United In God

 

Existence of all life forms, animate

inanimate, is a random result of nature's

endless yet indifferent formulaic measure

of the universe created in a primordial

and timeless vacuum through an ongoing

cataclysmic shrug. Her formula in the

creation of humanity included hubris so

deep and vast the creatures themselves

took pains to create an Almighty fiction

to whom all creation could be attributed.

In turn investing that creative spirit with

the venomous emotions entrusted to mankind

of jealousy, greed, passion and the imperative

to shelter all the treasures that resourceful

nature left at the deputized command of 

man from the grasp of rivals. This supra

natural deity demands of his faithful full

obeisance, their very lives elevated to a

greater plane of existence in exchange 

for human slaughter. Extolling the very

conquest of all humanity in the greater

treasury of surrender to the whims and 

wishes attributable to the powerful and

frightening one on high exuding strength

and extracting awe while commanding all

to submit to jihad to overwhelm reluctance

of those without faith, while among those

of the faithful a pitiless war of attrition

among themselves forms the base of total

wholesale destruction of the human race.

 

Raging On

Atlantic Canada Holocaust Education Foundation

It it SO frustrating attempting to

conduct a rational discussion with Jews.

They are beyond irritating, argumentative

stubborn and irrational. Tell them there

is no evil intention in discounting their

inflated numbers of Jewish deaths they

call the Holocaust and they shrink back

in horror as though you were the very

architects of Hitler's Final Solution. Say

to them that they as an identifiable group

have not been the only ones that have

struggled against odds, but they surely

must shoulder some of the blame since

as a race they are so ... exclusionary ...

so ... hostile ... so scheming and cunning

... so arrogant ... little wonder they are

accused of trying to control ... everything.

People resent that kind of self-appointed

grandstanding in finance, communications

you know, that kind of thing. Their endless

tedious accusations of anti-Semitism they

label any and all critics is blatantly lacking

in respect over reasonable debates such as

criticism of Zionist aspirations depriving

others to empower Jewish nationalism.

But people of good will like us become

accustomed to their manipulating ways

and we'll keep on trying to get through

to their better natures, those prickly Jews.

 

Its Denizens

 

The density of the tree growth in the forest

is impressive and so is the topography

called a ravine yet so widespread that

there are many ravines, many rivulets

at each of the valleys sided by steeply

sloped hills that shelter the rarely-seen

animals for which the forest is their

natural habitat. Accessibility to the

forest not far from a large urban area

is far from difficult with many points

of entry for the curious and those who

enjoy exploring along with their equally

curious companion animals eager to

lope along the trails that emerged long

ago when animals and then people began

to launch a presence in the byways and

hidden areas of the forested ravine. It is

where teens meet secretly at night to

light fires both to sit around and smoke

weed and drink, occasionally to torch the

hollowed-out interiors of majestic old

pines. It is where fleeting glimpses of

deer and foxes, raccoons and skunks can

be seen as they slink from trail to under

story. It is where nocturnal animals hunt

the owls and raccoons and a new breed of

coyote whose heritage is wolf and coyote

and when dusk enters and night falls it is

best to find shelter from the eerie silence.

 

 

The Utility of Strangers

 

If I were reading a book and it became

too intense I could put it down for a

break, but confronting me was no book

but an irate stranger whom happenstance

has placed before me as he waxes

indignant over the state of world affairs.

I did nothing other than to be there when

he was also there in that public place

where books line the library shelves

my presence somehow goading him to

approach and ventilate his distemper with

the times. In the process revealing more

than any stranger might want to know

outside the pages of a novel yet his

eagerness to reveal himself kept me

prisoner to his rants as did the bristling

bulk of his aroused presence with no

easy escape beyond courtesy for who 

am I to shun anyone in such obvious need

as this man born in Cuba to a barefoot

doctor, himself attending university in

Russia travelling to Tunisia because he

spurned Communism and atheism. As a

Christian he found no comfort sojourning

in Tunisia despite its cosmopolitan flair

ending up in my country, now his impression

of its glaring faults mystify and enrage him

as he acquaints me passionately with

every one of his disappointments in life.

