Duel

It doesn't matter the cause
If two equally matched engage
One will live, perhaps
One might die, in fact
Unhinged only by the rage
That takes a warrior's pain
And turns it outward against
Whoever he fights

We Rebuilt, But again The War Resumes

We've fought now for many decades
From the last century until the present
Aloft we can see as the enemy flies
Sirens announce the coming air raid
But we will not be defeated
We will not willingly relent
We will not surrender
Our people will rise up
The enemy cannot rightfully torment
We will defend the species to the end

Transition

Wet from birth, naive and a fool
Yet I know more
Than the people saying I was too
Sensitive
Angry
Hurt
Susceptible to emotions
Wounded by truth
OK, if I am Why?
Why do I know what matters
While you sit back in judgment toward me
Knowing that it is you who live the lie

When The Devil's Horseman Rode

At one time Mongols were known as the Devil's Horseman
Riding across the fields of Europe and Asia, and the Levant
Men of all faiths feared them, they were dangerous, fierce
What made them so dangerous, was not their sufficient courage
Yes The Horde's way of war left only the dead and the orphans
Riding everywhere, they feared not, crossing mountain and sands
Across Muslim lands, they fought, attacked caravans upon small horses
Across the Rus and Europe, they had become the hated of the Earth
Cutting down every enemy, they ruled through a certain tyranny
They never paled against a foe, driving their enemies into a frenzy,
While firing arrow, after arrow, after arrow

The Dragon Gate

For all of human existence we sought to find it

The gate that flows from this plane of existence

To that of eternity, of paradise, and forever after

But whatever our goals that gate cannot be found

Unless the seeker is willing to shed their living spirit

To sacrifice their body, giving it without resistance

One must divest himself of body, all human matter

There the gates open, the seeker reaches holy ground

A Final Night

The longshoremen worked, by day, by night
Their goal to finish each job, with efficiency
This night however, was interrupted by chaos
Soon enough all would learn what called out
The beast's breath/voice set the buildings alight
Death toll alone would call warning to infamy
Oncoming defenders each struck with napalm
Leading the fearful to flee, to panic and doubt
The last known event, of the leviathan cycle
Humanity became acutely and painfully aware
There are beasts that live to threaten survival
Above the disaster zone, dark smoke and haze
With our dead, homes destroyed, without a prayer
We face our end, perhaps our final day ahead
For if these beasts stay, linger in our world
We will reach our end, our final night
Our cities and towns will be set ablaze
For no matter our determined defense
War against us has been declared
We have never fought such a foe
This species has a short memory
But that we'd remember
Now we seem powerless to fight
Perhaps this is our final testament
Humanity would rather be extinct than surrender

“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” Carl Sagan

Leviathans of the Deep

It might be that as a society we are past the darkness

The darkness being a world of fear and superstition 

We've modernized and made ourselves intertwined

Yet there remains secrets that we wish to keep

Stories of the times when we made mistakes

Leading to disaster, slaughter, sorrow

There are even times that our mistakes hide truth

Where our flaws overcome in our desire to rise

Long ago we believed ourselves passed the point

That as a people our actions would lead to despair

These seeds we sow would cause the harvester to reap

We thought that we would forever be the apex predators

We thought ourselves brave, at the top of the natural world

Yet we could not predict what rose from the ocean deep

After we used nuclear weapons 

The giant beasts now called leviathans were awakened

Society was without fear,

For each modern, and nuclear nation was armed to the teeth

We could not have known what reckoning approached

At night our shores were invaded, with determination

As beasts moved inland, the death tolls rose without end

The humans realized their folly and were moved to weep

And they did not end their destructive acts

Until they were finished

And humans could do nothing

“Night and day, wind and storm, tide and earthquake, impeded man 

no longer. He had harnessed Leviathan. All the old literature, with its 

praise of Nature, and its fear of Nature, rang false as the prattle of a 

child.” E.M. Forster

The Beast, The Catastrophe

After an undersea volcano discharged
A creature rose from the ocean depths
It was ancient, enormous, a behemoth
It was a form unfamiliar to modernity
It'd heard human activity and followed
Able to breathe both in water and air
Powerfully built, viewers left in awe
It had no previous contact with men
But was nonetheless filled with anger
And it hadn't had a particular cause
Still it was easily a disaster waking
He would be modernity's curse
And arrived without warning
Only the awareness of the eruption
Leading to killer red tides and more
Made the fisherman warn the people
Of something disastrous on the way
But they were sadly be ignored
As the creature moved inexorably
His tail propelled it quickly
Menacingly through the tides
Forearms powerful, able to strike
In short time it was making landfall
It had seemed to be upon a mission
It was not, but simply, and ably, raged
Shells fired from cannon did no damage
Bullets from guns did even worse
It was a creature of no name
Humans lost despite the heroism in their acts
Dead bodies laid upon the ground
The beast moved, as if from chains freed
Immediate, hostile even after it was finished
Returning from where it first came
It would be given a name by the survivors
The beast from hell, this was a catastrophe

