Thursday, May 30, 2019

YEARNING FOR GRACE




YEARNING FOR GRACE

i.

We tell
  the stories
that have been 
told us

We touch
  in ways
we have been
  touched

Argument
  and pain

recycled

or repurposed

  and refined

We need not master
  anything but love

and in that

being a student
will suffice.


ii.

I’ve been assigned
  dumpster duty

My job to hose
  the fucker down

I’ll probably
  flood the alley

Clumsy Student


iii.

Yearning for grace

  hoping for redemption

As plants turning
  toward the Sun.


RW
Seattle
05.30.2019

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

WERE WE TO BE (for Greta Thunberg)



                                                                 (graphic:  Marec ((404))
WERE WE TO BE

Doctors of our lives

We would focus our fierce intelligence
on the only balm for our fearful existence –

          Love
          for all
          creation.

We would find
our daily dose
of good sense to offset
the nonsense

          that

          merchants
          power-mad
                    &
          false-do-gooders

peddle

where e’er we roam.

We would have eyes to see

dog on her haunches
sharing a joke with hummingbird
         
          under
          blue sky
          quarter moon
          beautiful dream morning.

Each moment passes

precious

connect the dots

connect
the
dots

worlds

will

end

but

not just yet.

          Amen.


RW
Seattle
05.29.2019
         

Sunday, May 12, 2019

A Short History, Beginning to End


 (photo:  NASA,  Neutron Star in the Far Magellanic Cloud)

1.

God
in all
God’s
glory

Explosive

ragged

aflame

A raging expansion

extending and delineating

Everything.


2.

Human Beings
came lumbering
onto the scene
baring our teeth
and scratching
at parasites

&

Here we are
straddling cyberspace
baring our teeth
and scratching
at scabs.


3.

Bloody Century - the 20th

Red ants
living
in a
red ant hill

given the gift of fire

We burnt
some cities
to a crisp

and all the people
in them.


4.

Lumbering we were
and lumbering still
we crashed the 21st
turned the jets up high
and ruined dinner for everyone

Then we left the kitchen
with the oven on.


5.

Billionaires in rocket ships
where they gonna’ run to?

God
in all
God’s
glory

mouth
wide

swallows a fly

Perhaps
we’ll
die.



RW
Seattle
05.11.2019

Thursday, May 2, 2019

DAS KAPITAL ( Nap Time at Nordie's)





Taking a break
in an easy chair
in a nicely appointed
luxury department store

Surrounded by

glass and stainless steel

purses shoes
wallets pens
watches
diamonds & emeralds
rings brooches chains.

Breathing cool
odorless air

relaxed

slipping away
falling in falling out.

Chimes subtle
in the
deep background

chimes
in the
deep

chimes.

Body temp dips
just a bit

slow pulse slows

jaw relaxes

head

drops
&
jerks

drops
&
jerks

eyes slide open
scan watery surroundings

murmurs like a helpful lift
from a fellow diver
seem to bring me up
to surface

where rheostats hum.

Eyes flutter
and close again.

We’ll go home soon…


This

while

on the wine dark sea

an eighteen story
     ocean liner

slowly

slowly

capsizes.



RW
Seattle
05.02.2019



Wednesday, May 1, 2019

HARVEST SPINNING

(photo:  The Bone Room - Male Skull India - $2,500)


HARVEST SPINNING

There are villages where poor people sell their bones and body parts to be collected after death.

The family eats; the rent is paid; Monsanto gets its cut.

This is not a pawn, not a loan.  No tickets or i.o.u.’s are issued or signed.  There is no redemption but collection.

Sometimes, before the body’s last breath, the collectors arrive and man-handle the soon to be or not to be out to the jungle, alley, basement, warehouse bathtub for a careful harvest of bones and parts.

The money doesn’t last.
­

WIFE GONE SPINNING

spinning

money gone spinning

wife gone spinning

family hungry

spinning

money gone
rent not paid

spinning

money gone

shame

wife gone spinning

spinning

hanged
and
spinning

spinning from the spinning

ceiling fan.


RW
Seattle
05.01.2019

To purchase a skull of your own, or a whole skeleton, click here:  The Bone Room

For the Internationale sung by Billy Bragg:  The Internationale