Poem: Plato

 

 

Plato

 

a dented trowel, this tongue.

the story had fought back

with the sludge of mortar.

this tongue that had built this lie,

burden by burden,

refusal by refusal,

over a latticework of once fresh heart,

within uncharted skies now fallen, fossilized,

long-sunk remnants of a meteor blaze.

the only sledgehammer

was a lover who once

maybe still loved.  who once

maybe still danced with butterflies

galaxies off:  a lover

whose voice danced 

bird-tender-sotto-sparkle

with light.

and it was this fruit, these gardens,

the ripeness of such love, this lover,

which had trellised with

blossoms and vines of

sunsets and dawns to

crack the walls of the 

unintended cave.

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12/16/25

Cave metaphor from The Republic

Have some covid-like thing, plus 200 assignments to grade before xmas, can't afford doctor, timewise or money, no right to a doctor in the USA.  

Quote: If you bow down ...

If you bow down to fear and fear gains total control, backed by all-powerful technology, you create Hell itself.

https://owlwholaughs.blogspot.com/2025/10/one-of-worst-days-in-human-history.html 

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Poem: Mimes

 

Mimes

 

trees mime

the pain of what was lost.

 

they could have been left alone

to live and combine.

 

birds could have

supplied a robust pulse.

 

the wind might have strummed,

lush of balalaika.

 

not splintered guitars.

not cracked cellos.

 

but screechy saws keep moving the trees

to build pricey cubes.

 

humans and humans and humans 

grow to consume thrice as much.

 

can they feel the distant hum?

trembles from topples of distant tremors

 

in their bones?

 

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12/10/25 mods

My brother liked the book, Invisible Man, but this poem, in his honor, wasn't quite on topic.  Similar, though, in the invisibility.

Poem: Ads

 

Ads

 

flickering soothsayers,

conga lines of clowns on sprees,

 

half images,

sleights,

lewd phantasmagoria

 

whirlpooling to tapdance

 

and drag human eyes

through a sordid gyre—

 

as if we ‘consumers’

were victims of dangerous urges.

 

but really

 

we baptized ourselves

in this syrup,

 

this vomit of jingles

which twists unctuous as eels

 

through our infiltrated

minds.

 

 

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12/5/25 ... "unctuous" replaces "slippery" 

Poem: Fall Shadow

 

Fall Shadow

 

a cobweb of leaves

kept breaking around,

smaller and smaller.

no cure for such wine-

hued deteriorations, no glue.

they faltered to snap as feathers

fallen to pull me down into

their sticky lack of reason, wrapping me

in their unruly cloak.

who i was was the leaves:

the wrinkled assemblage of such faces,

of scrunched chins and

waterlogged jowls and torn eyes.

a slither of the history of my shifting years.

they had become as huge

as a sea anemone which was as big as everywhere

my footsteps had ever tread. 

they knew my smooth moves, 

my flashy darts, the empty fear

behind my fish stare; and they knew

how to collect me, to reveal the

mystery, and why.

 

===========================

11/30/25 mods

Guest Poem by JL: Healthcare beware

 

Healthcare beware 

I don't want to go there
CEOs reaching out
Whats that all about
Grabbing for cash
filling their stash
while I'm over here
picking from the trash
Living in a canvas tent
can't even pay the rent
The cost of selling my soul
To the corporate Black hole

Living in a tiny house
Like I am a fucking Mouse
But I am a queen
Escaping The Machine
Daring to dream

 

by:  JL

 

=========================

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This poem is by an up and coming local poet with a trenchant, evocative voice.    We in the USA do not have a right to healthcare.  We have to earn a visit to the doctor by paying cash.  The price has gone up and up, all my life, as the country has become more and more corrupt, the wealthy hogging more and more of the pie.  The wealth distribution curve in America is that of a 'third world' dictatorship.  If you get cancer in this country, it is not uncommon to lose your house, your home, everything, to pay for treatments.  The whole system is rotten with greed.  And the fish rots from the head.

 

 

 

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Poem: The Gods

 

The Gods

 

sampling hors d’oeuvres

from celestial platters,

what do they know?

weaker than a mother’s tears,

or the battlefield that ate her son.

their bloated goblets, their timeless

obese coffers, their indolence

punctuated with our pitiable prayers,

 

what if we meager entertainers

sat down and glared at up

at the blue, one-way window,

and mocked the gods

with a collective, resounding shout:

“who will idolize us, offer us flesh!”

 

and yet, we believe.

 

when some foolish thinker

proves that the gods are nothing,

mere mutual illusions,

heavy analgesic chains,

we say nothing, know nothing,

do knowing other than bury another day

in the cemetery of our ignorance.

 

============================

Quote: " ... ranks of the insane."

 =====

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane--Marcus Aurelius

=====

 

Compare to the MLK quote, "the morass of propaganda" :
https://owlwholaughs.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-morass-of-propaganda-quote.html

Quote: "Evil asks little of the Dominant ... "

 =====

Evil asks little of the dominant caste other than to sit back and do nothing.
    --Isabelle Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

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Poem: Sensitive

 

Sensitive

 

if you find that peace

in the miracle of a common bird

amid this purgatory of smiles,

then you can no longer ride

the merry-go-round of cruel jokes.

you stand amazed and confused:

how this clown and that toadeater

and this pettifogger and that doppelganger

throw their zest away, how

they let love sink in the arms

of withering, unseen fiddleheads.

if you find that peace, the sort

far beyond the spiders who decree

they construct Jacob’s Ladder,

you abhor

the chopping down of dreams

to construct proper family trees.

you abhor the pluck and burn

of flowers at the stake

in the name of dollars and war.

you …   you wander

among fake gifts and kind evils,

vigilant to nurture that little flicker

of truth in your heart.

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11/21/25 "money" replaces "crusades"