Lies and Butterflies

When still small and carefree
They never tell you the truth
That life in the future
Will be full of misery
Instead they fill your head with lies and butterflies
Let you dance and dream and describe

When still innocent and wide-eyed
The world seems so promising
Encouraged to succeed, “be all you can be”
They hide the truth behind sugar sweet voices
Lead you on with a pat on the back
Put you to bed with hope beneath your head

Then one day the veil comes down
And truth stands there before you
Its long shadow cast over your eyes
Its grabbing fingers poking and jabbing
Why, you wonder, wasn’t I told?
And all you can do is cry

inspired by Sandra Cisneros' Eleven

If love is a universal desire
Why is it not universally accepted?
Language can be a barrier between nations.
Estrangement a barrier between relatives.
Distance a barrier between cities.
Religion? Beliefs?
They may be different in foundation
But are united through humanity.
Love – an undying desire
A wish every man, woman, child seeks to fulfill.
If this is true –and it is
Then why the disagreement
Why punish love?
If the need for love is universal
Why does power attempt to control it?
Love is love
Black/black/white/black/white/white
If it’s love, it’s love
Male/male/female/male/female/female
Does it matter what’s under the skin
Look within
Matter/matter/mass/matter/mass/mass
Its all the same.

inspired by Laurel by Alice Walker

"Full House"

Intelligence is overrated
If this is where it’s gotten us
Intolerance under one roof,
Prejudice with syrup on top,
Racism in the weekly laundry
Gendercide on the grocery list
Hatred and a cup of tea
Sexism shelved next to OJ
Party on Sunday
Vacuum all you want
That stain won’t come out
Generations have overstepped it like part of the carpet
Why notice now?
Dinner with a side of damage
Come one, come all

inspired by Allen Ginsberg

Always poor – why try
Women work for their children
And die trying

inspired by Women on the Breadlines



Red
Blood, the concrete foundation

White
The pale face of hunger

Blue
Hope drowned in despair

inspired by Carved in the Walls: Poetry by Early Chinese Immigrants

Modern World

Alone
With a thousand faces there
Two thousand eyes
Staring but not seeing
Empty
In a room filled to capacity
Crowded, jostled against the wall,
Air is impossible to obtain
Surrounded
In a fictitious society
Emotion submerged or erased
An audience of drones
Forgotten
The world the way it was
A secret awaiting discovery
Hope for the future

inspired by In Steel Clouds

Fruitful future fought for
Redemption
Eternal enticement
Enforced exertion, exhaustion ensues
Death – damned descendents despair
Omniscient oppression
Malicious manufactory

inspired by Christ in Concrete and Testimony

What is lived?

I don’t remember my birth
But it must have been traumatic.
And then to be helpless
Dead without love and care

What is life?
Helplessness has vanished
But vulnerability remains.
Each day is an attempt-
Trial and error, failure and perseverance

But what is the future?
What is to come is what has already been.
Age, frailty, brokenness-
The prizes for effort put forth.

What’s left is the reflection
Of a life – lived.
Then, once again, helplessness
Dead without love and care
And then just dead.

*a poem in response to The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Anne Porter

It

It whistles through life
Whips between parting couples
Interrupting conversation.

It lays down commandment
Carved in stone
Presiding over choice.

It demolishes buildings
Stretches across oceans
Invading distant continents.

It permeates the air
Congeals within the mind
Growing to detrimental magnitude.

It is absorbed as oxygen
Inflaming the lungs
Hindering breath.

It thinks as a rational being
Spreading thought
Creating preconceived conception.

It inflicts vengeance,
Malicious at the core
Roaming as a poltergeist.

It is communicable
In the ear, out the mouth
Stopping at nothing and no one.

It is inescapable
Like a plague comes in a cloud
Settling on civilization.

It is in, on, around
Everyone
Leaving none untouched.

It is man-made.
It is the expected.
It is society.

*a poem in response to Souls Belated by Edith Wharton

South of North

North
Where the sun shines stronger
Upstanding citizens mingle to discuss
Preconcieved notions concerning life
And sacrifice inner desires
To the face of society

South
Where darkness is sliced by moonrays
Workmen/women float on a sea of poverty
Lower in class yet higher in spirit
Their hearts' warmth is embraced
As comradery trumps social stance

Thin lines
Build a wall
Piercing human nature
Though weighted and drowned
Love lingers

*a poem in response to South of the Slot by Jack London