ugly sometimes

[judih]

There are bombs, there are victims of brainwash, there are mourners, wounded, there are sounds that do not cease

ugly sometimes
ugly relentlessly ugly sometimes
mind can't see over the smoke
head bombarded with blasts of rocketfire
eyes see worse than eyes can stand

&over there in a soundproof room
sipping espressos, cocktails, lies
it's so sweet, life's beautiful, fighting over the tip
life's good, endless paychecks doing endless jobs
life's waiting like a ripe olive on an ancient tree
always bearing fruit, a bowlful of promises

but back here it's ugly
ugly with more to come

led zeppelin squeals 60's hope
but it's goddamn ugly

november 9/07
judih

[cenacle]

Tameless hours

First is music, & I don't know why.
Men breathe together, hearts beat
close, love & fear swoon each high
& low, the reeds & crickets play the
wind, birds gossip & mate with whistles,
there is music, first, mystery's thrum.

Or maybe dreaming, how they wantless
occur in man & beast, how they
lawless urge, tug a body closer to its
hid cavern's wish, a heart to the
great open air, empty a long dear cry
of its stones, of any fist's strength to stop.

Then there's want, or perhaps first
of all & then else follows. Toward
warmth, feeding, coupling, maybe
a word or touch that seems a moment
to arc from cradle to cradle, prison & tomb alike.

Of course there's the learning &
madness some get in twining the exotic
molecule or rarer seed. Through
clouds, through hard kings throned
in sunlight to reveal beautiful dust,
nameless blows off, dance now, dance now!

None of it explains, just clanging lights in
a mind's skies, no more to work
with than tools in ground that
may or may not be, show the spell
or devilling conjure can say other
certain. Tonight a village burns. Everything goes.

Stray planks, all of it, stray planks
on a wide foam, hidden nest burnt
in a bolt, a jaw's snap, an old blood
vessel damned breaks & finally goes.
Neither despair nor hope proof of the other.

[judih]

ants, we carry double our bodyweight
we inch through sand as large as obelisks
we drop the load
we lift it again
on, we trudge
into the impossible
till a tractor on course flattens our course
we underneath
never know what hits us
fools we are, we get up broken and on we trudge

fools we are
yet here we are

[cenacle]

fools we be
fools we see
the world burns in us
crushed under a bus

[judih]

some are on the bus
some are not
some are crushed underneath

or safely concealed
underground

[cenacle]

underground is where it's at
for freaks and freaky fools
underground is where we hide
and tell our lies of heaven
underground is where we'll be
when the box is nailed shut
underground I think I'll leave
come on, the daylight's going