Confidence in Finality

What could be more simple than the option,
that to believe in Jesus makes you chosen
Just you and he, no middlemen complicating the deal
Just your unconditional acceptance to what he offers, or a flat out -
"Thanks, but no thanks. I do not accept pamphlets or prophets"

What could be so simple and God sent easy...if it's for real

Evolution in Reverse

I dream a fellow sitting on a rock
contemplating his skull in a thinker's hands
The rock transforms into a throne
The thinker transmutes into an ape
The skull stays skull

Wogging The Neighborhood

I was dropped on a society of misfits
all the men wearing smirks, their trousers cuffed
all the women wearing bras, their lips greased red to stop a bus
Me a child of nomads, come to the Empire fleeing the aftermath of war

Welcome kids to the Land of the Free, Home of the Scam
Take no offense, patriots. Mark Twain would be the first to admit
Scamming is what got us to Manifest Destiny Land of the free?
You gotta be kidding. The colored were still forced to the back of the buss
So, there we landed in the land of Dixie, us not Chinese, not black nor white
Something else (to say a lot) the blood of victor and raped run in our veins
Our tongue, Ladino, which is to Spanish what Yiddish is to German
We were also fluent in Arabic and could recite the Psalms in Hebrew

Eventually we moved to The Big Apple,
and that same summer upon arrival visited Central Park
Bonkers, was I thrilled to see a real zoo
In the Casbah, I had not seen such but in pictures
Giraffe necks outstretched the length of serpents
Rhinos, horns growing out their snouts?
Monkeys gone crazy seeing peoples.
Gorillas so lazy, their stomachs swollen with bananas and stuff

And then I saw them and screamed with glee, the "focas,"
and every worthy citizen spun around wanting to see a lynching.
"Did that dusky kid just scream, "Fuckers, maybe fuck'em?"
No, she didn't you misters and misses, and you kids in knickers!
The kid said, foca --- "seal" in English
like those flipping focas, their keepers flick fish to
at feeding time at the zoo

In Bed All Day Without A Chocolate

The phone's recorder beeps every 11 seconds
I've timed the lapses. Midnight and still beeping
Messages easy to ignore. I'm vacant, it's easy

Beyond the beeps, a ticking clock
beyond the ticking clock...wind
beyond the wind and snow that's falling
a periodic flush of toilet

Like a nun of cloistered cell
I've been faithful to my 12 by 7,
awaiting to expire... not just yet, I reckon,
Else why would I be getting hungry?

Prolonged recessions can lead to a depression
A depression prolonged beyond a reasonable time
will bring down the little men from Mars
with their little picks and shovels, and their smiling little faces

Warning to The Gullible

The eye sees quickly
the ear may have caught it
the mind failed to hit the panic button
on sensing the fleeing shadows of other victims
but seeing is not always acceptance

You all have misread his signals
The man is not a dreamboat
if only you would have listened
even close your eyes to hear him
your heart did try to warn
something else told you forget it

Adverse Effects of Pure Adornment

Y has trouble explaining "simple"
like why would Y move a flower pot
from an unlit corner to a bright window

Like poets need mobility, plants need light
Back to dismal, X moves the aching pot
because when guests are forthcoming
corners should not stand unadorned

Rain

It matters little when a child first sees rain
From then on, it falls singular and repetitious
in the drizzles accompanying funerals
through irreconcilable differences
in and out of failed marriages

I would cry us pools
Find a vial, even then...
I could not fill it