As If Viewed From Afar

                              Image via Wikipedia

It was the only patch of ice on an endless sidewalk
I fell, cracked my head
and woke up here
Do you know me? Do I like you?
I need some advice. Does this tie match?

"What are you trying to match?
That will tell us everything about who you are
and where you belong."

I know that a Windsor knot is classic
Is it fashionable?
There were bands I liked but
nothing here sounds familiar
I knew a woman who spoke in tongues
that I could understand but
she is not answering her phone.
My guitar is here but
I can't tune it.

"What are you trying to play?
That will tell us everything about who you are
and where you belong."

Do you know my name?

Her Own Design

We talked forever
And She laughed at me
I trusted in God
She thought me a fool

She walked out into the sea
Not once looking back at me

Walking into waves
that would lift her up
to a heaven that was
of her design

She walked out into the sea
Not once looking back at me

On September 11th.

Image via Wikipedia

Alright, then. 
It is September 11th, 2011.

Go on and lift your toy flags and sparklers high up to Your Version Of Heaven. Praise God and The United States of America. Go to church and let your Patriotic Preacher baptize you not in the Blood of Christ but the blood of the Patriots Who Died On 9/11. Patriots such as the Muslim, Hispanic and African-American Firefighters. The Chinese business executives, clerks and copy assistants. Those from all races, colors, creeds and sexual orientation who died so suddenly, so tragically, so needlessly.

Go on and praise Your Version Of America, the one that has lost its Middle Class and become a nation of the Ultra-Rich and the Working Poor. The one that has been abandoned by politicians and left to become an oligarchy. The one that gives you a 24 hour news channel that spews hate, racism and bigotry around the clock. The One That You Swear By.

Yes, indeed. Praise Your Version Of America, the one that bullies gay kids, denies equal rights to gay couples and villainizes the GLBTQ community as the "plague that is destroying YOUR Great Nation from within." The one that demonizes American born Muslims and refuses them the right - the Constitutional RIGHT - to worship as they please in the mosques you will not allow them to build.

Yes, Mr. & Ms. Patriot. Celebrate and commemorate the biggest bloodbath ever inflicted by an enemy on American Soil. Sing "God Bless America" until your fucking noses bleed. Lift those toy flags and sparklers up to Your Version Of Heaven - the one without 'Spics', 'Niggers', 'A-Rabs', 'Queers' or anyone else that YOUR GOD deems unworthy of admittance.

And....When YOUR Rapture happens, we will be here, smiling  happily as we go about cleaning up the god-awful mess you've left and building a better world for those who believe in this:

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Quickly Written, Sincere

Sparks fly through the air from
One tower to the next
Pastures are set ablaze
Sending out messages
that the slow will misread
The tremors more frequent,
the landscape is shifting
nights filled with cheap beer and
starlit desperation
are drawing to a close.

It's SATIRE, People

I can picture opening a Thrifty Nickel, Penny Saver, Greensheet... whatever your local advertising rag is called and seeing this ad, posted by a fat, stupid, ignorant Tea-Bagger in a t-shirt, suspenders and a "GO BACK TO KENYA" gimme-cap. He'll be standing outside his store that day, waving toy flags and sparklers, wanting nothing more than to make a buck by exploiting a national day of mourning. (He won't see it that way, of course; he's just a patriotic bidnissman.)
I will sit quietly this Sunday, remembering every detail of that morning as if it were happening again. I will say prayers for those affected by the events of the day and the years following. I will save my special prayers for those who need nothing more in life than others to hate and blame for all that has gone wrong and, also, for Fox News, for creating so many "villains" on whom to train the hatred and blame.

Also? Credit and great thanks to my friend and brother, Brian Clapper, for creating the poster!

Related articles

• Fox News Poll on Creationism and Prayer - Legitimizing Delusions in American Politics? (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• 9/11 - Ten Years Later We Still Share Our National Grief (psychologytoday.com)
• Tea Party Zombies Must Die! (dangerousminds.net)

Ashes, Now

http://peggyapl.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html

Unlike any I have seen before
a newspaper photo
The young girl with long, dark hair
framing an angel's face
The disembodied voice came through
speaking only to me
Or, so I chose to believe
in my drink-driven lust

I did what I could to hold her here
Ashes, now, on my tongue
She moves in a realm unknown
by the likes of outcasts
She, fearless and frightened at once
Untethered, unaware
that I could make her laugh
but could not make her cry

And Now We Are Three...

It was September 3rd, 2008, when I sat down at the keyboard with the vague idea for a blog that would serve as a journal, a writing notebook and a way to stay in touch with friends.
I began typing that first post and, three years later, I'm still trying to find out what, if anything, this blog should be saying to the world. Much like the author, it sort of stumbles blindly along, getting bits and pieces of work set down in print, the occasional gem amid the dross and, on rare occasion a surprisingly good post.

I neglect this blog, on occasion and not because I dislike it. I have two other blogs and an online radio station to deal with and sometimes, I just haven't the necessary inspiration to come up with anything at all interesting. Still, it has been a fun three years and, as I am turning the reins of Egg Radio over to the beautiful and very talented Shinigami Senpai, I will have more time to write for the two blogs that are closest to my heart: Blaster and my blog for classic rock, Methuselah's Gramophone.

I just wanted to take a few moments to say thank you to those who have been with me for three years, those who have been kind and patient and especially those who helped see me through one of the very worst times of this life, the suicide of my friend/brother, Sancrist Martin, back on January 3rd of this year. I would not have made it without you and I mean that with all of my heart.

New adventures are coming, as I begin a weird, new chapter of my already weird existence, so hang in there. The fun is just beginning.