In Just A Few Billion Years

In a couple of billion years what you have done is still not going to matter

After the sun grows cold and has long ago given off its last photons

Well after our star has swallowed this blue planet in a thrombolitic swelling

When the last geological epoch ended much earlier in an unrecorded history

Even the last fossil has long since disappeared without a trace

And our succoring atmosphere escaped sometime in some distant past

In just a few billion years all the ripples from your thoughts merge into nanonymity

Death will no longer have a presence in our solar system

And I just bet you will still be up there relaxing in heaven with jesus and mohammed…

After the milky way has grown old and merged with other galaxies

When the life force no longer travels with our beloved Sol

Our earlier history can still be seen from several billion light years away

In a couple billion years all your rules will be long in their rightful places

Forever after the oceans boil away, the story of life on earth goes untold

Our shallow graves have been vaporized for human eons no one counted

Universal truths, discoveries and morals wait unused and without volition

When any injustices inflicted have long since had nothing to affect

The grace achieved from suffering gave way to the yet organic but now interstellar

In a few billion years our collective unconscious shares no memories

Probing life forms cannot discern the slightest trace of our existence

All our trash is at last truly recycled and diffused to the density of outer space

Long after the subjective ceases and the objective is no longer measured

The life force blossoms sentience once again for other creatures to briefly ponder

And you watch it all from somewhere off in a gloriously painted baroque heaven…

In a couple billion years, geo-years will disappear as the earth ceases to orbit

Time can be marked for a while by the dead sun’s journey round our galaxy

Unceremoniously our foolish actions and beliefs evaporate and attenuate

Our chaotic signals diffuse across space, merging with the cosmic background

And all the information that we ever had is still there - but quite still and unknown

Lo, after uncountable universes come and go you still dwell in that gilded heaven…

In a few billion years our effects will cease rippling the cosmic pond forever

The inexorable march of entropy renders our miniscule labors moot

And all of this can be sensed in the space between these two simple breaths

Take Them As They Lived

Take them as they doze off from another heavy meal, flat upon their couches

Remove them when their attention wanders as they sip and talk and drive

Wipe them away as they celebrate outsourcing and downsizing bonuses

Kill them just before they fondle yet another frightened child

Take them as they cast their wrappers, butts and cans upon the ground

Grant them eternal rest as they approve yet more funds for their tools of war

Stop their hands as they sign the papers that doom another marshy habitat

Stop their hearts as they stuff themselves after another phony business triumph

Take them as they thoughtlessly order the latest trendy seafood being harvested to extinction

Lay them down as they pray for unquestionable guidance on business and political decisions

Strike them as they casually fill their inefficient vehicles with more wasted non-renewable fuel

Rein them in all the way when they grow childishly drunk and roar and fight

Take them as they leave the churches gorged and belching a thick righteousness

Close their eyes as a batch of Meth explodes in their haggard, toothless faces

Quiet their voices as they preach holy violence against other equally insane religious zealots

Still the breath they would use to whine over regulation’s awful costs in jobs and money

Take them on their cell phones, their iPods, their xBoxes and their phones

Relieve them as they lay frightened and alone in the sterile pediatric units

Lift their burdens quickly when they reach that terminal stage

Silence them as they spew forth hatred, teach intolerance and spread fear

Take them as they dream of impossible better lives in the filthy hovels of unplanned cities

Hustle them away after they brazenly kill and then cowardly plead their innocence

Grant them peace when their very teeth, bones and eyes are simply worn out

Relieve those filled with anxiety, stress and aggression of their selfish cares

Take them in their golf carts, ATVs, dirt bikes, jet skis, RVs and snowmobiles

Help them to help themselves to escape the pending charges they are too ashamed to face

Cast the outsourcers aside as casually as they have cast off others for so many years

Deliver the women suffering lives of institutionalized tyranny and abuse

Remove the willfully obese with diabetes, stroke, coronaries and emphysema

Strike down these so-called leaders who say they simply give us what we want

Lead away in quiet peace those who have lost the partner of their lifetime

Grant mercy to a soldier who remains somewhat conscious in the wreckage

Take that faithful old dog by surprise when he can no longer gain his feet

Halt her vapid and indolent consumption with a marketer’s dream of heaven

Reap them as soon as they stop to enjoy the benefits of a lifetime of work

Find them alone in lonely beds in the middle of another long and empty night

Take them away when their over-extended mortgages exceed the value of their homes

