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Most Recent Adventures in Thought
Heartfelt Mourning
Words cannot express
the deep regret I feel
Sweet mourning oh god
Can I go on while knowing
the great horrors that are
To express properly
is the victim’s exoneration
Just to know is beyond me
To feel would break even the strongest
Without you, we each die a thousand times
It is heartfelt mourning
that wakes my long nights in sweats
On our frailties and our yearnings
The cold blow of desire breaks down our doors
And corrupts our hearts over again
Forgiving us at all
would be grace beyond desert
Peace is all we ask
but I fear it is beyond us
Many a sweet cherub
gets thrown into fire
Worthy of a God
well beyond what we have earned
To walk a straight line
takes all we have and more
To walk a step astray
lights the world on fire
Fresh Dew
Fresh dew on fallen leaves
The smell of burning pine
Sunlight begins to crest over the hill
Enveloped in routine I hardly notice
A rabbit not far away
As peaceful as a cherub
Hidden between the brush
Do you hear them?
Do you hear them?
The heavy suffering,
The endless pain?
No, you do not.
A dozen million will die this year.
The silent multitudes
Yearning for your scraps.
What have you done?
At Odds
We face this paradoxical situation: life is improving quickly for the vast majority of people, but inequality is increasing faster than ever before.
All throughout history, life has changed slowly. Occasionally degrading quickly, during times of war and famine. But we now face the opposite: the rate at which technology is improving life is unprecedented. For the first time, our children’s lives will be unimaginably different from our own. And yet the same mechanism which enables our growth as a species also introduces a frightening force: rampant, highly-visible inequality.
No longer are kings and queens sheltered behind castle walls with only the occasional decadent display to demonstrate their affluence.
No longer are the lives of those worst off in society hidden in our peripheral view.
Stardom and suffering juxtaposed on the stage of the endless social feed. The technology which empowers us all simultaneously broadcasts our flaws and elevates our status.
A necessary evil, or perhaps a good thing with severe side effects: the answer “burn it all down” will never be good enough.
Her job is to destroy the world.
When the Soviets threatened nuclear strikes against every major city in the United States, we did not build a defense system. We did not attack or negotiate. We didn’t even build an arsenal. We built a single bomb – aimed at the core of the Earth.
The press of a button would initiate a chain reaction in the planet’s core, leading to the devastation of all life on Earth within a year. In an attempt to deter nuclear war, we would place all our trust in a single individual. Who would dare press such a button?
The assignment was given to a man without devotion for mankind. He had seen the worst of humanity as a prisoner of war in the second World War and became a four star general in the years that followed – no doubt a competent man. But when he was handed the button, the world changed in an instant. A man without love for life was instantly made the most powerful person in all of human history.
He became the Mahadeva: the Great God. And the Destroyer, should his third eye open.
In a twisted inversion of power, a helpless prisoner became a global dictator, commanding unprecedented military fleets, shifting economies at his whim, and conducting fraudulent elections to extend his influence, all from the confines of a bunker one hundred meters below the surface. The Soviets did not dare challenge him.
After just ten months, he was assassinated in secret, his post left empty for nine days, and America left defenseless and vulnerable. The committee understood that the next Mahadeva must contend with an impossible paradox: she must willingly destroy life itself while simultaneously resisting the draw of immense power.
By all accounts, she was the perfect candidate. She was once an accomplished businesswoman, but when she lost her daughter in a car accident five years ago – and with that her last close relationship – she gave up her wealth and adopted an ascetic lifestyle.
Once the news of her election was leaked to the world, the Soviets dug into her past and discovered a tragic mosaic of love and hope, but above all, forgiveness. They calculated a less than one percent chance that she would press the button in retaliation to their attack. The nuclear strike is now headed our way.
Her job is to destroy the world. But it’s too late: she has already made her choice.
As her last moments creep by, she thanks her liberators with tears in her eyes. She knows she will see her daughter again.
The Last Duet
Let’s meet at the end of the universe, my love.
And as the last dying stars fizzle out,
And the supernovae shower us with stardust,
And the background melody begins to fade,
And blackness stretches to oblivion,
As we glimpse the finale,
The last two hearts before a stage,
At the edge of time,
I shall hold you,
Till our final breath.
Just now and awhile
A circle of green hedges
And a squirrel
Caresses
With a soft blue quilt
Swaying high in the sky
Like palm trees wilt
In the sun and sigh
And lazy green grass
Stretching for miles
No desire
Just now and awhile
Reflection
To my right a lonely path leads me off the main road
Hesitantly, I choose to take it
And on the other end I find a turquoise gem
Beyond a cliff, seafoam dusts the sparkling limestone
And brings life to an empty place
But life is all around
Above, hatchlings squeal in lustful chase
Roots like nimble fingers trace the cliffside face
And bags of trash lay strewn across the grass
A crumbling wall serves no clear purpose;
Perhaps a house once stood here
Planks of wood and rusting nails stud the coast:
A diamond neckline on a turquoise dress
Round and round she twirls
To the music of cresting waves
And insect songs
An Icon of hubris nestled in a secret cove
Man laughs and in his Reflection
Mother Nature sheds a tear
Clamping
Complex fusion of apathetic, synaptic confusion
Ratchet dread clamping
Angst for the panorama of direction
Anger of hypnotic heathenism
Flustered beyond social acceptance
And over again is it
There must be a way to see through
A Field of Wildflowers
You are a cool mountain river
A spring morning right before the rain
You are a song bird’s tune and the sunrise at dawn
A day with you is a day brimming with the life and joy of springtime
My heart leaps when I see you and plummets when we must say goodbye
I love you without equal or compare
You are a lilac
Reliable, beautiful, and strong
You are blissful moment wrapped inside an always
You are as gentle as a light spring breeze
As warm and caring as a mother rabbit
And as bright and beautiful as the entire moon on a quiet night
To love you is the melting of snow and the start of a beautiful springtime
Daffodils pushing through ice to meet the world
Fawns awaking to a green paradise
To be your love is a field of wildflowers
Millions of colors and kinds
Aromas intertwining as we do
I love you