AN ATHEIST HOPES FOR HEAVEN

There flows in my veins the most ancient of ardors:

Not power, or love, nor yet worship of God;

The fight that each tiniest baby fights hard as

Fought earliest man: “Understand!”  Pry and prod

With unquenchable flame of the world-disregarders

For Truth! – be it complex, destructive or odd.

If this fire is from Heaven, then Heaven I’ve earned;

So write on my grave: “This stone too shall be turned.”

Published in Shot Glass Journal, #18, January 2016

THE FUTURE AS CDG TERMINAL 1

The future is a long low passage,

Whitewashed, undulating,

A moving forward-flowing track,

No chance of going back.

The future has no message,

Its ads are guides only to the past,

Misleaders, redesignposts,

Echoes, undefined ghosts.

The future is travelled without presage,

Always onward, none comes back.

Predestination without destination.

Stationary or walking, you’ve no final station.

The future goes on until you get off.

I won't. I will not to get off.

Published: The Rotary Dial, Toronto, January 2016

THE FUTURE AS EVENT

The future like an avalanche

Is roaring down the sky.

If you’ve prepared no hiding place

Then be prepared to die.

You never reason why.

The future like a question mark

Is scything humankind.

If you can see, then handle it –

You’ll be cut down if blind.

The future doesn’t mind.

The future like a giant wave

Is heading for the shore.

If you can ride that wall-like wave

It’s no wall, but a door

Into forever more.

Published: The Rotary Dial, Toronto, January 2016

HAPPY LOVE

Midnight making moonscapes of you on my mattress

I bounce across you in shadows and one-sixth gravity—

One-sixth gravity, and five-sixths levity.

Published: Rat’s Ass Review 2016