Best Ontology Poems
Mark
The earth turns its face from you
as if ashamed. You
who tilled the soil, now marked
by what the soil received.
Your brother's blood—
how it murmurs, how it screams.
Deafness would be a mercy.
Wanderer
At Babel, you watch them build
their tongues a discordance of hope.
You know better.
The tower falls. Always, things fall.
In Athens, questions hang in the air
like ripe fruit. You reach for one
find your hand empty.
Constantinople burns.
You've seen this fire before
in your own heart, in Abel's eyes.
Love
Her laughter—sunlight on water.
For a moment, you forget remembering
the weight of your name.
Time, that relentless thief,
steals her breath, leaving you
with pockets full of silence,
her absence echoing in your eternal night.
Witness
Verdun. Mud and blood
indistinguishable. You've carried this earth before,
will carry it again. In Selma, voices rise.
You join the chorus, unseen.
Your story spoiled, yet written
in every cry for justice,
a testament to your own unending quest for peace.
Grace
The sea spilling secrets
waves crashing against the shores of your soul.
In a quiet cell, you contemplate forgiveness—
that impossible shore.
Your heart is a vessel of unspoken prayers.
Each wave a reminder: the divine
as elusive as your peace.
Mortality
She sees you—truly sees.
Beyond the mark, the myth,
to the man who carries centuries in his bones.
You learn to love in moments, not millennia.
Each breath a gift, each touch a benediction
her presence a bridge to your humanity.
Return
The earth no longer rejects you.
You lay down, finally
into the arms of the brother
you've carried all this time.
Abel smiles. You close your eyes.
The silence, at last, is sweet.
ONTOLOGY
Water drips from the hairs on my arms, hands
held high to avoid contamination. I can’t wait
to begin. I guess this Adrenalin rush is what an actor feels
before he strides on stage. A nurse helps me don
my gown. I pull on my gloves. Surgeon, king of my domain.
Minions adjust the mirrored overhead light. I grasp my scalpel.
Fractured images explain the process to juniors. Jokey. Calm.
I’m floating on the easy insouciance of experience. My patient’s
elective surgery’s wasn’t serious. But my satisfied smile morphs into
emergency paddles. A flat line – cardiac arrest. Attempts to revive
him fail. I curse, jolted by this unexpected loss. Nothing to warrant
my sense of guilt. And how might I explain to his devastated family?
The theatre doors burst open. His wife, wild-eyed. Shouting. My
husband came to me in the waiting-room. Out of his body. Saying
you think he’s dead. Doctor, do something… Before we can hustle her
out, my patient’s pulse resumes beating. It doesn’t make sense.
Colour rushes back into his face. Nothing makes sense.
Forsook my tears
Misplaced my memories
Forgot the years
I hope I'll forget me
Oh you have seen, my love
The way our lives have fallen down
Like broken rubble at our feet
Silence the only sound
That we could hear
As we lay looking
At each others' shadows in the mirror
And the river-water passes by me
As I look at what we'd see
Those nights when only points of light
And one bright sliver lit the night
When shadows fell upon the water
Intertwined, faded away
This was that place
The river where we'd realize
That every face
Was just a mask
That every heart
Was full of stars
And misery
The place where we would go to find
That only our lives weren't enough
That, deep inside, we'd never be complete
And so we knew
How we were naught
We, filled with holes we never sought
Were desperate for a shining star
Among these dying suns
But in these waters, where we prayed
And where we made our tourniquet
When?
I forget the times when we would feel alive
Just you and I
And some unspoken lie
That we would name our God
And hope that it would make us whole
It only left us cold
Yes, you and I, my love
Were not enough
And so, yes, you and I, my love
Are here, down by the river's side
The willow's weeping on your eyes
As clouds pour down clear sympathy
For lost ones such as you and me
Why could I never realize
That what I tried so hard to find
Was buried deep inside
Where I have never been alive
Your body floats further downstream
The blood and water mingling
I've cried such tears, I'm almost blind
No more light by this river's side
I'm washed in this last of redemptions
In this night of empty skies
I drown in this, the end of all
Because of what I can no more deny
Is there a cure for empty eyes
Or is this love with hollow cries
This faith in something more than night
All of this nothing more
Than our own suicide
No name
no echo
only blood flowing
skin without edges
as you stumble through life
the breach
within a wound
opaque origin
before form
missing beat
when you believe you feel
a hollow
in the bones
uncreated
the body
before the body.
Forsook my tears
Misplaced my memories
Forgot the years
I hope I'll forget me
Oh you have seen, my love
The way our lives have fallen down
Like broken rubble at our feet
Silence the only sound
That we could hear
As we lay looking
At each others' shadows in the mirror
And the river-water passes by me
As I look at what we'd see
Those nights when only points of light
And one bright sliver lit the night
When shadows fell upon the water
Intertwined, faded away
This was that place
The river where we'd realize
That every face
Was just a mask
That every heart
Was full of stars
And misery
The place where we would go to find
That only our lives weren't enough
That, deep inside, we'd never be complete
And so we knew
How we were naught
We, filled with holes we never sought
Were desperate for a shining star
Among these dying suns
But in these waters, where we prayed
And where we made our tourniquet
When?
I forget the times when we would feel alive
Just you and I
And some unspoken lie
That we would name our God
And hope that it would make us whole
It only left us cold
Yes, you and I, my love
Were not enough
And so, yes, you and I, my love
Are here, down by the river's side
The willow's weeping on your eyes
As clouds pour down clear sympathy
For lost ones such as you and me
Why could I never realize
That what I tried so hard to find
Was buried deep inside
Where I have never been alive
Your body floats further downstream
The blood and water mingling
I've cried such tears, I'm almost blind
No more light by this river's side
I'm washed in this last of redemptions
In this night of empty skies
I drown in this, the end of all
Because of what I can no more deny
Is there a cure for empty eyes
Or is this love with hollow cries
This faith in something more than night
All of this nothing more
Than our own suicide
We all
Got angels and demons
On our insides.
And ain't it nice
When the angels get out,
And we does good?
So easier to be proud.
Easier to be humble to.
Those demons, they wreck us;
You know it is true.