This whole thing is ridiculous.
nothing makes sense, nobody is genuine.
People say I should learn to trust people. I say people should give the world something to trust.
And I don't know what I want to do,
I dont think I ever will.

I know this, as long as people keep giving me reasons to distrust their nature, I will do so.

Adversus solem ne loquitor, alea iacta est.

Fallacy

While people go on living,
And the world stays steady
On its heavy, constant turn
I've sought this, and I have learned.
I've brought this, what I have earned.

That men all grow up just to die,
They leave their wives and money behind,
Their wrinkled faces see no new places,
but their hearts embrace constricting cases
In cages these men lie.
In cages they will die.

-E.p.

© 2009

Picturesque

An ancient man, with a troubled mind,
A heart of stone, and a mouth of lye,
Sits patiently in a rugged chair
By an open window that draws no air,
He sits, and he waits, and he ponders there.
The world just past the window pane,
Is serene and glorious and quiet and sane.
And full of birds that lull the grass to sleep,
And willows that watch the finches weep,
And where wolves tend to shepherds' sheep.
He seeks it.
But his past keeps him sitting there,
By the open window that draws no air,
In the confines of that wooden chair,
He sits, and he watches, with an empty stare.

-E.p.

© 2009

Questions

I was out yesterday, buying clothes for easter.

I walked out of a store and saw an elderly black man outside the door. The man was paralyzed and appeared to be in a very poor state of health. He was sitting in a sorry-looking electric wheelchair, the rubber was peeling away from the wheels, the metal was dirty and corroded. From one of the handles, the man had hung a plastic bag, full of what appeared to be trinkets, aluminum of some sort. He himself was wearing a torn denim jacket, stained and faded, his pants were also torn, and came down only to his shins. One of his hands, thin and atrophied from lack of use, sat on a crooked steering stick. The other hung loosely from the other side of the chair. His feet were placed awkwardly on the footrests, both turned inwardly. He wore tennis shoes, both of which had but partial soles.

As I passed this man, he slowly looked up at me through the rain, through sad grey eyes from under his black toboggan. His mouth hung open, exposing large gaps between his yellow, crooked teeth. He blinked as the rain hit his face, but stayed intent on following my gaze as I walked away.

And when I got to my car, I sat there for a while. I thought about that poor man, and what a struggle it must be for him, just to live. He obviously didn't have the resources to accomodate his disability, he most likely never will. And, in a futile attempt to empathize with this man, I stepped out of my car, with my able legs, and my adequate clothes, and I stood in the rain. I stayed in the rain for that man. I stayed in the rain for this man, if you can call me that.

God works in mysterious ways.

A Tranquil Place

I sauntered off not too long ago,
To a quiet wood the wind doesn't know,
Gath'rings of moss blanket the trees,
The flowers bloom and withdraw as they please,
The day speaks in verse, the nighttime flees,
And there, twilight falls, and never lets go.


The air is never thick, never hot
And the cold of the dark, it long ago forgot
It holds the pollen above the ferns
To catch the sun as it twists and turns
Through the maze of branches the tree-trunks have earned,
And I pay it all tribute with the words that I brought.
I share with the wood the peace that I sought.
The trees nod their heads, for the breeze found their lot.
I wouldn't leave such a place. No, I will not.

-E.p.
© 2009

Bad Things

Ive grown up, and been places, and thought about people, and analyzed people.
Been analyzed, and disregarded. Been held to high standards, and stooped to my own low ones.
Stooped to many things.
But, high and low I've noticed one thing. One thing has stayed consistent. I haven't been very far, nor have I been here very long, but here, people are inconsistent.

There it is, the only consistency I see in people is their inconsistency.
Its a sad thought. I'm guilty of the same though. So this must be hipocrisy. deviating from my own ideals, into the very thing I accuse people of.

I think I'll keep to myself though. Wouldn't want to be exposed for the very thing I'm exposing.

Here ye people, the King decrees:
"All men heretoforth take what they see."
The people cheer, and wave their hands,
They stake what are, already, taken lands.


-E.p.
copyright 2009

Poem

A wishful thought ought not stay long,
In the minds of men who this way throng.
Their eyes are restless, they bicker and sneer,
Here,

Reason reigns from the bosom of fear.


-E.p.
© 2009