Thursday, March 8, 2012

Tulips in a crystal glass, Litter in the mud

The tulips in the crystal glass are so very fragile
The litter in the mud and grit has nothing left to lose

There is only so much good in the whole stinking lot of us
But that blind spring of entropy flows on forever

The best of us is glimpsed but rarely, and only in a few
Thus we mostly live immersed forever, in palest mediocrity

The beauty of humanity shines through, for the briefest of instants
The emptiness of our normal lives casts an enveloping pall upon us all

The moments of our uplifting are truly few and far between
Torture, greed and death are always just below the surface

The good we do with modest forethought is like a tiny candle in the wind
The brutality of our indifference wracks the world and its people

The innocence of children is but the briefest shower in the drought
The never ending corruption fouls everything just like that dirty tsunami

Music briefly fills our souls with the knowledge of a morning peace
Smashing, shouting and hoarse cackling fill the noonday heat

The calm strength of the ancient mother rights our course just a fraction
But mostly we plunge on blindly, proudly honoring an unconsidered ignorance

The just must often struggle mightily for the smallest victory
Indifference tramples without malice grandmas, sprouts and babies

Those things that truly sustain us are so very quiet and unobtrusive
The smashing sounds of progress fill our ears and drown our thoughts

Sunrise and sunset may awake us for the briefest instants
nights are no longer truly dark and the days are too long, too hot and too loud

New found love illuminates our worlds and fills us with great joy
And then the ash of indifference begins to slowly, thickly, coat it all

The apple tree then blossoms and stands outstretched in a silent exultation
But for months stands gray and wet and naked in the freezing rain

Somewhere, by dint of sheer persistence, a people toddles forward
The mass of us roil on, enveloped in dirt and greed and hate

Somewhere a masterpiece gives rise to a momentary superposition
Elsewhere the fecal tide rolls in a little thicker and higher every day

In a quiet glade, a gentle mother softly licks her newborn fawn
Meanwhile, in surrounding areas, smoky fires burn and diesels roar

One child in a million casts off the chains of poverty, pollution and neglect
Generations without hope share a dirty cycle of need, crime and disease

A man works very carefully for many years and fulfills his one small dream
The masses vapidly follow only the flickering of electronic images

For the briefest moments gentle north light fills our souls
Throughout the crushing work day we are forced to stare into the sun

Our memories are scattered pearls we hope one day to string together
Reality is a strangling vacuum closing in from all directions

A strange and compelling bird cry haunts our thoughts for a brief moment
Commercials blare forever and the laugh tracks never cease

An oarlock squeaks and the water drips upon the twilight dappling a quiet lake
The rain washes used oil from our cars into every little stream and river

The peaceful smell of moist wet spring earth awakens our better instincts
Our children prefer to stay inside gorging on fast food and electronic media

Facts learned about our universe provide a moment of perspective
Truth ground into us daily covers us with a soot that we cannot wash away

Considered opinions adapt like plants to changes in the sunlight
The average impulse purchase provides about twenty seconds satisfaction

Our better instincts serve as measuring sticks for the progress in our pilgrimage
Our overwhelming greed pits us against each other and the earth

A couple work their lives away sharing a dream of golden years
But far too soon one is stricken down and the other shrivels up

Children find an enchanted forest just outside their new home
Soon, however, come the bulldozers to smash and flatten and develop

The gurgle of the smallest stream gives comfort to those who lie sleeping
In the baleful light of Monday there is no time for contemplation

The smile upon an infant’s face lights and warms the entire room
Greed and indifference trample all the helpless little plants

Fathers teach the boys to fish and to preserve the lake for their sons
Armies teach each generation even better ways to kill and destroy

One small light gives comfort in a dark and empty countryside
The vast and pointless city glow simply hides the message in a starry night

A single action adventure story stimulates our imaginations
An endless stream of loud repetitions overwhelms and dulls our senses

Petty bureaucrats, caught at minor crimes, quickly lose our faith and trust
The large-scale lie repeated endlessly is slowly adopted as a working truth

A climax forest achieves maturity after many a dignified succession
Decisions made without much thought often prove difficult to undo

Small wild animals go on purposefully with the only business that they know
Species remain oblivious to the pointless extinction they undergo

Cherry tree stands with its raised branches in a crescendo of blossoms
Soulless heavy machinery gores blindly into the surrounding earth

Baker tends the sourdough starter with a reverent admiration
Corporate farms spread designer crops to pump up this quarter’s stock price

Once we cruised a scenic highway towards an enchanted destination
Now every day we idle for hours in the same anonymous lines of traffic

The ballet of a hummingbird traces a cosmic pattern in the air
Blind greed forms the very core of our best theory of economics

Just a tiny bit of soap could wash the little children’s faces
A gritty dust settles over all of us, from every direction, all the time

In early spring the birds return and begin to sing at dawn
The traffic roars by forever and the litter piles up down in the swale

The day emerges full of promise, still wet with its dewy afterbirth
Then noise and confusion from every direction carve out our insides, once again

Odd moments return to almost nag us in dreams not quite remembered
All our thoughts are slightly yellowed by this dreary, daily immolation

We win some of the smallest battles in the hopeless war that can never end
We fight the good fight daily despite the darkness that is encroaching from all sides

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