Like the phoenix I sleep
In the pyre of circumstance
Stripped of recourse, I watch them
Scatter like hungry rodents
Chased from the granary
While I ash gray
And become unseen
Without a shine
No shiny new dime
Unrecognizable -
Copper or lead
Chafed and flaking surface flaws
And undermined support structures
I am a powdered person
Ashen gray
Pillar of salt
Coughing with carbon
And tiny bits of iron
We pile ourselves as high as we can
Our little mounds of pride
One higher or lower than the next
How the dull sparkle
Is worn with such candor
With such indescribable shape
Inconclusive shade
And murky perspective
I am camouflaged to the touch
And scaly to the eye
Just like the world around me
Without life
Unjustified
And unfit for propagation
Like inferior plants
And paving stones
Whose lack of uniformity
Merits not the soles of shoes
But the jagged juxtaposition
Of solidity and gravity
Fused in random silence,
Secret agreements
And honor commitments
Held in high esteem and gratitude
By the decorated elders of academia
Those aging dinosaurs of thirty five
Who pontificate like geriatrics
In the cackling din of the sanatorium
Bubbling pabulum hyperboles
With truncated half tones
And rapid monosylabolic sputtering
Like toothless weobles
They wobble about
Tottering next to death
And frothing as they speak
In cyclical gibberish
Using quotes from game show hosts
Or popular opinion salesman
Out to turn an honest buck
From the gawky teeth of horses
Or the smooth ring of the telephone
With a reassuring voice
On the other end
Promising riches and personal commitments
Elicited from folding chairs
And rented school auditoriums
“Hope springs eternal”
From such places they say,
With a smile
And a mind that repeats to itself
“Hard like stone”
And so goes the demonstration,
Run like a metronome
Or a cheap commercial
Consistently disappointing
And vacuous as deep space
But what we don't understand
Becomes increasingly apparent
We are helpless arbitrarians,
Fated settlers hustling to rest
To hang on to something with roots
To become unchallenged
So we can watch the dance
And rest our tired feet
And tell the tales
Of a being once in motion
Like the river
Glimmering gold and sapphire
Having since passed the baton
And turned to ashen gray -
Pillar of salt
Flaking and crumbling
Before our eyes
Carbon flecked
Infected by lead and specks of iron
And gravity
So that any strong wind
Or mild puff of air
Would annihilate this forgery -
To the momentary grief
Of the astonished spectators
Whose reaction
Is a knee jerk response
Based on both acquired mannerisms
And shear disbelief
That causes more posturing,
Settling and compromising,
And raking of the coals
To stoke a slow burn
With more flaking and crumbling
And turning to ashen gray
