The Third Way

Today is not the time for complex thought

You have to pick our side or you are bought

By evil forces. Nuance is for naught.

You’re for us or against us—there

The evil plot begins—I can be for

The truth and virtue, beauty and the fair

And be against two evils I abhor.

You have to hate, and you must hate who we

Are hating—no, you cannot disagree.

I will not play your party game

Of pick-a-villain—any evil’s odious—

I will not choose your evil aim—

I won’t bow down to pick preferred infected puss.

We do insist, we do demand you hate

Mankind the way we hate him, or your fate

Will be to be associated with the gate

That guides to our twin opposite as mate.

The only thing I hate’s your hate—I love each one

And everyone, all humankind, their warts and all,

And trust an open, loving world will beat the gun

That’s brandished by the hateful right before they fall.

We will destroy you, for we hate your love—

We ground beneath our feet the mourning dove.

That’s better than a life within a world in which you rule—

Before I love your hatred I would rather be a fool—

And I would rather take your bullets than turned into your tool

To make the world your image and transform it to your runny stool.

The Parable of the Pots

One time there was a village where the men
And women kept their money stored in pots
They carried everywhere they went. They held
Them low and so each saw what each one had
To pay the rent or buy the food or clothes
Their families needed. Many had large pots
They filled to nearly overflow, and more
Were modest, and many more were poor
And carried almost empty pots, and some
Were destitute and carried only air.
One day a man of modest means went down
Into the market hoping he could find
A brand new pair of leather shoes. He saw
Some people walking by with much-filled pots.
He looked at his, half-filled, and to a stranger
Complained, "If I had what they have I would
Do so much good." The stranger looked at him,
Then looked into his pot. "Well, sir, I see,"
The stranger said, "You have much more than them."
He nodded at a pair with empty pots.
"Don't look in others' pots wishing for all
They have. But look instead for empty pots.
Your excess is another's meal or rent.
Instead of envy, generosity
Is what you ought to choose, and from that, give."
The stranger then took from his pot---a pot
With far less money than the other man's---
And gave a portion to each empty pot.
The man then gave in turn, and others saw
And gave to other empty pots until
Each there had something in their pot. The men
Stood there, amazed to see the others give.
The stranger said, "If you can't copy good
That others do, then do a good your own.
Don't envy what you cannot have or do,
But rather spread the virtue only you
Can spread, and watch as people copy good
Instead of vice, for coveting's the source
Of every evil, and the viciousness
Of envy will destroy each virtue you
Should love. Determine to do good and you
Will lead the world to doing good as well."
And thus the stranger nodded, and he left.
From that day forth, the man chose to do good
And never envied any other man---
And thus he modeled virtue to the town,
Which prospered as resentment never found
A soil rich enough to sprout its weeds
And spread the deadly poison of its seeds.

My Burning Heat, My Light

I do not mean to burn you out--my wife,
My friends, acquaintances are blistered, red
From my white coals--I'm meaning well, but dread
Is why I've bred from blackened soles and strife.
You dance around me--each flame feels a knife--
I only want a welcome warmth to wed
Your weary soul to mine--I find instead
I only seem to transform every life.

I cannot seem to follow, lead--I stand
Alone--too conscious, too oblivious--
I know each of the rules and cannot play.
You're standing on the boat that you call land--
When I shine light, my flame's called dangerous--
You'll die of lies so long as I don't stay.

The Left Bank

I have no obligation to be right

I only have to show I’m interesting

For everyone to choose to make me king

My stories and my words must but delight

To be presented with the wedding ring

I only have to show I’m interesting

For everyone to choose to make me king

To grant me power you will never fight

My words persuasive in untruth that bring

You to your knees so cheerful so willing

I have no obligation to be right

I only have to show I’m interesting

For everyone to choose to make me king

The Strike

The armored vehicle was rolling down
To meet the men in armor, masks--the black
Of each were shadows in the evening sun--
The heavy vehicle smashed out a crack

Into a pothole none would come to fill.
With heavy arms, grenades the men in black
Joined with the armored vehicle and turned
Into an alleyway for their attack.

And in the aftermath, a pregnant woman,
Two children under five were dead, their black
Bodies were smoldering out in the yard
Of their still red-glowing charcoaled old shack.

