When someone picks up an axe
It's only natural to drop your head
To be subjugated is honorable
It's churchy and divine
To take on the posture of a lamb
Is precious and perfect --
To become a ram
Also very natural
With endorphins blowing bubbles through your straw
Making a lava pit
Or fertile swamp
Pouncing like a mountain lion
Also quite natural
If you're sprightly and sure footed
It's natural to pick up a pick
And jab hard
It's a last effort
And often comes across as irrational
But matches the pulse to a T
A T like a rake with the teeth cut out
Or a window washer's squeegee
Or a broken lamb's leg
When someone raises a hand
Against brood
Against blood
It becomes a matter of politics
It becomes the language of graves
When you picture someone standing outside your house
With intent to harm
You become instantly intertwined with your village
And the politics of the village
And the politics of the day
To not do harm
Is the greatest tenet
To be overlooked when blood pressure spikes
And can be swept up later
Mopped up later
Buckets of water thrown on it later
The pavement washing into the gutter, later
When a being finds himself spinning
Loosely tethered to the truth
But mostly attached via ligament
Truth is bone
Justice is rebuilt cartilage
Honor and Valor are fast twitch muscle
Only the guilty get fat
Only survivors get storage
Only the courageous wash off their tools
When someone points their nose in your direction
And the sniffing movements turn
To a sneer with the teeth
When your hands start to sweat
And you get a running start
And your joy is eclipsed;
Your joy burned up for so many mitochondria
When an axe deploys a hammer
And a hammer delivers an exhale
Countering a brick or dowel of wood
Becomes only as good as food
Only as real as a dry, dry well
When these glinty slabs of ore show up
You are as good as dead
And as bad as living
When these devices make their way toward you
Whisper "amen"
And steady your breathing
In a few hours you will be asked to remember things
Details that are not shiny and gilded
Positions that do not seem real in hindsight
Animals that have never come together to fight before
Bear to ram
Alligator to mountain lion
Wasp to centipede
These things will seem unnatural
But in the light of man's god
You will be endlessly truthful
You will be forever basking in the glory of love
You will be remembered by dirt and glass and water
--
8.30.10
It's only natural to drop your head
To be subjugated is honorable
It's churchy and divine
To take on the posture of a lamb
Is precious and perfect --
To become a ram
Also very natural
With endorphins blowing bubbles through your straw
Making a lava pit
Or fertile swamp
Pouncing like a mountain lion
Also quite natural
If you're sprightly and sure footed
It's natural to pick up a pick
And jab hard
It's a last effort
And often comes across as irrational
But matches the pulse to a T
A T like a rake with the teeth cut out
Or a window washer's squeegee
Or a broken lamb's leg
When someone raises a hand
Against brood
Against blood
It becomes a matter of politics
It becomes the language of graves
When you picture someone standing outside your house
With intent to harm
You become instantly intertwined with your village
And the politics of the village
And the politics of the day
To not do harm
Is the greatest tenet
To be overlooked when blood pressure spikes
And can be swept up later
Mopped up later
Buckets of water thrown on it later
The pavement washing into the gutter, later
When a being finds himself spinning
Loosely tethered to the truth
But mostly attached via ligament
Truth is bone
Justice is rebuilt cartilage
Honor and Valor are fast twitch muscle
Only the guilty get fat
Only survivors get storage
Only the courageous wash off their tools
When someone points their nose in your direction
And the sniffing movements turn
To a sneer with the teeth
When your hands start to sweat
And you get a running start
And your joy is eclipsed;
Your joy burned up for so many mitochondria
When an axe deploys a hammer
And a hammer delivers an exhale
Countering a brick or dowel of wood
Becomes only as good as food
Only as real as a dry, dry well
When these glinty slabs of ore show up
You are as good as dead
And as bad as living
When these devices make their way toward you
Whisper "amen"
And steady your breathing
In a few hours you will be asked to remember things
Details that are not shiny and gilded
Positions that do not seem real in hindsight
Animals that have never come together to fight before
Bear to ram
Alligator to mountain lion
Wasp to centipede
These things will seem unnatural
But in the light of man's god
You will be endlessly truthful
You will be forever basking in the glory of love
You will be remembered by dirt and glass and water
--
8.30.10
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