They cut the grid
into the mountain,
breathing a poisonous cloud.
A frantic chaos,
Staking a fortune from
beneath the eucalypt,
pulling hollow bones
they did not heed.
They bet on success,
Assuming the heavy,
damp silence of the bush
was a kind of surrender.
But destiny ignores a frantic hand.
It woke not as a tremor,
but a shift.
A slow drag against the iron.
The ancient roots waking
their weight,
a deep,
fluid groan rising
through fragile ground.
And then—
the inescapable alignment.
The ancient land would seal their fate.
The land sheared
like a severed cord,
swallowing their plans
into the dark earth.
Within the bruised shadows
of the collapse,
the twisted steel rests.
An eerie monument to fortune lost.
the earth does not negotiate with fortune.
It simply folds the chaos down,
and settles back into peace.
They sing of the blanket of snow.
(A blanket, after all, is meant to smother.)
They toast to the pristine white, the slate wiped clean,
the hushed and holy silence of the frost.
But white is not clean; it is merely greedy.
It eats the sharp edges of the driveway,
it swallows the wrought-iron fence,
it erases the stray cat’s frantic footprints.
The neighborhood applauds the theft
and calls it peace.
Give me the bruised purple of a frozen plum.
Give me the ugly, skeletal reach of the oak
refusing to drop its last dead leaf.
They say the red holly berry is a mark of festive cheer,
a quaint little ornament for the mantle.
I say it is a puncture wound in the canvas.
It is the earth bleeding through the bandage,
gasping,
I am still here under all this quiet.
As though it was born free only to eat,
The soft caterpillar keeps on its work--
Just to turn and finish the leaves neat;
And on it goes unchanging,all in the lurk
Till begins the self centred walling in plot;
A soft, round globule comes up wrought
Only to be boiled and disrupted to fraught
The potter wasp has flights great many,
To the clay and water pits far and near
As is chosen the safe nook or slot puny
With all vigour, labour and concern dear,
The little bit sticks to the select spot fast,
That the set purpose resolves till the last,
And greed does not breed a monster ghast
Fat cats are fat, that's where they're at
Their greatest ambition's to accumulate fat
Some may start small
But few will grow tall
Cause they mostly accumulate where they have sat
The Stream Of Greedy Dreams.
From the crown falls the stream,
the stream of greedy dreams,
which making its own way
flows all night and day.
It washes away the meek sand
and overflows the small pebbles,
but narrows itself amid
huge rocks and mighty hills.
It flows among crops and trees
and also among no use weeds.
It grows by length and breadth
and tries to drown the whole earth.
Alas! The end comes its way
as it mingles with the bay.
The dreams get lost in the sea so vast
Made of many dreams so lost.
You eat what you are fed
whatever might pass for food.
You don't question it,
you choose to be complacent.
Behind the scenes
there's a monopoly,
a conspiracy to get rich
feeding you whatever
can enrich their greedy pockets.
Your health will pay the true price
of proactive due diligence.
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
The pot is melting...
The 'great melting pot'
This elaborately constructed pot holds a motley of colors and flavors
Once strong and pleasing to the eye, bustling with all of its aromatic juices, flavors, and textures
The great pot of RED, WHITE, and BLUE draws so many, and the few
Indigenous peoples and many others from great and small distances assimilate in this great pot
For a while, the cooking and eating were good, I mean pretty good
So good that still more ingredients desire to be added to this melting pot to bolster the flavor even more
But now, this great pot is disintegrating
Too hot now, is this pot
Too hot with deleterious elements that threaten the constitution of this great amalgamation
The pot is melting
The 'great melting pot'...
It is melting
Two hundred fifty years, is not so long
When measured by how far this country’s gone.
A perfect orthodoxy it has never been,
Yet the work of perfecting it won’t end.
Its greatness lives in what we choose to keep,
Led by grace and peace, not fires of greed.
Where truth is heard, not drowned by lies,
And common sense is not deaf or blind.
