Friday, April 24, 2020

California is Burning




California is Burning
Brazil is On Fire
Australia in Flames
one can’t be a poet and be silent
broken words shatter worlds
with lies
stories told retold
compelling fantasies of life
as it was wished to be
seen through veils of childhood dreams
meanwhile too many  
have had their eyes closed
forever

shielding his wife from a bully
        shot while backing away
he went back inside
        and died on the floor
                in front of his five-year-old child
Stand Your Ground!
license to kill in America

Broken Hearts, Broken Minds
caged children emerge
        disconnected
the emptiness of their eyes shows
        blankness of lost memories
                 suffering with no recourse
the magic of loving touch dispersed
in darkness

the sun pours down
impossible liquid buttercup
sunflower warm melted gold
heaven’s wealth sliding sinuously
enveloping the earthbound
should-have-been-joyous reaching upward
to bathe engulf immerse all
in sweet drawn butter molten
incomprehensible Love held in stillness
        but slipping away momentarily
                 such an ineffably beautiful world
unless there are no windows no doors
cinderblock walls painted to look like outside
        a deep horror of false color and light

Indonesia is in Flood
Puerto Rico is Drowning
Millennial Rains fall without end
Africa’s soil is cracked and dry
even the rich are carrying buckets from the well
the melting arctic perma-frost releases
long dormant diseases of ancient days
vast movements of people shifting
from ancestral lands
the cries of family bones ignored
that the family may survive

I heard that half of American youth
have never heard of Auschwitz
        no wonder the light is fading
we all bleed inside each other’s wounds
the wells of memory shallow
in spite of centuries
silt washes down from chosen ignorance
to fill
obscure
delude
remove the mirrored depths
all source of reflection

California is Burning
Brazil is On Fire
Australia in Flames
Indonesia’s in Flood and Puerto Rico Trembling
Shuddering as Earth tries to shake us off
billions of creatures
whole species Lost
our Final century dawns
unknown, unacknowledged

if Death has a memory
she will Sing for us at the End
Yonnondio!


© 2020 pamela twining


Friday, April 10, 2020

The Stand





some version happening Now

as if Randall Flagg and Mother Abagail had a baby

and its name is Trump

worshipped by those

who think of themselves as Patriots

with a Capital P

on the Side of Good

who believe those who actually Practice Freedom

are the Evil Followers of The Walkin Dude

with clockwork tickin bootheels on the pavement

hollow sound

encase yr heart in Ice

keep walkin

Faster

FasterFaster



that hollow sound

relentless tik ... tok
        tik tok tiktok tiktok

                 frozen echo

haunting dreams and waking moments
as all around collapses in chaos



once they used to have pay phones

on stanchions or booths on the street

so you cld call a friend

drop a dime or a quarter

make a connection

to Save Yr Life in that Dark Street Night

no stars break through the city haze

the streets are swathed in fog like netting

like a Great Fisherman

dropping snares into the streets

twisting

tangling

the darkest night descends

and when the fog rises …



Emptiness






He Who Walks Behind the Rows is ever with us