Casus belli

It tasted yellow.

Woke up with it . Had to put it together.

Same as artificial light, that blaring first horn,

TAPS and organs now must stand up

to gravity, though the deaftone stomach resists this

verticality nestled in leaden refusal to churn over.

When focus comes on strong, this tangible sting,

bite of blink and swallow, is pointed.

And knowing the acid brewing

is not best for breakfast-as a rule-

according to the orange juice

and strong brown coffee,

I am delusional.

They rest their cases. The resting still,

they are bloodthirsty, at the ready,

palms rubbing, rabid from a distance,

the young smoking.

Look at the mess they made last night.

They are poking around for War.

It will be found. Instigators have a chronic itch.

Admixture to weak sauce with whatever 

is lying around.

And all make green, except mine, faintly

in flesh tones and tossed in peach stones.

   

A tree, like bravery, builds itself up slow

like this gathered heart, low and labored.

Rather not swallow.

The blue early bird, first notices me;

gorging on gravel and gathering sticks

to replace broken bones, he does not blink back.

I think could never forget what the birds taught me,

this was no dream,

the heart still beats itself

without a body,

And I throw up 

this empty stomach. 

Image credit By Sol Horn (4/1939) in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The Hairy Battle of Human Being

Why aren't we done painting the Art of War?
What are we still fighting for?

All the lands have been pillaged and conquered.
The air still reeks of the conflicts we've conjured.

This planets private properties have all be claimed.
Heritage and Historical sights have all been officially named.

Unable to agree that the moon is humanities joint territory.
Unstable people take a stand, repeating family memory.

Still, some do peddle deeds to stars.
The next exurb lots will be refi'd on Mars.

Sacrifice anticipates a victorious tomorrow,
inheriting the debt of our last generations sorrow.

Replacing freedom fighters with tyrannical terrorists,
dancing the limbo line, politico tango in religious trysts

Bad blood curdles staining with fear,
Hindsight is not visible when standing so near.

Death for Liberty, the sacrifice of being right,
betting it all on maybe's and might.

(somehow living in this moral servitude
feels more like rhetorical platitude)

Competitive fabric woven in narcissistic natures,
adaptive and reactive matrix of complex creatures.

Will we only be sated when there's nothing more to take?
Are we merely fated to feuding over pride at stake?

Predictably, in the year twenty fifteen you may find
and even agree, it is well past evolutionary time
that We can no longer be called a species of man-kind
The artists of making War, our masterpiece, a human crime.


Image of painting by John Singer Sargent (1919), "Gassed" Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.