 

 

Qualms

He is but a vain, ignorant and shallow man

who confuses the dignity, honour and

power invested in the office he holds with

attributes that he does not himself 

exemplify. It is, above all, the power in

the position temporarily his that he feels

reflects the glory of an absent intellect

and inability to but mock the cerebral

functioning of those superior to him

holding positions meant to guide his own

while his quixotic decision-making sends

quavering shivers down the spines of

world leaders for any decisions he makes

in the full fallibility of his flawed character

through the intrinsic majesty of his office

inevitably impacts the stability of the free

world upon whose freedom the decisions

emanating from his office traditionally

guarantees. He is a madman run amok

and the dilemma is that lawful democracy

and the people's will placed him in

such authority that others can only hope

he will in due time be but a footnote in

history which cannot pass soon enough.

 

Humanity's Salvation

 

No event can contend with the emergence of 

new life fresh with the dew of spring's

awakening to excite, awe and delight for there

are scant few observers and participants alike 

who are not taken with the birth of a dimpled 

child much less new births of any creature 

presenting as an exquisite immature version of the

maturity that will eventually overtake them.

Without doubt it is monumentally fitting that 

the whole of creation appears to be fixated on

the birth of a child as a momentous occasion 

in world history leading to the emergence of a 

worldwide religion. The elder version hailed

as the Prince of Peace delivered his universal 

message in a transmission of earthly life as a 

gesture from the God of Abraham. And how

peculiar it is that it had to be a Jewish child 

whose identity as the voice of God transfixed 

vast multitudes. How much more peculiar that 

those worshipping multitudes chose those of 

the Prince's heritage to single out as unfit for

habitation among the faithful, to view them 

with scorn and derision while hailing the 

miraculous deliverance proffered by the Almighty

through a Jewish heritage as a light unto the

world in one fell swoop gifting the world with

the brilliant light of salvation gratefully 

accepted while rejecting iniquitous Judaism.

 

Insufferable Insubordination

 

The ultimate order of power lies in the

capable hands of none other than nature

the ultimate creator. As vast as the universe

is, it is in fact but a laboratory where nature

devises her scenarios, arranges chemicals

and mixes her uncountable elixirs to produce

galaxies, their suns and the planets that

revolve around them leading her to turn

toward the micro-level of inspiring new life

forms upon them to study the properties that

evolve and transform. On one planet alone

that we are most familiar with she has 

created and disposed of billions of living

species most found to bore her and thus quite

expendable, leaving a remaining ten million

to prove their value to this most exacting of

creators who just happens to ferociously tend

to minute details in guiding her decisions. 

Much is known of human predecessors. Much

much more is unknown and will not be known

as nature, afire with the spirit of creation

creates endlessly and disposes with casual

ease. She may now be bemused that the

upstart human race has evolved as a most

impudent and insubordinate creature which

in its spoilage of nature's resources threatens

her primacy and the existence of all that

thrive, on this her least mysterious planet.

 

Wholesomely Yours

 

What could possibly be more comforting

than to know that no matter how you

disport yourself, irregardless of the

manner in which you may be regarded by

the rest of the world your family will always
stand by your side. As an ego restorative there

is nothing quite like an abundance of allies

who share a significant quality that you also

are part of and as brothers are foursquare

with you. Sudan's ruler may be regarded as

a mass murderer, but there he is pledging

loyalty to you, Syria's butcher. And though

the Arab League's 22 member-states saw

fit to disown you Bashar al-Assad, blood

will always win out even if sectarian ties

separate you for you are Arab born and as

such belong to this distinguished gallery of

thugs and mass murdering states ruled by

royalty and tyrants and sheiks, military

leaders and backgrounded by the clerics

who never hesitate to issue deadly fatwas

against any who deny the world of Islam's

basic tenet of bringing peace to the world by

embarking on a jihad against the nations of

war deigned such for refusing to submit. You

Assad, will be enjoined to rejoin the Arab

League for their members have missed your

presence and in an act of magnanimity now

pledge to endorse your honoured presence.

 

Meddlers

 

 

Busybodies, they are here, there

and everywhere. Vigilant

to a fault in ferreting out

instances where they can intervene

knowingly proffering

an unsought solution to an

absent problem. Quite possibly

these are insecure personalities

seeking attention even admiration

certainly affirmation that what

might elude others is plain

to their way of thinking. They

have all the answers to all

the questions that bedevil society

quite aside from the fact that

no one has sought their opinion

and when it's given it is viewed as

an inappropriate and irritating

addition to a situation viewed as

quite complete as it is. They flatter

themselves as philosophers. Those who

prefer civility will grimace and pass on

while others with justification will

plainly reject the gratuitously smug

interference with a well-chosen

phrase of contempt. Perhaps we see

in ourselves a glimmer of the very same

predilection successfully subdued

a discomfiting awareness of a

similarity between ourselves and the

maddeningly insistent bore society

collectively holds in contempt.

