Poetry
• come on down - Rex
Butters
• The Transient - Jim
Smith
• Beyond - Rebecca Moore
Frey
come on
down
By Rex
Butters
you hide in the
hills
aloof from the ills
plaguing
lowland people you
avoid
you hide in the
hills
imagine a claustrophobic
purity
false sense of
security
walling your
home
you hide in the
hills
unable to
cope
with your broken
unwashed
fellow beings without
hope
you hide in the
hills
with ex-SWAT
teams
and former
marines
keeping your street in
elite
isolation
you
hide in the hills
concerned with the
turn
of events two
continents
and an ocean
away
while cities of
tents
folks who can’t afford
food
or greed driven
rents
grow festering around
you
every
day
you hide in the
hills
from humanity’s
shame
attempting to tame the
disquiet
that gnaws you in its
jaws
while you see nature as
door
to close against the
poor
you hide in the
hills
and turn on each
other
father and mother
in your canyon
retreat
feral children beat on helpless
creatures
trapped in their
grip
you hide in the
hills
talk utopian
community
a white inbred unity
present
only in your
head
no hills deep or high enough
exist
to keep you
hidden
and here’s the
twist-
nowhere’s
safe
from the stagnant pool of
fear
you
protect
inside of
you
***********
The
Transient
(In memory of Nathan Alan
Morgan)
By Jim
Smith
Now another ghost travels
what Philomene
named
the highway of poetry and
death.
Strange and cruel things
happen
down on the highway
that divides city from the
desert
and beyond the
sand
the unending
sea.
The highway is a
funnel
for all that is
good
and all that is
evil.
He was a
transient
the police
said.
What do those words
mean:
transient, traveler,
tourist
Aren’t we
all?
Back home he was
loved,
but the active evil killed
him
and the passive evil
said
it was
alright.
He was a transient, they
said
probably a drug
user
Aren’t we
all?
The parade continues
down the
Boardwalk.
Clean up the
mess
and move
on.
One more doesn’t make a
difference
except except it
does.
************
Beyond
By
Rebecca Moore Frey
Planet
Earth
Beyond my wildest
dreams
Lay the forest of
schemes
Beyond anything I
knew
It dawned on me
true
I was
facing
What is
beyond
Beyond all
reason
Beyond the
seasons
True life is out
there
And in
here
In your hidden innermost
soul
Is the immortal
seed
Of the
Beyond
Beyond our
scope
Beyond our
mind
Beyond one man’s
dreams
Beyond
time
Lays the very
essence
Of all that
is
Tis beyond the
senses
Beyond the
snow
Behind the
show
The glow of
life
At its very
core
Beyond the furl, the fray and the flurry
(fury)
It’s air
itself
It’s the particles of
life
Beyond any
ocean
Is the gulf that goes
between
What remains to be
seen
Beyond the
dream
Past the
seams
Lies the stuff of
in-between
Beyond the gate, out the window,
through the door
Lies Heaven
itself
And all of God’s
worlds
Beyond our world,our way, our words
and our worries
Furies and
shouts
Is the calm
effervescence
That holds life
together
The energy of God’s
breath
Beyond
Posted: Thu - May 1, 2008 at 07:00 PM
