Author: lbstowe

So much for showing any shred of grace.
I worry, I pace with wet salty face.

The mugs that I wear have recently cracked.
There’s too many lies & too little fact.

Crackle glazed & fire-burned porcelain masks.
Known modes of hiding aren’t up to these tasks.

So, grind to powder fired & shattered earth.
Then, add humis, water & seeds to birth.

Dinner plate dahlias in early bird blue.
Big blooming delft dishes as compost’s glue.

For: J

Rapid circumstance has left me agile.
Spinning plates are both agile & fragile.

We are pivoting life in ruin’s wake.
We sort the pieces when our faces break.

Grout & glued together with time & tears.
Fueled by our refusal to live in fear.

Quick, I steer thru what circumstances be.
Minding all the while my delicacy.

Yes, I could shatter at every hurdle.
Yet, fragile flowers are still quite fertile.

In the center of our home stands an elephant.
We have tried to ignore what, now, seems relevant.

We ignored it out of misguided etiquette.
But, the pachyderm grew big as Connecticut.

The key reveal: individual temperament.
Delicate, loud, abrasive or exuberant.

We can only ever, with plain clues, estimate.
Yet, best guess we must, to resources delegate.

We need to make our desire to heal evident.
In any case, this Mastodon is imminent.

Put down your phone & look around.
You’ve missed some things that have gone down.

You’ve missed me trying eye contact.
It seems your eyes auto-redact.

They edit out what you’d not hear.
They omit all your constant fear.

People await behind your screen.
We only want to have been seen.

Those who would love you scrubbed away.
So much nothing with so much sway.

We live in gardens that we tend.
Sometimes we reap & also rend.

We feed the soil blood, sweat & tears.
Compost the past for future years.

We scatter seed, bulb & tuber.
Spring brings hope & blossom’s rumor.

Rains & hoses flesh out green cells.
Drooping & dripping heavy bells.

The mornings warm before too late.
Held breath for fruit & flower’s fate.

Forged in a furnace of fairness.
Coax the courageous & careless.

Made up in medals for majors.
Done in the deepest of dangers.

Brag about brigands & bandits.
Strapped hard & solid they stand it.

Hacking at hopefuls seeking home.
Refuse refugees forced to roam.

Willful havoc wrecks all in wake.
Traitors & turncoats time will take.

Man tries to change the world; thinking to outwit chaos.
Order can be ordered…but chance does not take pay offs.

They attempt to bend earth, air & water to their will.
The ravaging of these accrues quite a fiery bill.

They want to own others; we children, women & men.
When they don’t get what they want…we witness tantrums then.

They charge china & break it; idiotically glad.
They want to be cheered & revered for vanquishing “bad”.

Their retelling of downfalls requires so much high-gloss.
Men try to change the world, they’ll never outwit chaos.

Froze once again in my petit mal shock.
You could lay me out with a feather’s knock.

I’m here, but not; just staring into space.
Bereft of my thought, the time & the place.

Plans for cosmic epochs pass in a tic.
Comprehending nirvana; one clock’s click.

Question & Answer: both given at once.
Understanding requires years & months.

I return to now, relieved of worried rage.
One fleck of omniscience left for my page.

You are alive right now…
Nowhere near final bow.

You have a voice to speak.
Defend the sick & weak.

You have a brain up top.
This bullying must stop.

We decorate this life.
We model crushing strife.

Once more, charm offensive.
Even as we’re pensive.

Curry in a hurry & tasteful nudes.
Instagram & all of its varied moods.

Pseudo cures & one carefully placed leech.
Meals made by Spanish priests…Tapas don’t preach.

Bishops in turtlenecks & crews to pine.
Not bare; but visible in clear outline.

Tarot magic & night market barters.
Celebrity & influence martyred.

Art, hate, love, hope, politics & bullies.
Space for raw voice & the filtered fully.