Carefree Times On The Road To Our Extinction

We increased our numbers far beyond the carrying capacity of our native planet

We fouled the water and poisoned the air that, after all, only sustained our very lives

Our once rich soil has been blown away or contaminated due to our inept corporate farming methods

We poached the charismatic mega-fauna to extinction even as we destroyed their habitat

We have gouged the earth to burn the coal that sullies the lovely atmosphere…and our kid’s brains

We swarm upon each other in endless fool wars with our dear mother earth as but collateral damage

We cut the shading trees for firewood or for quick profits building things not meant to last

We dump our toxic wastes into the rivers that we have channelized and dammed. Yet still drink from

Our great cities appear as nasty pockmarks from the tiny vantage points we built out in space

We decimated the great whales and spiked the seals milk with exotic chemicals

Our miracle plastic litter drifts throughout the vast ocean basins and no one is responsible

We’ll melt the polar icecaps and turn the mountain glaciers into dry and naked rock

We have carelessly torched our vast reserves of petroleum and natural gas and released their CO₂

Most of us live in ignorance and poverty in spite of our noble free economies

The poorest among us bring forth the greatest number of new offspring into our overpopulated world

We perpetually delude ourselves with petty gods, sex, work, drugs, kids, food and patriotism

The once-beneficent rain is now filled with poisonous acid thanks to our virtuous industrial efforts

Deserts encroach more each year given our ravenous goats, constant firewood need & CO₂ emissions

We look forward to our lord’s infinite paradise after lives spent blindly pursuing individual happiness

The unsustainability of our societies shall not be altered should it perturbs our daily lives...at all

We make loud noise in everything we do, never even aware of how very still we really should remain

We slaughter each other over petty disagreements between our stale yet vapid religious fantasies

Our emissions silently destroy that portion of the atmosphere protecting us from deadly cosmic rays

We haphazardly introduce exotic species that wreak havoc upon finely-balanced native ecosystems

In our prideful ignorance our fictional god anoints only us, of all species, with a so-called eternal soul

We prefer catchphrases and demagogues to personal responsibility and inherited wisdom

We waste trillions on a military whose sole purpose is to kill people and destroy infrastructure

Our road to extinction is built upon ignorance, greed, hubris, intolerance and shortsightedness

We breed our meat animals to be weak and stupid and we exterminate all their wild predators

We unwittingly select for the strongest microbes with our anti-bacterial cleansers

We find fake news sound bites more effective vote-getters than reason and understanding

We fill endless toxically-leaching dumps with tons and tons of re-usable and like-new castoffs

Our batteries, paints and lawn sprays wind up right back in our own drinking water

We scatter lead and mercury which dulls the potentials of our own precious children

Our economic system is purposely blind to the fact that it totally depends on the global ecosystem

Though we tramp blindly down the road to extinction, we thank god above it’s not the road to hell

Terror In The Homeland

They was a terrorist attack over to the Laundromat

He tried ta blow hisself up down by the magazine rack

They had this Al-Queda cell that met most every night

They all got together after work at that Indian motel

They think they seen one drivin by from inside the tavern

Him and his friend drinkin cokes and high fivin

They was sneakin round down behind the old feedlot

The boys beat em up and run em out of town

It looked like maybe an IED stuffed in the sody cooler

They woulda dialed the cell when the place was full enough

Coupla fishy women with towels on their heads

When they come sneakin by my dogs started howlin

They was a suicide bomber come in to the truck stop

Used to work at Subway but couldn’t take it any longer

Looks like they was plottin on blowin up the bowlin’ alley

Sheriff said they smelled kinda garlicky and rotten

Some jihadi rigged explosives underneatha Eddie’s Chevy

FBI said that luckily his oil leak proved too corrosive

They was crouchin on them little rugs in the middle of the day

When we all come back to get em they had up and run away

This martyr was strapped for glory in the WalMart parking lot

His shit went off too early and his old Toyota got real gory

Some Taliban insurgents got in a firefight with these Harleys

They kept trying to put them Burkahs over top of their headlights

They was runnin this house refinancin’ scheme to buy them WMDs

Them mullahs had maps and detailed plans to blow up shit they’d never seen

He come in the drive thru and said somethin like ‘allah akbar’ in the mike

She called the cops when he wouldn’t leave but didn’t order nothin

Spindrift

Blown off the peak, spun around and floating down the leeward side

Formed into lacy drifts with so many others like me that I will never know

Assuming crystalline forms in that weightless moment

Smoothed into curved shapes by the gusty winds that followed

Sublimely whirling in the vortex behind that giant ocean swell

Falling back fully aerated with life’s sustaining oxygen

A surface mist that waxes prismatically from the slanting rays of the sun

I am falling snow or roiling sea at different times

Spindrift whirling in the vacuum of the power of the wind

And those dancing with me all rotate at slightly different angles

The heartbeat of the storm is mirrored by our dizzying procession

We are cast into phantasmal castles and drift across every pathway

At times we appear to panic like a school of frightened fireflies

With a pause in the wind we fall in separate patterns, independently

This quiet beauty a chaotic byproduct of the sublime organization of the storm

And my appreciation but a simple outcome of my accidental self-perception

Taking An Ignorant Dominion Over The Earth

Quote any out-of-context scrap of your wornout religious fairytale that can grease your own agenda

Plunder this earth in the truly wacko belief it was created for your ignorant and selfish whims alone

