Stranded

1

I want to do so much

I don’t know how to start

Right foot in quicksand

Left foot in concrete

            dropped into the East River

Both feet sink

            at different rates

When I was a child

            I was taught

            judge not lest ye be judged

            practice what you preach

            do unto others as you would like done unto you

I still believe this

Where have I strayed?

If everyone is killing

            in the name of god

            then god must not want anyone to live

Everything cancels out

            right?

2

Stranded because so much around me

            does not make sense

It must be the wiring of my mind

            crossed

Many years after 1984

            even Winston does not believe

            two plus two equals five

But I do

Only animals

            follow orders

            with blind obedience

But the flags

            still do blindfold

Is my memory short?

Has my brain exceeded its capacity?

Has my grey matter learned

            it is better

            not to matter anymore?

Deadened

              numb

             and stranded

3

My immunity from infection and disease

            is so embattled

I am desensitized

            to everything

The chemicals that pass for food

            The chemicals that pass for air

            The chemicals that pass for drink

All this

            in place of

            the bread and water

            prison promises to provide me

Stranded by individual wrappers

            penis enlargements and breast augmentation

            refinance offers from telemarketers

            and junk mail credit card applications

Stranded by the shifting definition

            of all natural

Stranded by 967 options and features

            when all I need are 2

Stranded by record profits

            and underreported casualties

Stranded by history

            rewritten

Doesn't deterioration lead to disintegration?

And all the king's readymade fortifications

            and all the king's quick-drying reinforcements

            can only bolster one wall

            at the expense of the other three

There are always side effects

4

Have I become such a fixture

            that the propagation

            and spreading apart of cracks

            is now

            the only way

            for breath

            to enter my body?

If I could at least topple over

            wouldn't that be action?

I might bounce

            once or twice

            and roll over

            on my back

If this is action,

            what is my reaction?

Where is the despair

            if I can swim

            but not when the water level

            has risen?

New islands will form

Outcasts become castaways

I have never felt so deserted

             so alone

            so stranded

5

Anthrax in a letter

            remember that?

Friendly fire?

Collateral damage

            from a precision guided munition?

A bullet from an assault rifle?

A kick from a jackboot?

A rock picked off the ground?

Burned on or by the cross?

In the end

            does it really matter

            the method of

            my murder?

Can't warriors always find a reason

            to go to war?

A year before Winston's reeducation

            The Call sang

            "I don't think there are any Russians

            and there ain't no Yanks

            just corporate criminals

            playin' with tanks"

A pebble can start an avalanche

But how can a pebble

            turn one around?

6

On television

            a student can stop

            a column of tanks

But off camera

            doesn't the truth

            lie with the student

            beneath Chinese grass?

Primetime rewards the white-collar crook

            wife-beater junky host

            with catchphrases and laugh tracks

Sleuths solve

            the most microscopic

            of crimes

Where have the nanometers

            left to run?

7

Imagine

Revolution

Where is John right now?

How disappointed he would be of me

            collecting dust

            while waiting for nothing

            but ashes and dirt

            to rise up and find voice

I don’t want to be stranded

            with my rage anymore

Why can’t I find my fuse?

Sparks from flint rocks

            tossed like dice

8

Bits of information

            trapped in splinters

            fall to the ground

            when the breeze stirs

            or after a good rubbing

Will they lose their names?

Will they not become compost

            and forgotten?

I watched the arms

            of a spiral galaxy

            through a telescope

            on a mountaintop

When the eyepiece frosted over

            I blew through it

            to clear away the ice

And like a summertime dandelion

            the arms disappeared

            into the wind

Is this all there is left to see?

How many questions

            can you ask of the wind?

I will be stranded

            and alone

            yet not alone