Solar Eclipse

Is the only reason men have sons
so they can pit them against each other
in wanton demonstrations
of modern warfare?

Red sons, yellow sons,
white sons, black sons
sent out to kill each other.
No wonder some sons stop shining.

My first superhero

I learned about my first superhero in Sunday School.
He was a man so strong, he was able to silence
his foes with words. He could turn the other cheek,
inspire the masses and forgive his enemies.
I wanted to be just like him.

But then somewhere along the way, I discovered
the avarice, bigotry, conceit, death, egoism, fraud,
greed and hatred that his followers embrace in his name.
I learned that Christianity was nothing more than
a tool for the elite to extort and control the masses.

So what do I do with my childhood superhero –
throw him in an old toy box with the rest of my youth?

Downsizing

is code for getting too old for life’s clutter
and fearing the end of life will come
before you get your affairs in order
and leaving a mess behind.

is realizing your days are numbered
to go through those boxes
of forgotten trinkets and photos
and plans for unstarted projects.

is wanting to extend your life
by sharing the things you valued
with your children and grandchildren
and hoping they will remember you by them.

Beat the Clock

I’m running out of time
to be a poet
or a novelist
or an artist
or an inventor
or a spiritual leader
or a philosopher
or a success.

The clock is ticking.
The years are fleeting.
The inspiration is dissipating.
The creativity is calcifying.
The joy is evaporating.
Failure beckons.

Racist America

America can never become a non-racist country
until we admit we have been a racist country
since the day the English Captain, John Colyn Jope,
landed his slave ship, The White Lion,
in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619.

It’s not that everyone in America is a racist,
although many have been.
It’s that most of us are indifferent
to injustice that does not impact us.

Default Emotions

For some computers, optimism is the default emotion --
the preselected option offered by the operating system
that will always be followed unless explicitly altered by the user.

For other computers, pessimism is the default emotion
offered by the operating system based on
experiential coding written into the software.