Blessings

art by Walter Koessler

 

Blessings

blessings fall like snowflakes in your eyes
bring tears
create frozen channels on your breast
wet your pants in embarrassing places
and scurry to your feet
giving you blue toe.

blessings keep you grateful like fires
in the night
flickering on your chest hairs,
burning in your retina
wafting up genie smoke toward the sky
tempting you to make a wish,
swallow a burning sword
and puff out dragon breath.

beware the death of the blessing
instead hear in the distance
the laughter of God

Definition #384 Extinct

photo by David Schultz

when will violence

be extinct? like bison were ’til

snowflakes fell again

During World War II and the Cold War, American [men] from every group got together in the service, having a common goal — to defend their country … They learned together, pledged allegiance together,  sweated together, hated their drill sergeants together, got drunk together, went overseas together. What they had in common — patriotism, a language, a past they could emphasize and venerate — mattered far more than what divided them.”