It's Only You

Patriot

Patriot
Thrown into the air
Millions of red petals
Flew up in an ecstatic frenzy
Wavered for a moment
Then fell to the ground

Not yet fallen, I glimpse them
In suspension
Watched them in their imaginings
Thinking they could take flight
Like the eagles that command the skies

But they will not find their rapture in war
Millions of petals burning
A holocaust of roses
Greet the clear eye
Burnt out eyes

How many years blind?
scrounging the rosebuds
Degenerate food, degenerate religion, degenerate culture
Marlboros, christmas shopping and sex on TV
Religions of hate versus a multiculturalism of self-loathing hypocracy

But it's so easy to lash out
Lash away from your self-introspection
Towards an outside you barely understand
Finding unity and solace only in their new equality:
"Slavery is for white people too"

But I know the ground from which we're cast
Rich soil of freedom
Now aflame with that sterilizing heat
Aflame with dollars, violence and atomization
That crisp the ground and singe the roses apart

They only grow taller in the ground
But we can feel taller in the air
High on inflation, corn syrup and cocaine
The cheap thrill of stealing a neighbor's seed corn
Gorging oneself on a future that will never come

But for now the petals dance
At the height of their decadence and beauty
Unbeknownst to them
As they struggle higher
Away from the flames destined to consume them

I am one of these petals
But I do not look to the sky but to the bud
My home enveloped in flames
As I reflect on the future awaiting me
Dreaming of the bedrock I hope lies underneath….

Starchild

Sunrise
Touches eyes
Trembling before its glory
Along with all they see

Life-giving light
So primal
In its beauty,
Sparkles red and purple
Through the leaves and their birds singing praises of the darkness falling away

I have come here to meet the sun

Through this drama
Played out endlessly
Over and over
Before and after the last man
I stand
Its lonely child
In awe of its divine indifference to all that it illuminates

Why is it so easy
To find beauty in what lies so distant
While at the same time human company
Draws only the distance of a vacant stare
Towards the specific vagueries which numb the mind to time's passing
And throw one into the endless circles of monotonous conversation

Beauty
So apparent from far away
In the sovereignty of the sun over my head
Dissipates
As the proximity increases
In the words of a friend or the glance of a passer by

My mind
So enraptured by the inhumanity of the open sky
Cringes
When it brings its focus closer
To its own fractures refelected in the regular imaginings of other minds' eyes

But I am still with the sun this morning

Ensconced by the warmth of its rays
My awareness stretches
Moment by moment
My experience reaching out
Enveloping everything in my gaze
Feeling myself a blink in the eyes of the sun and stars from which I'm made