Electric Shivers

fear seems to be the cause du jour fear if it all just ended shapes us like quivering jello molds fear of the landline tapping into our heads fear of the landmine careless gifts from the feds electric shivers primal and oozing forgetting ripe young days played out in faded kodachrome ripp'd into summer's apple flushed future shiny bright dimmed by memory's bitter yen the terrible beauty of what could be now just sloshes out like regrets and bad wine make like the sparrow that hides in the bower for who is the shadow on the doorstep at noon? make for the mage in the tumbledown tower bring him warm bloodwine, he'll grant you a boon grasp for the jib line gasp for the moon 'cause all the fair haired heroes have jaundice leatherskinned and alone above corner liquor stores old capes used as blankets, stained with nostalgia huddled around scrapbooks filled with clippings when a world made some sense bubbling under a mantle of order of when the world wanted cops 'n robbers drunk indians lassoed and penitent mysterious strangers with masks and grooming problem solved freedom used to be free (but not for a gov'ment career) move along, nothing to see question nothing you've ever heard here but do any words now whether spoken or ink have some monitored text? will the next bard or wry wordsmith have to sneak stealthily in through the trapdoor of the poet house or perHaps clevErLy sPin US!!! through coded thought crime? is the opposite of fear really love? (or is it even worse) are we damned in quiet whispers if the opposite of love is apathy meh.