Irises

Mockingbird

   LIKE THE EARTH,
          JULY 4
Scrubbed raw day, trumpet of the voice that made me
naked, to wander through solemn Sundays
between peaks’ herald welcome
let the valley echo with the sound of your song,
where it rides on the wind’s broad back free and strong
sowing grass seeds of tenderness,
as the gold Sun, arches through burnished blue fields-
grass grown by a race once so great
that from their ancestor’s bodies
flow the blood of independence that mendicants sorrow
and nourishes the sweet rainbow Dreams of Liberty.

I sing of love, of blushing roses,
of fireworks that erupt in the heart
of America that nestles me always
in the sumptuous folds of her flesh.

I devote myself to justice;
and to sacred Spring, its serene skies deep and eternal.
Like the Earth, all that I love is dying,
and like the Earth, all that I love is constantly being reborn

EXCEPT IN MY HEART
Its been over a decade since my grandpa died:
and the greatest tribute I can conceive is that he was loved
by his family, who wept for him, when he was buried,
with a sorrow as profound as the bitter emptiness
the void his passing left behind.

Everyone huddled about the house wondering what to do next.
Only, I was dry eyed wandering around like a human camera
recording everything. Its not that I didn’t feel the grief,
as the day disintegrated and the World hurtled towards darker nights.

What I felt was a sadness closer to Novocain.
Then, it was time to pay the last respects;
bring a pall bearer I was one of the first to file past.
What a numb surprise, he had already left,
the wax figure lying wasn’t anything like him.

And, they had said seeing him there like that
was supposed to make me want to cry.
Afterward, the room was filled with hostile and uncomprehending eyes,
I tried to withdraw further into the merciful shadows.

Raging sorrow is soon over,
for years other concerns have mutilated life.
Wickedness, greed and corruption have been supplanting goodness,
in a stupid social revolution, which has erased
those events from the minds of men.

Now, only I think of it, and, visit his grave often;
for over a decade now, growing stronger with experience;
while, like his name etched in marble on a stone memorial,
his memory is slowly being effaced in the rain:
               except in my heart.

   SUNSET’S PROMISE
Love
The labyrinth of trails
and the chessboard of sunshine and shadows
and the eagle of its dreams
on the tallest towering tree shrilly calls out to infinity.

Love
A lyrical melody
and the saw toothed horizon of its odyssey
and the lonely longing
as she waits on the river bank.

Love
The stream softly singing
accompanies each sylvan mile
and the casual breeze’s playful banter
where smiling sunshine filled with hope warmly embraces the union.

Soul mates, the mountains
in their ghostly white forms
murmur in their frank ardor dawn
and the flow of color.

And the deer in their thickets
still as the clouds
in their startling blue chambers
that define the horizons.

The wise West wind bestows
its life giving blessing to the trees,
its cool fingers caress
perspiration moist brows.

Heat waves of light
dance playfully in the afternoon’s lap
as the dream of life
intuitively gropes toward love.

The Sunset, a kiss on the top of Mt. Tabor and love.
The eagle gives its freedom,
to the receding horizon
where waves of colors parade past.

A doe eyed girl waits
among insouciant reflections,
a vapid breeze exhales
Love sings to us Sunset’s promise…

   AFTER
After you die
you see people
and hear their voices,
as they talk together.

After you die
you enter another dimension
and see God’s light
pure and lovely and lily white.

Yes, your vaguely aware that your dying
and yet, somehow your not afraid,
your beautiful cold hands
are utterly indifferent.

You look uncomprehendingly
about, while Heaven
blossoms open around you
fragrant and jocund and full of love.

But, your there, in Heaven,
all the same;
surrounded by your loved ones
I know we’ll meet there, I promise.

   TO RELATE
I have never been able to relate
to those corpulent beauties of the Northern Renaissance
with their huge haunches and thighs
insouciantly poised penetrated by my heart’s eye.

To Watteau, the painter of actors
I leave his sick and arrogant troupe;
lost, I search longingly among those reflected masks
whose cynical glances never reveal an earnest ideal.

You, Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth, spawn a brood big on immoral crimes,
Prometheus’ redundant nightmare in an urban environs-
if only I could heal your dark soul’s lurking illness;

or, you Helen’s daughter, midnight,
repudiating reason, practicing the Kama Sutra with the latest neo-Zarathustra
unlike yours, my dream is for everyone’s delight.

   ET TU BRUTUS
The noblest Roman of them all, Brutus,
once said , “ Virtue is a trifle!” ,
while plunged in the depths of despair.
How just and measured was his comment.
But, perseverance better than all the rest
protects man from the vagaries of fate.
For piety has never
alleviated predestination’s intentions,
as the just and iniquitous each ultimately
share the same end. And, yet we ,
in our petty pride pretend to be privy
to God’s immortal mysteries,
as we aspire to Heaven in a vain effort to see
its divine infinities! Auguries
and sweet fleet footed dreams
Hope has fled, replaced by Grief.
What would you have of me?
Now that happiness is stolen
and Tranquillity torn to pieces.

   BENEATH
Beneath the crescent moon
lie the verdant hills and tender valley
along with the young prostituted girls
paired to contrast physical traits for psy. profiling purposes.
One a blonde in a stylish red dress,
and another a brunette in blue jeans and bra less T-shirt,

Thus the oppressive times go, gentle one,
in your youth time was sweet;
now Sirus fades, each year diminished,
and the crows strut up the stupid suburban street,
while the gull screams from high above
the destitute park with derelict benches.

Young lovers still stroll arm in arm
gaily in the cold nipped Autumn air,
their eloquent language of silent gestures
accompany the subtle shaded phrases
you recognize and remember.

There is no pity: and, I steadfast as terra firma,
lament my lost life and liberty.
Here among growing shadows you remain,
while I share my pain with your wound,
mine too dressed in sadness and sorrow.

Remote are the shades moving along the street,
even more distant than the dead,
our enemies vapid and vile.

