A DEBATE BETWEEN PEACE AND WAR           1-19-91

slow motion physics 
an incongruous time in the midst 
of the coming bedlam/chaos 
to think back centuries 
to the revolution of copernicus

the solar mass 
in tumult and explosive confusion 
at the heart of this system

is
when thought of
not so chaotic at all/

it gives the radiations that 
makes human life 
a possibility 
which self imposed authorities 
those men posing as gods 
seek
at this moment....

to drive into oblivion

chess games for the power mad 
intoxicated by visions 
of global splendor

poisoned pawns to the fore 
bishops taken by rooks 
all power to the king 
and his mates
for the games must be played out


warfare gambits
in marking of time's transitions

a lone level desert 
board
the width of the imagination 
and a game to begin

death's hand on the clock

why death as the keeper of the time?

because the passage of time is 
finite
and death loves the finitude of men 
and loves men for the ways they 
reaffirm their
finite selves....

death is the keeper of 
time
in times of conflict

and i who disavowed any part in this 
conflict
said to death:

"great sir, i find myself for 
once at your vantage point, 
to be sure one that i've no 
great desire to share with you....

i belong to a clan of immortality, 
and want nothing to do with this 
mindless venture...

yet this is your business 
and this is your game...

you smile at me 
in my current situation 
as unwilling observer of these 
brutal perversities .......

i resent this designation
which is no honor...."

and the grim reaper 
flashed the smile of horror 
and grinned at me with 
exuding exultation saying:

" hold your rage in check, 
for with you i have no issue, 
your immortality 
in this universe is nothing
i would indulge to tamper with...

you are not to blame
here
not in any fashion or form....

i have heard you speak loudly in the 
public forums
fraying yourself in the interest
of peace on this globe....
even though you have an abundance
of your own peace-in-your-being...

magician,
i hold you blameless, 
but accept the fact that you 
are in a situation, 
as existential as any 
you encounter....

watch the game
as it will be played through...

the strongest/
that is
the most intelligent shall
win/

my harvest shall be adequate
to be sure,
as it always has been/

and for you/ 
as i said, 
you are not to blame 
for the actions
of the mindless and primitive.

enough have taken you seriously,
haven't they though?

be content in what you have gleaned 
from the dregs of a species not as 
intelligent or humane as 
you'd wish...

be content, dear magician..
the fall out is mine...."


at the turn of the new year 
time is like a 
huge elastic band being 
stretched to the max.... 
the strain of the pull 
send caution to the winds

poisoned pawns to the fore 
knights behind them/ 
the king remote and distant 
in a position of maximum 
security....

winds whipping across this barren
desert waste
throats dry and parched...

a last thought at the
past 60 centuries of what
is called man/

progress?

a better game of chess/ 
better end games/ 
better strategies for next time/ 
in the text on the art of the 
game
edited by the grim reaper's hand