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Thomas Piekarski: California Poets Part 8, Four Poems


Thomas Piekarski

January 8th, 2025

California Poets: Part VIII

Thomas Piekarski

Four Poems



Manifesto Incognito


Subversion aversion brain drain eloquent                 

Singularity uppermost devotee turned tide               

Feathered dead reject surprising logistics

Trained eye pierced disperses immersive

Patrimony undivulged circular occluded

Eulogized jazz loco motion also atomized

Seize proportionate victory anthem sung

Strange vibrations whisper serpents clang

Factotums slide by reside no place today

Preternatural locust swarm forewarned

Nutritious neutrinos are served a la carte

Paste wax popular icons amethyst purple

Shave time whittle whistle titanic drive Spendthrift adrift favoring a fanged lizard Twist untwist wholly polarized caucuses Frame form hang thieves demote monarchy Like disklike oddly ossified public transit Fulminate against interrogation obliteration Swing harmonious lonely immune parakeet Drop napalm bombs on ravenous sow bugs Riot of sky color brightening ripest daylight Rolling bones overflow undeniable revival Litmus tested antidote compound pending




Cosmologically Speaking

 

As if we were occupying a universe

where life transpires in reverse

dark energy baffles astrophysicists

who while examining scientific data

obtained from the newest telescope

with precise measurements conclude dark energy at times expands space and at others contracts it regardless of those who have believed for long that this cannot be since the universe is only forever stretching and has so since the inception of the Big Bang through billions of years of evolution for which exists no rhyme or reason despite what sociologists and priests would have the greater population believe not taking into consideration

human limitations totally unaware of what’s hidden from we mortals in the multiverse which has during its journey collected acute knowledge that debunks our physics and stuffs it in a box from which no man escapes even if outpacing light across time




The Nightingale’s Plight

 

When your passion departs

in a New York minute

and love loses its meaning

 

When dreams get chewed

and spit onto a window

for the entire world to see

 

When memories but serve

as invitation to oblivion

you sulk like a mangy dog

 

When starvation is nothing

compared to the prospect 

of never embracing again

 

When pleasure disappears

because of your freefall

and life becomes mundane

 

When hopes plunge

through a steel night sky

and all you can do is cry

 

When once steady trust

seems like wet linguini

flung against a black wall

 

When flowers won’t grow

although you plant seeds

water and fertilize well

 

When your rainbows fade

overloaded with dismay

and squandered good will

When out of the blue

truth emerges and thrusts

a dagger into your heart




Reason in Season

 

Here comes the avalanche

wherein ego resides with its

cheer, romance, also demise

when victim of circumstance.

 

Now think big and grow taller

despite overwhelming squalor:

the powerful opposing others,

each following natural orders.


Anthracite, flower, worm, ocean,

catapulted, spun, dangled, wound,

feeling excessive heat and no clue

as to where the world is headed.

 

And anarchy around the globe

with smart missiles launched

that rarely miss their mark,

center of our brooding hearts.

 

Banking on hope lonely folk

retreat to safe positions while

trust in love! is shouted above

the howls of insurrectionists.

 

Happily, history’s vision

persists like golden spikes

driven into sensible minds           

soliciting reason’s advice.



Author Bio:

Thomas Piekarski is a former editor of the California State Poetry Quarterly. His poetry has appeared in such publications as The Journal, Poetry Salzburg, Modern Literature, The Museum of Americana, South African Literary Journal, and Home Planet News. His books of poetry are Ballad of Billy the Kid, Monterey Bay Adventures, Mercurial World, Aurora California, and Opus Borealis.

 



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