Choose Peace

 

China can keep a 6-million man army fully supplied. 

 Their navy is huge and growing. 

 Their air force is expanding, 

gaining parity with the US and Russia.

They are now a very formidable foe. 

We can’t tell them what to do.

We can’t bully them into submission.

They would never give in in any case.

They are a colossus among nations now.

China is flexing its economic might,

Russian military keeps expanding;

Britain is beating the war drums,

threatening war with Russia !?!

The US keeps spending exponentially more on defense...

Poor Taiwan – right in the crosshairs!

Is it worth it to the US to get into a huge

brawl with China over some island nation?

Knowing us we will in any case -

it is what we do.

Pulling stupidity out of wisdom;

We seem to do it at least once a decade.

These trends really don’t look good,

The world seems spoiling for a fight.

Cliche-laden as this may be,

the facts stare us in the face,

the facts do not lie.

If the world won’t slow this mad rush to war,

how many millions more will die?

Belief in warfare brings on more war,

belief in peace brings on more peace.

We should believe in peace -

it costs less and is healthier for humankind!

Made It!

 

It is a cool, sunny Wednesday morning,

in the summertime – glorious,

water landscapes shimmer with beauty,

and I ride my bicycle through it all.

For I managed to escape the tyranny of

a regular workday, lived long enough

to cross that imaginary finish line,

to retirement and doing whatever I wish -

and getting a social security check in return.

Sometimes I pinch myself to see if I’m awake,

other times I chafe at little frustrations –

then remind myself what I have accomplished,

and how many before me who did not make it.

Thank goodness for retirement – Hurrah!

The Small Enjoyments

 

I meet a longtime friend at the food line,

barefoot myself as he requested – he always is.

It is a beautiful summer day, and we chat as we wait.

Soon, the providers make an announcement and prayer,

then the chow line begins its crawl.

Time passes swift, my feet enjoy the cool surfaces,

my mind enjoying conversation with casual acquaintances.

Soon and sudden, my turn is here:

“Ham, Turkey or Vegetarian?”

“Turkey,” I reply, in the middle of a sentence.

We get our dual lunch sacks packed with sandwiches,

chips, applesauce, cookies and love.

Then move to a shady sidewalk along the church

building, to eat and chat and gripe about the state of the world.

Twelve becomes one, and then it is time to go.

I pack the rest of the food, most of it, back into the sack,

and walk my friends back to their car.

They take off after a couple final hugs,

and soon, so do I.

Every Monday should be this pleasant.

Relationships - Fictional and Real

 

Watching a new series on Netflix,

all about professional gay relationships.

Well to do guys going through all of

their turbulent relationships, dropping one,

starting another, having one-nighters after a

seventeen-year relationship ends.

It bears little resemblance to my life,

but there are impressions and things

I pick up that can be useful.

Perhaps I should try a new approach.

A dating service?

A hookup service like the big “G” ?

So it causes me to re-tread familiar ground,

and re-try the connection sites.

Then I come to the same conclusion I reached before,

and go back to my old ways - the ones that work.

Sigh

Some things never change.

Idealized gay romantic comedies,

and personal pathways pursued over and over.

Perhaps our fate is all predestined,

etched beforehand in some subatomic

universal pattern of gay wretchedness,

or maybe gay happiness.

Nothing else to do but live it out and see

where it all leads.

Images Thrown Together Over Time

 

Can I see beauty in something others mock?

Incrementing patterns, images of description.

We are conscious, count up and down, study

our own creativity, never fully comprehending

why or how we can come up with so many ways to

thrill, or to kill.

When boredom sets in, we can begin again.

When we deem something a failure, we begin again.

When we are rejected or denied,

we redirect and begin again.

To leave behind an elegant creation,

a stunning or shocking image,

a fad that catches on,

we have certainly left our mark.

But so have murderers and dictators.

They all, we all, become part of the blended

human mix of putrescent beauty and glory -

Entropy expressed in galleries, libraries, trash dumps...

1900

1914

1921

1929

1939

1945

1952

1999

2001

2005

2008

2015

Meaningful, important, serious things have happened in every single year.

Anything impacting a single human life with intensity makes that year special to

that human being – and who are the rest of us to disagree or deny that meaning to that person?

Waves cover over bubbling water and the surge of years, submergence of fears, realization of joys.

Someday it will all end, perhaps to begin all over again.