soporific

a monolith of the masses
melded into a bait ball
of human flesh
and coats
and boots
and sweaty sweaters
and the fruits of all their attributes
and the smell of humid subway car
like wet dog and day old smoke
and rope and rank
the filth and stank
in particulate pieces
float through the air
and your misanthropy increases
you hold your breath
but early morn
and soporific warm
cracks wide your jaws
in great gawping yawns
and million people
you've never met
coalesce and meet in you

cabbage (verb)

you wander through the crowd
and make your marks
fresh faced and dewy eyed
naive and to the swindle, open wide
and I believed you, pettifogger,
when you said you never lied,
I excused you when my hopes denied 
and never noticed til you left,
you sneak thief, flimflam, mountebank man,
you cabbaged all my smiles
filched my heart
winkled out the joy
from which I thought I'd never part
now grown but less green
again again I start
to make my way
through this carnival
so through the throng I dart
more wary and more weary
guarding the few treasures
that remain, the bits  
you never measured
empty hands in empty pockets
and nevermore the same

vicissitude

you've gone quiet
i asked a question
silence is your answer
in this it is
a coward's answer
given the chance
given the choice
you chose alone
decided for
instead of with
it belittles
and subjects me to
the vicissitudes
of agency denied
i almost rather
that you lied
than say nothing
as in doing so
you've left me for dead
my carcass picked by vultures
of the imagined conversations
that fill the silence in my head

dynasty

atop the pyramid
they sit
and hand down
the law
golden clad dynasty
denying and distributing
at whim
we poor peasants
like pheasants
peck for crumbs
in the dust
await beneficence
barefoot and barely breathing
told that ours will come
within a season
but our success
relies on their succession
and so again comes depression

wistful

i think of how it could have been
and wistful i become
i don't know the where or when
but now the race is run
and all the words you never said
are pounding in my ears
as i lay in an empty bed
left only with my tears

genteel

as through smoked glass
all so upper class
politeness blurs all our sins
good manners attended
the occasion defended
though feeling just needles and pins
with manner genteel
we create the veneer
of beauty, perfection supreme
but under the gloss
lies a great loss
the dream that takes place in a dream

riddle

I've long given up
trying to puzzle out
others' means or motives.
I can barely discern
the riddle that is me.

All I know is,
whatever the question
the only answer is this:
love
love fully,
love heartily,
love fool-heartedly,
just...love.

impute

under cranberry & golden leaves
that become brittle and bust
I move oblivious
senses overwhelmed I cannot compute
the data received
I cannot comprehend
how again deceived
under autumn sky
I marvel at me
how I'm still blind
could miss the signs
and though I would not impute upon you
motive nefarious I cannot dispute that you
did what you said you would not do
had I a heart left to break
perhaps you would have broken
but one before you left nought
but the smallest token

protocol

of course, sometimes it is so fun
to do things as they've not been done
but breaking protocol ain't good, see,
when it destroys things as they should be
affairs of state, as a for instance,
vital to our coexistence
perhaps should adhere to etiquette
to maintain treaties delicate
and while a blind trust may sound scary
calm down, calm down, it's temporary
it's just so you maintain some ethics
and do not fleece your constituents
and let's not get started on your cabinet
who destroy the earth as they inhabit it
and blasting theatre kids on twitter
makes almost anyone else seem fitter
to hold the office of President
now really, is that your intent?
when you're in the wrong, don't deny it
and if you can't be good, at least be quiet

Kafkaesque

the discordant buzz
of a million flies swarming
the woeful wails
of a planeful of babies
the grim grind
of dentist drills
of styrofoam squeaking
of anxiety peaking
hang in my hearing
in the Kafkaesque pause
after the explanation
of me as exemplar 
right before the
"but"

nictitate

the princess awakening
eyelids nictitate and
eyelashes flutter
the swift intake
of a soft gasp
as she shakes off the last
gossamer strands of dream
the kiss
not of a prince
but of this
realization and glory
that she must be
the hero of her own story

meshuggener

tearing up over tea leaves
trying to tease out
the possible from the improbable
mad mystic meshuggener
searching for signs and portents
in the clouded crystal of your eyes
and I can't see why
the weather changes
when the storm rages
or where the rain will fall
or if the sun will shine again
at all

lambent

happiness dances
like moonlight on ocean
like lambent kisses
a whisper away
in the tickle and twist
of rainbows in mist
made of thumb and hose
of sand between toes
of candyfloss skies
of a kindred kind recognized
in eloquent eyes
that sing hope and home
and help and hello

obfuscate

the fog descends
miasma of sooty contagion
and broken souls
the air raid sirens of old
muffled in the soup
truth obfuscated
by the particulate grime
of lies that settle
like smoke and seep
into every crack
clog every pore
and more
the dragon burns the air
until our shallow breaths
set fire in our chests
no more we dream
of the white picket fence
just clean air and the sound of rain
not trumpets

jejune

I do not advocate silence
but I find too many eyes already blind
by eye for an eye leaving those who
can see at all, to one dimension resigned
disagreeing does not make me doe-eyed and dewy
though you formed an opinion before you knew me
in these days, it's true, all hope may seem jejune
and optimism naive; the time more opportune
for hatred and violence, to be sure
but in that respect, I demur
condemn, protest, be the change I wish to see
and hope I don't become myopic
or lose all sight
in my struggles to be free

