i
I ask why I silently passed me by
At the head of the stair in my mind
Was I afraid to assay my soul
Or just too stingy to say hello
ii
Soft drugs and slurring thugs I may combine
Into a false god whose shit’s divine
But it is a fixed game of bitch and snipe
Only the true know which end to wipe
iii
Cosmic buzzwords do not reveal
Blabber-bobble orange heads only conceal
Little flat bubbles of pointless victory stall
And fail to rise high above the stink of it all
iv
And yet it was I who passed me by
In silence at top of the stair in my mind
I’m ashamed of the false god that I preserve
Because I get what I deserve
(Note–trying out a new spelling: SaragunSprings, ‘tis a new thing–LA)
Saragun Springs 
You could, like, get together with the man who isn’t there and that – innit.
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Thank you Diane–lessee how my memory is:
“Last night upon the stair
a little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
How I wish he’d go away!”
Hugh Mearn or Mearns (the rest of it, for me, stinks, but a great open!)
Leila
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Leila
This poem is personal, mysterious, haunting, and stinging. The rhythmic beat and march of the musical lines almost makes the reader catch their breath, except they’re riveted to the casual urgency of the words more than their own heartbeat.
And I can’t pretend to have fully understood this poem after several reads this morning, which is wonderful.
It gives it all away the first time, but holds so much back at the same time, it’s a poem that needs to be returned to later and more times, on different days, and in different ways. And I know it will continue to yield up its deeply personal meanings, with resonance. Thank you!
DB
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Ha!
I still do not understand it. But it really is about holding oneself accountable for bad things like Trump. He did not have to happen but arrogance and various other aspects easily seen in him, but denied by “us” was the real cause. WWI and WWII needn’t have happened. Blaming Hitler does not explain how he got in the position to nearly desttoy the world.
Again to quoth Pogo
“We have met the enemy, he is US.”
Thank you!
Leila
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Leila
Hi again and high again!
This poem still retains its mystery, but you are so so so so so so so right about this.
Sadly, and tragically, the USA has “gotten what it deserved” on a major level.
A country that worshiped the snake oil salesperson, and the concept of the snake oil salesperson, a country that had lost its soul and worshiped (truly) nothing but money and the things of this world (and that has been true from the bottom to the top, and of all races and “religions” and creeds), a country that was fascinated with bad people, and bad art, and bad advertising, a country whose moral center was already shredded, was destined to end up with morally vacuous leadership at all levels and on all sides of the spectrum. And then Presto, We get the worst.
It’s like the time Moses came down from the mountain and found the people worshiping the Golden Calf, instead of God.
Never a good thing anywhere and any time it happens, and this time there are nuclear weapons, AI taking over, and catastrophic global warming caused by humans involved!
The beauty of the ones the Native Americans call/ed “the four-leggeds” (the animals), and the children, are the only thing that give me hope.
That and the fact that I still believe everything is in God’s hands, too (she has a plan, and some may call her The Universe), and the fact that Jesus himself lived in the time of the twin Herods are a few things that give me hope.
And Art, ART, always Art, PURE ART (not more propaganda), which is the surest, longest form of Resistance, now, then, and always!
DB
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PS
Awesome bird reflection-image (birds, the original singers) and i like the new spelling!!
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For some reason the ambigous identity made me think of “Me And My Shadow”. Old minds are weird. We may have a whole list of alternates – could have been, should have been, might have been.
Should have been 6’3″, but then my editor prefers short guys, so maybe not.
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Hi, Leila, very nice. I didn’t know you were a poet, too, but with your command of language I should have assumed it!
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