Month: June 2022

LOWER down, in Johnstown, all seems calm.
UNION is going on 113, war survived, injustice re-submerged;
PARTY, faction, a steady equilibrium of peace?
FLOOD bursts as a sign; submerged may see the light, bad structures can fall.

GAVEL in last judgment, Judge! You will not be partial;
MOGUL in the dock cannot inflate importance or
DEIGN self as exception to what is good.
WRECK those who, unchecked, did not turn and plead for grace.

SCOPE of poem? Uncertain, but not to create cliché.
BLOKE, yes. Bohemian, yes. Musician, yes.
ROACH—no. So, what’s he high on? Life? This poem does not know.
BONGO? It’s the focus here: the rhythm’s about to start.

SPLAT, drone note of my life’s score.
SAVVY, tempo sometime signals upswing.
MORON, unwelcome annotation.
DROSS, common in this composition. Yet some notes true.

FARCE of common good and common life: to count a person’s
WORTH in currency of culture’s wars. The tribes
BARGE in, dragoon troops, demand oaths.
THERE is a greater mode: of shared delight; for this brief together while, we all live.