Manipulating reality,
the moment concealed
Manipulating reality,
what’s virtual ‘real’
Manipulating reality,
the keys push and drain
Manipulating reality,
technology reigns
Manipulating reality,
fantasy schools
Manipulating reality,
apostasy rules
Manipulating reality
all cursors and screens
Manipulating reality,
lost memory undreamed
Manipulating reality,
electrons control
Manipulating reality
a hard driven soul
Manipulating reality,
love crashes and burns
Manipulating reality
—truth cyber unlearned
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2018)
Changed Into Song
Will the pieces of the life you’ve lived
come together at the end?
Will the times that you reflected
straighten your path out, free of bends?
Are the places that you visited
more than way stops that you chose?
Are the feelings that you left with
still inside you—heaven knows?
Are your children still in contact,
do they ask you what you think?
Are your parents long forgotten
as you pour yourself a drink?
Are the days recounted backwards
with the best all left behind?
Does the silence serve to haunt you
with those things you cannot find?
Does the laughter fall on deafness,
do the smiles pass you by?
Are your friends left off your guest list
with no time for them to find?
Are the pieces of your puzzle
pointed sharp, and ill to fit?
Does your conscience wear a muzzle
with the blame an endless pit?
Is it what you said you wanted
when you started down this path?
Or are you now among the hunted
in a bad choice aftermath?
If before you’re gone, one chance flew by
a difference then to make
Would you hang on tight to all the lies,
or embrace this change of fate?
And if you do, the words will say,
you almost got it wrong…
Before you called those choices back
—and changed them into song
(Grantham New Hampshire: March, 2015)
Hard Won
We can all think
differently
While instantaneously feeling
the same
We can politically straddle the
great divide
While below loving the canyons
and plains
We can put all prejudice and
opinion aside
When the outcome is cast
zero-sum
And in those moments our greatness
calls loudest and true
With the blood of a freedom
—hard won
(Grantham New Hampshire: March, 2015)
Forgotten Lord
Deep into the night of the harrowing dawn,
old voices went astray
And fast on the morning of no return,
final judgment came to stay
Crashing like a wave was the prophet’s voice,
this time not to be ignored
Washing away all excuse and false remorse
with damnation—forgotten Lord
(Grantham New Hampshire: March, 2015)