Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Pyrrhic Victory

Pyrrhic Victory

What you see on the surface
a jail sentence
abject poverty
obfuscate
my recent 
we shall overcome
moment

considering myself a political prisoner
doesn't counter the traumatic
ongoing experience
of my son's father
waging a war of loyalty
when countering my petition
for therapeutic visitation
with my teenage son
ravaged by years of war
with a willful violation 
of child support
unjustly assessed

hiring a shark
in a pink fitted suit
with barbie icon on her pocketbook
to annhilate my requests
for mediation
reconciliation
to save his own sorry ass

I gave him a hug
at our first session
I did that for my son
who I desperately hope
I can save

Iris

Iris
  after Jamie Abatella's painting
  bj spoke gallery 9.14.12

crucial texture
fluid conflict
crowded posture
amnial parenthesis
ceremonial offering
fledgling boundaries
passion trembling

Epistle from the Collateral Damage

Epistle from the Collateral Damage

I took it personally
that you diminished me.
Shooting me from a loving place
doesn't make me any more alive
or feed my family.

Your cause, the greater good
boundaries
stuff
nonsense
are not for me when
the sacrifice
is me.

My limbs, organs, eyes, ears, nose, throat, heart
my beautiful still fresh umbilical cord
my fledgling philosophies
my provincial views
of life and art were mine.

At least with a vengeful God
I knew where I stood.

In killing me
making me a martyr
you have planted seeds 
of your own destruction

Christ died for the sins of others
self-made martyrs
often play this game.

Your therapist told you
that you always have a choice.
Yet none of this was mine

I was innocent of dictators
and mutilators in this life--

I will get you in the next until one of us
finally gives in.