Surprise them with the bright flash of their own improvised explosives

Fill them with the grace of innocence if they are born unable to survive

Bring them compassion too late and let them waste away on their shame

Take the doctors on their sleek yachts and the lawyers in fine restaurants

Let the duped but faithful at least pass on with smiles upon their faces

Show the true emptiness to those who head corporate religious franchises

Help the honest seeker see a beckoning light towards the end of his path

Take them suddenly at their offices still buried in pointless minutiae

Overcome all their objections and dole out their final sales commissions

Free them as they lock the poor more tightly into multi-generational despair

Steady their greedy hands that they succeed in their blind self-destruction

Take the brokers at their watering holes and the politicians at their spending troughs

Carry off the bipolar in an unaccustomed state of mild equanimity

Stop the workaholic in the middle of many unfinished and meaningless tasks

Simply grant the domestic animals a peaceful oblivion as they are led to the slaughter

Take them filled with craving for the latest fad gadget they wish to finance

Lead them gently off when they mutter insensibly and cannot recognize a spouse

Guide our hands to relieve those languishing in persistent vegetative states

Collaterally damage the generals in presumed safety with a friendly, yet deadly crossfire

Take the burglars outside our doors and let the sun shine upon their dead faces

Let the spinster hear the con man gurgle himself a last rite over her phone

Stop their hands just as they are grasping yet another hefty bailout bonus

Take away far too many fellow species but provide us with comforting rationalizations

The Beckoning Void

to say good night and wish goodbye

          to give thanks to all and pay respects

to slip out quietly beneath the stars

          to join once more with that magic void

to part as friends and go our ways

          to leave the party very early

to paddle out upon a peaceful sea

          there to slowly cross time’s horizon

to leave each other and those we love

          to find ourselves at home no more

to loose our grasp and free our minds -

          to the dusty cosmic background

to humbly bow as the curtain falls

          to relinquish the observer

to be upon that rider-less horse

          to merely complement the light

to kindly smile to no real purpose

          to leave behind a type of joy

to know the way having never been

          to follow others, but all alone

to fly right out of inner space

          to pass beyond and cast no shadow

to dream no more

          but neither to awaken

to evaporate a lifetime

          a blossom falling from a tree

to leave the bench and slowly walk

          time to join the wind that scatters

Enjoy Your Squalid Exceptionist Inheritance

Let the children decide...

We leave you our giant and inefficient homes for you to try and keep warm

You can see our gas-guzzling monster vehicles rusting in the junkyards

We offer you the opportunity to find the alternate energy we never sought

Go and mine the landfills for the finite, recyclable resources we so carelessly discarded

We have raised you to be confidently ignorant with a great sense of entitlement

Take these faded pictures of the smog-free Grand Canyon that we once knew

Enjoy the new and better jobs of tomorrow they promised when we were outsourced

Adventure cruise your Arctic now, safely free from icebergs and polar bears

Feel comfortable in the canned environment we built from coast-to-coast

We hope that you can spend some time in all the casino gambling venues we developed

Enjoy the love of loud-proud, petroleum-powered recreation that we instilled in you

Partake with both hands of the rich fast-food and snack heritage we have created

Act upon all those life lessons embedded in the video games you endlessly played

Noisily penetrate your forests now that we have opened them wide to all

Good luck overcoming our self-righteous, go-it-alone international policies

Be careful with the decaying roads, bridges, electrical, water and sewers

Here’s my old Spanish book, the brown majority will applaud your efforts

Keep an eye on this nuclear waste we buried for you and yours to come

Mind our close primate relations whom you will find only as inmates in our zoo prisons

We bequeath you the challenge of securing daily drinking water and firewood, on foot

Remember to decry immoral family planning while continuing to ignore childhood poverty

Use our cloak of Social Darwinism to make the less fit invisible in all their misery

Take over our mighty defense industry and ensure the world continually fights for peace

Just try and surpass our disdain for sustainability and efficiency

Continue industrial torture of soulless cows, pigs and chickens as god bid us to do

Peruse these records showing how cold it was and how much it used to snow

But you won’t have to worry about impotence, even during the great pandemics

Enjoy the persistent poisoned fruits of the grand partnership of chemical giants and agribusiness

No need to thank us for all the marvelous healthcare innovations that you cannot afford

