Masters of the Universe
Masters of the Universe
occupy wee cubicles,
hover over telephones,
wrack their brains,
rhythmically chew the nether lip,
minutely gnaw each finger tip.
Colorless tiles in life’s mosaic,
Destined to go
the way of the Plantagenets
the Tudors and the Stuarts
Fredrick the Great, Louis Quatorze,
Falstaff, Schlitz, Rainier and Storz.
A Matter of Walking
Once you have been shattered
at the thunderclap of no,
life goes on beneath a shadow
ominous and crackling,
and every little neg you meet
resounds with no,
connects with the fizzing shadow
angrily deepening overhead.
Sun blessing a meadow in the distance
deep green and pale yellow
seems a lightness
you are unentitled too.
Cold rain spat upon your bald head,
and dampening dampening clothing
holding close the chill
seem your only entitlements.
People in the meadow will observe
and puzzle and remark at the stubborn way
you will not come out of the rain.
To them it seems
a simple matter of walking.
My Citadel
As sunset is an obverse prophecy of dawn,
And moonlight is its gentle harbinger as well,
My faith in light’s sure and miraculous return
Remains inviolate in my heart’s citadel,
Where likewise waits my heart for One long gone,
One as sure to return, cloaked in a miracle.
The sun is not conscious of where its light may fall,
So my Awaited One will bless, then pass my cell
As unaware as sunshine that she’s blessed at all
This shadowed cloister, high in my heart’s citadel,
Where signs, and words, and lights prophetical
Leave me content to watch, waiting her miracle.
Who are her harbingers? What are their prophecies?
What is the miracle I wait that they foretell?
Might not this be a construct of my fantasies?
A foolishly imagined, paper citadel
Where my mind lolls in self-deceiving ease,
Awaiting, fecklessly, some phantom miracle?
All love, each act of kindliness, all courtesy,
Each intimation of the beautiful
Fall as echoing breakers of a moonless sea
At the unshaken base of my heart’s citadel,
Where I record them as sure prophecy,
And so await, with faith, her coming miracle.