                   RUMOR MILL
   The Rumor Mill believes that the radical right were responsible for most of the recent incidents of homosexual improprieties committed by U.S. Catholic priests. Further, it believes that the priests were first perverted and then induced ( by subliminal technologies coupled with efforts at psy. suggestion) to commit these perverse acts with youths. The Catholic faith is designed to encourage forgiveness through Christian charity, as a means towards improving God’s children’s behaviors - not vindictively locking them out from God’s grace in the Catholic Church. It is thought that the radical right deliberately took advantage of this policy to try and embarrass the Catholic Church, and advance their own church and religious beliefs. Does God need the help of perverse behaviors abhorrent in the eyes of the Lord? Does God support duplicitous behaviors, which are repeatedly condemned in the Bible? Obviously not, these actions are cynically designed for gains in this World, and with no regard for the next.
   The Rumor Mill believes that before such a suggestion can be seriously considered certain factors must be established. First, there must be a documented record of an adversarial relationship on the part of the radical right towards the Catholic Church. Second, it must be proven that the radical right has a record of previous involvement in setting people up, utilizing various forms of sexual misconduct (and specifically perverse behaviors) to discredit individuals and institutions. Third, there must be established a clear motive to commit these immoral criminal acts. Fourth, the opportunity and means to commit these perverse acts also needs to be established. All four factors must be proven to a high degree of probability before this can be believed.
   Before proceeding further the Rumor Mill would like it stated for the record that it is an independent entity, which is neither Catholic nor homosexual. It doesn’t pretend to know everything about either subject. However, the Rumor Mill does have extensive knowledge about the radical right, and their various methods of operation; and, the Rumor Mill believes that with the use of reason and common sense, it is possible to increase our understanding and learn the truth. Further, it believes any religion earnestly held, to the extent that it doesn’t deny fundamental rights and liberty to others, is acceptable to God. - for who among us would not be free to live their lives according to the dictates of reason, in ways which promote their happiness and prosperity? Besides in the Bible Christ says, “there are many mansions in my Father’s house.” Finally, even if one doesn’t embrace God, which the Rumor Mill does, one should support religion, because it serves two important reasons that benefit society. Religion provides comfort for individuals in times of travail. And, religion encourages people to be better behaved. The one exception is when zealots rise to an ascendancy, for then fanatical elements superimpose their bigoted, irrational beliefs on everyone else, not tolerating any other opinion than their own, while engaging in vice ridden and corrupt practices, without realizing that they’re wrong.
   The radical right has had an adversarial relationship with the Catholic Church that extends back for at least a quarter of a century. There are a wealth of examples to establish this belief. First, there is the infamous Reagon/Bush lead CIA attempt at assassinating the current Pope, which is best documented by Noam Chomsky; where the almost successful attempt was traced from its inception with the CIA recruiting the assassins in Turkey, through their travels which later culminated in Rome with the attempt on Pope John’s life. Later it was falsely alleged that the assassin worked for Bulgaria, even when Italy was busy expelling the same CIA operative, now transferred from Turkey to Italy, who was in charge of the operation. The assassination would have eliminated a particularly popular and effective Pope. And, because the enlightened humanistic policies of the Catholic Church conflicted with the oppressive measures of the puppet states backed by the radical right; where the military related death squads fought against peasants supported by Catholic Church, who agitated for land reforms, food, clothes and medical assistance. Second, there are right wing extremists who feel that the World’s oldest church, with direct ties back to the apostles Peter and Paul, have an unfair competitive advantage. They feel its necessary to give the competition `warts` just as they had previously done in the political arena with Pres. hopeful Sen. Hart, Pres. Clinton and in `cleaning their own (Republican) party of undesirable elements like moderates and progressives by setting up members like Sen. Bob Packwood. Third, efforts to compete for souls resulted in an extensive negative propaganda campaign that extends back over 25 years and includes movies, T.V. programs, books, and magazine articles. This extensive effort was designed to overcome negative impressions of the “new found faiths” that the Bible states society is supposed to beware; and, the marital practices engaged in by some of their members, in spite of the fact that several examples of these practices are given in the Bible. The result of these factors is an adversive relationship by part of the religious radical right, who will be mentioned more at a later more appropriate time.
   The Rumor Mill believes that the radical right has used sexual improprieties to discredit others and gain influence for themselves. The above mentioned political figures are one example in a practice which has reached from the White House down to local levels of gov’t.. The pattern has been (see previous issues) first to set a targeted individual and/or group up, and then when the radical has caused the crime to occur, hypocritically condemn the occurrence. In the mean time thousands of dollars are paid annually in what amounts to wide spread child prostitution involving whole families of field operatives. Who net up to
$2,500 per event. Groups which have been targeted before the Catholic priests are: police, in efforts by the radical right to gain influence over the law enforcement communities - eliminate officers who don’t believe in the radical right’s political policies and replace them with those that do; teachers, here locally for over a two month period the only rapists were from one occupation, which is statistically impossible (for how can that occur with out extensive manipulation - see previous issues) and done in order to discredit public schools already reeling from radical right instigated violence, in the radical rights’ on going efforts to impose their unfair inferior voucher school system on an unsuspecting public; politicians, a group we’ve previously mentioned; and hippies, where several members of this subgroup were either perverted and/or induced to commit statutory rape, thus creating a strong negative association with this part of society, when a perceived threat was felt to be needed to replace the collapsed evil empire of Communist Russia. The above mentioned are only four of many examples (like politically motivated sexual violence) that could be documented at what the Rumor Mill believes are instances of perverting conducted by the radical right on targeted groups, of which the Catholic priests are only the latest.
