Pendulum

What does it take for us to change
what has seemed unchangeable?
How much must we suffer
before we look with honesty?
We all share in this shame and guilt.
We can be compelled but what
moves us to act?

Live and suffer for money.
Idol worship of fools and folly.
Man created and destroyed
by our own economy imagined.

Does not all of Man desire not
a place to live, but a home?

The mistakes we have birthed
have matured and birthed ones
of their own.

We search ceaselessly for answers.
They are here. They are here.
We have seen them and turned
them away but they are here.

Can we move towards a better union?

Caught between hope and
hopelessness.

Swing of a pendulum.

Slave to one thing or another. 

What are the parameters of your enslavement?

Buyers & Sellers

Most of us have very little
So we sell the only thing 
We can possibly provide
In order to survive
The very little time
We have been given
In which to be alive

I only feel good when you use me. 

The dead have no use for wealth.

The Choices of Freedom

How are we free

if all we are free to choose

is the cage that suits us best?

Boa

Constricting flesh

and air, 

the scene turns

to night,

falls away

to permanent

darkness.

WIthout Price

Money, what good are you

to me 

when 

                   the only thing

     I want


is

     what you cannot buy?

Numerology

It is almost impossible to not

think of our lives in terms of pure numbers.

How much will it cost me? How much do I

need to work to save up enough money?

Today I have to drive at least forty

miles back and forth in traffic to get home.

The list is always growing more and more.

They bleed into the background of our lives

with uncanny stealth, embedded into

places far removed than from mere fractions.

They goad us easily at the gas pump

knowing we are helpless in their presence.

We can seek no armistice in this war,

we cannot resist numeric power.   

The Ugly Face

$$$ is always in short supply.

It's the only thing you always hear people talking about.

They wonder how they're going to make their rent this month.

They wonder if they're going to make it to the end of the week.

They wonder if they have enough to buy groceries.

They wonder if there is enough to get gas to make it to work.

They wonder if they're going to have to borrow money.

They wonder if they'll get that raise at work.

They wonder if they'll find a better paying job.

They hope they don't get sick because they don't have insurance.

They wonder if they are going to work until the day they die.

They wonder if their children will have to struggle as well.

They wonder how they're going to make rent the next few months.

They wonder if the job that laid them off will call them back.

They wonder if they'll have to sell the house.

They wonder if they'll have to declare bankruptcy.

They wonder how much longer they can do this.

Hard Times

the embrace of modern concerns 

squeezes me tight. i let go of her

waist, she squeezes harder. I can

hear her breathing heavier, my 

back cracks as my ribs ready to

give way.

The Means of Definition

what are you attempting to convey by the

s      p     a     c     i     n     g

of words or by their

infrequentratesofcompressionwithorwithoutpunctuation

?

Is symmetry a stated goal

or

are jagged lines an acceptable means

of provoking

critical thought?

I'm afraid it is all highly

irrelevant.

Hardly anyone will ever ask you

about your aesthetics...

but time and time

Again

EVERYONE

will want to know

How MUCH

you make at

WHAT you

DO.