Righteously waltz away from your messes with profit in your pocket and hand on the good book

Rest easy in the certain knowledge of your divine right to an eternal and shameless greed

Take dominion over the beasts and despoil all the places in which they might take their shelter

Hunt them down, burn them out, or even, vow to protect those few your children deem attractive

Treat plants and animals just the same: For personal & disposable use in any way you see fit

After all, they lack the everlasting souls with which your one true god has favored you, alone

Foul the air with impunity seeking extractive revenue or gas-powered wreckreation

Cut and burn the forests for corporate gain under his command to go forth and multiply

Concoct and release any manner of poisonous chemicals - if you think you can make a quick profit

Empty even the vast seas of all their life to satisfy the insatiable demands of the blessed free market

Sanctimoniously treat your brown-eyed cattle as mere non-living, statistical units of production

Modify their genetics at your whim, deny them the calming shelter of their herds,

Raise them in crowded filth, kill them without any dignity and just as cheaply as is possible

Rend and cleanly package them in bloody factories and then bulk ship them as consumer goods

Remain smug in the knowledge that you alone are cast in your one god’s image

Channel the rivers, strip their banks bare and introduce all manner of your toxic runoffs

Casually block out the divine skies with your smoke and His stars with your paranoid nightlights

Consume non-renewable resources at unsustainable rates behind casual, knowing smirks

Take accidental dominion over the atmosphere, obliviously unbalancing its exquisite constituents

Unconsciously but innocently infect and pock the earth that He bequeathed only to you

Derive moral authority from scripture and trust the outcome to the blind hand of free enterprise

Try vainly to place yourselves divinely outside of the earth’s cycles and its cosmic web of life

Put people and jobs above the natural world and its cycles without which they cannot even exist

Righteously commend the territories of the heathen enemy and his false god to ashes and to ruin

Matter-of-factly demand adequate income from any lands socialistically held in the national trust

Praise those who gash and extract for us and allow them to move on without healing the land

Swarm into any marginal habitat you stumble on and guiltlessly tip its balance towards entropy

Measure the health of your society simply by its consumer spending and unemployment rate

Always make sure to put people first in a ceaseless, artificial struggle to overcome nature

Be sure and erect sturdy fences to cut off access beyond your leveraged holdings

Blindly trust to the wisdom of billions of isolated, greedy decisions to result in a sustainable future

Blithely waste and pollute irreplaceable clean water on a daily basis without the slightest regret

Pray for relief from the drought and heat while steadfastly denying that our efforts produced them

Take it on faith that air, water and an equable climate are inexhaustible free goods, provided by god

Let the animals and the habitat which supports them and us all exist simply at your pleasure

Ignore the finite nature of all the resources squandered in raising your precious children

Permanently alter ancient rain forests with a single-minded focus on the profit for this fiscal period

Rest secure in the perfection of heaven, independent of any god-willed mess on this earth

Take dominion over the forests and plant millions of cloned trees, equally spaced and fenced-in

Artificially color the modified fish that you unsustainably farm while poisoning the ocean

Thank god for his blessings then stuff down too much and just throw away the rest

Draw freely from earth’s finite resources provided for you alone in his infinite wisdom

Trust that he will look after tomorrow thus allowing you to blindly consume and despoil today

Sleep well believing that you follow the only true and righteous path to eternal salvation

Trample the silent lilies of the field in a smoky and noisy quest for your vital wreckreational pleasure

Celebrate our fruitfulness under his edict even as we render our very nest unfit for life

Take up arms for god and lay waste to the enemy lands in His name and for His glory

Twist and eviscerate your god’s teachings such that you evade responsibility for the earth that nurtures you

Teach that preserving this lonely planet is criminally negligent in terms of family costs in jobs and money

Dwell on important moral concerns like abortion, gay marriage and flag-burning while ignoring the vast ecological holocaust of our foolish lifestyles

Mindlessly shovel resources into that blind and gaping maw of global corporatism

Trust that things will turn out all right according to His mysterious and omniscient plan

Call the heat and drought and new deserts the unfathomable will of your omnipotent god

Respond grudgingly with tiny band-aids as entire ecosystems collapse but unquestioningly increase already unconscionably huge military outlays

Try and save the species of your choice, if you will, though they have nowhere to live or anything to eat

Marvel at the wonder of His creation over the roaring of the bulldozers in the background

Displace the plant and animal communities with filthy, teeming, unplanned slums

Rip up fertile sustaining farmland for shoddy strip malls selling throwaway plastic schlock

Destroy ecosystem linchpins but still, find your solace in prayer as the mystery of His ways unfolds

Twist a fossilized religion and out-of-context economic theory into a rationalization for unencumbered, shortsighted & suicidal greed

Give thanks for all of our blessings and righteously ignore their toxic origins and externalized costs

View all of his creations through the unique lens of our own divine entitlement

Take dominion, secure in the knowledge that His will be done, in the fullness of eternity

Just Seconds To Go, But I Never Knew

My time becomes more precious the more I realize just how very little remains to me

After so much wasted racing towards unspecified and forgotten goals, I must pause to look about

At last I can refuse foolish siren calls to empty work and mindless entertainment

More precious still these moments as things grow ever more serious at every important juncture

I am forced to look behind the curtains and beyond the well-dressed entertainers

I have to forget about the next sports season and peer into that empty but everlasting void

