Shoah .... Desolation

 

Theirs was the voice of anguish and fear 

echoing spiritual disbelief and confusion

in the agony of yet another rejection

murmuring softly their trust betrayed yet

their proud existence as equals in humanity

before finally turning for compassion

abroad for hope was not yet lost though 

the soul was gravely wounded. Their

obedience to a succession of rules meant

to disenfranchise and strip their humanity 

a gradual exercise in humiliation finally 

attaining the greater purpose in a precision

clockwork of organized cleansing toward 

the goal of national perfection and conquest 

where expunging the impure and inferior 

was the first order of business to restructure 

a world free of Jews. A voice unheard

calling to a disinterested audience oblivious 

with its deliberation of non-involvement

revealing a vile shared pathology. A lifetime

later the genocidal perpetrators profess

profound regret, their global audience

applauds and the sinister venom of hatred

that fuelled that genocide is once again

abroad in the resurgent world community.

 

 

Child of Nature

 

In the favoured legend of human creation

alongside that of the universe itself

as a monumentally divine act of being

god made man in his image and forbade

humanity from the kind of curiosity that

would reveal the arcane knowledge so

adamantly forbidden them, expressing

his rage at womankind for leading mankind

into sin eating of the fruit of knowing all

things. Adam's intensity in seeking the

unknowable; the original sin however, Eve's.

Hark then to the creatrix of all that exists

and lives -- not a legend for a perplexing

all-powerful presence whose own design

and creative genius brought out of nothing

everything. Nature herself the most fecund

of all that exists whose spirit resides in

all she created, values curiosity as a vivid

example of her own, spurring humankind

to ever greater adventures of discovery to

discern her limitless power and influence

bringing illumination to the dark heavens

of her imagination, endowing humanity

with a certain portion of her vigor through

inspiration to uncover the mysteries of existence.

 

 

Mayday! Mayday!

 

How fortunate the world is to have forged

a noble institution wherein sit national

representatives of all nations on Earth in a 

monumental and ongoing learning experience

the goal of which is to achieve among all 

equality of opportunity and mutual recognition

of disparate methodology in reaching the apex 

of a national aspiration. Within its hallowed

fortress walls are dispatched those best suited

to express the language of diplomatic eloquence

in servitude to the administration of a body 

for which servile yet respectful overtures

toward anointed judges elected to sit on diverse

committees screen applicants' and supplicants' 

adherence to rules and regulations of civil 

behaviour in a universal covenant the better

to consider the status of other nations with 

impeccable human rights records hampered 

by the misfortune of historical suspicion and 

hatred yet awaiting judgement by the hierarchy

whose criminal acts against humanity shield 

them from criticism by the sheer weight of 

their numbers. It is a revelation not quite yet

understood universally that the institute where 

nations are united in common defiance against

decency and common sense that those who 

fall outside the default represent the outliers 

whose conduct though exemplary is despised 

in a world where those assigned to the highest 

echelons of united nations control reward those

whose blights are so reflective of their own.

 

 

Ah, The Internet!

 

Fascinating how modern technology

in communications has advanced with

a rapidity that is head-spinning to the

elderly and liberating to the young and

the opinionated, though the latter's use

is an exploration of impermissible limits

and the former's the opportunity at long

last to air yawn-inducing perceptions for

which there was never an audience at hand.

This is termed the democratization of

free speech and communication enabling

anyone able to master the starter-level

of advanced technology to grunt out in

illiterate mumbles their dissatisfaction

with life as a social-victimized outsider

of constantly shifting populist culture. The

irresistible allures of the social media

platforms draw the interest and the ire of

the entire spectrum of civil and uncivilized

society from local sanitary engineer to president

homebody to celebrity, royalty to prison

incarcerates, each invested in opening the

deep confines of their sensibilities to

eager public scrutiny, all while insisting on

their right to privacy, prepared to bring

suit against those who intrude, while the

more political-minded state their outrage

firing up against incompetent governments

and waging skillful verbal battle with the

numbskull morons who admire and support

the same useless twits their votes have

placed into public office in a world where

doom draws ever nearer, cry its prophets.

 

 

Thwarted

 

The sign read
'inexperienced climbers beware'
(arrow pointing to alternate).

The ascent precipitous
narrow path boulder strewn
criss-crossed with treeroots
helpfully gripping the soil
grudgingly assisting our climb.

At the cascades the
tumbling waters were a sight
yet fear of a misstep
and wildly winging heart
dulled the image to a
delirious troubled mirage.

A mile up the mountain
we could rest and
lave tired feet in the
crystal stream
           cold as death
       clear as a wish
  pure as my fear.

In retrospect I regret
my refusal to go on
valuing as I did my
every limb -- for the memory
of a peerless overview
and promise of more

at the summit pricks my
frailty
         goads your recall.
If I promise
                 same time
           same place
      next year?

 

 

Perils of Forest Life

 

Magical, mystical, ethereal the

forest valley was bathed in a pearl-white

mist lifting the gloom from the interior

rising and falling in swells from the

frozen creek undulating through its

banks newly lofted with fresh snow.

No sun to penetrate the leaf-naked

forest canopy this day, only the wind

shushing through the evergreens

their needle-pointed tops nodding

and clacking against each other. The

newfallen snow absorbed all sound

until the high-decibel cry of a giant

red-headed woodpecker pierced the

silence as the bird reached its destination

and the near woods drummed with the

percussion of its wrecking beak ripping

great shards of bark rhythmically and

mercilessly, leaving great gaping wounds

in the old tree's trunk where spring sap

would rush dismally up from its roots

and finding the open gap, overflow to

the trunk and the forest floor in the slow

and agonizing death of an elder tree

playing its part in nature's revolving

door architecture of life and death.

 

 

Always a Bridesmaid

The essential dynamics of human trust

are elemental; sincerity, truthfulness and

open communication. Rare qualities to be

sure when two groups face one another in

an irresolvable struggle where one speaks

of inheritance while the other accuses those

of timeless existence in the disputed area of

being interlopers, false claimants to land

contestants intend to share with none other 

than their own. The wisdom of Solomon 

put to the test judging whom between them

proffers the more valid argument when it is

an ancient temple dedicated to the almighty

which his era and his order established. Yet

his successors in the land of Judea where

his descendants have never failed to worship

and till the land welcoming an ingathering

diaspora's return are violently assailed by

challengers to a dry and history-dusted land

transformed by their enterprise to verdant

productively arable orchards, yet must turn

their ploughshares to military defence against

counter-claimants adamantly resistant to the

peoples' presence in a land of their own. So

frequently have the offers of apportioning and

friendship been refused, the bridegroom is no

longer invested in cohabitation with the

sullen bride, left to bitterly call upon her

extended family to destroy the home that 

might, with earned trust, have been her own.