Rendered (2014)

  

sacrifice belongs to the heart organ

struggling to render sense

of what the world makes of congealed peoples,

my own circle included,

as distal moot points jab reminders

we are one

when we see something hurt,

when conscience intrudes on business,

when going about forced

feedings, bleedings, and improvised bedding

on the side of holy

mountains buzzing with news vulture drones

ready to dominate

that which surmounts disbelief

and posits United sanctuaries as targets,

cupid on the rack

with a steady stream of vitriol

inserted down tube you conduit

you condone it

tithe the torture instrument no more

on a day shared

not just by foes, but by the rest of us noncombatants

who avoid even pillow fights

who would rather sing the feasts we find on this spare rib

called Earth, pulled out of a swirl

and primary longing to give

our own

to the other

in order for chaos to illustrate beauty in freedom

that mocks constraints and private prison islands

by a pace maker ticking out pardons

and sorry sorties, atoning for thirty third alignments

in which One divided

bears some burden, in ritual, but allows

blood shed by proxy and calls it brother in the wrong tongue,

so much in the way

that our info tube carves new tunnels in the form of wormholes

trying to find ways out of days

less revered than utilized. 

2014

Portland