This is what keeps a nation free:
To know its full history, to truly see,
To understand, relate, and appreciate,
So knowledge leads us not to hate.
Look around and recognize the years,
The progress earned through hope and tears.
Of all the nations ever brought to birth,
America stands the greatest on this earth!
It was the last rose.
Forbidden but I had to have it.
Clutched it with no regret.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
Where in the world does satisfaction dwell?
Tempt a poor with money once.
He will let out such a wail
Dissatisfied faces gather in a bunch.
I witnessed those drowned in greed
Ones I believed were a symbol of sanctity.
Though terrified to question their creed
Yet I know without desires exist no entity.
I stumbled one day in a forest
When looked up, displayed a competition.
Trees shot toward the sun, leaving behind the rest
They stifle, subjugate and obstruct without hesitation.
Rivers yet are quite manipulating
They carve a compelling story
Once acknowledged as calmed, now invading
Eroded, shoveled and marked its territory.
A Kingdom Built on Ash and Sin
For eighteen years, I was reared for the blade,
A lamb in a house where the monsters played.
They hid their sins in the floorboard cracks,
And led me home on my own bloody tracks.
A welcome-back trap, a dark, hollow room,
Where chants in the shadows sealed my doom.
They tore open hell and flung me right in,
Trading my flesh for a ledger of sin.
I woke to the cold, completely alone,
Stripped of my youth, my blood, and my bone.
Now they sit high on a mountain of gold
Built on the back of the child they sold.
Then came the husband, a beast of a man,
Who traded my flesh for a new wicked plan.
Deeply in debt to the legions below,
He threw me to hell for a cash-out show.
But the pit gave him nothing; his gamble fell through,
So he fled like a coward when the cold wind blew.
Now a collector from hell has crawled to the light,
Searching for souls in the dead of the night.
The ledgers are empty, the debtors have run,
But the hunt for their blood has only begun.
The demon is tracking the scent of their fear
To seal every fate as the reckoning draws near.
Australia, you promised plenty
Buildings replacing trees and views
Concrete covers the sacred lands
Developers grab even more
Energy draining quickly
Farmland naked where once bush grew
Green landscape now just scars
Humble pleas go unheard
Justice lost behind closed doors
Lost children in a lost land
Money begets murder done
Nobody left to save this land
Open scars where miners dig
Prosperity flows away
Quietly the land cries
Religion an early cause
Scars everywhere we see scars
Trembling mountains fall in pain
Understand the land that cries
Victims silenced by gun and law
Wisdom from elders taken
Xeric land now appears
Yearnings to change the past
Zephyr sweeps a damaged land.
A Lineage of Vultures from Hell
I crossed an ocean to unearth my roots,
To find the branches of my hidden tree.
Thirty-eight strangers wearing friendly suits,
Thirty-eight wolves who smiled to welcome me.
In that old village, secrets wore a mask,
Their cunning eyes disguised as open doors.
But stripping me was their intended task,
To leave me bleeding on their wooden floors.
"You're filthy rich," they hissed into the cold,
While robbing every treasure that I kept.
They traded blood for silver and for gold,
And showed no mercy.
Protection
Black key
Brimstone and fire consume the house
I see fire raging as the flames go by
A black ring on the mantle
One manzoor told me once
I write your sins in the good and bad book
I wondered what he meant
Have I been sitting in that pit since then
After he whistled me in with his flute
He locks the bathroom with a black key
To steal nails, hair and gore
To use against me
When he opens the dark door.
462.
Prayer Against Greed
Oh Father God, deliver us from greed
May we ask only what they need
Oh Lord Jesus, save us who are like Gehazi
Grant us the heart of generosity
Oh Holy Spirit, rescue us from selfishness
Be our heart that exhibits kindness
This we ask in our Almighty God. Amen.
-12/21/2015
(Dumarao)
*Gideons Prayer Poems Against Life's Problems
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