Introduction from the Prism of Past (Part One Theme)

Photo by Heath Truitt posted to my Facebook page

I cut my teeth to attention deficit,

impulses, and anxious shifts

To the tension soundtrack of hardcore

punk and manic thrash – all caustic assessments

Under the specter of Cold War arms races,

movies about the day after,

kids taking up arms,

or harboring aliens

Images of horror crudely circumscribed

in a cynical understanding of the future

void. Bomb threats were a supplement

to recess

Coming of age when the Berlin Wall toppled,

and slow currents of social justice swelled

and smoldered,

slow but steady like drought-ravaged green

in the Olympics’ basins,

so close to the sea

Informed and administered through a shift

toward unfiltered introspection

Carving out existence from a foundry

of conventional wisdom. I joined in around

the table to gain approval through osmosis

and relevant topics

Taking oaths in the cult of expectations,

with one eye toward knocking off

the proverbial chip, and one eye fixed

squarely on the past – hands steering away

Bought in on flawed premise,

in cynical acknowledgement

of the absurdity of burgeoning war,

and potential collapse

Cashing out – triangulating

what could be reconciled. Caving and carving,

but henceforth marrying what was saved

Finding hope in quasi-enlightenment forced

on the unsuspecting middle mass

Seeing the strain of humanity grappling

with the tilting axis to and from

its future, but finding

illuminations within the journey

Part One is a disturbance, an appeal,

a disappointment,

and an acknowledgement,

that the perspectives of past inform the future

more than they provide a cure

It’s a picture of the present

MM 3/17