Vapors and Vice

The hole in the ozone is still there.

Scientists are scratching their heads,

growing again.

It never changed our view anyway.

We caught no breeze, the barometer hovered

as it had, the particulars were all accounted for.

This is us, inside

a paneless window that doesn’t divide

out and in and even

if we were told an escape hatch had been made

none would climb up and peak,

resisting gravity

for a chance at Vertigo.

We have proven with balloons and bubbles

so much depends upon a human to wield his barrow,

display his collections,

vend his hot wares and drop his cool coins

in finite jest.

Planes and boats, both heavier than conscience

will float, but we must hold our breath.

Balls drop the same, roughly we round up

all the probabilities

and project our tiny lights towards metaphors of

eternally, outside of the time.

Separating by degree

and elevation, those that climb the walls

and those that sink their souls

in the sand, focused on forever

slipping away,

while worried about the whole.


This image or media file contains material based on a work of a National Park Service employee, created as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, such work is in the public domain.

Abundance

We mind rarified
elementary considerations such as
helium and hope that just
stream out the o-zone.

While we worry about coal gluttons
and electric vampires,
the signal still comes
in crystal glints,
colors are just
extraneous.

The most resourceful
were generous
making love-
concurrently, we are
interfering.

Simultaneously
sucked in
shiny silicon i's.
Unwound and seriously
needing respooling.





Image credit Hugo Gerhard Ströhl [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Where Art thou Writer?

I tried to paint black cows on a moonless night,

it never came out right, 12 times out of ten,

but then I added blue and I knew

I was not a painter,

so I quit for a bit.

I tried cleaning

Once

I tried mapping, lists, and other gists of things,

All of which turned out were wrong.

then I wrote, and wrote and wrote

without periods,

and tried and tried to stop the words whizzing

by, arrest and test, to find the best ones.

I was fooled, I failed again and again

picking pyrite on sight,

my carbon spilt into lead,

took nothing out but blood,

a flood of it and died on the page.

Now the cows can sleep peacefully,

if only I could see.

Artwork by Paulus Potter (c. 1647) in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

A Diamond A Dozen

Tapping the vein
mulching the marrow
thru sift and by strain
each and every grain
digging for the dime in the dozen
greed glistens with grime
coveting the currency
of counterfeit cubic zirconium
shimmering sparkles dazzle sublime
carbon copy karats
set ingenuine gems
minerals morphed with merits
abstracted stony emblems
outlast our mortal cast
buried, bought and bartered
poised in eternal eminence
crowning ignoble and temporal titles
from birth to berth
East to rise
the West is set
synchronized in circles
rings and tokens
cut, divided, positioned in prisms
reflecting and projecting
facets galore
mining the matter
for a valuable score
but tied in the end
to the ethereal and material
unable to transcend
the philanderous flocks
collectors and inspectors
of crystallized rocks
grains gathered in glass
all the same carbon en masse
fragile fibers affixed with flare
We are all just diamonds from the rough
that you cannot wear
but made of the toughest stuff
on the planet
and diamonds, as we appraise
are better than granite
chalking it up to a chimerical craze
rocks and rings
fire and ice
rule this land of Kings
where stones are symbols
of Divine Beings
touting treasures of troves
by positioning in juxtapose
foresee the clarity, color, cut by the carat
a womans worth weighted by this stat
We must give treasured credit to DeBeers
for the oceans replenishment in salty carbon tears.

Image of  Cullinan diamond (uncut)"the largest gem quality diamond ever found, in its rough form. It is 3,106.75 carats (621.35 g, 1.37 lb), about 10 cm (3.9 inches) tall in its longest dimension. It was found January 26, 1905 in the Premier mine, near Pretoria, South Africa" [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons