Notes From The Dig

Alarms trill across treetops
interrupted swallows dive into my

awareness. In the distance 18-wheelers
thrum-ferry toilet paper and manufactured

food. We chew on cardboard, humble
and contrite in the shambles of

the billionaires’ leavings, resources
stripped. Do they eye our young hungrily?

No longer allowed outdoors lest we protest
in massive waves, perhaps new recruits

are being conceived to power
the military might in its last mad

scramble. There’s no rhyme. Dissent
is dangerous, they’ll lock you up.

I flex my superpower muscle
I don’t know

throw off the shackles of hope
create empowered grace.

Are you alive?
Thus you belong.

Your worth unquestioned.
Let’s turn together and face

our greatest fears lurking in the ruins
of our past beliefs alight in love’s bonfire.

A female swallow poses, chirrups
her enticement to the circling males.

I am now a statue, stunned from story.
Life wants to live

atwitter as sun gleams across water.
The evergreen, the blooming and the newly

budded coax slumbering oaks
to spring. We sing each other

praise now
exactly as it unfolds in ways

we cannot perceive, not today,
shifting under the weight

until our only choice is to dig
deep into the very roots of our being.

Soundcloud recording here.

Inspired by: Lest, Contrite, Grace and Shambles.

Any opening

Here I am, to save the day!
Does my radiant smile sway?
Did I interrupt your terror
engine? You defend error
hands off when I get precise
and stand in question. Advice:
dig in the dirt to expose the roots
and the house of cards lets loose
shifting precarious
appearing nefarious.
My metaphors are bouncing
in your dissonance, trouncing
the diffidence. I aim
for any opening. No game.
Stress kills. Our coping
mechanisms with a daily onslaught
induce injury in ways that ought
not happen when we
embrace collectively.
Come on outside, let’s play.
Turn off the billionaires’ propaganda
machine and their greedy dream.
The nightmare recedes in the day
light of our awakening.
The eggshells of our former lives
are breaking. All around
there is the new sound.

Soundcloud recording here.

Inspired by: Bounce, Precise, Engine, Hands and Radiant.

And this article by Sol Luckman (don’t miss the eye-opening video by Dr. Andrew Kaufman.)

In The Flames

I guess I’m everything they say I am, all right. I haven’t any friends. That’s supposed to prove I’m abnormal. But everyone I know is either shouting or dancing around like wild or beating up one another. Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Three men lash out, scream I do not
belong, I am not worthy

a death threat raucous, echoing
through my cells. The distant cry

of women forgotten, belittled,
labeled demon in spiteful ire

fueled by fear. I am felled
by the dish set before me,

unable to digest for three days
languishing and nauseous.

Is it true? All over the world,
women locked in with men

who are invested in clever
attacks hit where no one can

see. Do I dare speak out?
Who will hear me?

One of the accusations is insanity
and who can prove I am not?

For certainly, the mainstream seems
to have lost all sense

and judged by unmoored reactivity
I must be a portrait

of a witch, digging deep into the roots
determined to expose

just what holds our writhing
agony, what we ignore

and deny, ears and eyes covered
shouting, “burn, burn, burn!”

Inspired by: Clever, Raucous, Distant, Portrait and Dish (Discover-Prompts day 5).

To My Scottish Clanswoman

The Stewart clan motto: Courage grows strong at a wound.

Deep in my DNA you raise your sword
of fiery retribution and vengeance.

To battle, to the death! Triggered by
the bloody attack and ultimatums:

you do not belong and never have.
Do as I say or leave and never

come back. A spiteful vindictive
manchild with so much power

to hurt, to throw me out
is raging with terror. Yes, I see

it in you, my father, afraid
that death will come and grab

your breath—no ventilator for you,
old man. From your chair you lash

out at me, obviously
the cause of all your distress.

