It’s time to stop pussyfootin’ around
time to bite the bullet and bear down
Time to forget Gaza, Hamas and Hezbollah
time to go after the ‘big fella’
It’s time to take down Iran
the only way Israel’s war will be won
Time to do so by whatever means necessary
For Iran is your number one adversary
Forty-five years she’s funded proxies’ terror
To let her be has been a huge error
So, go on the attack, Israel. Quick, take her out
There’s no longer one grain of doubt
Trump will be sitting this out
Or is Israel just hot air ~ Netanyahu, all talk
and the garbage piles up.
Nose-blind by now,
the public doesn’t even
smell the increasing stench.
Inured to the political slush,
minds grind to a halt,
gravitating to one or
another single topic,
ignoring other issues.
Women’s rights, tariffs,
Ukraine, deteriorating
and threatening climate
change, nuclear war,
presidential ability, character,
in one ear and out an eye.
It’s the price of gas, they say,
the cost of groceries,
often controlled by world supply,
and other economies.
Real and threatening issues
bear down on us,
but we blindly accept
the panaceas of
political sound-bites as truth.
Is this really an election,
with a divided populace
so many of whom see nothing,
hear nothing, and know nothing
but the lies they are fed?
You’re a hollow tree, listening
to the tapping claws of am exposed sky.
You sit sideways staring over your shoulder.
A rib cage full of naked troglodytes
looks up into your throat.
Wintery seas leak over ice-bound rooftops.
Bedsheets come to rest as snowdrifts.
You find yourself observing the world
through the top of your head.
You find yourself reading
the pale blue veins on a frozen window.
Roads might be passable. Wind-whales plow through,
pushing insomnia ahead of them.
The cold is a color yet to be decoded,
but you breathe through it, red tongue
slipping through clouds of needles.
You count crow-calls, shiver when they stop.
The passage between you and the chill floor
is umbilical, you may have to bear down.
You skirt the edges of yourself,
until your mind thaws beneath parked cars.
Can I tell you a secret?
Every generation thinks their time is the last greatest struggle
and that their struggle will be the end of everything.
Every generation has its precipice and must choose whether to commit suicide or to survive and go on.
The more skittish men look up and panic! They scream, "THE SKY IS FALLING! WE SHALL ALL PERISH!"
Others that look at the world with more optimistic eyes say 'NO! If we all raise our hands together, we can raise the sky and keep it up above our heads! Tomorrow will come if we try!"
Others who truly know in their hearts that all is lost keep their peace and stay silent.
But the wise look on at all of this chaos and smile. They say, "Wow! I wonder what new sky lies beneath this old one? It must hold much splendor, for why else would it crack and fall?
Let us welcome what is being born over our heads.
Let us bear down and survive this falling, and when the chaos again subsides,
join hands and sing together under a brilliant new sky,
in a new time."
A labor of love
Frequent contractions
Bloody show appears
Belly and back pain
Her water breaks now
The baby drops
Loosened-up joints
Cervix dilates
Cramps are intense
Nauseous mom
Start the drugs
Feeling great
Bear down
Push out
Birth
May 18, 2022
**Side note: John Gondolf read my first Diminished Hexaverse poem about the end of life (Finis Vitae) and suggested that I write one about the beginning of life. Thank you for the wonderful tip John. I'm always up for an intriguing challenge.
No it's not easy, living can be sleazy fraught badly taught
Taut with apprehension, how should we live? some say give
Nothing, take everything' watch and judge wait till their feet
Slip then bear down ' not with them.. Sound bias test your lie
Although it could feel out the forms distant, sound waves Out sent as the bat does, mammal or willow different Methods same world shame we won't open our hearts
And so preoccupied we desist to really live
To merely drift exist '
I am gripped by fear
Of an unknown source
I run
I spin
Afraid to turn my back on that which I cannot face
The sound of footsteps
Grows louder
Not ceasing
But increasing
They fall beyond my door.
The walls bear down, and I am stifled
The thing I fear
Clings to my back.
I run
I spin
I try to throw it off but it won’t let go.
I am insane
In a maze of corridors
The walls plot with animal intent.
I must be careful.
I am a rat
In a maze of streets
I run
But my course is planned by a force
With which I cannot reckon, cannot plead.
You’re a hollow tree, listening
to the tapping claws of am exposed sky.
You sit sideways staring over your shoulder.
A rib cage full of naked troglodytes
looks up into your throat.