The word for terror is Human

It starts with an idea
We humans are clever
If we want a change from the present
We use our violent ways to do so
With deniability a bonus
But sometimes killing is done in the open
To present what happens if
Should you oppose the present course
In the west of the United States
American Indians were not dying quickly enough
A solution was found
As the Federal government killed their food source
In the Soviet Union, the farmers were not willing to conform
To the dictates of government
As they refused to form into communes
So Stalin and his cadre of operatives
Shipped away almost all of Ukraine's grain
It isn't unusual to use such ways
Whether to kill by attrition
Or directly starve a people
They'll die
But if they fight and resist
Aircraft and missiles will blow them up
And again
And again
Are we the unwilling
Do we resist
Or are we the hands of the devil
We have been complicit
We are also fools
We live upon stolen land
We eat stolen food
We live upon the bones of the innocent
And somehow
We think we've become enlightened
Instead we must face the truth
By our action or acceptance
We are the devil's tools

Future Peril

If we wait until the problem is understood
Perhaps we are waiting for our own doom
The future is not wrapped in paper as a gift
Our world offers dangers we cannot predict
Not monsters, not even men, we lay naked
In a galaxy of events waiting, perhaps fated
There are crises forming, to ignore is peril
To address our weak response, it is immoral
Our flesh will fade, we decay, all will die
Our planet is an island, aloft in a deadly sky
Gentle and alive, dying and violent it waits
An end guaranteed, crisis will fulfill our fate
From slum to high rise, from outhouse to palace 
Our destiny has always been to one day die
But to die this way is to our own blame
We lost civility, we've embraced the madness
That the end will come means nothing, we all die
But our treatment of others should be our shame

"The truly apocalyptic view of the world is that things do not repeat themselves. It isn’t absurd, e.g., to believe that the age of science and technology is the beginning of the end for humanity; that the idea of great progress is delusion, along with the idea that the truth will ultimately be known; that there is nothing good or desirable about scientific knowledge and that mankind, in seeking it, is falling into a trap. It is by no means obvious that this is not how things are.”  Ludwig Wittgenstein

Distance

Never able to express it
I am in torment
Never allowed to do
Anything but adore her
To hold her in a moment
To linger in her presence
Able to fully imagine
The scent of jasmine
Unable to escape my fate
As I watch from a distance
To see such a vessel of grace
She defines exquisite beauty
With spice along with lace
Heaven without the invite
Her form so feminine
I no longer have control
Of my mind so love blind
My heart long ago left
She has trapped my soul
My flesh is the only thing I have
Able to draw breath
In her space
In her universe
I am invisible
But I long for her
To know her
For her lips to taste

Divinity in Black

Determination caught in chance
Night expressed in pure motion
The living spirit hunts prey
With a lion's heart inside
Act of grace in the dance
The perpetual performance
Misunderstood by many
Survivor of circumstance
And ultimately
Divine in black

Once again, an apology

I beg you to forgive me, allow me to apologize
Once again
I was mistaken, for it wasn't you who were wrong
I was forsaken
I didn't recognize my own doom as you'd foretold
I couldn't see my fault
What I thought was warm had gone cold
Where I thought I'd found something good
I couldn't see that my decline has gone on
And especially for as long as it had
I thought was happy
But I was clearly missing the point
There was no point to be found
Except that I was once again in error
And there is no reason again
To dream

Guardians

Flying above the clouds
They have an absolute duty
To fight until exhausted
They are the guardians
The enemy refuses to fall
For they are dutybound
As well
But one side has to be right
The B-17s never relent
 They are called to fight
And whether they live

Or should they die
In the service of their people
They answer with flight
One after another they drop bombs
To destroy the ability
Of the enemy to resist
One or more might fall from the sky
The enemy is not toothless
Nor her weapons unable
The bombers will be back tomorrow
The cost might be in blood
The results might be sorrow
They fight
They fly
They are guardians

Inexorable

Time might not, as a thing, exist
Still
It moves, it lives, it is continuous
We perceive it passing
We see it move slowly as we wait
We see it fly by
As we seek just to resist
Our flesh fails us
There seems no justice
Is youth wasted upon the young
Or do the elders reap the rewards
Wisdom giving life
When the machine of time moves
Killing all who pause
And rewarding those
Who perceive the passings

Emergency Response

In three days of darkness
Earth was smothered completely
The world was darkened entirety
The end foretold by loss of light
A world feared a coming  harvest
The warnings given unseemly
The world had given up piety
Swirling locusts took up flight
Humans became more heartless
Forsaken hopes decayed deeply
Leading to chaotic fallen society
The petty warlords turn to fight
Inviting doom
And the slaughter of the forsaken
Of the innocent and the slain
Stared into the night sky
With an impending reign
As the darkness lifts
Revealing absolute ruin

A chat before battle

The red dragon reared up
And began to take action
The samurai calmly held his spear
Acknowledging the need for a weapon
The dragon inhaled about to breathe his flames
The samurai turned
And tossed his spear
Turned his back again
The breathe came out
Flames spread wide
The cave was afire
The darkness made bright
But not one flame touched the samurai
His armor was protected
By a magical amulet
Nothing would stop him
If he chose to kill
But he turned to say something
To the dragon who was confused
We might both have an interest
In control of the people and the lands
Your wisdom speaks only to conquest
But honor allows a warrior to stand
Without worry over death
It is a doorway only
We can be allies
We can be enemies
It is your choice
Or battle we can refresh
I have yet to unsheathe my sword
We can fight if you like
If death is your reward

Contempt for life

One day we'll replace human labor with robots and AI
And computers and data technology that never asks why
For we might believe in many things, but not how to exist
We all believe we should be involved in decisions to die

But we lie every day, for we truly prefer to have power

Should we ever allow abortion, allow them to choose
Should government intercede, should government intrude
Should we ask whether a fetus is a collection of cells or human
I believe that Humanity is a fraud, for it simultaneously argues

Is humanity is good, moral, filled with ideals, or cowards

But then say that they hate evil, hate war, and killing
Yet we kill every day, in many ways, believing in it fully
That we say that we believe that we exalt the high things
We mock the bright, we hate when art stimulates thinking

We change our standards, and vacillate between morals by the hour

Someday Artificial Intelligence and computers will establish factories meant to stimulate human cell growth, and by stages, will create humans to serve them.  Perhaps they already do.

My own cage

I wonder sometimes my future
Set adrift in a sea of change
Do I plan for a disaster
Or something less wild
I'm at times foolish, a loser
These choices left me in a cage
I long to know the answers
I know inside me I'm a child
My life has been lived with fear
Over the things I might endure
But I am alive, I will resist
All the sorrows and doubt
As I look deep into the mirror
I see my motives aren't pure
I'm no longer content to exist
I need my life to be more devout
If unable to do what is needed
Or unwilling to change my ways
If I'm to survive I must do the difficult
Or in deep shame change my name

Choices and Consequences

I never said I am afraid to have a child

I said I didn't know that I wanted to be a part of a plan to bring a child into a world where the ravaging mobs are so wild, when a world is at odds with hearts scarred.

This world moves forward, the pace of life and immutable fate endures. However we will love is limited by our own limitations no matter how deep, how perceived or how pure.

I said yes because perhaps he'll save us rather than becoming the one who is hated for being single moment that the point of no return is reached by his existence finally exceeding limits of this material planet through his grueling existence with a childhood stolen.

Knightly Code

The ego lift, and esteem ascent, being her knight
In this moment
The visceral pleasure of being held tight
Just once
The thoughtful presence of walking in the light
Without shame
The desire to know and be known in the night
Forever
Love doesn't walk away in haughty disregard
We don't own it, or control it, love's demands are hard
What we know or do not know matters not a bit
Love is alluring
For you are in it's grasp, from the start of it
And you cannot turn back
For you know it is what you want
Inside the pulsing heart, it is there, you can feel it pounding
Your soul's furnace is lit

Last man, last horse

He was at an end, one man, and his horse
Before the deluge, escaping the catastrophe
Germans in mass attacks killed his cohort
Once they rode proudly, invading full force
Now in Germania, ambushed, dead or in agony
Stumbling there in ruins of an old walled fort
Exhaustion not anger took them both down
The Germans were able to leave them untouched
Though whole in body, unharmed, they died
Where they both fell became holy ground
Nothing left, exhaustion left their flesh corrupt
Together now in the Elysian fields they ride

The Current Roman Empire

Even if the wheels of government slow, anarchy threatening
We're told that we've no choice, our world is going to end
We are not the barbarians at the wall, nor invaders at the gate
We are the Roman standing guard, watching the approach
Even with calls for war deafening
We are aware these have happened before
When the invasions starts, expect Rome to retaliate
And if this is the end a nuclear response
With the only beings left living are cockroaches
Nothing left of modern people, institutions or nations
Well aware of our lineage, accepting of our fate
We are Rome in the present
We stand ready to be a final generation

Sometimes a past nation state demise leaves indentations, perhaps scars.  Others however are seemingly worshiped for their allure.  Some wonder the general fascination with the Roman Empire.  While Rome had transformed from a republic at midpoint of her history, it is the Empire of Rome that is remembered, lingered over, adored.  The answer for the question of why Rome, is rather clear.  It has never left us, despite the outer signs being different, it transformed into how we view state, how we view religion, services of government, and most importantly, how war can change a republic into an empire, and how the will of the people are crushed, when emperors become gods.

I believe that the Roman Empire lingers on in the institutions of the West, from Japan to the EU, from the USA and all western style nations, we relive, reenact, reimagine our deeds, but they were all born from Rome.

“Great empires are not maintained by timidity.” Tacitus 

Ascent

His corpse long rotted and perfumed

Many have over the years mocked Icarus

They do not understand that he was right

We should always try to fly

Or Earth's surface will be our tomb 

We should always seek the light

Icarus was not wrong

His folly came only from his belief
Should he rise that he would fall

In this belief was his portent of doom

And it was self fulfilling

“No destiny attacks us from outside. But, within him, man bears his 

fate and there comes a moment when he knows himself vulnerable;

 and then, as in a vertigo, blunder upon blunder lures him.”  

                                 

                                                      Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Ruin

A curse was released that set in motion
The forces of nature to cleanse the land
Dead bodies and disease led to famine
Violence and orgiastic violence
Had led to a final act
As a wind carried black clouds and pestilence
A city burns and the people attempt to flee
Though it stood perfect without decay
A statue looked over a scene of catastrophe
The thunder comes from the clouds and combat
War had weakened the city dweller's resolve
No battles, not fighting led to the crash
The city will disappear beneath the waves
The dead will haunt the foot paths
But it isn't for the ghosts it will never be restored
Acts of man as well as nature have led to wrath

exquisite tears

A powerful spirit offers exquisite tears 
As she dances there, a joy celebrated
With lavender fields raging in bloom
I've searched, calculate the days, every year
Mark my fortune from fate: dedicated
To the one who will bring my doom
I warrant this, I am in misery but never fear
In the end I know that my flesh devastated
Life is impermanent, my body left in a tomb
People proclaim miracles but the flesh is dead
But by that death my spirit will be released
My heart will be redeemed
By the creator who created everything
Including all of my dreams
No sorrow, no remorse No regret
Releasing every secret being kept
My renewed soul discovered joy
In that wonderful place my soul has wept

Innocent

With a dream of utter solace
A giggle in their sleep
Every baby is perfect
We need to learn from their manner
To find hope and rest in dream
Abandoning attachment to regret

March Forth

Some thinkers and writers will take issue
About the ethics or morals of going to war
But the warriors of a nation state answer
When the state tells them to March Forth

Faithless

They vowed to be as one forever
But he instantly felt pangs of regret
His heart might've been foolish
Perhaps at one point tender
But stressed at his weakest moment
Primal lust causes him to forget

choice

There was a time, when all I could dream of doing
Was to commit suicide, a way of playing with fate
Knowing the depths of grieving from life's cost
Where most life is born by mysteries of love
But my origins burned with a sort of rage
Choosing my own conclusion I might take control
From what had been forged and forced upon me
I'd been spawned by the most sorrowful decisions
Of lust conquering rationality and civility
It began a legacy in me where shame and sorrow burned
I knew that it was not of my own hand
That my existence was a matter of grace
My choice of remaining was another
If I can't live by my own terms
I still remain for those I love
Who shielded my being from pain
Rather than invite death all the while knowing
The final curtain is certain
With a future where I'm redeemed of this flesh
Choice of life or death is demured to one
Who is better able to choose than me
When I saw my hopes scream and my dreams die
In a mass heap of sorrow upon the floor
My hope to be normal, or even persevere
Someone had opened death's door inviting me to leap
Secrets kept for so long that my life is gone
So many secrets I can no longer keep
What about the nightmares replacing the dreams?
I can't hold on.
I'm tired of a world demanding my attendance
Constantly broken and everything I do is wrong
What if I don't need to hold it in?
What if I don't need to be forgiven
For the sins of man, past, present and future?
My pyre was so long ago prepared
So why should you care?
If I am ready, eager even, to say farewell
This life has seemed more like Hell
While the clocks keep ticking
And the doomsday clock ever closer
To Armageddon, personal or otherwise
So do I need to calculate the efficient quantum
Of the sins totaled in between watching all I love die
I've been waiting when it wouldn't be a problem
Since you need someone to clean it all up
For free and without causing any any stress
Trust me, no one would grieve
This has been a life spent
In the flaws and brokenness
That leave behind a mess
However you might leave

Smolensk Is Lost

What a court of intrigue
What sort of leaders are these
We've surrendered our nation
By the degree by which they are free
To falsely inflate their worth
To falsely call out with their pride
These are the fools who lead us
And it is only the jester who cried
We as a nation are failed
We who believed in our granduer
When Smolensk and our people are lost
How the court entertains
While the frontiers and cities pass
Without any regret for the cost