Hunters Hunted

down from their ivory towers they came

in twos and threes and sometimes singles,

surveying what was done and why as if

wrong moves had been made for decades;

by the numbers they managed, as large

numbers told them what to do and when,

paying the odds but without wheels spinning

and no bets were ever taken or paid out;

rearranging work and how it played out,

revising tasks and procedures, all because

it no longer made sense to do it otherwise,

at least according to their facts and figures;

there was no need for the middle man as

the rank and file could be trained to do what

they had only pretended to do each day,

justifying their jobs by pushing paper...

and when the microscope was placed on

the activity and found to be redundant, it 

was them who blamed others for their

denials and shortcomings...  it was not 

sad to see them go, but oh so necessary.

May 24, 2023

Wild Animals

endangered we have become

wild animal roaming free,

in and out of places and spaces

from one city to the next,

careful to stay in cheap rooms

on the back streets to avoid

the notoriety of detection,

eating our meals out of cans

of trash on the alleyways of

some restaurants in which we

used to dine with friends but

no more as most of them have

died due to surrender failures

imposed by not paying taxes,

we have been invited to serve,

refusing the invitation just as

we refused to serve and fight

someone else's wars...  and now

hunted we have become like a

pack of wild animals roaming.

May 24, 2023

Downsizing

curtains fall down in front of windows

hiding the view from outside,

shoes on their sides lay, waiting for 

their user to again appear,

unused boxes search for their contents

long since removed and put away,

a table that held many meals prior

given away to charity,

a kitchen open to the living rooms

awaits its new owners, not knowing

what to expect or how they will

be used in the coming years,

rooms repainted and items removed,

packed and repacked as if trying

to hide away all the emptiness,

a house...  a home...  a meeting place...

it was all three of these and more,

and then the time came to give it all

away, move into more accommodating.

May 23, 2023

Awakening

a slight fog surrounds my mind

thoughts are sluggish and vague

tears slide down the walls, looking

for a place to fall into...  words

sit on the stairs unformed and

ill-conceived wishing they had

been still born...  a slight fog 

covers the phrase that has yet

to be written, pausing once in

a while to pick up strange words

like passengers for a bus...  there

are expressions of loneliness

waiting at the corner of then and

now wishing for substitutes but

offer no suggestions...  a strange

fog lingers in the subconscious,

not much different than bankrupt

souls looking for a handout and

isolation has once again arrived.

May 23, 2023

Patchwork

a door swings open and I am left

with a whiff of a faint memory,

not quite fully developed and

wonder if it is from my past or

from another's with whom I may

have interacted way back when...

I have no recollection of the event

or of any event similar to the one

about which I am thinking...  no

idea if it is really mine or another's

or even borrowed without being

returned once it had been used...

it is strange not to recall at all or

is it just a legal term that keeps 

me from being held liable?  I am

not one to wonder but I am one

to speculate and if I were a betting

man, and I am not, I would bet

on the latter not the former...

and now...  it is finally time to

patch the hole in my head that

the randomness of ideas to flew

before they are captured again, 

the bondsman being a friend.

May 20, 2023

Accountability

a petrified thought sits on the bottom

of my mental well from which new

thoughts...  more vibrant thoughts

are retrieved daily...  it has been there

for a long time gathering emotional

dust from alienation and neglect...

it is a verse or a line or perhaps even

a sentence that was never used and

never intended to be used hence the

placement of the discovery...  its days

were numbered before they started

since it was discarded without remorse

nor without remembrance as all things

lost are eventually found, as the mental

auditor must account for everything

when the time comes for accountability.

May 20, 2023

Exploring the End

let us be joyful for those who

would be with us but cannot,

let us be mindful of those who

lament over our pleasures and

believe it was they who taught

us how to live a romantic life,

let us be forever gracious to

those who we knew along the

way but who couldn't pull it

all together as we have done,

let us be thankful to all the

good fortune we have had

the opportunity to experience

since life is full of hardships,

let us remember our parents

as it is they who set the stage

for the experiment to unfold,

let us reward our children who

without our personalities would

have floundered like fish in the

oceans of our combined dreams.

May 19, 2023

An Antique Desk

it was given to me by my father,
whose father gave it to him
whose father gave it to him.
whose father built it from scratch;
to say its antique is an understatement
to say its just handmade is as well...
it was being saved for my daughter
who way back when was an avid
collector of antiques...  or so she said,
and it was kept for her just in case;
times change and we have not talked
or had any kind of communications
in almost a decade...  so...  to a good
cause it was given...  Habitat's Humanity
owns it now and has been told the
story to be shared with new owners
if they really care about its history.

May 19, 2023

Inside A Baobab Tree

we are with no one, and no one is with us,

we are alone with our own thoughts and

memories... friendless and forsaken by

our own design, not your choice...  we 

see the emptiness of love and all of its

surrogates...  caring and feelings that are

as hollow as a baobab tree, intentional

and not through some misfortune...  we

choose to be alone, living in solitude

with the animals of nature that don't talk

back or seek revenge when angered...

we live for no one and no one lives for us,

we are not greedy nor are we motivated

by that desire as we tend to cling to only

that which we need to survive as life

around us survives with us...  it is a 

mutual existence and survival and the

allows us to see what we need to see...

stars guide us in the night when all our

activities cease to be - we are lying on 

our backs comforted by their presence.

May 16, 2023

From Afar

age follows us around all our lives

born young and die old, wondering

what is yet to be inside the unknown,

life flows like the wind in silent gusts

coming out of nowhere...  blowing us

from one side of awareness to the side

about which we know nothing...  we

eliminate our fears when sleeping 

yet they are restored when awake...

understanding only that which we

need to understand for the next day,

tending to the gardens of those who

came before not as ancestors but as

travelers from another world...  from

a different time, letting us know we

are pawns in a universe of species

not so tolerant of our ignorance's.

May 16, 2023