Requiem is now available! It comprises fourteen interwoven heroic crowns of sonnets, numbered I through XIV. Each of these, in turn, comprises fourteen sonnets plus a fifteenth master sonnet.
All fifteen sonnets of XI are available below as a free sample of the book, for you to read or listen to.
XI.1
To ghosts and fictions from a past of lies
Shall turn the gray defenders of the realm
To tales of nobler breed, of clearer eyes
To words of steady hands at sceptred helm
To fantasies of guards who never tire
Brave knights atop high walls who show their worth
As dragons clawing, crawling, climbing higher
Emerge from deepest fissures in the earth
The blight soon follows in the dragons’ wake
Another bastion ceded to the rot
Tonight, the darkest night, the dam shall break
Contempt’s deep currents solemn pledges blot
The trusted sentry legend’s weapon wields
Yet cast to ground humiliated yields
XI.2
Turn stalwart knights from dusted battlefields
To wakened dragons risen from their lairs
‘Twill be the proudest one who soonest yields
Who fades in puffs of smoke and haughty airs
The once so shining ornate armors lie
In jumbled, rusting heaps in shadowed vales
Now home to worms and ants who fiercely vie
Beneath clawed feet adorned by midnight scales
What stood ‘tween us and them now nothing more
Than but a fairy tale, a pretty dream
As dragons raise their withered heads and roar
To usher in their brand new old regime
They spread their tattered wings to idolize
Their clumsy vastness blotting out the skies
XI.3
Their rusted swords thrown down to seize their prize
The soldiers jostle to abase themselves
All groveling ‘neath their new ruler’s eyes
At home as if they’d known of nothing else
What of this thing that you call liberty?
We have our iron bits to chew and gnaw
Who needs this foolish notion, dignity?
We like it here beneath the dragon’s claw
All for a coin tossed in our beggar’s bowls
All for a bit of power to excite
The deadened appetites of hollow souls
For basking in the presence of true might
See, life is simple, you don’t need ideals
Just heed the master who the scepter wields
XI.4
Some trinkets to adorn their tarnished shields
Is all the payment needed for their zeal
Stripped down, the line of shining knights reveals
Naught but old broken men all brought to heel
They keep the same grave faces underneath
Their honored standard spattered red and brown
Pretending not to see the laurel wreath
Has shriveled, crumbled by the iron crown
The dragon does what every monster knows
To throw a bone, to give them what they need
A truer cause, a mission, even those
Dishonored knights uprooted from their creed
A purpose from the yarn of fables spun
A brand new foe, a war that’s never won
XI.5
Close tight the ragged ranks, stand up as one
Come find your purpose, let yourself succumb
To the heroic movement’s siren song
Stand loyal and stand by; your time will come
It’s up to each of us to tie the rope
That binds us to the prime imperative
To twist and turn the mind’s kaleidoscope
And make the pieces fit the narrative
To look away from any contradiction
Uncovered by a rebel consciousness
And to rest easy in the firm conviction
Of one’s own tribe’s undoubted righteousness
To look away from the banality
Of yet another feigned community
XI.6
For politics of true eternity
To lift you up from doubt, to help you rise
From shifty shoals of bleak uncertainty
Requires but the smallest sacrifice
The tiniest of cuts, the slightest sting
The surgeon’s knife makes rapid work of it
Just wait, you’ll see, soon you won’t feel a thing
For you’ll be made anew, and made to fit
Your creativity is all but weed
We’ll clean it up all right, we’ll show you how
With all the other parts that you won’t need
That’s better, see, there’s only here and now
No need for you to think of what will come
For it’s just more of same old zero sum
XI.7
Where every challenge has been overcome
Where every hard decision has been made
You might feel ill at ease, a little numb
It’s but the trifling price that must be paid
No history but that which we make up
No future but what we already know
For hidden in the morrow’s offered cup
Is nothing but past winters’ melted snow
There’s not a thing to be concerned about
There’s nothing out there to aspire to
For all is as it must be, all laid out
Could be no other way, nor made anew
And so we sail towards eternity
On slivers of ephemerality
XI.8
In perfect, ultimate modernity
The selfish cynic stands atop the hill
And scoffs at notions of equality
For greed is but a testament to skill
In all the world’s most grandiose live show
The masters of the higher caste can pour
Their scorn onto the masses down below
Who tamely lap it up and beg for more
Where solidarity is antiquated
There’s nothing but the power of the fist
Where trust and duty’s hopelessly outdated
The vacuum left yawns black in our midst
Go forth, oh loyal ones, go forth and strike
The traitors holding back; the serpentlike
XI.9
Now put the killjoy’s head up on a pike
Who wants to hear those tiring tales of doom?