Though others stand beside me, we all know I follow this course quite alone

There awaits an event that will never end for me and so very little time remains

I look up to distant galaxies or my gaze falls upon an ancient fossil, and I am already gone

I close my eyes, hold my breath, stop my thoughts and I am filled with all that I will ever know

Memories buzz around like pesky flies but they, too, will disappear right along with me

Dreams come to me in waking hours and I stare blankly into the dark of night

I realize now how the effects of any action quickly fade into that cosmic background noise

But I have not spent 1% of my infinitesimal time slot on what might really matter

With only seconds to go, I am way behind and have no way to stop the clock

At least the incessant, foolish prattling of our daily lives can finally be ignored

For now all I see in their ads and entertainment is just a hiding from the truth

All the short-lived satisfactions of the fads simply mask the onrush of that vast unknowable

Our small victories in our petty squabbles reflect but our mere nervousness as we stand in line

My mind fails in attempts to imagine the unavoidable eternal dark unconscious

So soon our species short interlude on earth won’t be discernible from my own lifespan

Just seconds to go as my finite heartbeats toll in a cold and mindless countdown

And in a much, much shorter time this briefest chirp will cease again, once and for all

My dead senses will no longer feed my lifeless brain the data it has always craved

From this perspective our routines dissolve into wanton, pointless fools play

Yet in the irresistible current, near the vast dark abyss, I grasp futilely for simple normalcy

So quickly there will be no one to read such words as these, which exist no longer

One Step Forward, Two Steps Towards Extinction

We’re finally making some  real advances against that awful malarial plague in africa

We are losing 50 species per day to this man-made mass extinction of ours

Infant mortality is being reduced even in the very poorest areas

50 million acres of rain forest are destroyed each and every year

china and India are bootstrapping their way out of abject poverty

80000 porpoises and 200000 albatross are killed each year as useless bycatch

the air in the LA basin is dramatically cleaner than in the 70s

china is home to 16 of the worlds 20 most polluted urban areas

smallpox and polio have been virtually eliminated worldwide

the average annual temperature in Alaska is increasing 1˚ per decade

food costs have decreased relative to income for years in the USA

the world's grasslands are overgrazed by mans animals by a factor of nearly 2

experts predict human population will stabilize at around 9 billion inside of 50 years

researchers say the earth could sustain 1-2 billion developed world inhabitants

great progress has been made in bilingual education in our schools

35% of latinos drop out of high school even as newly-arrived illegales take away their bad jobs

consumers are now much more aware of the health benefits of eating seafood

global tuna populations have declined by over 70% and are now not naturally sustainable

we are now sure of the vital role that marshes play as fish nurseries and in water purification

the US alone destroyed 117000 acres of wetlands every single year from 1985 to 1995

the early plastics industry had to convince people to throw away their cups

nowadays every year 380 billion plastic bags are discarded just in the USA

In 25 years, people worldwide living on less than a dollar a day fell by half a billion

Today, some 1.1 billion people must live on less than one US dollar for an entire day

2002 U.S. health spending was almost 2.5 times that of the median OECD country

20% of US citizens have no health insurance and their numbers increase every day

Military spending only amounts to about 2.5% of world GDP

US military outlays represent 48% of the whole world’s total

America proudly spends almost $9000 per year per student on education

So-called 3^rd world Costa Rica has a higher literacy rate than the undeveloping United States

Fractal Messenger

Filling the great galactic clusters with stars accounted for, but uncounted

Leaving copious evidence of this same message at the subatomic level

Unknowable and forever far outside any organic experiences

Saying more than we can ever grasp in the gurgling of each tiny creek

Incredibly obvious everywhere we look yet nowhere to be seen

Not alive as in our poor understanding nor dead as we can only witness

Talking to us without a voice in channels outside our senses

Caching the entire mystery complete in uncountable, infinitesimal clues

Bearing not the slightest resemblance to the deities of our childish fairytale afterlives

Hidden from us by our subconscious projections of ourselves upon it

Comporting in timescales and distances far beyond our imaginations

Wholly too ignorant to take part in scholarly debate with clever theologians

Filtering every bit of information through each raindrop in every rainbow

Revealing all its secrets in the moss that grows on the striations of a boulder

Utterly mute in terms of commandments, calls to belief and tests of faith

Dripping all wisdom from every icicle hanging in the late winter sunlight

Blasting forth all knowledge in each burst of radiation from every neutron star

Reciting not a single line of internal dialogs along with our personal saviors

Encrypting the entire message in each of an infinity of absolutely random packets

Perfectly reflected in my limitless ignorance and our greatest discoveries

Neither far away nor inside us, not with us, but never leaving us alone

Expressing everything we know in the change marked by our final breath

Showing its entirety in each brief twinkling of the firmament above

Invisible but for the endless forms of its shadows, echoes and reflections

Inscribing the full message in patterns on the birds, the reptiles and the fish

Completely occupying all the borders of each one of our zen-like contradictions

As indifferent to new life as to the struggles which lead inevitably to death

Playing the same countless variations with raindrops as falling leaves

Dancing briefly in morning sunlight, peeping out from under dark clouds

Simply as likely to grant an unearned forgiveness as to punish unfairly

Deeply underpinning our endless and hopeless but inescapable struggles

Forming foreground and background, past, present and future

Blind witness without memory, testifying only in insoluble riddles

 