quid pro quo

I don't know, man
I don't know
so you said NO
to the quid pro quo
the quid pro quo
that makes the wheels go
that makes the grass grow
cuz you no more believe
better the devil you know
and you set the fire
with no concern
cuz you never once thought
that the wind might turn
cuz you couldn't be bothered
to read up and learn
that the fire don't care
what the fire will burn

hoke

rotten within
and shiny without
you beguile
with winsome smile
and gestures grand
perfumed and powdered
to hide the stench of sulfur
to distract from your lack
of know how you know how
to blather and bluster
just enough to pass muster
you prod and you poke
and hoke up your hype
and those who disagree
out loud or in type
had better be prepared
for the backlash
from the braggadocious and brash
from the rude and the rash
with their bold-faced lies
and their balderdash
so oft repeated
it sounds like truth
to ignorant ears
of the apathetic uncouth

sabot

born on the side of a highway
in the heat of summer so dry
learned our letters carved in cacti
it is time now,
the horses long dead
our bellies with gravel and grit
have been fed and the sun sets ahead
we must strap on our sabots
and hike up our skirts
in the cool of the night
face wetted by tears
an echo of a dream of rain
we walk into the darkness
hearing howls at a sliver of moon
hope our path is true
before we are nought
but next year's dust

facetious

i would not stop those
who jape and jest
who love a laugh
and mock the rest
who facetious
bring others joy
I would not stifle
or make them coy
but would remind
that words have power
a moment's joke
may sting an hour
the things you say
may hurt and harm
when you meant
to just disarm
raise points, make jokes
but still consider
whether you're
laughing at or
with her
if you tease
to tear him down
if your target's mighty
or on the ground
a laugh's a lark
and a weapon
so be conscious
who your aim's on

ukase

as Kurt once said
and so it goes
and so it goes
as Leonard said
everyone knows
everyone knows
and I wonder
how is this
what we chose

and we all watch
as puppet strings
get pulled
as truth gets muddled
as we get fooled
the dummy shouts
and issues an ukase
and those who
bow too quick
never notice
that the words
came from another face

as Kurt once said
and so it goes
and so it goes
as Leonard said
everyone knows
everyone knows
and I wonder
how is this
what we chose

elicit

before we see the coming of
the rights we share defaced
by those who mouth the words
but don't know what they mean
the press repressed in favor of
a blank and empty screen
new atrocities unmarked
by the decent and the good
because they're never told
any more than what He would
this I hope, I hope, I hope
that those not woke awake and rise
with apathy by empathy replaced


no more silent or indifferent
I hope we all stand up and fight
I pray for truth and justice
that it will not come to this
that his behavior won't be modeled
on the words said previous
but should hope be in vain
may it elicit this response
an informed electorate
with no more nonchalance
for misdeeds and for malfeasance
for the rank inequities
no more blind to the mistreatment
of those different from these
for the good of all the people
I hope we all will do what's right

triptych

go back
go away
don't come to call
read the triptych
on the wall
we rose
we closed
and now we fall

bully pulpit

as age brings what passes for wisdom
still I am surprised betimes
when those I thought in sympathy aligned
I find up on the bully pulpit
expounding views I never knew
and while I do not mind
a view opposed but well defined
I cannot understand
those who have consigned
reasoning to the rubbish bin
for fear and rage and hate
they make me fear our friendship's fate
is dead, deceased, no more, and late

auriferous

each heart anew
we seek
we search
we hope to find auriferous
those baser made
have fooled us
lonely prospectors
digging expectantly
for the ones that shine

mollify

the worry

that no result

can mollify the masses

convinced they are

that only they are right

and what will happen

when we the people

have lost all sight

we blindly fight

half the country

live in fright

afeared of the other

afeared of the might

cavalcade

and, yet again,
another year
the clock ticks
onward still
life taking place
in the moments between
each pendulum swing
as we fly
from second to second
here and back
we rise and fall
and tread
the paths we made
as the cavalcade
of days
rushes past
and in the end
the feelings in between
are the things that last
the race of blood
that rushes in between the beats
the whispers of the words
unsaid between the sheets
the laughter stifled
but ringing in our eyes
these are the truths
that define our lives

dicker

as though it matters
whose deck chair would get more sun
while the iceberg breaks us
like fishwives dickering over minutiae
of months old catch
you pick the slivers with pliers
from our neighbors eyes
and ignore the forest taken root
in your own
this is how chaos is sown
I sit back and watch it burn 
plane ticket at the ready

always have a plan B

echelon

forget the mountain
made of man
foothills of broken souls
the sherpa piggybacked
no, it was all you
you clawed and clung
each millimeter hard won
by you (or, ya know, someone)
you rise into rarefied air
at last the upper echelon
no matter who
you had to step on
and now
congratulate yourself
for conquering Everest
because you're the best

temerarious

somehow we chose
a marathon in marshland
squelching in morass
temerarious we leap
and never look
certain we'll alight
on dry land
impervious to the suck
pulling down to drown
the less quick
into quicksand

but once the gun's
shot has rung
we can't stop
lest we also drop
pulled into muck
stuck

those few who
cross this way
may get there first
but for where and for what

had we only paused
before the race begun
picked a longer path
on firmer ground
we may have come later
to the what and where
but at least we'd be certain
it would get us there

gravid

queen of this claustrophobic cave
she sits and spews her spite
from gravid mouth her words emerge
hateful babies skipping adolescence
to breed immediately
poisoning the well like a plague
of toxic tadpoles 
her invective wriggles around the room
and no conversation remains untainted