punching my own time clock every day
when I turn on my PC
and decide what to say
during my self-imposed desk duty
my thoughts trickle across the screen
opinions and images flow
during this daily routine
I never really know
the end result unforeseen
the eventual goal
to write and hope it’ll be seen
205 words – free verse
life in the fast lane of concrete jungles weaving through cities and states seeking altered states and the key to paradise while cities burn from fires caused by climate change and a whole range of environmental disasters brought on by corporate behemoths that breath life into Wall Street’s secrets corridors of power looking down on the average citizen nearly powerless trying to fight Goliath with a cell phone tapped by the FBI and marketers vying for the masses money in cyberspace a dangerous place where saints and sinners trumpet their wares to the unwary visitors responding to special sales for limited times – but wait there’s more – in the pursuit of happiness religions and cults seek converts with promises of saving souls and access to elite Hollywood parties where the wealthy meet to greet one another and brag about big contracts and casting beds while women fight for equality and freedom from perverted movie execs soaked in their huge egos looking for the next star in an industry of dreams where viewers suspend reality to escape a world of lies that have formed like cobwebs in our society holding the average person victim with fake news and rhetoric straight from hell and premiering near you soon.
205 words – free verse
do you ever get criticized for what you eat?
or dressing sloppy and not being neat?
then you’re probably feeling the heat
from the critics in your life and on the street
our hopes and our desires are fragile things
that need nurturing, not a critics barbed stings
using words like weapons and their voices like slings
critics treat your ideals and habits like verbal playthings
but you can make sure the your critics don’t succeed
when they talk trash about you, pay them no heed
be the master of your own ship and don’t concede
to naysayers and enemies who only want to mislead
we’re all going to feel heat along our chosen way
how we stand up to our detractors determines our day
we’re all different and have a variety of games we play
in essence, life is too damn short not to have your say!
50 words –
There are wounds that we can see and others invisible to the naked eye, but both can make us cry.
Physical wounds leave tell-tale scars on the body. Physic wounds hide in the head, leaving the victim with a constant state of dread.
Faith can cure both and raise the dead
100 words –
He knows no boundaries.
His words are weapons and blessings. They start wars and form religions. The writer is only restrained by his imagination.
He creates other worlds and tears down fictional civilizations. With the power of the keyboard the writer surfs through subjects from ideology to philosophy effortlessly.
His words are building blocks for future generations. They excite. They cause fights. They bridge languages and customs carefully. They rhyme. They warn. They express love. They promise a better time.
The writer has a duty to entertain. To inform. To motivate. To teach. Nothing is ever out of his reach.
Hate is an acquired trait.
We’re not born hating the world around us. An infant has a clear conscience with the ability to love without reservation.
But so-called civilization infuses us with hate, as we struggle to survive in an unjust world. Blinded by hate, people lash out over ideologies and beliefs of others. Hate’s sidekick fear, leads the way and opens the doors to our eventual destruction.
Being cursed with the ability to hate, often for no good reason, is mankind’s bane. It’s an inverted cross to bear for all those who give in to hate without a fight.
You’ve done it!
You lived long enough to be called a senior citizen. Congratulations! It’s better than the alternative right?
Here’s your official cane. Now, I’ll walk you through what it means to be…a senior.
Even with all the aforementioned perks, you have to realize that your body is falling apart, and you’re going to have mystery aches and pains. Old injuries will remind you of when you were young and active.
As for your memory. It may be slipping a bit, but that’s okay. There’s always lots of people younger than you with bad memories. It’s just part of “The Merry Game” as my grandfather use to tell me.
As It Stands, there’s no such thing as growing old gracefully. Grace has nothing to do with it.
Have you ever accidentally snorted Kool aid?
I poured a package into my palm once and started licking it when, for reasons unknown, I inhaled deeply. Wow! What a rush! I didn’t see colors, like when I tried LSD years later, but there were lightning flashes popping behind my young eyeballs for a few moments.
I won’t attempt to count how many dumb things I’ve done in six decades. That’s not the purpose of this piece.
I’ll get right on track here, and take you down the line to enlightenment and sharing.
I talk to myself…a lot. You don’t have to reply. I’m just sharing a part of my life right now.
The thing is, I see nothing wrong with talking outloud, now and then, to stay focused on a subject. I admit I have to be careful or people will start looking at me. So I talk in a low voice. A compromise designed to keep me out of the looney bin.
Let’s skip the part where you think I’m crazy. You should know I’m not alone. Lot’s of people find some solace saying what’s on their minds out loud without directly talking to someone. To be sure, I’m not talking about constant conversations with yourself to the point where the real world is blocked out.