Radiating uncountable variations of perfection on this infinitesimally small world

As dense in empty space as in those songs that fill our entire hearts

Outlining a paradox whose purpose we can never approach deciphering

Neither concerned with cause nor aware of outcomes

Transforming hellish nuclear fission into warm winter sunlight

Source of no dogma but reflected in the maths we see underlying the cosmos

Bombarding from every direction with signals which travel unnoticed through us

Discerning each tiny peep in the vast white noise which fades back into entropy

Reabsorbing each droplet of consciousness without a conscious thought

Creating the music with the silence between the notes

Emitting fractal miracles regardless of magnification, size or distance

Incapable of any jealousy and unable to demand a fraction of our tiny faith

Possessed of no knowledge but without any questions

Filling the time and space outside of our universe

Making not a single promise to either sinner or sufferer

Backdrop to the background radiation of the Big Bang

Forever ungraspable but simultaneously inescapable

Undisturbed by the faint noise with which we try to hide it

Offering no consolation, bereft of mercy and unable to forgive

Totally accepting, endlessly patient and tolerant without comprehension

Filling everywhere to capacity with a mindless, insensate wisdom

Always within us but never really with us

Dancing with the shadows of the flickering firelight on the cave wall

Caring as much for our lives as shiny drops of dew on one tiny blade of grass

Grinning behind quantum dice as the clockwork universe unfolds

Unaware of our contemplations as part of itself

Holding men as responsible for their actions as it does the flowing rivers

Abandon Unsustainable Programmed Hyper-Consumption

Junk all your oversized, poorly-built, gas guzzlers you silly hypnotized children

Realize that others are not sleeping as you relax in a comatose and ignorant arrogance

Convert your laughable McMansions into comfortable multi-family residences

Quit replacing productive farms and fields with sterile rows of throwaway dream homes

Build it to last and not to just make a quick buck and strut away with a cynical smirk

Ask how others are building spaceships, capping CO2 and recycling - without whining

Wander out of this cultural desert and think, just once, what you leave for the future

Go visit the castles and churches they have preserved from a thousand years ago

Quit tossing away all this hyper-packaging and compost the 25% of food you waste

Find out how they tunneled subways beneath their ancient cities but we simply won’t afford it

Scream bloody murder about the sinful waste of ever-increasing military spending

Don’t let them shovel so-called clean coal down your lungs as a green alternative energy source

Only flush your toilet with just enough water to get the job cleanly done

Bury the fast food corporate giants underneath a vast and empty indifference

Learn what real bread is and shut down the meat animal death camps

Simply slash the fat, cut the sugar, remove the salt and reduce the calories

Quit eating just because you are artificially nervous and overwrought

Forget silly gas-powered wreckreation and engage your body in real outdoor activity

Silence all the artificially noisy airplanes, trucks, motorcycles and automobiles

Just don’t let them charge any more useless shit that they cannot even afford

Get their god out of your pocketbook by taxing these sham corporate salvation franchises

Put the environment and our future ahead of this quarter’s stock price

Learn to speak and read at least your native language - and then we can talk

Out the corporate subsidy hoax of corn-based bio-fuel before it costs even more

Quit justifying eco-rape and unsustainability by falsely pitting them against people and jobs

Challenge the ridiculous notion that healthcare is, or even should be, left to the free market

Don’t let big coal and oil stifle the alternative energy boom that’s sweeping the world

Dump the black or white, just say no, do-nothing two-party system and embrace working coalitions

Cook good food at home and make them clean their plates and do the damn dishes

Wake up and think for yourself before they come to carry you off the couch on your back

Building a better tomorrow via our ordained pursuit of individual happiness

Fighting environmental legislation that may restrict freedom and could drive up costs

Building flimsy firetrap strip malls along every new stretch of overpriced highway

Investing in security to the tune of ½ a trillion dollars per year with built-in increases

Draining unproductive wetlands and not missing the clean water, birds and fish a bit

Fighting for your right to a 5 ton behemoth to drive 50 miles every day to your shit job

Cutting costs to consumers by shifting expensive development, production and pollution overseas

Collecting rich memories staring waxy-eyed at your home entertainment center from the couch

Sharing quality family meal time with artificial fast food or at some corporate franchise restaurant

Going it alone, thinking we’re in the lead, while everyone else actually heads the other way

Allowing all forms of excessive noise as if it were some kind of a god-given constitutional right

Letting teenaged children of unwed grandmothers have even more kids be born on welfare

Encouraging all forms of vapid credit consumption all for the sake of our blessed GDP

Eliminating guilt through absolute trust in decisions made all alone with our personal savior

Vilifying the opposition and reducing all issues to incontrovertible black and white soundbites

Building a better tomorrow planning ahead nearly one whole business quarter at a time

Meeting shareholder stock price responsibilities via layoffs, benefit cuts, mergers and outsourcing

Advancing global society via our negative saving rate lifestyles and their 14 hour work days

Rolling out a glossy advertising campaign instead of developing new and better products

Subsidizing corporate agriculture while forcing bogus free trade deals upon smaller economies

Finishing off the remaining old growth which eliminates both logging and tourist jobs - at once

Creating artificial confusion over climate change in a shared corporate-governmental strategy

Raising prices on disappearing fish to encourage supply so that every last one will be caught

Tainting food with un-inspected foreign ingredients and then proudly selling it as Packaged in USA