Ppnder our old stories about swimming in blue lakes and clean rivers

Keep our literalist, evangelical beliefs working towards a Traditional Family Values future

Assume this vapid credit card debt we financed our phony lifestyles with for years

Continue demeaning scientists and engineers and don’t bother reading or doing the math

Go off and find yourself in this vast but center-less sprawl that we have created

Take up the mantle of our core values and the clear vision of our moral duties

Enjoy bulldozing all the cheap crap we hastily built as it rapidly decays

Take comfort in our fiction of the patriotic nature of your greed

Continue happily supporting the royal families we have ensconced to govern you

Good luck stumbling upon the environmental catastrophes we are unwittingly creating

Find your individual fulfillment and spiritual awareness among 9 billion others

Be glad that you do not have to worry about species that are already gone

Take the fruits of globalization and enjoy sharing equally in its grinding poverty

Relax and enjoy the relief from manufacturing and engineering leadership

Take up the foolish cycle of poisoning, fertilizing, watering and cutting artificially-green lawns

Try and partake in the benefits of the negative savings rate lifestyle that we pioneered

Continue to nurture that great culture of lobbyists and influence peddlers we built

Adopt our pseudo-scientific, jobs & money, stall tactics on any new regulatory issues

Cherish our god who is love and follow his bidding to spend trillions on national defense

For large sums of money, let industry experts produce government policy

Litter profusely anywhere, without the slightest guilt, based upon our good examples

Perhaps you can store CO2 emissions in the underground aquifers we already emptied

Always rely blindly on technology but disavow junk science for faith-based certainty

Relax and feel safe in the exploitative tourist meccas we created overseas

Experience being in the minority thanks to our love of cheap, illegal labor

Check out the great views where the ash, maples and elms used to grow

Breathe deeply of the mercury and sulphur-laden wastes we left in the air

Like us, barely notice as crime, ignorance and poverty mounts from all sides

Take more tax-deductible ski vacations in fundamentalist church vehicles

Quite easily swallow their latest propaganda thanks to our dumbing-down of your education

Rest easily within that patriotic sense of entitled exceptionism we have instilled within you

Continue blithely ignoring the quiet strangers who clean up all around you

But always remember your Nana as she lay babbling in her own wastes at that shabby nursing home

