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