is...
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Marginalia
Along the edges Lay the boundaries where readers Conversed with writers.
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The Generals Who Missed the War
But what do they know About the machinery of death? Of assembled armies and The decorated theaters of war? I grew to distrust the Proponents of revolution, as They sat on their cushioned sofas And thundered about injustice; Between sips of fresh juice And bites of fine food. One had to laugh at this Vacuous display of danger Without risk, and struggle Devoid of its bitter pills.
“The intensifying marriage of Christian Evangelicals and guns is a strange and...”
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Foxhole
In these close quarters Men found purpose and friendship, Giving rise to love.
“Grief is nature’s most powerful aphrodisiac.”
– Chazz Reinhold, Wedding Crashers 