Monday, October 30, 2006

Great witnessing cloud

Great witnessing cloud
Of saints, long gone and recent
Watching, hope for peace.

Sock Monkeys, the bane

Sock Monkeys, the bane
Of my childhood. They haunted
My house, hounding me.

All Hallow's Eve

Halloween is our chance to celebrate the darker side of life. What other chance do we have to recognize and confront our fascination with the Macabre, the Violent, the Evil in ourselves without consequence?

Holidays have traditionally been times of reversal: Masters serve the servants, the Fool is King, and God is born in a barn to a poor couple out of wedlock. The celebration of death in a culture that normally refuses to acknowledge its mortality makes all the sense in the world.

At least it did to me until this past weekend. Then I thought of how thoroughly we already express our Macabre, Violent, and Evil selves. Our leaders are vampires who profit from foreign policies certain to kill women and children. We make zombies of the poor with our pop media and our drugs and our justice system better designed to make criminals than citizens. We have all become cyborgs, our rampant consumerism only a few steps away from making us into as much what we own as who we are, our communication moderated by infernal machines rather than the intervening space between human mouth and human ear.

We are our worst fears already. We don't need catharsis; we need change. We don't need costumes of our darker sides; we need a reminder of what our best side could be. There's a real holiday reversal. Better than the consumerism of Christmas and the religious hypocrisy of Easter. Why don't we tell the truth for a change about who we really are, and act the way we know we should?

Why don't we really reverse things. Let's make the little girl in Iraq more important than the CEO of Halliburton. Let's make a decision based on the needs of a poor family in Haiti and not for the board of Exxon. Let's do right by the poor, the disenfranchised, the sick, the weak, and the young instead of perpetuating the power of the already to powerful. There's a holiday reversal.

Let's remember the dead, but not the dead as we imagine them in our nightmares. Instead let's remember their most saintly qualities, their best hopes for their children, their steps toward the the betterment of humankind. Let's remember Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, and Mother Theresa. Let's remember the best of what's come before. And let's be rightly ashamed of ourselves.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Shopkeepers crying

Shopkeepers crying
Their wares making promises:
Joy in a bottle.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Crazy fish swimming

Crazy fish swimming
Down the street, pulling fish-carts
To and from the square.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Marshmallow towers

Marshmallow towers
This year faired no better than
They yet have before.

A stack of hardbacks

A stack of hardbacks,
Warm bed, sweet love, full wine rack,
Vacation waiting.

Paper piles knee high

Paper piles knee high.
Saving the world, life by life,
A memory lost

The dripping of eaves.

The dripping of eaves.
The distant garage baseline.
Rain in the city.

Friday, October 20, 2006

I'm pretty pleased with

I'm pretty pleased with
It. It seems so clean, It's just,
Such dualistic War.

Oh, bastarnd, don't put

Oh, bastard, don't put
That thought, Write something so much
More clever and bright.

I turned on the heat

I turned on the heat
In the car this morning it
Was oddly pleasant.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Cool nights left wishing

Cool nights left wishing
For more company, more warmth,
But she is at work.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Holding together

Holding together
Books and papers. Dropping them
To hold a child's hand.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

The coffee's blackness

The coffee's blackness
Swallowing spiteful remnants
Drowning hangover.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Friday, this, thirteenth

Friday, this, thirteenth
Of October, four and ten
In the afternoon.

Things yet to be done

Things yet to be done
Hold me here, but the cool air
And sunlight call me.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Sinister glances

Sinister glances
Barely dodged. Sudden knocking.
Fright-jump. Moment gone.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Dashed lines, rhythmic lumps

Dashed lines, rhythmic lumps,
Delicate division for
Deadly metal streams.

The rock that tripped me

The rock that tripped me
Saved my life. Unwitting dodge
Of an evil glare.

Aaron's Blog

I just discovered Aaron's blog. I'm sure he told me about it, but I'd been remiss and not found it until now.

http://austinartist.blogspot.com/

Also, I've included it as a link in the right column.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Tied in a knot, not

Tied in a knot, not
Free to fend for itself, it
Loses direction.

Such a good kid, too

Such a good kid, too,
He was and can still become.
Go away red flag.

All the voices cry

All the voices cry-
ing for my short attention
Falling silent. Hush.

Long to sit and read

Long to sit and read
On the porch with a cold beer,
Listen to rainfall.

Tiny drops of life

Tiny drops of life
Having waited for so long
Bringing all their friends.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Off to buy something

Off to buy something
From someone I fear might not
Be a real person.

Friday, October 06, 2006

From pot to pot walk

From pot to pot walk,
Water slowly trickling down
On sage and ginger.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Jesus sits before

Jesus sits before
Me, taking a math benchmark.
Where did we go wrong?

The walk up Sixth Street

The walk up Sixth Street,
Footing it past the traffic,
Looking for pecans.

Sweetness of the squash

Sweetness of the squash
The spice, nutty grains, tart fruit
Cold beer, feast of fall.

Bright blue becomes

Bright blue becomes
Pale moody gray as the sky
Fades into Austin.

Running along the

Running along the
Barrier between chain-link
and free-way. Escape.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Today's tests stacked in

Today's tests, stacked in
Three towers, looming, promise
To watch the day drag.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Parade of cotton

Parade of cotton
Beasts and ships and bright faces
Pass my window, fade.

Drops falling splatter

Drops falling splatter
From pool to pool beneath up-
turned cup, table, floor.

What blooms lie beyond

What blooms lie beyond
The edge of my becoming
Though the morning fog?

Monday, October 02, 2006

Prospect of sunlight

Prospect of sunlight
Waking and warming this cold
Skin. Five o'clock come.

The man in the back

The man in the back
Seat waited, unseen, watching.
Black suit, white tie, gloves.

"No news is good news"

"No news is good news"
The empty mailbox might claim.
Lonely, know better.

The coffee is cold

The coffee is cold
And burnt. The cups all dirty.
I sit staring, lost.

The time flies by

The time flies by
Driven by three propellers
Fast, medium, slow.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

The singer's crooning

The singer's crooning
Haunts the world, lingering though
The singer's gone home.

Poverty I know

Poverty I know
not. Such bounty one can find
In so bright a face.