Simply ignoring the steady decay of our roads, bridges, water systems, electrical grid and internet

Outlaying far more for prison warehousing than fostering childhood development

Spending social security as collected instead of investing it for later recipients

Researching erectile dysfunction and botox instead of superbugs, malaria and pandemic flu

Bravely rebuilding in the middle of flood zones in gross denial of costs and common sense

Erecting a giant fence by Mexico while Europe adopts a single currency and border

Increasing our foreign technological dependence just as our domestic ignorance proudly swells

Touting a free market based health care system that both overprices and under-serves

Institutionalizing a two-party system grown shamefully paralyzed by divisive partisanship

Fostering a devotion to corporate sport devoid of anything but a greed-filled profit motive

Passing 10000 page omnibus spending bills where everyone gets a piece of pork

Dumbing down their tests, inflating their grades and calling them tomorrow’s world leaders

Excusing vast social and environmental destruction by cynically mouthing ‘You cant stop progress’

Wornout Religious Props

the lord of the universe does not bid us fight for his dominance on this tiny planet

he does not ask us to prove our faith and worthiness via killing and destruction

god does not trumpet calls for ever-increasing spending on the weapons of death

he certainly does not demand significant troop buildups in far off foreign lands

your empty threats to deny your corny paradise to straying followers is a comic but criminal sham

impressing the poor, helpless and ignorant with expensive monuments is simply immoral

surely he would never reserve a place in paradise for the conned & ignorant suicide bomber

it is most certainly a criminal contradiction to kill in the name of any loving savior

he does not smile upon pilots murdering from far away via multimedia video game interfaces

there is no way that a politician’s prayer is answered with a divine counsel to war

a true god does not bid us hold women as second class, ignorant, barefoot and pregnant

no omnipotent lord would ever need our puny defense against men’s laughable blasphemies

no prince of heaven would need demand armies be raised to prove our fealty

an omniscient god measures our devotion other than by the love he should easily see in our hearts

he need not worry us over the destruction of any temples if his word is true

his message of mercy and love would certainly be all the weapons we should ever need

surely our lives are hard enough that he does not require bloody crusades from us

our merciful father would not set any of his children against each other

this god of love would need no tests of faith during which we must kill and perish

your calls to fight for god are prima facie evidence of the falseness of your beliefs

any god of mine could not take satisfaction in your smiting his enemies on our little world

an unholy, greedy alliance of priests and politicians directs your cult of divine personality

only your venal, childlike gods call on followers to bring death to non-believers

only gods that you invent demand the sacrifice of war as a test of our faith

you look forward to global poverty and ignorant faith to re-invigorate your powers

your current fictions worked best during the dark ages, not the age of reason

you pervert the very human need to faith to your own ends and for this you are condemned

your dusty books, ornate costumes and faded memorabilia are merely wornout props

the masks are off and its only you scared little men trying to grab earthly power

from elected holy pope to scowling ignorant mullah may your foolishness disappear

a scabby pox on your righteously pious calls to defend your fictional saviors

after 2500 years let us, at last, respin our beliefs, for these old myths are clearly outdated

Not Even Lost

Not just visiting, or even simply passing through while heading somewhere else

Without a feeling for a destination, no real inclination towards an actual direction

Shimmering stars light the sky but there are no signs where there is no road

Coming out of nowhere not expecting to get somewhere, or even ever to return

Not even lost, without a start or finish, but unsure where I’ve been, or my heading

Could not tell if I, indeed, traced a circle, no way to remember if we were here before

No one waits with a light on for me and everyone is traveling in different directions

Bumping into you after you bumped into her, that guy seems headed where I came from

Though our sun comes up every day now, that’s just for a very short part of forever

It might be confusing and I would be dizzy except - It’s just always been this way

Often I think I am briefly tangent to some illusion just as I accelerate back within it

We all move together but separate towards all directions, faster than we can see

Not even lost, falling like raindrops at tiny points in vast cycles we cannot be aware of

Pretty sure that I can see where I am going and it’s mattering less and less where I came from

Simply because I feel lost, I mistakenly think I went from somewhere to something

But being lost was not as frightening as realizing I can never know where I am going

Racing towards goals which materialize suddenly but vanish quickly into darkness

Tracing the stumbling, mad arcs of a dizzy whirling dervish in this unending blur

Holding at an unmanageable velocity towards unspecifiable objectives

Not even wrong, for our answers were not for the very real but always unasked questions

Not even lost, for that implies a way to a somewhere we can never know exists

Nonetheless pressing onward within this collective imaginary frame of reference

Staring out into the darkness through windows that only reflect the bright lights inside

Screaming passionately into that deep space vacuum that does not carry sound at all

Each and every one of us at the exact center of a cosmos that retreats in all directions

The scale of my experience too small to be plotted on a map of space and time

Unable to ever even get lost, except in our own surrealistic fantasies

A vast silent, deep nightfall races towards me from every direction that I turn

My senses are gone, my memories evaporated and no new thoughts can stir me

Then I awake to the morning sun and note briefly that this might have all been a dream

But then, the simple fact that I cannot even be lost thrusts itself close upon me, once again

For God’s Sake: More Arms, Please!

More arms, please! For our precious children are surrounded by invisible, godless enemies

We can afford it if we cut those squishy social programs that we are assured failed so long ago

We only spend more every year than the ext 10 countries combined so Marines let’s go!