Wintery seas leak over ice-bound rooftops.
Bedsheets stiffen into ersatz snowdrifts.
You find yourself observing the world
through the top of your head.
You find yourself observing recoiling raw endings,
the pale blue veins upon buffeted window.
Roads might be passable. Wind-whales plow through,
pushing insomnia ahead of them.
The cold is a color yet to be decoded,
but you breathe through it, see its fractured tinge.
You count crow-calls, shiver when they stop.
The passage between you and the chill floor
is umbilical, you may have to bear down.
You skirt around yourself,
letting your mind thaw under parked cars.
Waiting for baby. 16/07/2018.
The hospital bag is ready in the hall. Oh the excitement and the stress of it all. Will we need an ambulance ? or will we get to the hospital in time after the waters have broke?
Midwives, checking weight, blood pressure, pee samples. It is like a science lesson. Going to ante-natal classes together, bonding, breathing, panting, when to push ? T o take pain relief, gas and air, something stronger, mines a gin and tonic !
About the contractions, count down, bear down, to baby's arrival, Baby kicking inside like a giant frog, punching my insides at night. Feeling like a watched pot ready to pop.
Its a worry too how will we feel, to be parents, will we cope, have a scan see the little person on the t .v screen, we don't want to know the sex, keep it a big secret.
The family's becoming a pain in the neck asking questions, dates, names, what schools its going to? The nursery stands ready painted yellow, cot in place, waiting for its bundle of love to arrive.
first child born 12/06/1987.
A curious word is BEAR, just like the animal whose name it BEARS:
We BEAR UP under pressure, yet we also BEAR DOWN
Should a dog BARE its teeth, it's much worse than a frown
The right to BARE arms---not the right to BEAR arms?
And if you just BEAR WITH me, my dear, you'll come to no harm
Meanwhile, this little ditty BEARS OUT my contention
that I CAN'T BEAR TO GO ON now, not even a sec--
--end
In wasted hours spent alone
I grieve over forgotten times departed
The candle slowly burns down
While the thin line of remembrance
Trails off and away from me-forever?
'Tis not enough just to experience life
But to also lap precious memories
When times of trouble bear down
And the very flame of the candle is threatened
For life without fond memories
Is like the flame without heat
Though many ventures into times past
Leave empty memories for a saddened mind
My flame grows hotter and brighter
For you are the warmth in this flame
And a memory never to be forgotten
Each day I'm spreading
whither am I heading
in rains there are off shoots
I bear down, all enjoy my fruits
come under my shade ,relax beneath me
here set hive you bee
Ill soon blossom forth with flowers
ye birds make nests, ill shelter in showers
why is there so much smoke?
in these circumstances Ill choke.
so mucn we have face
we,re choose race
we took all
that we;re call
and a grim
bear down it was hard sin
we still stood tall
WE WERE
CHOOSE TO WIN
I feel the winds of change
Blowing through my hair
All the beauty of the sun
It shines upon my skin
Today it is a new day
A time for inner peace
Time to heal all the afflictions
That bear down hard on me
Some were self inflicted
Learning the hard way was my life
But some were caused by others actions
Who loved to cause such strife
This is the day I choose to break free
To untie all that has binded me
I choose to seek only love and life
To bring to others an eternal light
So take my burdens and my worries
Lay them at my Lord's feet
For he knows my life's journey
He's drawn a map out for me
I shall no longer fear
The wicked and the unknown
I choose to walk along side the light
With confidence and pose
Though sometimes I may stumble
I know I'll never fall
With the love of Jesus above
I'll always have strength to get back up
He'll never let me faulter
He'll give me wings to fly
When I feel I've lost my way
He is my guiding light
If this night you suddenly find
you have lost all faith in mankind,
need I say anymore, I care.
A resourceful comrade, I’ll be -a
friend in your dreadful green se-a.
I'm willing to help guide your boat;
sailing wild, can we keep her afloat?
Right now, waves seem brutal, unfair,
behind us spite-filled ships bear down
like dead weights leaving us to drown.
A quick look to heaven reveals
bridge of mercy for such ordeals.
Overwhelmed, I found when despair
troubled me, then I learned to tread
water - a sure hand ‘neath my head.
I know the pardon He can endow;
will faith in mankind help you now?
Ease into this slowly and share
your forgiveness with stormy souls.
Mind, you must give God the controls.
written 2/13/14
Roy Jerden's word acrostic contest, judged 3/10/14
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