The commonest denominator,

stepping toward the throne

 

His minions with their blindfolds on,

about to be disowned

 

The commonest denominator,

laughing at their pain

 

Another lie, stick in the eye

—a life of greed and shame

 

(Dreamsleep: October, 2020)

Both old and new thou must review,

changing pink to red

 

Those poorly formed, to stay forlorn,

hiding in their beds

 

Begin then end, begin again,

on chance the meaning fed

 

Whose banquet serves another time

—a feast eternal spread

 

(Dreamsleep: October, 2020)

 

Not in command of what happens next,

only in how we react

 

The world gets to pitch and we get to catch,

in hope that our strikes are intact

 

No matter how hard we struggle

and fight for a sense of control

 

Reality looms till fatality dooms

—eternity taking its toll

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2020)

Animals think,

and animals react

 

Animals sleep,

and animals attack

 

Animals eat,

and animals mate

 

Animals fly,

and animals wait

 

Animals feel,

and animals cry

 

Animals sicken,

and animals die

 

Animals come,

and animals go

 

Animals watch,

and animals know

 

Animals stalk,

and animals deceive

 

But animals lack faith

—and cannot believe

 

(Dreamsleep: October, 2020)

 

 

Can our spirits pray

without God at the center

 

Can worship pay homage

to self

 

Can divinity reign

in each person ordained

 

Revering what’s hidden

—indwelt

 

(Dreamsleep: October, 2020) 

Diverting his eyes from that last final hour,

denying death its due

 

His conscience and awareness tight in his grip,

ownership unrenewed

 

Both arms around life, he’s forever rejected,

blinded as time starts to bleed

 

Meeting the end in a loss of control

—damned by what he won’t concede

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2020)

The laws we need most

stay unwritten

 

As tyranny runs wild

without sanctions in place

 

Minus shared common values

can we ever regroup

 

From this polarization

—and dog eat dog race

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2020)

 

Is truth that important,

or ignorance bliss

 

Your place on the Ferris Wheel,

roundly dismissed

 

What first must go up,

by law to come down

 

Gravity’s joke,

if not Heaven bound

 

The yes from the no,

the right from the wrong

 

The good from the bad,

the weak from the strong

 

A circular stage

on which we perform

 

Whose show must go on,

to laud or to scorn

 

But why do we wonder

and worry about

 

A dogmatic treatise,

 that one we can shout

 

The flow is unending,

catching all in its path

 

A current that’s ridden

by yacht and by raft

 

The proof’s in the pudding,

the cook still unnamed

 

Whose recipe seasoned,

to praise or to blame

 

One thing to be certain,

these words are not true

 

But then they’re not false,

something old—something new

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2020)

 

 

 

The funding of wisdom, 

 bankrolling death

 

Thoughts to withdraw

from a ledger unspent

 

Refinancing life,

 true folly indeed

 

With memory cashed in

—eternity free

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2020)

Happy endings,

the folly of youth

 

The aged

alone to portend

 

Distance a comfort,

 expiration afar

 

Reality

mostly pretend

 

Death as a concept,

corpse underground

 

As different as night

is to day

 

Two ends of the spectrum,

inextricably linked

 

By time

—ever holding its sway

 

(Rosemont College: October, 2020)