Just another half a trillion and those few rag-tag dead-enders will certainly surrender

Our loyal and patriotic contractors will spend this money properly without any wasteful oversight

So, instead of becoming energy independent, let’s simply go to war for the oil companies

Let education, health, infrastructure and the environment just tread water a little longer

Give us more troops on the ground from the growing pool of our underemployed youth

The military is our answer and only soft, unpatriotic vermin dare whine any feeble objections

Give us this day our daily rockets, video drones and some ear-splitting mortar rounds

Make us tough and focused like Army Rangers, fed solely upon your carefully-crafted propaganda

Not to worry, your updated strategy is only opposed by a handful of cowardly cut-and-runners

Yes, more military spending will see us once again into Reagan’s New Morning In America

Let us spend extra to build more to destroy and kill and preach to them of their clear choices

God bless America with carriers, fighter jets, tanks, smart bombs and night vision goggles

More arms, please! For war is such a powerful stimulus to our noble economy

We’re doing the Right Thing but our cowardly so-called allies are not pitching in

It takes lots of money and a faith-based will to persist with the whole world against us

Go on, Mr. President for no crybaby senator would dare vote against our brave boys

So, let us appropriate and earmark our way to a trillion dollars every year for more war

We must prepare for more pre-emptive defenses and unilateral wars of liberation

We shall forgo pre-natal care, school lunches and affordable doctors, for the tools of death

Save us from the surrounding foreign terrorists and our own spineless, squishy naysayers

Preserve our traditional faith-based family values by spending more to kill other folks

More arms, please! For this will help us to sleep better back here in the heartland

We must maintain our position as the greatest arms exporter in the whole of the world

Make sure it’s easier for Africans to obtain automatic weapons than vaccinations for their kids

Hallelujah, brother, help our leaders to ask god for the courage to stoke this military machine

Cleverly frame any calls for arms spending reductions to be well outside the vale of sanity

We can hide safely behind a wall of patriotic propaganda while signing those blank checks

Know that each dollar is wisely spent by humble and self-sacrificing military contractors

Let’s invest in the machinery of death and then sit back and live upon the interest

God will welcome us to heaven given our modest but expensive efforts in delivering His wrath

Take the moral high ground by selling lots of arms - To both sides in brewing conflicts

Have the subsidized free market of war decide which ideas and leaders shall prevail

Let the defense industry place cute puppies, happy children and soft music in their ads

More weapons, soldiers and wars for, verily, therein lies the way to our happiness and salvation

People Are The Firm's Most Treasured Assets

In their expensive ads, backed by soothing music, they speak of the great value of their people

All the time, knowing full well the way out of a stock crisis is simply to slash jobs and cut benefits

According to their slick marketing, the mystic force of humanity powers their organization...

And after 15 minutes a tired voice from Bangalore finally comes on the line

Yes, all of their wondrous technology is inspired simply by their people’s desire to further our society

Those financial services like sub-prime mortgages which have so enriched our lives

The personally-oriented mass-market eSolutions tailored to your individual needs

Still, corporate entities will accept modest profits in lieu of becoming charitable organizations

Why, those fearless leaders would likely give up private jets and 10 acre compounds for their folks

Because listen, even in their over-allocated schedules, their doors remain open to their people

They’ll take a moment and reflect you to a smiling minion who can safely blow you off

And they’ll quickly drop your face on that big pile that they will never need to remember

They’ll glowingly describe your loyalty and commitment but have no idea what you do

Often when the next downsizing comes they’ll be wearing little flags on their lapels

They’ll appeal to all that’s good in you by reading a stirringly-scripted, 10 minute video

Reaping unreal bonuses and whopping stock options by trimming you from the bottom line

Clips of children and flowing music accompany poetic tributes to incalculable human resources

Meanwhile, proprietary spreadsheets show profits flowing from proposed employment cuts

Pricey consultants point the way to offshore sources who become more simply disposable numbers

Expensive lobbies trace the firm’s patriotic history, but its products are all stamped Made In China

They intone about each and every one of our personal contributions to the team

But then, regrettably, our positions have been eliminated and our services are no longer required

We stumble out with a tiny severance, old family pictures and coffee cups in boxes

Truth is, the future of our families really has no place whatsoever on their financial statements

Avuncular global oligarchies speak in pre-rehearsed and well-delivered messages

Mouthing how they treasure our contributions and factor our needs into all of their decisions

They peek down from their office suites toasting bonuses as we numbly drive away for good

Now the company is stronger going forward and the remainder of us must all pull together

Then come the remaining middle managers happy to still be mouthing the latest empty platitudes

Off to meetings to be spoon fed the newest pre-digested vision to be absorbed by all

Congenially, those remaining climb on board as good team players towards another golden era

And, for the record, those who have departed shall never be mentioned again

But finally comes the quarter when the cooked books just wont meet the numbers

Arriving on the heels of the last round of layoffs, there’s no more fat to trim

And no competitors remain with which to merge and attain greater strategic synergies

So, with great regret their vivid golden parachutes open up under dark clouds of criminal suspicion

Detritus

I piece together unrelated parts of different fallen objects which I find upon the ground

Things from far above land all around me in the total darkness in which I abide

And I cannot sense the gentle rain falling on that calm surface miles above

My experiences compress each other into a mental sedimentary record

I grope for the importance of things which I stumble upon but cannot see

I filter a rich gruel of detritus well-mixed during its long descent to me

I can never escape the constant threat of heavy objects crashing down like meteors

