Savanna Mind
Steel mountains tower over ancient minds
The mismatched soul anachronism
Instincts progressively lagging behind
Primitive brain sees a deep red cataclysm
Ghostly mastodons stalk the fluorescent plain
A daunting checklist of tasks today
Frigid rivers to be crossed in your brain
Endless list of invisible foes you must slay
A war without coffins, blood, or casualties
Teeth gritted, girded in polyester for battle
It’s knives in the back and social realities
No true combat; it’s never settled.
Unrelenting angst through every fiber
Forever hanging over the precipice of defeat
It follows you: a rapacious saber-toothed tiger
Implacable stare, neither attacks nor retreats
Gone is the clan, the intuitive belonging
Disconnected tribe inside your building
Every woman and man the empty longing
The neighbors you don’t know won’t come ringing
The dingy cement, windblown trash scene
Dreary and numbing external reality
You heart calls out for a deeper green
Light humming, phone ringing, no tranquility
No reason to fight for any tribe you see
Except, of course, your family on TV
Nothing to die for, unless the royal “we”
Beat the drum of prosperity or ideology
A Sabercat here, a Ghostly Mastodon there,
Back is bowed, veins on your nose
Run wrinkled hands through graying hair
A million drops in the bucket, it overflows
Just remember when you find
You don't understand the rage
That you are a savanna mind
Trapped in a modern cage
3/29/16
Copyright © Tom Quigley | Year Posted 2016
Post Comments
Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem.
Please
Login
to post a comment