The fear porn you consume reaches
deep in our lineage, ancestors

cresting in a wave of trauma we’ve
called to surface. I sent an engraved

invitation to my own fierce warrior,
the one I’ve always judged, ashamed

by power that I’ve never claimed.
Good girls surely don’t bellow

bloodthirsty and yet, we hear.
I cower from your passion. I have

forgotten I agreed to come
and set you free. Remind me

again to embrace your wild
energy and bring you into

my coherent heart. This is
where we will start. Publish

the proclamations: my infrangible heart
is willing to host any ghosting.

These cruel tricks are no joke
wafting like smoke and still I breathe.

Inspired by: Ghosting, Infrangible, Publish, Trick and Joke.

Believe It Or Not

One ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them.~J.R.R. Tolkien

~We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men beings are created equal, that they we are endowed by their Creator our birth with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.”~Declaration of Independence

Remember, each being plays a unique, remarkable and necessary part of life’s dance.

Without imaginary leaps, we gamble
our fortune, a single pedestrian bet.
We’re focused on the solution, we amble
toward the theory of everything, set
on an overriding solution: one powerful
God, one king, one person to tell us
what we lack. White and black allowable
until we’re live animals in a zoo
searching youtube for an instructor
not understanding we’re fucked there.
When we believe there’s one thing wrong
we call the enemy, we cut off each prong
that led us to pain and sorrow, death
looming a scary tomorrow. Fairytales
have trained our brains to blame
an “other,” dead father, evil stepmother.
The panic triggers fearful past trauma,
we’re caught in the gotta-escape drama
until
we make the choice to sing
in praise of now, our voices ring
in the only place we’re left
the space bereft until we call
our superpower, attention to the small
unlikely saviors, the moments
open wide. Enter now. Welcome home.

Inspired by: Gamble, Pedestrian, Zoo, Fortune and all the wise superheroes.  We got this!

Soundcloud recording here.

Finding Breath

Where do I fight my experience?  Can I stop and say, this is what it is right now, and can I stay with it?~Anjet Sakkat

The I shoulds interrupt sleep
and so I rise, longing for deep
sweet breath, not this jerky ragged
approach to death. Bedraggled,
I resist the medicine
that covers and masks what is.
There is a gift to explore
a pattern in my core
though I would much rather
tickle a slick dance, gather
all my worries and doubts
undeserved love hideouts
throw them out labeled wrong
as if my birth does not guarantee
I belong. How can I soften?
The key to love these tired
eyes, this chest contracted.
My allies present the path
I so resent. And so I feel
the earth below my feet, real
and grounded, here I am
calm, watching the gentle
lift of diaphragm.

Inspired by: Undeserved, Slick, Tickle and Explore.

Cope with Hope

If you’re seeing a mountain of disparate and conflicting information about which you can’t form a single unified narrative right now, that’s okay. That’s what we’re all seeing.~Caitlin Johnstone

Dawn’s sleepless hour, a storm
and I rise to cook while there’s power.
Sunrise reveals feathered pairs plot
ways to sandwich nests among the riprap,
squat to plan which escape their babes
might take. The mowing crews will bring
heartache–if you believe as I do
that life wants to live–you
vanquish the fantasy of control
a tranquil shore where humans never
go, immersed in screens of fear
or pacing with leashed dogs
on the tarmacadam road adhering
to austere demands. Am I a ninny
longing for hugs? A show of hands,
remember when we traded germs
quite freely? Abnormal now confirms
this is a war and my body
is the battlefield, and I must yield.
Even when they don’t have a clue,
I must be used, tossed like a test
(will I protest?) I do not know.
I’ll say it loud. And yet I love
and I am proud to live in connected
respect. I reject this abject
fear and misery. I’m here to question
every single thing you’re telling me.
I’m free to loosen my creativity.
So I rise up. It’s spring.
It’s time to plant new living things.

Soundcloud recording here.

Inspired by: Ninny, Fantasy, Vanquish and Sandwich.

Also by Charles Eisenstein’s thoughtful essay about what’s going on right now, The Coronation.