It's been a while since I posted anything poetic here. I've been focusing more on essays and the novel lately, and on promoting Why Buddha Touched the Earth (have you bought a copy yet?), but Baltimore's longest running informal poetry workshop (AFAIK), Zelda's Inferno, is still meeting most Sunday nights. (Interested? Contact me!). Last Sunday and this Sunday were productive, with starts on lyrics for two songs and one fun poem.
The image of a family photo on a cubicle drone's desk being the only thing keeping him from rebelling, has been stuck in my head from an old poem that Mike Fekula wrote back in the days when we read at Planet X. All these years later I can't remember much more than that image, so this is more "vaguely inspired by" than anything else, but credit where it's due. Still needs work but I think there's something here to work with:
Well he never thought that it would come to this
Driving each day on the highway sixty miles
Getting to work to support a family
Paying the bills for a suburban lifestyle
And in his little cubicle
A family photo in a frame
It's the only thing that keeps him
From burning the whole place up in flames
When he was a young man he thought he'd change the world
With a refusal to compromise and a notebook full of poems
Fifteen years later he looks around to see
Three kids and a wife and a mortgage on his home
And in his little cubicle
A family photo in a frame
It's the only thing that keeps him
From breaking down and going insane
He wouldn't trade his family for fortune or for fame
But when he knows that they're the reason he can't afford to quit that job
So he has to sit and take it when the boss is screaming at him
He breaks out in a sweat and his temples start to throb
And in his little cubicle
A family photo in a frame
It's the only thing that keeps him
From burning the whole place up in flames
So he gets up in the morning and he goes to work each day
And he swallows his rebellion and he swallows up his pride
But on his desk he keep a little token of the reason that he does it
That picture's just enough stop him from dying inside
And in his little cubicle
A family photo in a frame
It's the only thing that keeps him
From burning the whole place up in flames
All across this world men and women go to work
At soul-destroying jobs for bosses they've always hated
They stay there out of love for the ones they leave at home
Even if their sacrifice is never appreciated
And in their little cubicles
Those family photos in their frames
Are the only thing that keeps them
From burning the system down in flames
Then there was a "connect those lines" exercise, where I ended up drawing "Wondering, wondering" and "They wandered; wandered and wondered". Which pretty much make a poem on their own. But I had some fun with it, and it's got a few stanzas I like that will probably grow into some sort of something:
Wondering, wondering
Unable to cease
The more that they saw
Their puzzlement increased
No rhyme or reason
Or order to find
The wonders of chaos
Appeared to their minds
Options and choices
Never before known
Horizons expanded
Minds became blown
Go where you want to
Do what thou wilt
Knocking down walls that
Ol' Greyface had built
The Goddess is crazy
But pretty nice
Though Einstein was wrong, see:
She does play with dice
This world is random
Made without plan
So no need to worry,
Just do what you can
No heaven above us
No torments in hell
Just you and the Cosmos --
So go and live well
Live while you're living
You'll stop when you're dead
You can't get that wrong, so
Don't worry your head
Nothing to stop them
Now they could see
These children of Eris
Learned they were free
Speaking only of order
Their teachers had blundered
And so they wandered;
Wandered and wondered
And then we had a wordlist exercise, using these words: brethren purple shenanigans breakfast expansive smush Zanzibar block colloquial transcendent umbilical arrive
"brethren" and "purple" next to each other got something started and this came out in a few minutes. I like it.
the brethren of the purple
and the violet sisterhood
were gathered in a circle
somewhere deep within the woods
they were gathered there together
waiting for the Chosen One
who would make everything better
and bring about the Age of Fun
with shenanigans transcendent
that would make you glad to be alive
but his schedule was pretty murky
they didn't know when he'd arrive
they'd invited him for breakfast
with an expansive hot buffet
but still he hadn't showed up
by the middle of the day
someone had the notion
he might not arrive at all
so what should they go and do?
should they repeat the call?
"why do we need a chosen one???"
suddenly someone wondered
"how can you even say that!"
one of the elders thundered
but a seed of doubt was planted
and an idea started growing
somebody cracked a joke
and the laughter started flowing
"you're the chosen one! No, you are!"
they all started pointing
that went on for hours,
this mutual anointing
so when the chosen one showed up
his presence was redundant
"hey, thanks for coming guy, but
we're firing the incumbent"
"at last!" the chosen one exclaimed
"you all have learned the lesson!
everyone is holy, and
the chosen one is obsolescent!"
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