Shadows

We sit among these growing shadows,
standing on the brink of an unknown tomorrow,
hiding somewhere between the darkness and the light,
safe within this land of perpetual sorrow.

Moments come and moments go my dear one,
leaving only traces they were here at all,
this moment we hold alone,
free from a land full of killers and madness,
a world of defined boundaries and limits,
designed to imprison all that live within their deadly gates;
and to you do I say:

that it is better to lie here among these shadows with you,
than to walk among the light with any other,
better to have tasted your love even for a moment,
than spend a lifetime without it.
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Teach Your Children Well

We thought we could change the world,
a new society,
the great experiment,
that we were different,
knew more, knew better,
part of the solution
not part the problem,
make love not war,
tune in, drop out,
hell no, we won’t go,
rebels with a cause,
defenders of the righteous,
crusaders of a higher standard,
a new code;

instead we became
more of the same.

Hypocrites within a world
of hypocrites,
masters of enlightenment
without light,
monsters disguised as
children of peace,
dogs licking up
their own vomit,
white-washed sepulchers,
dry bones,
sheep without a Shepard,
we fooled the world;

we fooled ourselves.

We became draft dodgers
and activists,
poets and musicians,
stock brokers and analysts,
doctors and lawyers;

anything
but our mothers and fathers;

we became consumers,
we became users,
we became takers;

we became the future.

We consumed
until there was nothing
left to consume,
we took
until there was nothing
left to take,
we used up what belonged
to our children,
we spent the future
of our grandchildren,
but even that wasn’t enough,
we pointed our fingers,
we blamed the man,
we blamed the over thirty crowd,
only to realize
we had become the man;

we were the over
thirty crowd.

It was all about us,
the ‘me’ generation,
gods of our
own making;

we taught our
children well.
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Naked

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?”    Genesis 3:6-11


“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those to whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.”   Revelation 3:17-20

Once more you open my eyes,
showing me just how blind
I really am,
how wretched, pitiful and poor
I have become,
revealing the evil lurking inside,
uncovering all the filth,
the inadequacies,
the incompleteness,
the nakedness;

Lord I am so far away!

I hear Your voice,
softly counseling,
gently rebuking,
quietly disciplining;

reminding me of the path
which leads to You.

Father, remove this darkness
once again,
heal the wounds
as only You can,
renew all that I am,
fill me with Your precious
Holy Spirit,
bathe me in Your glorious light;

make me a son
of the living God.
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Choices

All day long
I work with
little people
trying to make
big noises;

they are everywhere.

Sometimes they succeed,
sometimes they don’t,
but when it is all over
they sure do feel good
about themselves,
even though
everything they do
doesn’t mean shit
to anybody
but themselves.

You can choose
to take the world
by storm,
or you can choose
to ignore it
altogether,
either way
the choice
is yours,
and either way
the end;

is exactly
the same.
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Bureaucrats

Bureaucrats always think
they are on the side of right,
no matter how wrong or unjust
that side might be,
never seeing themselves
through the eyes
of their victims,
never understanding
the rights of individuals
over the authority of the system.

Despots and tyrants could not exist
without their bureaucrats,
someone to stamp the orders,
file the paperwork,
ensuring the trains run on time
to places like Auschwitz and Treblinka,
providing a well functioning
slave market to feed
the king cotton industry,
hiding the suffering and misery
behind walls of official sounding
legal jargon,
vital cogs in the machine,
mindless,
robotic,
the darkness
behind the evil,
good people
just doing their job;

pathetic
little worms.
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There is No Fairness in Virginia

There is no fairness in Virginia,
like a brood of vipers,
sitting in their Richmond offices,
hiding behind their chivalry,
their mollified gentility,
their heritage;
basking in their

‘moral superiority’.

Pompous bureaucrats
playing politics,
making self-serving policies,
passing discriminatory laws,
destroying people and lives
in the process,
then throwing up their hands;

“sorry, it’s the law”.

All the time
smiling in your face,
using long drawn out
gracious words
dripping with hypocrisy,
stating well rehearsed
company lines,
providing legal and
self-righteous justification,
then laughing
behind your back.

A soulless people
trapped within their
own self-deception,
blinded by their
'right to do so',
despite the cost
to those helpless
to fight back;

a conquered nation
seeking revenge.
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