rectitude

in topsy-turvy times
the moral are maligned
their motives suspect
by those that disrespect
a narrative not drawn
by those that fawn
over wealth
before all else
and the rectitude of
those who rise above
the falsehood and lies
is questioned by the
spoon-fed masses who
refuse to take their heads
out of their asses

parlous

she stands upon
the precipice
parlous and fearless
furious and peerless
horizon locked eyes
and toes over abyss

manticore

DO NOT!
DO NOT!
be taken in
by his charming, boyish grin
by his soft and lovely purr
by his soft and lovely fur

LOOK BEHIND!
where lies the sting
his scorpionic reckoning

BEWARE!
BEWARE!
DO NOT FALL FOR!

HE'S NOT A MAN
BUT MANTICORE!!!

delegate

i envy the brazen,
no fucks left to give,
that delegate care
to such as me.
they who walk through the world;
not ripples or waves
in their wake,
but tsunami storm surges.
i envy but could not be.
that ability
lacks a certain empathy
by which i'm bound -
and most times happily,
but sometimes i would
if i could
unbind and unwind
and not mind the mess
or anyone else's distress.
oh, to do whatever I want
with no other thought -
terrible but glorious.

grandiose

from merest smile
or worse, a kiss,
hope extrapolates
and masterminds
grandiose designs
aspirational architecture 
the scheming schematics
of soaring spires
set to scrape the sky
unbothered by
bedrock or lack thereof
the mind baking bricks
of like to love
before one shovelful
of dirt is dug

bravado

fight through the fear
bolstering a bit of bravery
with bravado until
we find the will to
make the world anew
this is what we do

thimblerig

I forfeit
I submit
I admit defeat
your thimblerigging
has me befuddled and bested
attention diverted
by promises skirted
exhausted
unrested
I left it
you win
uncontested

vanward

they would not have chosen
to set aside childish care
about make-up, pop quizzes,
prom dates or their hair
they would not have chosen
to put down their phones
and pick up a placard
and march from their homes
to chant and to rally
to make themselves heard
they would not have chosen
but won't be deterred
they would not have chosen
to cower in fear
at every alarm
when footsteps they hear
but you shoved them all vanward
to the front of this fight
when you told them their lives
were worth less than your right
to own, not a gun,
but a weapon of war
built for the slaughter
and to kill by the score
they would not have chosen
but you gave them no choice
so now you should listen
as they speak with one voice
as they cry out for justice
and beg for the chance
to have their worst nightmare
be no date for a dance
and not waking up crying
for the friends that they lost
just so you could play Rambo
whatever the cost

never-never land

i could not be more beguiled
by any other smile than by your puckish grin
peeking out from behind the whiskers on your chin
as you lean in for a kiss and i close my eyes in bliss
and find myself for a moment in a never-never land
where i never thought to stand

lugubrious

we sing
in susurration
lugubrious lamentations
from hoarse electorate
to deaf government
our democracy, we mourn
our democracy, denied
oh, democracy was promised
but the promisers, they lied
the lobbyists lob grenades
of special interest
specializing in creating interest
and capital gains
and their money
and their names
garner gratitude
from the powerful
or by the powerful bought
defending the indefensible
instead of who they ought
when money equals speech
the rich have microphones
and the rest of us
play telephone
with cans and string
and so in susurration
our lamentations
of democracy's demise
we sing

cadre

going to the mattresses
building up the buttresses
the militia of my mind
creating anxiety and
being unkind
cries flying skyward
as rebel rabble storm
the psyche's bastion
climbing over walls
to catch the cadre of cares
cowering behind the portcullis
and settling in for the siege
 

yegg

lock up
your daughters
lock up
your hearts
your money
your jewels
your priceless arts
for the yegg
creeps in
like the proverbial cat
taking this
and stealing that
then like the wind
he is gone
leaving nothing
but a love song

hachure

meticulous
cartographer
map the curves
and contours
hachure the slopes
to denote
each peak
and valley
as you trace
your fingers
over me

farce

thrust onstage
unscripted and unrehearsed
destined for both
the best and the worst
we enter with a smack
trip over the ottoman
to crack our heads
against slamming doors
we crawl on all fours
through the writhing mass
in the jig and dance
of circumstance
the players enter and exit
and we never know why
and like the masks
we can laugh or cry
so laugh in the face
of life's grand farce
it's all improvisation
of course

uncanny

the widow's walk
floorboards worn smooth
by her constant tread
railing polished
by the grip of
a million fingerprints
as she tries to pierce
the uncanny fog
with grief blurred eyes
to conjure sails out of air
and hear over ocean roar
the laughter of him
coming home once more