Last One Liners

Passed away over coffee on vacation down in Flarida

Were killed when the vehicle in which they were riding

Expired at home surrounded by friends and family

Died later upon the operating table

Resuscitation efforts failed after the rescue

Drowned in bed from lung congestion

Found cool and stiff on the couch next morning

Probably never felt a thing

Succumbed to extensive multi-system trauma

Passed away quite suddenly without any prior history

Died at home after suffering long from the illness

Expired on the pavement from excessive blood loss

Mostly women and children killed in a crush at the famous mosque

Was ejected from the vehicle involved in a rollover

Went into shock and never regained consciousness

Choked to death on a food obstruction following a drunken laugh

Sudden onset while doing yard work, earlier this Spring

Inhaled his own vomit which stopped effective breathing

Darted out in front of a slowly passing car

Taken ill at a family gathering

Hemorrhaged rapidly from a burst aneurysm

Expired alone of unknown causes

Passed away at Good Faith Hospice

Pronounced dead below the embankment

Suffered a coronary during a morning swim

Dozed off and struck a large oak tree

Died from a previously undiagnosed allergy

Ruled an accidental overdose

Became the latest victim of the outbreak

pronounced dead by officials at the scene

expired later from several gunshot wounds

perished in her crib from unknown causes

collapsed and never said another word

struck by a vehicle turning in front of his motorcycle

investigators said alcohol may have been involved

stabbed repeatedly at a holiday gathering

beaten to death outside a liquor store

shot in an apparent robbery attempt

killed in a dispute over a drug deal gone bad

failed to negotiate the curve

names were not released pending notification of kin

conveyed to police Sunday at approximately 3:00 AM

reportedly the victim struck his head

listed officially as Dead Upon Arrival

honored an Advance Directive to withhold any treatment

recovered his body at a depth of approximately ten feet

forced to euthanize the victim’s over-protective dog

driver of the semi was cited for improper equipment

confirmed the killing of the US diplomat

showed signs of an extra-judicial execution

autopsy confirmed she died of strangulation

opened fire at a checkpoint and killed at least sixteen

suspected suicide bomb exploded outside the luxury hotel

One villager was killed and 10 others wounded by grenades

savaged her in a cheap blanket after she was strangled

both murder suspects were wounded and later captured

found unconscious in the apartment and later charged in her death

cause was believed to be a massive heart attack

have been publicly hanged where the bombings took place

suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic emphysema

cause of death not listed, pending a coroner’s report

following unrest six weeks ago

showed grainy images of the beheading

slaughtered thousands when the disease was confirmed

began again with acute chest pain triggered by chronic stress

died when a hospital lacked the supplies to treat him

Homage To My Dying Fish

You struggled quite hard against the sharp hook I planted in your jaw

They told me as a child that you could feel no pain

I pulled you so quickly from your watery green home

A protective gel coating still covered your scales

Your colors were marvelous and your eyes were very clear

Your fat little belly was full of tiny eggs

I pulled out the barbed steel while squeezing you too tightly

I saw the healthy red blood in the stripes of your gills

You lay gasping and freezing in a bucket on the ice

Trying to swim though you lay on your side in the air

Some hours later we trudged home together in the cold

You lay packed sideways with two dozen of your mates

I left you outside that you should remain cold and fresh

Your gel coats released with your contact and mixed into slime

Your mouth moved slowly with rhythms from a geologic past

Your fins extended sharply to ward off my grasp

I heard your fellows randomly try to swim away from the bucket

I wondered at how long it took you to drown in the air

I brought you inside to an unaccustomed warmth and nasty dryness

I spread out a place for you upon some old newspapers

Your gills now remained open most of the time

Your beautiful round eyes had begun to turn dry and cloudy

Though I grasped you firmly, you squirmed nonetheless

I scaled you alive with a dull metal spoon

I sliced off your head from the top while pulling out your insides as well

Your tail flexed slowly with spasmodic muscular contractions

Your head then lay detached with your organs in a messy pile with the others

The pelvic fins cut away as well, which your head still tried to steer now and then

I washed you clean of blood and slime and removed a layer of skin with that spoon

I tickled the inside of your ribcage with a toothbrush as I scrubbed out your spine

I bathed you in beaten egg and dressed you in corn meal and flower

The frying pan was readied with oil not quite hot enough to smoke

Before you turned a crisp golden brown your tail flexed a last time, in the pan

I turned you once and then laid you out upon clean paper towels

We prepared fresh bread, tomatoes and scallions and cracked open more cold beers

But you, my finny friend, were the absolute star of the show

Forcing open your cavity your spine popped up and was removed

Carefully our forks probed for your remaining floating ribs

Your flaky white flesh was deemed wondrous by all

Your tail was quite crisp and crunched most satisfactorily

The raccoons, birds, catfish, turtles and insects helped recycle your remains

I tried not to waste you and I recognize your sacrifice with a place...here in my memory

Don't Die In Spring

Don’t let go of me until sometime in that darkened end of November

There’s far too much light out here for me in March even if it is still snowing

Let them take you away when the sun is pallid and the days grow ever shorter

Don’t even try to push me aside when the wet snows nurture our new grass

I’ll gladly go when the ground is all brown and frozen and everything else is dead

Who could take off when the crocuses are just starting to peek out?

I’ll be ready to leave just as the lakes are freezing gray in that flat December light

I want you to be there listening when the redwing blackbirds return to fill the brush

Don’t die in the Spring when your sap is just rising after a long winter’s stillness

Wait until autumn shuts everything down into a depressed and muffled dimness

Stay with me as the streams throw off their ice and the aspen buds grow fat

Slip away quietly beneath heavy covers during some long, cold winter’s night

You cant leave just when the grebes, geese, ducks and mergansers are returning

Say goodbye when your garden is skeletal and the icy fog settles in before the snows

Why survive the long winter just to wither when at last the good light returns?

Don’t let go until the cold and dark infinitely lengthen both of our fleeing shadows

You simply can’t turn away from the fully-refreshed beauty of early May

We’ll lay you down during one of those savage early winter blizzards

We won’t let you go when the bass are bedding out on the pond

Wait for that dark and somber time before you decide upon your last move

Don’t leave me to futilely struggle against the rising tide of spring, in sadness over you

Let me walk dark streets alone during the time when grief and depression come naturally

Don’t die in the spring when the garden is calling out for your touch

I would rather think of you still hard at work, helping to push up our new bulbs