I make a comfortable home inside large carcasses for years at a time

Prevailing winds deposit a rich sample of their contents upon my leeward side

I am washed into an eddy I circle as my thoughts are sorted into their proper levels

Our randomly-incessant noisemaking smears my musings from all directions

I wash up on the clean wet sand with the waves of yet another incoming tide

Briefly streaking through the atmosphere, I drift with a few starry molecules

I fall to earth with the thunder’s ozone in the soft shower beneath a rainbow

We descend at different speeds each wondering at the others whizzing by

We are adrift in a graceful Brownian Motion far removed from our own control

Falling at one of a thousand angles with a million silent snowflakes

Drying out where the storm deposited me far above the peaceful water line

Found where dark flood waters left me laying quietly in an impossible position

Dried to fine dust after a short journey across unquenchable desert sands

I am pocked like the moon with repeated random impacts by unidentified objects

Turned over as I lay with alluvial soil to receive the good seed of the farmer

Sticking with the wax that drips from their faithful candles flickering in dank chapels

Listening as unknown liquids trickle down to me in the depths of our great landfills

Fluttering with falling leaves so that I can be buried by them year after peaceful year

Compressed into a single blue layer deep within the vastness of an ice sheet

Dated absolutely by position in the growth rings of an ancient bristlecone pine

Orbiting based on my density in a planet’s ring after an interstellar collision

Tumbled to odd resting places with the giant boulders left by those retreating glaciers

Spreading out in graceful whorls in the jet contrails headed to vacation destinations

Diluted in pure air after escaping, only partially combusted, with your exhaust

Settling out peacefully in quiet sewage lagoons along with your contributions

Sorting into the dust that came before me even as new dust softly entombs me

Exposed once more after millennia to be covered again for another billion years

Gracefully piling up in that small hourglass that drains but once, for all of us

Lies For Immediate Release

He said he welcomed the opportunity to refute the many baseless charges against him

She refused to answer on the grounds that she might thereby be incriminated

His firm faces suits involving his alleged sexual harassment filed by several ex-employees

Company policy prohibits discussion of the circumstances of their dismissals

He cashed out multi-million dollar options as their locked 401ks disappeared

My client welcomes the chance to clear his name but has no comment at this time

As elected officials we realize that we serve at the pleasure of the public

One spokesman did not return our calls and another declined to be interviewed

Our latest 3^rd world mining concession should bring great value to our investors

The Working conditions of employees will not be on the agenda at the next stockholder’s meeting

The spokesman was bombarded with unscripted questions and unfavorable blogs

They smiled and waved as if the crowd were cheering, as they ducked away into a waiting limo

Ex-employees testified he told them in no uncertain terms they must make their numbers...or else

Sir, he said again, I do not have any recollection of that conversation, either

Those earlier stock sales were absolutely not related to the announcement of our losses

I am resigning in order to be able to spend more time with my family

His perqs included homes, clothing, vacations, the corporate jet and legal fees

Regretfully, he will be leaving us to pursue other opportunities

I did not knowingly mislead the analysts during those virtual presentations

Senator, it appears that a computer problem caused the loss of the emails in question

We ordered from our asian suppliers and that is where our responsibilities ended

We saved labor costs and their pollution issues do not appear on our financial statements

It is our policy never to comment upon ongoing investigations

We need to stop digging up the past and get on with the business of America

The firm suffers from an unfair burden of pension and healthcare benefits obligations

Their stock ticked upward on news of further layoffs and benefit reductions

He declined to take the stand in his own defense and chuckled over the tiny fine

The firm wrote off billions in bad debts and he was forced out with but a mere $130 million

It’s Only A Con Game, Corporate Sports Suckers

Your punk check ain’t gonna change one cent no matter which way the game goes

The big boys are playin you like suckers just to take your meager chump change

You’re a fool to get all worked up over muscular black men dressed up in tights

This is the pabulum they feed you to keep your mind empty and your mouth shut

But you’d watch that shit in the ICU first thing after your abused heart gave out

Your heroes waste their money and get arrested for rape and dope and assault

You know more about their phony sports statistics than your own credit card debt

That childish hero worship ain’t ever gonna get you a share of their title money

Yelling and eating and drinking by the big screen don’t enrich your future one damn bit

Win or lose you will still have to make the payments on that upside down car loan

You ain’t on the team and none of them would even give a rip about yer dumb ass

Wake up and smell the Astroturf and then go scrape that decal off your car

It’s not loyal and patriotic or an honored part of some bogus traditional family heritage

But the advertisers and sponsors play it up like it must be a big part of real life

Get the stupid theme music out of your one-track, beer-soaked brain

Stop watching and talking and dreaming and thinking about it so much all the time

You waste so many hours every week on the Big Game, you might just as well have been asleep

Then you have this foolish gnawing emptiness when its over again for another year

Maybe you can have their copyrighted logo incised on your financed headstone

Perhaps your idea of heaven is a box seat as your team wins the big one every day

And you let the clever advertisers keep on beating their sad empty shit into your empty skull

While you just sit there getting fatter and your heart and eyes and brain wear out

You will never even ask why sports is reported as much as news on every stupid channel

But its really not just a game, is it? Pathetically it is a very important part of your tiny life