anent

vis a vis
you and me
a thing are we
nolo contendere
and anent us
considered thus
the quid pro quo
does us both bono
in arcane words
and legalese
I find some ease
hiding love
in language formal
rather than
just being normal

telegenic

he's not a politician
but he plays one on TV
he's oh so telegenic
as anyone could see
he don't believe in guv'ment
but he sure believes in ratings
keeps up dramatic tension
with rallies and with race baiting
he keeps the cast list changing
and he throws out all the scripts
and never mind he's steering us
towards the apocalypse

invigilate

silent as stone
from lofty perch
his mason made face
a twisted grotesquerie
he invigilates
and surmises
passing judgement
on those below
whom he's nicknamed
but does not know

laudable

the high road
a laudable choice
the view from there
must be spectacular
a gift exemplar
but some of us
must muck about in dirt
muddy our hems
and ruin our skirts
we must climb over fences
to reach the road at all
so before you call us names
and look down on us with disdain
remember from whence we all came

Croesus

pick your priorities
carefully
nurture what will nurture you
things will break
and sometimes, sadly,
people will break too
but at the end
which will matter
what you owned
or what you did
who you loved
or who you outbid
money buys comfort
but not content
you could be Croesus
but once it's spent
what do you have left
and who do you have near
is it stuff or people
you hold dear

scilicet

we create the names
and claim
that taxonomy is destiny
as if somehow
that change
is determined by will
evolution strained by
our quotas to fulfill
and forget
the binding truth
scilicet, that the thing
is the thing
made up of itself
and not our determining

lexicographer

the unspoken language
a kiss has a million nuances
a touch is like a Russian novel
a whisper like a sonnet
and I cannot parse
the entirety of it
not were I a lexicographer
with a million billion notecards
scribbling down as data
every inferred word
for their definitions shift
as I try to pin them to paper
a lonely lepidopterist of longing

meander

a sunny day set in spring
we meander through the park
commenting

on kids and dogs
and flowers and such
it means both nothing
and oh, so much

in years to come
that's what we'll remember
not the worst of our fights
or our kisses so tender
but the best parts
of being together together

bird-dog

all the messy feelings are part of the plan
run as fast as you can but they can't be outran
misery and misfortune will, for certain,
find you until they kick the dirt in
but joy and jubilation will bird-dog you too
like an eager puppy gnawing on your shoe
all the messy feelings are part of the plan
run as fast as you can but they can't be outran

woolgathering

the world blurs
the mind demurs
the demands
of doldrums days
drown out the divine
lost in woolgathering ways
escape into the jungle haze
of the delusional sublime
for adventure or the serene
the ecstasy or the agony
or anything, dear gods, but
this permanent in between

scarify

remember and know
i am a seed

and all the nicks and scrapes
the fiascos, the hard breaks
the falls that i take
that scarify me so
tattooed upon my heart
and etched upon my skin
are not a wrinkled reckoning
or proof of ruination
but are in fact
to speed my germination

so from within kernel encasing
i may sprout and grow

rabble

they have means and might to broadcast
they own microphones and the media
they manage us thus

but rabble must rouse instead of drowse
before our tvs or clacking on clickbait
like yesterday's catch

here in the hoi polloi we can drown them out
we can raise our voices in cacophony
or join together to find the harmony

and together our million little voices
will compound to resound as a single sound
to make our will known

cursory

no needs for subliminal screens
we make our own with each scroll
the memes instead flash by
and our eye in cursory glances
performs a dance for domination
of information without substantiation
in a world of snippets without context
we cannot expect somehow to accrue
the perspective to figure out what's true

elucidate

the same song serenades us
on a broken player piano
as we wait for an epiphany
to elucidate what it was before
and make whole the chords
that jangle like the grin
of a jagged singer smile
filled with aged gaps
and holes on a tattered roll
so we create the harmonies
in our heads to make a tune
out of what might have been
or what might be
a mangled rendering
of Clair de Lune

nondescript

inscrutable,
with the curl
of an upturned lip:
sardonic cynicism
or simply his smile?
eyes wise
but unrelenting
as forthcoming
as a nondescript wall
he gives away
nothing at all
and I never know where
in his estimation I fall
unless I ply him
with copious amounts
of alcohol

agon

withhold judgment

you do not see the maelstrom writhe

inside my crucible chrysalis

or the agon as i strive

to excise the support on which i stood

to free myself of my flocculent facets

trusting turmoil to transform

so that if i survive

i may fly