An Important Man

I am an Important man.
Lantern jaw, custom suits, fast car and a driver.
Global corporate CEO, Chairman of the Board.
Charting economic courses, Captain of my industry.
I am an Important man.

I am an Important man.
Multi million bank accounts, mansion and a yacht.
Five star chef, sommelier, and a masseuse on staff.
Private island, Swiss chalet, castle on the Rhine.
I am an Important man.

I am an Important man.
But when my love is taken ill and doctors lack a clue,
When tests are inconclusive, diagnosis is unclear,
And she is fraught with tears and fear of what the future brings,
The power, prestige, and possessions grow irrelevant.
Her suffering is amplified. It cuts me like a blade.
And my true nature is revealed.
I am an impotent man.

Block Broke

A poet I admire once told me what to do
when inspiration's engine won't engage.
Just keep the cursor moving or the pen across the page
with whatever stuff and nonsense comes to mind.

Write about the block itself the weather or the news,
It doesn't really matter much at all.
The chicken in the crock pot with cilantro marinade
or the chocolate cake with frosting for dessert.

The dog is sleeping soundly on his bed beside the stove.
While in the furnace burn dead dinosaurs,
adding to the weight of atmospheric greenhouse gas.
It's ironic that the weather's so damn cold.

Tomorrow and tomorrow I will work an 8 to 6.
The shipyard is a place that doesn't sleep.
Destroyers for the Navy, lots of steel to 'fit and weld.
And on Friday wear a bow tie, ' cause it's cool.

I didn't mean the weather when I said "because it's cool."
I was thinking of the Doctor and his suit.
Though number four’s my favorite, with his jelly baby taste,
Eleven and his bow ties are quite smooth.

I've rambled on enough about this case of writer's block.
My consciousness won't stream another verse.
I hope that by tomorrow I'll be on to better prompts
With more meaning than this elemental curse.

The point of no return....

"In everybody’s life there’s a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That’s how we survive."
— Haruki Murakami

The bottom of the trench is dark.
The water should be cold.
But by tectonic happenstance
and random crustal fold,
the geothermal gradient
in these parts is immense,
and harvesting that energy
is naught but common sense.

The hydrostatic pressure
and the temperature are hell. 
The phosphorescent lifeforms
look like Hades' spawn as well.
A hostile work environment
for human or machine,
but splice them into Rifter,
an amalgam, a marine

Technician that can physic'ly
sustain the kind of stress
that living on the ocean floor
near thermal vents suggests.
Now scramble up their Psyche,
make them crave adrenaline.
That's the part from which there's no way back
to whom they might have been.

Now an aquanaut custodian
of geothermal plants
providing cleaner energy
than fossil fuels. The rants
of dire climate degradation
rendered all but moot
by Rifter techs, once human,
who have been rebuilt to suit.

Headline San Diego....
....Fusion power's here at last.

A rif on the characters and technology depicted in the novel Starfish by Peter Watts.

Image by Scott Clarke from http://www.rifters.com/real/gallery/rifters.jpg depicting characters and setting from Starfish by Peter Watts. Attempts to contact the artist have been unsuccessful to date. Credible objection to the use of the image will be honored by it's removal.

MisDirection

A network of linked comments
Each attached to different posts.

Channel surfing in the aether
Threads in chaos (too verbose?)

Puzzle pieces fit together
Though the pattern is unclear.

Hell. My head hurts from composing
Let's all go and get a beer.

_A spontaneous reaction to the 'G+' version of phone tag. Inspired by a very real exchange with +Amy Glamos. The muse oft strikes fast and hard....and leads to some very strange places!_

Poetry for the Palate

Ciabata or focaccia,
split in half and toasted light.
Liberal spread of lemon hummus,
Or the like.

Drizzle with the oil of olives
And balsamic vinaigrette.
The former is an option,
you may choose.

Top with slices of the queen,
Stuffed with pimentos nat'raly.
A snack, you will agree,
That's heaven sent!

The Muse

My muse came to me in a dream one night,
her tilted smile and eyes that sparkled bright.
she took my hand as we went for a walk,
and not a word was said.

We walked through verdant forests rich with life,
through ghettos full of poverty and strife,
on beaches where the mighty oceans raged.
My senses overflowed.

We watched young love ignite and spread it's wings,
the pain of birth with all the love it brings,
and elders wracked with grief and left alone.
My heart broke in my chest.

I turned and saw the tears stream down her face.
We lingered. A chaste but intimate embrace,
before she faded to that Cheshire smile,
and left me to my words.

I dreamt about my muse again last night.

With thanks to my muse.

Self Inflicted

The Beauty passing on the beach
begets exquisite agony.

A pain so real it takes my breath away.

Toxic

Don't look at me.
I'm hideous.

Don't talk to me.
I might think you want a friend.
Or worse, that it could be me.

Then begin again The Dance.
Where things are nice.
For way too short.

Conversation, clever posts.
A meeting of the minds.

Then you see.
Me.

And draw away? No...
Recoil.

Silence. It goes downhill.
Fast.

I reach out, thirsty.
Clingy, mewling.

I persist, hungry.
Manic, cutting capers.
Ever thus - The Fool

Then in the mirror.
I catch a glimpse.

And draw away? No...
Recoil.

It's me, not you. Clearly.
So, so, sorry.

Topside? Virgil Brigman on the bottom.
I'll be staying for awhile.
Goodnight. Sleep tight.

Don't follow.
Toxic.

Image by Scott Clarke from http://www.rifters.com/real/gallery/rifters.jpg depicting characters and setting from Starfish by Peter Watts. Attempts to contact the artist have been unsuccessful to date. Credible objection to the use of the image will be honored by it's removal.

Virgil Brigman is a character from the movie The Abyss by James Cameron.