We heard it all, we know their tedious like
But what we need is to dispel the gloom
A crime it is, to ruin folks’ high spirits
And if it isn’t one we’ll make it one
Who gives a darn ‘bout what their logic posits
Just trust your guts when all is said and done
What insolence, what cravenness to question
Our way of life; they’ll learn to hold their tongue
We’ll teach the eggheads all about discretion
Adangle, from the nearest lamppost hung
Now go! Give chase to craved normality
Down twilight pit of unreality
XI.10
Survival’s but an externality
To what is ours and what we always knew
To single absolute priority
To more, yet more, of all that gleams accrue
So find some other dolt to bear your guilt
You won’t see us give up the hard-earned gains
That which our dead and buried fathers built
The hopes infused in our children’s veins
We stood in line, we toiled, we fought so hard
We didn’t tow our hist’ry all this way
To find the passage to the kingdom barred
We’ll claim our right, what we deserve, today
Just like the hornet writhing on its spike
Deserved its fate, hung skewered by the shrike
XI.11
An academic fringe concern, unlike
The things of life and death, of here and now
Keep on a happy face, all businesslike
Keep down a job, get paid and smile and bow
Just got to pay the rent and pay the man
And feed the kids and keep them clothed and well
And keep your head down low, stick with the plan
Just one more lap around the carousel
Elitist plots to keep good folks in debt
All tricks to whisk away the people’s worth
And yet the sun will rise, the sun will set
On same old merry path around the Earth
Now fight to fend for your autonomy
Defy their logic, feed the anomy
XI.12
The ceaseless growth of the economy
The swelling of the wondrous magic pie
Is everyone’s responsibility
‘Twill grow and grow until the day we die
The train must chug along its laid-down tracks
Each man must do his part, must pull and heave
The heavy burden borne on crooked backs
Towards the next bright milestone to achieve
Minds focused on each step and ever weighing
Its price but not the purpose it shall serve
Eyes fixed on pebbled ground and never straying
Towards the looming exponential curve
Now listen, now is not the time to slack
Go further, faster down the cul-de-sac
XI.13
Just listen to the gospel, play it back
Ignore the wall ahead, ignore your fears
Now what’s that smell, what’s seeping through the crack
That steady trickle dripping in your ears
Distended to a tide devoid of meaning
All empty phrases, words that can’t sustain
They force their way inside, all gushing, streaming
Down past clenched gnashing teeth and up again
Your burning lungs implode, your heart contracts
Swept far away by frothing brown cascade
Churned by alternative and better facts
At last, the playing field itself’s unmade
Drink deep and drink your fill, then join the claque
To usher in the epoch of the quack
XI.14
It’s all you need and all you’ll ever lack
Where not a thing can ever be amiss
Stacked high on soaring shelves, just stuff your sack
Why wish for more, for anything but this?
Now be a good consumer, paint that face
And cover each unseemly flaw and speck
Just push your angst deep down inside, in place
Who wants to see your soul’s contorted wreck?
It’s fine to leave the world in able hands
Put on a smile, be nice, agreeable
A single thing ‘tween you and bliss now stands
To once obtain the unobtainable
Behind the veil the muted infant cries
For but a glint of love in strangers’ eyes
XI
To ghosts and fictions from a past of lies
Turn stalwart knights from dusted battlefields
Their rusted swords thrown down to seize their prize
Some trinkets to adorn their tarnished shields
Close tight the ragged ranks, stand up as one
For politics of true eternity
Where every challenge has been overcome
In perfect, ultimate modernity
Now put the killjoy’s head up on a pike
Survival’s but an externality
An academic fringe concern, unlike
The ceaseless growth of the economy
Just listen to the gospel, play it back
It’s all you need and all you’ll ever lack