14

 

I see them

starving
eyes

diseased
eyes

abandoned
eyes

eyes glazed
hollow
from
complete
lack
of human
contact

bruised
with
the violence
of
abject
loneliness

devoid
affection

no vestige
of
saving
hope

instead

cruel
neglect

burning
Infection

a vessel
of flies

dysentery

and
soured bile

caked
in filth
and
fecal waste

not yet
arrived
at the age
of reason

yet

so far beyond
anything
remotely
of reason

of sanity

reduced
to
something
less than
human

below
the dignity
of
chatteled
livestock

and for certain

less
valued

less
cared for

un-mourned

yet
so human
are they

it aches
to
look upon them

they
are a blight

a blight
on my
indifferent
soul

an abomination

my
abomination

my
condemnation

a stain

indelible
in my
heart

a mark
of
injustice

so
horrific

that
I am forced
to look away

they are my
denial

my
greatest fear

they
are

my sin

the sorrow
that
chokes
my spirit

wrings
from me
tears
of the
privileged

the glutted

the
guilty

they
are my
deep
unrest

my failure

my great
discomfort

my
interruption

and so
I reach out

I reach out
to
take control

to
make a change

and

by remote

remove
these
images
that
confront me

that
haunt me

taunt me

to
surf away

into the land
of
plenty

into the
oblivion
of
promised opulence

of corpulent
consumption

of fantasy
fiction
and
porn

into
no friction

no
fault

to have
those
images
recede
and
drift away

until
I do not
see
the pain

or
hear
the wailing

or
feel
the suffering

I
fade away

to be
comfortably
numbed

to
just do it

to be
all
that I can be

to enjoy
that
refreshing
sensation

teeth
so white
they sparkle

to
have it
my way

every
night
‘til 3:00 AM

 

13

 

my eyes

crisp
from the
day’s
sun

from
devastation’s
fires

from
cruel vision
of
relentless
horror

scorched
by
vicious
awareness
of
sentenced
gaze

take refuge
in this
heavy
late evening
dew

settling
like a
shroud

diaphanous

opaque

obscuring

I am
sustained
by this
damp
cool
pall

that
descends
upon me

wraps ‘round
my
pained
countenance

fevered
with fatigue

crippled
with despair

driven
by a
faint
memory
of honor

of duty

of
human dignity

I
stumble

broken
by
this sin
I
shoulder

this
perversion

not of
my
making

but
of my
charge

my sin

conceived
and
unleashed
by those
who
would
impose
their will

their
twisted
utopic vision

who would
advance
their agenda
of
domination

those
who
would
take it

all

who would
rule
the world

a world
now
broken

corrupted
by their
vision

spoiled
by their
vanity

a world
in
chaos

I have
but
this
bloodied
ruin-riddled
highway
of
deepening
nocturne

of
dying
dreams

crushed
innocence

destruction

death

of my
duplicity

of my
guilt

of
burdened
shame

and so

I
stumble on

saturated
with
this
falling evening

with
this
drenching sorrow

slinking

in
exhausting
alert

hollow

empty

into this
coming
night

and
the
next night

and
the night
that
follows

that always
follows

captive
on this
road
of
murder

of
mounting evil

of
brutal
human
arrogance

prisoner
of
this
lost highway

seeking
forgiveness