Like living in the shadow
of a volcano, each complacency
shaken by treacherous rumbles
While some seek equality
others chew on bitter lack
and who profits when
tempers succumb to
the hot lava of anarchy?
(Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Image my own.)
Is there an itinerary for this lockdown?
I watch as engagements line up
Adventure-seekers, eager to connect
willingly engage, purchase a ticket
How I would give my life to be a part
hop aboard a sailing ship, escape
Except disability has recalled my passport;
I am a vehicle without fuel, grounded
Disappointment and I watch as
familiar faces venture out –
a friend’s brother
an old crush
a high school acquaintance
While envy reminds me
I’m always an outsider
Sensibility wakes me up
This boat I’m missing out on
is no luxury cruise ship, but
a dalliance with death –
I surrender to isolation
count the casualties.
( Image my own.)
These shackles may be but illusions
but the conditioning lingers –
I’m not enough
lack the look
the chic
fall short of acceptable
Add age and I am
forever sentenced
to monachopsis –
an outsider,
circling.
(Image mine)
Invisible
marginalized –
components
of self
devalued
by marketing trends
still sentient enough to need:
acknowledgment
recognition
acceptance
respect
kindness
never overrated.
Divergent perspectives
reveal solemn truths
pieced together
snapshots
examine disconnect
individualism
promotes autonomy
only when in balance
with community.
(For Reena’s Exploration Challenge which features an interesting video: Â click here)
This breach –
this ever-widening gap
fear induced
pits us
against them
as if humanity
can be divided
salvation
a selective process.
We need a balm
to soothe societal
wounds, a tonic
to calm the angst
until clarity
quells the uproar
and kindness
replaces this sin.
(For Ragtag Community’s prompt: balm, and Fandango’s: gap.)
This lazy rhetoric, setting off
touchy egos, is akin to high school
nonsense – immobilizing progress.
Intimacy with the issues requires
scheduled and thorough investigation,
or we cycle back over the hotspots.
Stress as mistress, shadows
what is appropriate, belies
the underlying pain and need.
We need modern-day heroes,
bent on re-righting history,
to bring focus and intelligence
Find lasting answers, lift society
out of its deluge and create a communal
bonding that embraces rather than shuns.
(Image from personal collection.)
Paint-on rainbows
and special edition labels
do not a top-notch product make.
Have we not  learned –
domestic audiences are moving on,
are more discerning –
Timing is off
for this pumped up
charade –
Stay committed,
conference,
effort is warranted
if real change is to happen.
Digging for gold
in an overcrowded mine,
the dust of narcissism
blinding our passage.
Rural roots worship
celebrity – well-travelled
hype overshadowing
common decency –
Powerless, we are
throngs of insignificance –
fraudulence and anti-social
rhetoric failing to elicit pause.
Our screams, ignored, do not
alleviate the suffocation –
How do we blast through
the rage, re-enact a vision,
draw lines that reset respect,
encourage care, listen to needs,
recognize the treasure we seek
is in humanity’s survival?
(Submitted for Ragtag Community’s daily prompt: blast, and Fandango’s: draw. Â Image from personal collection.)
Yesterday’s vibrancy
now faded markings
on boarded up facades
I stand on the edge
of loss, of ghostly
memories and ponder
what lies below –
perched as I am
on a precarious throne
have ignored the call
of the river, the beckoning
horizon, preferred comfort
over adventure, and now
in bitterness, blame those
distant shadows, certain
that the enemy lies
in foreign places,
never on home soil.
(Photo from personal collection was taken along the Rio Grande. Mexico sits across the way. Â The town we stopped in had many abandoned buildings, reflective of the economy, my guess.)
One Woman's Quest 