Tag Archives: nature

In Defiance of Everything

My cat just lies there
as the mice run free and wild
copulating all over the lawn
as the birds fly into the windows
and throughout all the rooms
with an air of casual ease
and the dogs knock down the fences
shit on the deck
and light cigars.

My cat just lies there
as the pool pump is broken
the finances are in ruins
the shed is on fire
and the vacuum salesman is back.

My cat just lies there
as the rich eat the poor
as machines eat the planet
as the forests burn
from Asia to LA
and democracies crumble
like wet sand through hungry fingers.

My cat just lies there
as I grapple with
the five year plan
the taxman
the diet
the front door
-the weight of
being human

Now
my cat and I
are both lying there
on the floor
on our backs
on a sunlit patch of linoleum
together
in defiance of everything.

My cat Knowing that the
secret to existence
and endurance
is a fine meal
and some good rest.

And perhaps
forgetting everything else
for a little while.

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Abandoned Factory on Shade Street

Broken glass
fragmented as
a childhood memory
mingles with weeds,
catching light;

little lost stars strewn
across cracked pavement.

Inside crumbled walls
dormant boilers resemble
the tombs of future pharaohs.

Among them,
webbed machines corroded
beyond motion
make for silent sentinels.

I see the child I once was
playing
a ghostly riddle
a translucent shape
in my peripheral.

Such places and I
are no strangers
to the end.

Teeming with
abandoned wonder
buried under
decades of paperwork
this still air stirs the
little dreamer
and here the dreamer dances.

I let out a breath.
I can feel what is lost
what is gained
through time.

The largest skeletons
you can find
are of metal in distant fields.

Both harrowing and peaceful
-a past that stands in light.

Forgotten and
vacant
like last night’s dream.

When I Pass

When I pass
I don’t want flowers
or a sermon
or tears.

I want the shade of a tree,
a gentle breeze
and a bird song.

I want to be that bird
and that tree
and perhaps a snail.

I would still want to live
and I will.

It may be dark
for a little while
until there is light again

but it will come
as sure as the next sunrise
the next song
the next rain.

So don’t mourn for me
because I’m not there.

I’m in the trees
in the grass
in the air.

I’m everywhere
but in the box.

I’m already on my way
to something else.

Take this moment instead.
Take a deep breath.
Take a good look around and

don’t cry for angels
that won’t cry for you.

Corporate Melancholy

Oh, but to button up your salmon shade shirt
as first light suffuses the sky
to grab your leather case
to head out into the utilitarian
concrete venues
the slow murder of the freeway
the stone faces behind desks
the clerks the admins the accountants
the space between eyes like
air between walls
the cubicles lashed together
under fluorescent strips of lights.

The unsettling labyrinth of hidden voices
hitting their sales targets.

It can skew your sanity
itch at your primordial mind
that this isn’t and never
was intended to be
the way for us so long
hidden under rocks and leaves
our soul.

This isn’t really you
beneath this artificial skin
thin as paper on a desk
but the children require cellphones
and your wife a new look.

As slowly your face
moulds into that shit-eating grin while
thanking your next client
your blood wants blood
your past cannot forgive you.

You measure yourself
with false advertisements

and spend all night
locked in dreams
mocking your life.

Dogs

Sometimes our dogs eat better than us
are better than us
can be much more spiritually profound
can show us the way.

They are definitely happier
far more expressive
defiantly loyal
unbreakable in friendship
will die protecting you
and can bring such joy into
the hearts and minds of both young and old.

But for this simple reason alone I prefer cats:
They don’t give a shit
and will leave me the fuck alone.

They also leave dead mice on the floor that’s
always a plus.

Force of Nature

That damned weed
grew into a tree and
spread across the chain-link fence
like a lover in your bed.

I chopped at it
with a hatchet
with all my heart
and also with the weed whacker
fully charged
-just like my meds.

And now it’s back
fully grown
like I never touched it.
Ever.

I had to smile
laugh a little…

because that weed
is what we are
as people
that weed
is what we have to be
in the end.

That is the force of nature,
my friend,
right there.

That is the force in us.