You get your thrills through them, and you jump up and wave your fist and shout

You’re a loyal fan who knows all their names, even though they never win a game

With all the time, thought and emotion you have invested, you should be very rich

It's only a game...It’s not only a game, it’s your holy quest, you toadlike little weenie roaster

They’re making millions and your real income is going down even as you sit there

You just charged 5 Gs at 20% interest so you could see the game on a big screen TV

You just can’t separate the artificially flavored hype from the unvarnished, tawdry reality

The noise, color and violence touches a very basic juvenile need deep inside of you

And they play upon it to prey upon you and help you retain a retarded immaturity

Put down the sports news, get off that website and stop dissecting their performance

or just maybe you can take that sexy fantasy with you as you leave your debts behind and die

Why Do You Even Raise These Absurd Snowflake Issues?

Your questions may raise concern regarding your sanity and/or loyalty

Why do you ask if our land can really support this increasing flood of immigrants

What do you mean those politicians all sound alike as they read their sponsor’s words that our How How can you view our divinely ordained progress as a tragic charade which cannot be maintained

Why do you see your neighbors as tragicomic fossils riding out upon their dinosaurs

Now why in the world would you even question the identical nature of your good breakfast eggs

Why do you find it necessary to ask about all those young men being educated in prison

Just where did you hear about questioning our further increases in defense spending

How is it your concern that cloned franchise outlets of all types appear everywhere

Would you expand on your issues regarding a certain surveillance program we do not acknowledge

Exactly what is your concern regarding our nation’s petroleum industry-developed energy policy

Why do you ask about the sugary caffeine all our young children continuously guzzle

Why are you second-guessing the board’s latest new strategic vision going forward

Is there any legitimate reason you need information beyond that in our official press releases

Why would you say there is no taste to these bright red tomatoes that now ship so well

Why do you ask about development plans for some grandparent’s property sold due to higher taxes

How did you become so concerned that your commuting costs are funding terrorists

Why would you even ask how global economies of scale are actually vital to your own well being

How can you question the value of greed and selfishness in the pursuit of individual happiness

Who commands you to continue harassing us over classified issues concerning our national security

Why would you associate the smell of a feed lot with mass scale human suffering and death

Just where is this so-called right to privacy granted among our hallowed freedoms

Why do you ask us to measure the rate of return on our fabulous executive’s salaries and bonuses

Where is your issue with our cutting funding required to enforce those laws contrary to our beliefs

What is the source of your out-of-touch concern that every slice of white bread is the same

Why can’t you stop questioning our need for your uninformed but quiet patience

From what fake news outlet did you obtain this skepticism regarding the competence of your leaders

Why do you think a time will come when alternative energy will occupy us as much as the Middle East

Who told you that the noise of our industrious society is not good for your health

Why will you not participate in a dialog where we frame the debate as well as the outcome

Tell us why you find it necessary to continue to clamor for their official resignations

How dare you question the proven truth of continual compounded economic growth

Why would you even wonder if corporate-sponsored politicians serve your best interests

Why do you ask that they follow any other beacon than their own studious and selfish greed

When did you first start to believe that our policy of exceptionism is a fantasy-based fairytale

How is it you cannot see the greater return from another new strip mall over a quiet meadow

Why would you even question the use of all this private data we must gather

Is there something else you would like to discuss after this last unnecessary outburst

Why do you even ask if abortion, flag burning and gay marriage are really important

Where did you first hear that everyone lives in a financial house of credit cards

How can you say we need to stop this fictional climate change to slow a purported mass extinction

Why do you think that loud pickups and Harleys violate your so-called, tofu-based ‘Wa’

Is it just you or does it seem really hot around here, all the time

Why would you dare even ask about revisiting decisions made in talks with my savior

Can you please describe for us the feelings that always put you into such a hurry

How can you scoff at their good efforts to green their hollow McMansions

Who convinced you our Traditional Family Values are newly-created and not made to last

Why do you claim that we daily de-construct our grandchildren’s futures

What causes you to think our waste disposal poses a threat to a healthy lifestyle

Why do you find it harmful and hypocritical to tax tobacco, liquor and gambling

Where did you get that quaint but false notion that healthcare does not belong in the free market

Why do you question our fire sale as we exit the business of species preservation

Why do you ask if our pursuit of happiness really has not even subjective benefits

Why do you claim that our plant and animal husbandry is no different than factory production

How can you imagine questioning that which we summarily reject with our dismissive smirks

How dare you say all our actions are merest posturing in front of the political pollsters

Who told you that human populations are unnaturally high and bound to crash

What does sustainability bring to the pursuit of our own enlightened self-interest

Why do you foolishly ask if ethanol and coal are viable as clean energy alternatives

How can you deny the one true god who has so obviously blessed all of us so far

Why do you want us all to cram into unsafe featureless shoeboxes to drive to work

Where did you get the notion that we should clean up our own back yards first

Who is spreading the idea that we are paralyzed in a polarized political stalemate

Why do you ask that we scrutinize military spending as closely as we do social programs

How can you conclude that things really are not getting better all the time

What leads you to believe we are responsible for this purported mass extinction

Who told you we unfairly gerrymandered voting districts to ensure our perpetual re-election

How did you conclude that free enterprise has strip-mined the ocean of all its life

Why do you question our myriad blessings when so many suffer in abject poverty