   Rumor Mill believes that the radical right have a strong twin motive for committing the immoral-crimes perverting priests entails: money and power. First, perverting priests would serve to increase influence of the radical right in large portions of the third World, which would help them in their efforts to buy up energy grids and natural resources. It would help facilitate the radical right over come environmental protection regulations and controlling cheap labor, and help keep it cheap; and, lower costs of the fictional business interests of the radical right, and, thus maximize profits for extended production runs on their newly constructed production facilities. The radical right’s goal is to pursue these policies instead of government following policies which would promote social services like Social Security, and policies that successfully take care of negative externalizes generated from market driven economies. The radical right proposes to use their increased influence to use government as conduits to siphon off money from the public to their private interests i.e. mutual funds and the insurance industry. The Rumor Mill believes that this firmly establishes ample motive for perverting Catholic priests by the radical right.
   The Rumor Mill recognizes the fact that the radical right is a heterogeneous mix of people embracing a homogeneous political ideology. And, its evolution in the second half of the last century is extremely interesting. Further, Rumor Mill believes the radical right has now reached a point where its definitely an oligopoly, in which there is a first among equals which dominates policy by controlling the purse strings. The purse strings for field operations are still funded primarily by two illegal sources. Drug monopolies in Columbia, Kashmir, Pakistan, S. E. Asia, and now Afghanistan, too, in principally heroin and cocaine from one of the two primary funding sources for the child abuse operations of the radical right. Illegal stock market manipulation, which generates inflationary pressure, helps destabilize financial markets and constricts wealth in injurious artificial patterns, form the second primary funding source for operations that pervert priests among other immoral-criminal behaviors.
   The Catholic Church is a heterogeneous population, too. It has always had members like the 2nd and 3rd generation Kennedys and it has always had conservatives like Cardinal Cushing from New York. Within the radical right are circles within circles within circles, some concentric and others overlapping; until, it is layered like an onion, whose information base varies widely with the level of involvement and corruption. One of the radical right’s goals is to displace the institutional integrity of the Catholic Church making it a puppet to their Neo-Nazi policies, like when it was pro-fascist in WWII. Thus its not contradictory for Catholics to be active members of the Church and still members of the radical right, too. even when it perverts priests. Politics do make strange bed fellows!
   A brief look at the Catholic Church’s stance on the issue of homosexuality is in order. It has been opposed to homosexuality since its inception - clergy are supposed to be asexual. They are married to God, according to them. Homosexuality is “abhorrent in the eyes of the Lord.”. But, the Catholic Church also believes that man is separated from God only by sins, from God only by sins, from which we are in this life cleansed not by our own virtue, but by divine compassion; through God’s indulgence and not through any action on our part, or power that we may wield. For whatever virtue we pretend to have is merely a gift from God given to us through His grace. And, we might fall victim to any number of sins, like that of Pride or Avarice, while we live, and so the Church has held that there but by the Grace of God go you or I. This is the reason that through a Mediator, God’s Grace, given through the Catholic Church, all who live are in a state of original sin and that we who are of polluted flesh can only be cleansed by the likeness of sinful flesh. Only through this Mercy where by God proves His Goodness through Grace to mankind. And, so to the Catholics they traditionally have held that man is both governed by their faith in this World and in the Life to come being led upward to a state of perfection by their vision of immutable truth.
   This is part of the basis of the greatness of the Catholic Church. This is the basis of their rich humanistic tradition. What the Rumor Mill believes is that these recent incidents of perversion occurred because the radical right, who have the technological capacity, a long record of child abuse and ample motive, and lots of opportunities and means found what it mistakenly thought was advantageous, to pervert priests and abuse children. All one needs to do is look at the extensive stable of perverted children used by the radical right as contemporary temple prostitutes, from whole families who have used child prostitution as a means of supplementing their families income. The radical right finds this arrangement convenient, because they can more effectively pervert using almost any set of physical characteristics conceivable; while clamoring against perverse forms of behavior and cynically grasping the moral high ground (see previous issues) in meeting of local, state, and national government. The increased influence is then converted into increased political power, which is then utilized in achieving their factional economic objectives. The families, now third generation in some instances, are made systemically vice ridden by a corrupt system that encourages child involvement at ever earlier ages. The long term negative consequences will inevitably include an exponential increase in a variety of forms of perverse behaviors and other related social problems. A negative spiral of moral degeneration is already manifesting itself in the norms and morays of society. An artificial increased crime rate; and, in government more poverty and corruption.
   The Rumor Mill believes that the radical right’s efforts at perverting priests have provided yet another example of the vice and corruption that naturally accompany the abuse of power. Any time a society ignores equality and turns its back on Liberty, which form the basis for all society’s Natural Rights these forms of abuse will follow. Further, if this is what transpires when good people who strive to save society from itself what sort of people will this sordid sort of vice-ridden behavior attract, and what forms of violent, cruel, and brutal behavior will they in their turn engage in. All egalitarian safe guards will be eliminated along with our Civil Rights, which is a deplorable state for a commonwealth to be in.