Leading to Perdition

His deserving time will come, the world sighs

where he will be held accountable for the

ruination of a nation, the wreckage of another.

In affairs of the world of governance there

is no real accountability for power is its own

aphrodisiac, charming those attaining positions

of ultimate command to the belief of their

very infallibility, that they can do no wrong

for whatever their decisions they are right.

Loyalty to a tyrant rewarding his military elite

to the sacrifice of their multitude of sad and

sorry subordinates ensures orders will be

carried out resulting in wholesale destruction

countless deaths, a mere distraction on the

world body long accustomed to occasional

lapses in civilizational normatives causing a

mental shrug so profound Earth is momentarily

shaken off its axis in a shudder of grief.

Genesis

Idle thoughts bring us to wonder

whether Nature views her creatures

as would an indulgent parent or in

the alternative of indifference. As

creatures of a higher order of reason

and invention don't we model ourselves

after Eternal Nature? She for whom

existence is an experiment, for whom

the universe in its profoundly amazing

complexities is a laboratory where

new creations and revelations of the

possibilities in old creations take their

place in the endless inventory of Nature's

boundless imagination. In analyzing

humanity and its chronic incapacity

to hold existence dear does she ever

wonder as do Earthly parents of their

wayward children, what went wrong?

 

Such Pitiless Realities

In the solemn, hallowed chamber

of the United Nations General Assembly

where Power speaks to Truth

the admission was made: There was

no choice. In the vital need to protect

itself the Kremlin ordered the invasion

of its conniving neighbour to evade

its criminal strategy of infiltrating

innocent Russia with lethally-minded

neo-Nazis. There was no choice most

unfortunately but to send its artillery

into civilian enclaves, bombing hospitals

apartment buildings, business centres

shopping malls and factories, for they

all, without exception threatened Russia.

Yet the Russian military benevolently

undertook the burial of Ukrainian citizens

who died of sudden coronary incidents

in such numbers, unmarked mass graves

located in forests were required; so sad.

And because the Ukrainian military is

so unfortunately aggressive, adamantly

refusing to accept Russian victory, vastly

preferring an uncalled-for counteroffensive

there will be no alternative but to put a

stop to the conflict with nuclear weapons.

A misfortune caused by Ukraine's

undeniable aggravating threats, you see.

 

 

All Is Forgiven

Blind love of country right or wrong?

Perhaps that emotion depends on how wrong.

The nation whose leader challenges 

international norms of sovereign right

threatening might to overcome neighbours' fear 

of the benign intention to reverse history

in a return of servitude twists the moral

rectitude of a people hectored to accept an

irredentist proclivity challenging loyalty

when citizens fully realize that it is not their

choice to die for their country, but the nation's

leadership's decision that they must die in

defense of a totalitarian ideology, an honour

they are not graciously given the right to decline.

Nor is there comfort in the generosity of

their national Patriarch standing firm in the

allegiance of the Russian Orthodox Church toward

the ambition of their president's decision to

war, to destruction, to mass deaths to relieve

the fighters of any sins carrying out their duties

to the land, for through him God has spoken.

 

Mahsa Amini's Hijab

Dour, desiccated old men

shrivelled with age and bitter

that life is fast ebbing, their beards

grown piously long and broad

issue edicts meant to tame the

wild nature of beguilingly beautiful

young women portraying them as

eager to bewitch men with their

absent morals when it is men whom

the Eternal One has equipped to

use women as breeding stock in a

firm harness of social control

erasing their humanity in dark

enveloping shrouds and policing

their public appearances with public

morality guardians. Young and old

women reject morality's straitjackets

and with pride and joy in life

despite the prejudice of misogyny

display themselves as free as nature

intended, paying the ultimate price 

for a moment of liberty, their lethal

punishment inciting others to deny and

defy a totalitarian ideology of death.

 

 

The Sea Reclaiming The Land

The mighty forces that aggravate the seas

transforming it from tranquil majesty

to raging monster are sent by nature as 

emissaries of power. Hurricane-force winds

torrential downpours in a team effort to

teach humanity that its presence is a mere

lend-lease affair wholly dependent on the

good graces of nature but on occasion

withdrawn in a spiteful exercise of rage

leaving entire communities reeling at the

sheer scope of destruction never before seen

in anyone's lifetime, where people are swept

out to an unforgiving sea, forever lost, their

home and hearth sent after them sailing off

to some unknown horizon as the sea reclaims

the land and those upon it through force majeure

leaving survivors dazed and distressed, witness

to nature's cruel wrath until she signals her

elements to withdraw, atmosphere subdued

as she disarms the traumatized by sending out

her most admired, life-sustaining servant. The

sun's appearance calms as it inspires confidence

in another day dawning, the assaultive nature

of recent punishment diminished, forgotten.

The Glowing Green Forest

It is one of those 'once-upon-a-time'

Earth-places where many generations

earlier the entire region was prime forest

and a cart track made its wobbling way

through the thick growth of trees over

the hummocked and undulating forest floor 

where forest giants were to be felled

to made way for homesteads in attempts  

to tame the woods dense with underbrush 

and stubborn with upheaved rocks littering 

the dark landscape under the forest canopy.

Today no trace of human  habitation

the forest resolutely reclaimed itself

more dense and unapproachable to a 

delusional prospect of homestead farming

hard-set to remain forever what nature

intended, a glowing green gem secure in 

its isolation where now and again intrepid 

curiosity impels forest lovers to enter its 

dim interior with the respect it demands and 

warily welcomes those seeking solitude.