What was it
That mocked sweet sleep
A message from beyond
Understanding
Some doom
Portended
In the mist of a dream
No heed taken…
Challenger
Daring courier to the impregnable Dark
Blazing heavenward
Bold and confident
To touch the stars…
Who saw the finger
Death's black-gloved hand
Slip to the trigger
And pull
Seven helpless victims
Through the fires of hell?
Peer in dumb silence
Mortals below
Through clearing smoke
Falling debris
Your eyes cannot see
Seven set free
Soaring still to the great unknown
They challenge us all.
Take heed
And listen
Sounds in the night
Speak truths in the light
While the riddles of life
Unanswered
Remain.
originally appeared in "Bonfire"
Black and White
I am a black man
Though my skin is white
I have crossed the Jordan
And seen the fires
Burning
In the hearts of innocent men
The lies have been told too many times
But truth can't be hidden from the eyes of God
Stand back
The screams of the deaf have shattered the stars
Visions of the blind, blotted the sun
And mad men rage at the tightening noose
Justice hanged
With a civilized cord.
Take my black heart
Nail it to your righteous cross
Sing your pious anthems
From your bright cathedrals gold
Flags flying, trumpets blasting
Will the noise drown out the shame
The hatred masked in a wooden horse
Or will you hear
The incessant rankle
Of thirty pieces
Silver.
first appeared in "Wired Art from Wired Hearts"
Toxic Waste
I drink the water
Foul water
I breathe the air
Insidious air
And ingest the serpent's waxen apple
So beautiful
And so unkind.
My flesh revolts
And turns its arrows on my
Foolish brain
That presumed to know
Things unknowable.
And here I rot
A slow decay
Victim
Of my own collusion
Villainous profit
Spoke in lying tongues
And cast a paradise
Like a thunderbolt
Out
Of Eden.