I was keen on Ovaltine
till Bosco came on the scene.
Water drenched my throat,
Sliding into the cracks.
Blood runs thicker from taps,
And quickly forms into a moat.
Water, unstable, unpleasable,
Nothing can stick to you.
Your liquid starting to brew,
Soaking my words and syllables.
I ship similes on a paper boat,
And it starts sailing many laps
To avoid all the upcoming attacks.
I'm not longed for staying afloat.
The cup may be more than half empty,
But I was made clumsy.
I'll dampen the air around my cyst;
So no fire can turn me to mist.
We give each other license
To justify the violence
We relate to satisfaction
Relegating our inaction
To a higher power
The fashion of the hour
Changing with the time
The constant's our reflection
That the state of our perfection
Disdaining all inspection
In the state of our connection
To the mantle of the Don
But will it ever dawn
That ground shifts all the time
Like the mantle underneath us
Somethings should be beneath us
Croesus wouldn't be the one
That would or could impress Solon
Just as fool and all his money
Are destined to part company
All that matters is the time
So just as a marriage license
Recognizes loves' instransigence
Romancing love as love of power
Is but convenience of the hour
And the short term satisfaction
Will result in but the fraction
As it's turning on a dime
TDS is certainly real
And has with the fervor of newfound religion
Captured the hearts and minds of millions
Actually hundreds of millions.
But the good news is it’s curable,
And all that requires is disconnecting
From the mainstream fake news media
And hyper biased, self-censored
Social media streams
For just a season or two.
Call it going cold turkey, but give it a few
And see what a clear head is like
As you quietly just walk away
And get on with your life…
(10/10/25)
(“Pantheism Merit Badge”, 2011, original oil)
People come in all shapes and sizes
But in my experience
There are basically only two types;
Sheep and goats.
Now everyone knows
Sheep go to heaven and goats go to hell,
But pretty much you are what you are
And can only pretend otherwise for so long.
Of course the heaven of sheep
Is nothing more than a nice green pasture
Fenced in and patrolled by a big dog
While the hell of a goat
Is a rocky knoll, with a nice view
And no body to disturb him.
I don’t know about you, but I’ll take the rocky knoll
Without its vaccinations or public school indoctrination
Any day, and any way
Come hell or high water.
After all, I know how to climb and swim
And living free or dying
Isn’t a choice
But a statement of fact.
Now that I think of it
I can understand where the sheep are coming from
And that safe little pasture down there
Sure looks nice,
But wait, isn’t that the mobile slaughter truck
Coming up their drive now…
(10/4/25)
When you enable criminals
They will only criminal more.
Everyone’s a victim
Within their own mind if stunted
At an infant level of development,
And in a world that craves equality
But has unequal crime,
Infant mentalities are encouraged
Well past childhood.
As I told my misbehaving grandson recently
“If you don’t learn to control your temper
Society will control it for you
In a prison.”
That is of course
If you aren’t part of the enabled demographic
Which just learns to criminal more.
(10/3/25)
(“Splendid Isolation Merit Badge”, 2010, original oil)
Not My Battle
It’s not my battle
Not my hill to die on
Or claim as king.
I’d rather just sit peacefully
On some lonely mountain
Enjoying the sounds of silence.
Sure I can see the dust rise
And hear occasional horns blow
Of the little battles raging far below.
But it’s not my battle
Nor hill to die on,
At least not on this fine day…
(8/9/25)
Everyone believes the news
Until it's all disproved
In some dramatic fashion
When the headlines cash in
Everyone tells their family
Their family tells their friends
It doesn't matter what direction
The story comes to in the end
Forge a brand new enemy
Force hatred upon me
Exterminate the likes
We won't have better lives
"Truth" born out of rumors
Rumors borne with fantasy
Taken by the big names
Taken in by you and me
Fact killed by belief
Kills somebody's dream
Why do we let this happen?
Lying here on a mattress
Writing, "Everyone believes the news..."
Believe in me,
Because you cannot be
Alone in your thoughts.
A lie might make true what is not!
Be feared, be scared,
Be ware of what I am.
A love, a warm drain,
Along will wash your filthy brain…
And because I am one of you,
I know every one of you.
I know just what to do!
And I know this too:
When you blindly find something to lead,
It is a cry for help.
It could be a calf, it could be anything!
When you do what goes against your
heart
It is a cry for help.
It is all good if you feel good from a chart.
When you choose to prefer your own
wellness over the worlds’.
It is a cry for help.
It is natural knowing fright when what you
won’t understand unfurls.
When you believe in me,
It is a cry for help…
I am all you can see!
And I will answer it,
The answer I am.
Yes, it is always a cry for help,
Because you cannot be yourself…
Wallace Stevens said:
"Poetry is not personal."
He tried never to divulge
anything about himself
in his poems.
So he said.
But the work is
self-revelatory: veiled confessions,
repeated choices -- water, sea motion,
weather, the sky -- introspective isolation --
those silences and descriptive phrases
that communicate and characterize.
Human, no one --
especially not poets --
can really hide.
Brief Commentary
"Great
Ceaser's
GHOST!"
***
Is that Stealing?
-Gray Squirrel
11-12-2024
In my humble experience I’ve found
The average individual is smarter
Than the average group
But the average group is stronger
Than the average individual
And so the group will always get its way
But the individual can usually figure out
How to stay free
(3/28/24)
Life is a diary waiting to be written
Observe
what is obvious
what is hidden
what is experienced
what is felt
A record of life
by day
by week
by year
by any moment
Twelve diary disciples did just that
Procession 1492 Columbus - America first
Progression 1660 Pepys - Restoration England
Obsession 1836 Darwin - origins of man
Expression 1863 Davis - free black woman
Impression 1906 Holden - Edwardian countryside
Confession 1910 Scott - frozen to death
Expression 1915 Woolf - inner self
Depression 1924 Wolfson - teenager in New York
Aggression 1941 Mukhina - siege of Leningrad
Suppression 1942 Frank - Jewish plight
Impression 1957 Guevara - viva Cuba
Repression 1976 Mandela - African apartheid
Procession, progression, obsession, expression, impression, confession, depression, aggression, suppression, repression
Life is simply a diary
Ralph Nader isn't afraid to tell the truth
How it is for American Democracy today
We should be lucky we have him still
89 and still going strong!
It is in having nothing to gain
And nothing to lose when it is easier to be
honest with yourself and others
I am glad this man is still alive
because his insights add to what
there is of mine
He can see the hypocrisy in
all candidates and smell it
with his nose
That's what's
different about Nadervision
Than Trumpvision or Bidevision
Theirs is turned off unless
they see some advantage
In turning theirs on.
And often theirs is never
clear enough to see the
image in the screen so they get
half a leg or half an arm
And focus on that
like a dog drooling for meat
Passionate watcher of Female Football:
A voice shrill pitched high in the viewing hall;
Others should here and now spot its credits!
He's been spending rich words on its merits.
"Good female striker can beat the Bad Male
And just be sure of it - it's no blackmail."
But he has, too, pictures of its lapses:
Not that the Female Defender collapses,
Rather, a sport with no pity for the waist
And should a woman feel free to waist waste?
From opening whistle to final whistle
Man's Helper freely takes up Male Wrestle:
Neat mimicry of male temperament
Sports Analysts don't touch in their comment.
Perfect use of all parts of the body!
One keeps gazing at it: worthwhile study.
Fearless ones trap the ball with their chests
While to the eyes it just landed on breasts!
Long in it, problems of magnetism:
She can't proudly discuss feminism!
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