And no one dared to care for the deceased
For fear that they'd also become well-policed.

Trapdoor

Beneath the ground and holding down the lid
And waiting for vibrations on its mesh-
Weave tube to cash in on its patient bid,
A spider the color of human flesh
Is waiting just for you so you will sing
Your siren-song, your sullen song, your black
Swan song before the needle-straws can sting
And lay you, writhing, upon your fleshy back.
But in that final song that charms the birds
And makes them weep for your eternal loss
You'll find at last the music in the words
Whose toadstools trip you--lay now in the moss.
The door is closed--it opens to a room
Where all your songs are wafting from your tomb.

Poetic Existence

A Song from "A Continent of Kings"

The sun is rising, dragons fly
We celebrate the dawn
The gods are smiling, won’t deny
The children who have gone.
The children who have gone to live
Among the unicorns
Are happier in death to give
Their spirits to new morns.
Their spirits in the morning light
Are dancing to the mell,
Are dancing to young girls’ delight,
Are dancing to the bell.
The dragons fly and lift their souls
Beyond the desert heat
And griffons growl and feed their foals
Upon the children’s meat.

A Dialectical Sonnet

You threads who make the warp and woof the world
Emerges from and which dictate the shade
Of who you are and out of which unfurled
The patterns out of which the world is made

Are clothed in neural words and storied form
You edit in your minds and social lives
That make you each distinct and cold, yet warm
In unity and all your social drives--

You duel with the dual and the third
In chaos comes, attracting stranger strife
And love, reflecting nature in each word
To bring forth children as a husband, wife.

All virtue must have freedom to be true
And freedom must have virtue woven through.

Renewal

The bark is rough on the back of my hand--
The river is gruff in its reign--enough
Of this gray demand, of this grimy, bland
And morbid brand of moldy fluff--

I'll bring from these woods a brighter song
To wind our coulds into wild new goods
From the crimes and the wrong you crafted so long
In the wretchedest throng, I wrenched from all shoulds--

The thrush is now singing through my thought
In single sounds ringing in a symphony spring
That rages from naught into a river of ought
Whose newness has bought what no one could bring--

I borrowed from nature her beauty, from time
I nurtured the clay of the now, yesterday
And I clasped them in rhyme and clambered to climb
From the righteous day's grime to ride and to play.

Inteview of Troy Camplin on Diaphysics and Hear the Screams of the Butte...

Your Words

Behold the supple sounds of words that slip
So easy from your fluid tongue and trip
Across your teeth and fall across your lip
That help you hold or make you lose your grip.

Do they make bonds of beauty, boundless--bear
New knowledge, wisdom, virtues, make us fair
Here in the world--do they bring smiles of care
Or bring on bravery and make us dare?

Beware the sinister, cruel words that weigh
And break and bruise, intended to delay
The births of dancers for the dawning day,
Designed to trip, make slip, our virtue's play.

With every word you utter all the Earth
Will tilt to Heaven or to Hell in worth.

The Warm Glow of Trade

The market milled with women, men who made
To sell and sought to buy, and from this wrought
A greater value for themselves--each sought
Advantage, but each gained through mutual trade.
Each trader left the other pleased, each bade
The other happy days--the buyer bought,
The seller sold, each having what they ought--
Each gained, for money is an accolade.

In trade there's trust, and always value grows
To fill our lives with value, happiness--
Each trade is trust, and trust is bond--each bind
Brings people closer--every person knows
What better binds us is true moralness--
Thus markets make us better, warm and kind.

Enlightenment

The sun is speaking in cicada song,
And as the heat intensifies we hear
The trees burst out with buzzing, blazing cheer.

But surely what he says to us is wrong--
We wonder at his words and sip our beer
And as the heat intensifies we hear
The trees burst out with buzzing, blazing cheer.

We raise our cup before this noisy throng--
There's nothing here on earth we hold more dear,
Yet in this field admit that we all fear
The sun is speaking in cicada song,
And as the heat intensifies we hear
The trees burst out with buzzing, blazing cheer.

Saith the Plush Hedgehog

I am a hedgehog, prickly and proud

My name is Kerficowitz—shout it out loud!