 

 

Definition of a Jerk

 

This is a message

to the anonymous bicyclist

who bristled at being named a jerk

and then went on to diligently

prove that he wore the

descriptive with distinction

when he refused to give way

and permit two elderly

strollers along a forest path

to resume their blocked perambulation

preferring to have them stand

before him while he argued

unpersuasively that he most certainly

failed to fit the model of a jerk

because he had slowed down

considerately, he emphasized

and murmured excuse me

and his close passage did not warrant

being labelled a jerk even though

the one who credited him with

that soubriquet alerted his

companion seconds before 

she was likely to become a casualty

of an impending collision.

You are the sow's ear

that the term fits like a silk glove.

 

 

Forbidden

 

This is your government/s calling. Not to 

seem impolite but there are certain verities

now to be emphasized in a sudden new world 

we have inherited. Your mucous membranes

are your very own affair. Keep it that way. 

Lubricating emissions from facial orifices 

whether by song or sage advice are no longer 

part and parcel of social fare. The dulcet tones 

of your voice must henceforth be muted -- at 

a distance. Verbal dexterity is admirable and 

texting is its mode of transfer. Do not abridge 

the distances recommended. Do not have the 

temerity to disobey health authorities and 

municipal bylaws for the penalties will be 

swift and painful. You may remain in the 

comfort of your home surrounded -- or not 

-- by meaningful others. You may not exit 

that domicile other than for vital affairs which 

must be brief and necessary. Furthermore 

we regret to inform you that access to various 

venues are off limits for ... the duration. Gyms

public parks, pubs and restaurants, hairdressers

golf, sport arenas, concert halls, museums, art

galleries, libraries, colleges and schools. There

are rules to be followed. You are not to gather

but you may contact us when you see others

that do. You must not: have a heart attack

contract cancer, be seized with a stroke, feign

appendicitis -- for our hospitals have geared for a

crisis. On the other  hand you may become

infected with COVID-19 in which case you

will be welcomed at your local hospital

emergency room. Be well, stay safe. Over and

out.Your faithful servants, here to help you.

 

 

Twilight

 

As though aware 

of its role as intermediary

twilight enters cautiously

assuming nothing

leaving assertiveness to its successor

knowing diplomacy as an

asset. At first unnoticed

it insinuates itself

between a day of sun and warmth

...this spring day so pleasurable

to those populating the landscape...

and the unknown darkness

of night. The transition

ripe with the stealth of guilt

depriving all who note the dismay

of another day gone

to make way for night

while twilight

slinks away 

its assigned task

skillfully completed

no hard feelings

simply doing its job

sinking day into night.

 

 

The Great Few

 

They are vanishingly few 

in number yet their will-o-the-wisp

presence illuminates the world

as does the sun bursting

behind dark clouds

those dark clouds a metaphor

for humanity's dense and dark

unwillingness to open

itself to the light of reason

choosing instead the ever

renascent sinister dim corridors

of ignorance. Those shining stars

with their clarity of vision

each brought humanity closer

to an end-goal of thought

and action unobscured by a web

of suspicion and hostility 

hoisting the occupants of the

world toward the pinnacles

of science, philosophy and art

selflessly using their genius to

benefit all before their bright light

of being expired. While they are

venerated for their exceptionalism

exalted above the common man

the burden of civilization

time and again exhausts the great

uncommitted in a conflicted

balance of self and the other

building once again the pyre of

hateful bile singeing no one's

conscience in a world aflame.

 

 

Abject Grief

 

Grieving complete with accusations

of suboptimal care for the

elderly. Not an instance of

familial elder-abuse in the usual

sense, however ... rather a family

decision to farm out care

for a beloved senior

someone's father

someone's grandmother

for this is an era when the aged

dread the inevitable. Not in

this instance only the inevitability

of growing old and infirm

but the family council's decision

that none among them has the

time and empathy to spare

to invite a beloved father or mother

or both to live among them directly

in the family home for there are so

many distractions in life calling

for attention and aspirations to be fulfilled

let alone duties to one another and one's

offspring, there is no room nor

patience to spare offering a respite

to white hair and curved spine.

