image by dan ryan, tech polaroid doyen/environmental champion

Cease to Participate
by Daniel Crockett 

There was a moment there, between the
Stopped clock and the stopcock drop
Silence
Golden like that gargantuan Buddha
A reminder that we shoulda
Violently
Flown the coop, bust the nest
Climbed the shelves
We coulda been, golden
Ourselves
Bathed on dawntouched roadsides
In gutters, candlelit youth
But the truth - out there, rubbed in faces with
a vandal's
lack of care
Evaporates like promises, to the four corners of the air
Is it enough just to trust
Blindly
In the burdens we all bear?
In ambition
Or scream a question to the earth
Why Will You Not Love Me?

Reality found;
A vision
Administered like a sticking plaster
Bound
A wrapped, rapt
ballgag for the mouth
To support this sagging flesh
The light bright gets doused
Until
(this a guess)
Saul rubs his hands, the fire takes,
Then roars
You will not contain me!
The flames howl in their lick
It kicks like a mule
This reality slick
Framed in a bastard square
Like
The guts of
any
good
flick

The streets whisper like a lunatic in the dawn
Suddenly awake
It beats on the bars
And shakes
No concession to a yawn, or a stretch
Just the steady and sick momentum
Of cars
Declaring    their    hate
There is nowhere to hide in the cold morning light
Get out get out before the night
That's it
I'm done
I will not wait
It's over
We're through
Don't shut the gate
Believe it
It's nigh
I cease to participate