Heaven

Heaven is a place

That is far away

And nearly impossible to get to.

Heaven is a promise

For a life lived in the service of others.

.

But Heaven is also a metaphor,

As in Heaven on earth,

And Heaven is a journey,

Where each step could be joyous.

.

And Heaven is a woman,

Who is a promise, a metaphor, and a journey.

Where Joy exists in her smile,

And peace in her loving arms.

Frank Smith

Frank woke up and thought he was dead. 

Nothing had changed from the day before. The sun was shining through his window. The compressor in his refrigerator was rattling as it had been for the last month and a half. There was even a slight smell of Lily, his cocker spaniel, who died years before but somehow still stayed with him through a faint smell of wet dog that would always gladden and sadden Frank when he woke up. Lily was there to remind him of the unconditional love he once had.

But he still thought he was dead.

His day-to-day existence had all the elements of Hell, an eternity of isolation, left alone with his own thoughts that were turning increasingly more negative with each passing day, hoping for a salvation that would never come, praying for peace.

Hope had left him as he walked endlessly in his walk around his home, feeling his feet against the cold wooden floor.  He knew all the changes in textures of the floor so well it seemed like his toes had memorized them.  Little cracks by the door. Bits of food that were not picked up by the vacuum.  Crumbs too small to recognize made his heel feel as if there were splinters in it.  This part of the rug always seemed wet even though there was no reason for it to be so.

Hell seemed unnecessary. Why would you need a constructed place to torture souls when if you just isolated people, they would torture themselves much more efficiently. No burning, no brimstone, no creatures with a taste for human flesh. Sartre said that Hell was other people.  Frank thought other people were unnecessary.  Each person is thoroughly capable of torturing himself.

Frank stared up from his bed.  The popcorn on the ceiling changed into that Hieronymus Bosch painting about Hell.  All those little images of how people would be tortured after they were gone. 

It was a stupid painting. Did human flesh even exist after death?  Of course not. 

Does the soul feel pain?

Emotional pain maybe but once you have left this earthly plane, your attachments to the nouns of the world evaporates.  And things that you once held so dear no longer have any power over you.

But if the soul still believed it was amongst the living, then all the attachments would still exist.  Frank looked at the ceiling fan above his bed.  The fan was turning slowly, and dust hung from the blades.  He could not remember the last time he cleaned the fan.  It must have been years. If he cleaned it now, dust would fall on his bed.  He could not remember when he washed his comforter.  Probably the last time he cleaned the fan.  Why would he need to wash the comforter? He had bed sheets which generally covered his body at night.  He hardly touched the comforter, maybe his arms or his hands but he usually took a shower before bed, so they were clean.

He continued to stare at the fan.  A piece of fluff seemed to be hanging on to the blade as it continued its journey around and around. He should be here when it fell, he thought.  Only then would he know the precise time of it’s descent.  Why that seemed important, he could not tell.  But in hell everything is important.

Words, words, words

11/28/2020

.

Filling a page with scratches,

With symbols of despair.

Desperate to find meaning

Through markings in space.

Combining words

Over and over again

Different varieties

Unique variations

Until they sound important.

.

But they aren’t.

.

There is more meaning

In an empty page

Then in all the countless pages

I have filled.

Desperation

desperation fills you up

drop by drop

grain by grain

until there is nothing left

of what you were.

.

you now call

the desperation

by your name.

god

god cries for the unborn child but does not think of the million people who have no hope.

god believes that life is precious but that black lives do not matter.

god raises one group of people above another and turns his back on those living in helplessness, poverty, war, and despair.

It seems to me that god is just a concept in which we hide our prejudices.

Beliefs

God exists whether we believe

In him or not.

Science doesn’t care what we believe.

I don’t believe in anything.

Nobody cares.

I Can’t Breathe

I can’t breathe became the rallying cry, once again,

(Damn us for allowing this to happen again)

For those seeking to end systemic racism

After George Floyd’s life was choked away from him.

.

People used it in the West

As wildfires choked their cities, burnt their homes,

Destroyed communities and lives,

And turned day into night.

.

It might as well be used for those dying of covid-19

As their lungs fill with fluid,

Separated from loved ones,

Who cannot hug or kiss them good-bye.

.

It should be the motto of our nation over the last year.  

Our lives slowly being choked out of us through

Political turmoil, financial crisis, and moral questions,

Which cannot be lessened by people

Who will not listen to each other.

Tortilla De Patatas

091720

Eggs, potatoes, cheese, spinach, milk.

.

A woman’s smile can melt a heart

That’s grown so cold and icy

A woman’s touch can heal the scars

That hides the pain precisely

.

But when smile and touch have gone away

As they have done before

The sun is cold,

The daytime night

Dark shadows scratch the floor

.

My heart grows hard

The pain bursts forth

And sorrow comes to haunt me

I cannot breathe.

I cannot fly

My tears have filled the dark sea

.

Tonight, I eat plain toast alone.

She Does It All

Hi everyone. Just self-published my first children’s book, She Does It All.

Kids get to finish the book by illustrating the verses.

Fun!

She’s bumping the bumper who bumped on his bump,

And jumps with the jumper who’s jumping the jump.

She’s pacing the pacer who paced the quick pace,

And chases the chaser who’s chasing the chased.

She’s dialing the dialer who dialed the dial,

And smiles with the smiler who smiling his smile.

Available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CG8B9MG

Product details

• Paperback: 44 pages
• Publisher: Independently published (July 3, 2020)
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 979-8632392976
• ASIN: B08CG8B9MG
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.1 x 10 inches

 

Say When 060320

There were so many moments

You could have stopped

If you had compassion

If you showed mercy.

 

When he stopped struggling

When he stopped asking

His (dead) mother for help

When he fell unconscious

When he stopped breathing

When he lost his pulse

But you continued

To choke his dead body

For another three minutes.

 

Was your hatred so great

That death wasn’t

Punishment enough

For being a black man?