There is huge profit to be gained

by entrepreneurs offering TLC

by ill-paid attendants trained to

empathize with family and proffer

necessities to the vulnerable aged

in this new era of loving neglect

when the responsibility of infectious

death can be laid at the doorstep of 

care homes, bereaved families beating

their breasts with outrage that their

dearly beloveds' needs were failed by

others ... their trust betrayed 

just as they betrayed their elders'. 

Introspection

 

In all fairness, in point of fact actually the greatest

likelihood in the answer to your inner-directed

query is that yes, there have been insurmountable

barriers, the very emotional distance erected

between yourself and others that have dictated

over the years none may enter the inner sanctum

of your privacy. Not that you ever harboured

intention to shut yourself away from others

nor be as gracious and social to others as you

expect civil people to be. Your sense of self

is that of an introvert willing to be socially

compliant while spurning a more robust and

open invitation to others to feel comfortable in

your presence. You too much value the comfort

you find in your own mind while assessing the

mindset of others, finding them wanting on all

but rare occasions. So vanishingly rare that one

person alone ever qualified for the open position

of soulmate and with that presence none others

might apply even for lesser appointments. Well

then little wonder is it, that you feel a palpable

coolness in a long-familiar voice, someone you

once fantasized would become an intimate, a

friend sharing like values. For in fact this woman

who married your son is as remote as you have

always been. She too inherited that gene of 

psychological seclusion, comfortable in her own

choices, one of which is maintaining distance

discretely, courteously but firmly from you.

 

 

Simply Noting

 

Is it social alchemy or might it quite

possibly be social anarchy, the situation

that otherwise obedient populations find

themselves in being ordered to self isolate

social distance, remain secluded in their

homes. Sleep at home, eat at home, work

from home, socialize from home, shop

from home. In short become a recluse in

a desperate bid to avoid becoming a corpse.

Or at the very best, inconvenienced by

illness, even made extremely ill by a nasty

virus that has bioscientists and epidemiologists

confused and uncertain themselves. Who to

trust? Evidently not WHO. Whom otherwise

to look to for direction? Depends, since a

frightened public is wary of all advice given

that those decision-makers are themselves

left to gamble on suppositions while others

predicate their orders on directly opposite

theories. One thing, however, seems clear.

Under normal conditions the streets that 

without fail are clear of walkers and the roads

that normally are thronged with vehicles

have undergone a reversal. Now, streets are

full of people pushing strollers, teens walking

starry-eyed together, children playing games

riding bicycles, runners, families strolling in

the fresh air, while the roads are absent cars.

 

 

One World

 

How strange is humanity. At this time of

universal fear of the global pandemic

laying medical science and populations

low in a panic of survival a new mantra

has arisen 'we are all in this together' in a

world where we have never as a race of

animals of high cerebral function been

together in any sense of the sentiment.

Where great masses of people clinging to

basic survival in endemic privation ruled

by vicious despots for whom power over the

paltry lives of millions uncaring whether

they live or die of disease and malnutrition

embrace a fundamentalist religion invariably

instructing them that life in the hereafter is

guaranteed to those of firm faith, a faith

to heed sacred scriptures debasing that of

others, condemning them to death. Places

where civil infrastructure is as absent as

justice and human rights but poverty enduring.

Ragingly offended by the presence of others

on the globe who live in plenty, demanding

their 'share' of global wealth. A pause in 

violent attacks against such enemies while

agitating for humanitarian aid during the crisis

and typically when normal life resumes so too

will the acts of rightful faith in rabid terrorism.

 

 

WHO, What Where When, How

 

A query not by necessity in that order, class

but you are well advised to pay attention.

The what remains uncertain beyond it being

a zoonotic leaping from animal to human.

Where it emerged is well known but one is

not to place blame on its point of origin lest

one give offence to a powerful political regime.

When it emerged alerting medical professionals

to the presence of a new, raging threat to global

health prompting them to inform their peers

their voices were stilled under threat. And

because we live in an interconnected world

of globalism where social movement and trade

tourism and business intersect to profit the

world economy, transmission of a little-understood

and often deadly pathogen was achieved. Into the

fray stepped the prestigious world body dedicated

to global health declaring the newly-revealed

threat non-communicable from human-to-human

and no reason to commit a racist act by closing

international borders to China. Now the global

community reels under a contagion refusing

control, asserting and reasserting itself. All

things considered whether the SARS-CoV-19

novel coronavirus emerged from a highly

secret experimental biological-threat laboratory

in Wuhan or from a notorious wet market can

be assumed to be irrelevant as the world implodes.