Even now,
in the age of nuclear warheads
and supersonic jets,
of ninety-round belts of 5.56
and bespoke viruses,
even now, as through all of time,
a flint-tipped spear can kill

Just a game of chance and touch,
hollow the tower. Bottom to top.
No matter which side pulls the last piece –
in the end,
only rubble remains.

They like their deaths slowly
they love to linger
and long for better days
from their engirdling beds,
smiling and hurting.

The streetlights blare and
strangers are illuminated,
faces just like ours,
open sometimes and now closed –
all glances, never meeting
like passerby trying not to stare at an accident
afraid of mangled meat and steel in every
eye,
afraid of what they might recall later.

How many days are passed unremarkably
in Rental Beige
or Institution Green?
How many lifetimes tick away
in the passage of a workweek-
what sum of flesh and bone
artery, vein, cartilage,
marrow and brain,
strips of flannel and coverall
are pulped in the pressing
of one shining golden coin?
And how can anyone still covet
a speck of gold
when submerged in such depths of gore?

A layman learns of a coal train derailment,
a factory fire, a chicken crop culled,
and sees conspiracy, sees the falling of
stars and countries;
an insurance adjuster sees payouts and premiums
accidental every-days
and actuarial fate.

Pay attention to the chisel
light and delicate here
a lovely pattern over the chest,
but remember you will not have
eternity to decorate, remember
that some day you will abandon all works
and they will be judged,
good or ill, by
judge and jury or
awards show committee;
but do not work feverishly or
you’ll crack it to the core, no,
work steadily, work gently,
smooth the defects as you find them
and hope,
hope,
that when you walk away
you have done enough.

Wake up nice and early,
it is important not to waste the mornings;
Meditate for an hour;
Work out for two hours, a nice run
followed by your regular weight training program;
Make a list of everything you’d like to accomplish
with the remainder of your day;
Watch your diet! No processed grain, no seed oil,
limit your sugar, and be careful about coffee in the morning;
Give up drinking and smoking, they
are bad for your overall wellness and fitness;
When the person who does not care for these luxuries
levels the gun at your head,
be thankful you no longer need spend so much time
avoiding death.

Too many symbols with too many meanings
(plucked petals a wish to some and an invitation to others)
does the lipstick represent youth, lust, etiquette,
or is it merely color?
Is the fawn a delicious meal,
innocence, stupidity, beauty,
or copyright of the Walt Disney Corporation?
Are we all wandering aimlessly with ill-formed notion
that purple represented royalty in medieval times and
now is one of a thousand colors of cast-off
secondhand clothes?
Have all the running generations handed
a hundred thousand batons of meaning –
slipping through our fingers,
they crowd our bodies and become
unnameable.