There’s a fine line, okay?
I can remember being in a position of extreme danger when I was only 16-years-old. I was alone and hanging on for dear life from the side of a mountain. Loose shale kept giving away causing me to slide a few inches. I sank my raw fingers into the dirt and slowed down enough to get ahold of a large Manzanita root. It held.
At that moment I didn’t pray (I wasn’t raised with religion), I started talking to myself. I asked myself if I was ready to die yet? The answer, of course, was no. I berated myself for getting into such a dangerous position, calling myself names like “moron” and “dummy.”
The one-sided conversation calmed me down, because after a while my heart rate slowed and I was breathing evenly. I don’t recall how long I hung there before attempting to climb back up the way I came.
The hot sun beat down on me, hardening the mixture of sweat and dirt caking my face and arms. Foot-by-foot, I worked my way upward, carefully seeking secure spots where bushes and roots protruded from the side of the mountain.
When I finally reached the top of the trail, I crawled a few feet and then sprawled out, gasping for water. My whole body was shaking uncontrollably. I was so light-headed I couldn’t stand up for at least an hour. Time is a tricky thing when you look back in retrospect.
You may be wondering why I brought this incident up. It was my moment of enlightenment when I realized no one could help me but myself. I talked myself through a life-threatening experience.
Since then, I try to be discreet in public, and mumble when I’m carrying on a one-sided conversation. At home I can talk freely to myself, and get this; my wife understands!
As It Stands, this essay is all I have to say about that…right Dave?
If we work together Love will trump Hate
Photo Author |
Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA |
Update: 11:00 a.m. PST – State of emergency as white nationalist rally in Charlottesville turns violent
Thanks to Trump, the alt-rights national recruitment program in America is thriving.
Today, Neo-Nazis and KKKer’s will take over the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. The event is being called “Unite the Right.” It’s a siren call to fascists, racists, Neo-Nazis, Klan members, and anarchists.
Organizers are expecting 1000 people to attend. Perhaps more, if their pre-rally recruiting did well. Some are calling it the biggest racist rally in recent memory.
While there have been dozens of far-right rallies since Trump’s election, this will be the first major, national rally run by the alt-right’s openly white nationalist wing.
Charlottesville has seen multiple white nationalist rallies this year. The first, a May 2017 daytime event, was followed by a nighttime torchlight photo-op.
Led by alt-right poster boy Richard Spencer, attendees chanted Nazi slogans like “blood and soil.” The second, in July, was a KKK rally.
The white nationalist rallies have been ostensibly held to oppose the removal of a statue of former Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee. But don’t kid yourself; it’s not that the alt-right gives a tinker’s damn about history, but they do know how to exploit it for their agenda.
Some progressive groups will be there to counter-demonstrate. Hopefully, it won’t turn into a riot. Americans are not particularley happy right now with how things are going; the threat of a nuclear war with Korea, and Trump’s racist immigration policies have set the stage for a high level of tension right now.
The last thing this country needs is idealogical warfare turning into massive street fights across the country.
Counterprotests serve as an immediate denucication of a current event – like this hate rally – but they are not the answer to the problem. The answer lies in sharing the truth about these groups.
Exposing the hate in the alt-right movement is not hard to do. Countering it takes more than a one-off protest against a current event. Silence is not golden when it comes to opposing hate.
We all need to voice our oppostion to this wave of hate through whatever means are available to us. Nearly everyone has access to a computer and social media. We can all write our legislators and voice our opinion.
Finally, most importantly, we can all be examples of tolerance by the way we live, and how we interact with others.
As It Stands, call me old-fashioned…but I believe love trumps hate.
I’ve seen the elephant, but nothing like this!
I use to watch The Twilight Zone, a television anthology series created by Rod Serling.
The show pushed the limits of reality with psychological horror, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and psychological thrillers, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist, and usually with a moral.
But as strange as Serling’s stories were they pale in the light of our 21st century realities.
Who would have thought America would some day be led by a racist man-child who thought it was okay to grab women’s vaginas?
Who would have thought America would become a laughingstock because we have a narcissist Liar-In-Chief leading us?
Who would have thought we’d be so close to a nuclear war with Korea? It’s a modern day Cuban missile crisis, but we have added the factor of two emotional stunted world leaders threatening each other.
Who would have thought that there would be a renaissance of racism in America in the 21st century, as the alt-right stepped into the lime light after Trump was elected?
Who would have thought that the American people would become so dumbed down by fake news that they would elect a greedy con man president?
Who would have thought something called the internet would change the world?
As It Stands, I’m 66-years old and have “seen the elephant“ as the oldtimers use to say, but nothing compares to today!
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