The Demagogue

The eyes of all the people turned to him,
As if expecting something quite profound;
But he had nothing in him but the dim
And anxious feel that none of it was sound.
So first he called for God to bless the crowd,
A classic start that gave him time to think,
And then he swelled his chest, got very loud,
Found wind, set sail – today he wouldn’t sink.
Each day he put his life upon the line
To please the mob he hated – one and all;
Although he told them they were very fine,
Their enemies were not, and so his call
For absolute destruction of the slime;
He’d get this bleating mob some other time.

The Essential Faust

It’s when I’m bored I think of Faust again,
And since I’m bored right now, he’s there,
Entrapped inside a cave within my brain,
And there, like me, he paces in despair.
So shadows in the dark, we wait until
His demon comes to entertain us with
His jokes, his magic tricks, and tales that thrill
Of gods and heroes of romantic myth.
And so we while away what’s left of time
With Helen, Aphrodite, temptress Eve,
And other stories full of love and crime -
Until at twelve o’clock it’s time to leave.
We hear the urgent ringing of twelve bells,
And down we go to very different hells.

Landscape

The light upon the petal makes it red –
Behind the bloom the sea and sky shine blue;
I square my hands: a painting’s to be said
About a blossom, sea and sky and you.
Why are you here? Why do you smile and steal
The sea and sky and bloom of all their worth?
A story’s to be told, a spinning wheel
Of love, ennui, disgust, and then rebirth.
My heart sinks with the sun, the colour’s lost
To everything but your abundant smile,
Which I now know comes with enormous cost
To heart and soul – but, please, love, stay awhile:
I’ll get my brushes out, forget the pain –
That light, bloom, sea, sky, smile I’ll paint again.

Sunrise Sunset

“I like it when you smile that earthy smile
That you reserve for me and only me;
It’s not without a worldly bit of guile
That I alone am privileged to see.”
“It’s two for tea against the rest, you think –
I like your lovely foibles, you like mine;
We’re arm in arm, in love, and in the pink,
And everything is fine, so very fine.”
“Yes, pink, and blue, and white; the sky and earth
Revolve and rise with mornings made for love –
A system in perpetual rebirth
Makes that below ascend to high above.”
“Then kiss me, stupid – back to bed we go;
If I’m the earth, you sink for me to glow.”

Fifth Avatar, Five

Oldham Manning,
Machiavellian-like Guile

That road before you here is ending now
That you have travelled ninety years or so;
You’ve gone the distance Nature will allow –
Or close to it – a mile or two’s to go.
Walk proudly on those hurting limbs, my dears,
And smell intensely all those drooping blooms,
And sleep past midnight, disregard those fears
That dark and sneaky presence now assumes.
Find lightness in your mind – that light from youth
That lingers even now within your thoughts,
And nourish it with lies, take them for truth,
To conquer those foul numbers Age allots.
And take these medications with a smile
That hides your Machiavellian-like guile.

The Jolly Corner

A presence stands above me as I sleep –
I know not if its thoughts are of my death,
Or if it’s there in kindness and to keep
A watch upon my rest and aid my breath.
To answer this, I chase it through my mind
Down corridors and corners, while it flies,
But any moment I expect to find
It caught before my thoughts and opened eyes.
Now there it waits – I ask it what it needs
And why it shadows both my bed and dreams;
Its eyes aghast, its mouth agape, bright beads
Encompassing its creasing brow, it screams,
“It’s me you haunt; it’s you I dream, afraid
Of all that lingers in your mortal shade.”

Shoulder Dust

We wander in the valley of the dead
Where those who’ve gone before are but the dust
We swipe from shrugging shoulders sans prayer said
And sans ripe understanding that some gust
Of future wind will carry us as well
From shoulders to some distant sunny peak
Or to some deep volcanic inmost hell
To shoot from height or depth into the bleak
And wonderful expanse of time and place
Beyond the sun to space beyond our ken
Where life and death and life at endless pace
Revolve in orbits infinite to then
Re-enter in a drop of summer rain
Watched as it trickles down a window pane.