i write about
the right to doubt
the only boundaries between
you and me
take the forms of color, sex and greed.

i say read and die.
i’m seeing in my mind’s eye
the base degrees of prejudice
launching to the upmost round
our seven deadly sins.
gluttony secedes the quest for reputation
and coats the heart with cold undying
power, scorn the ladder
on which before the clouds we stood.

shakespeare didn’t know it,
but society shows it.

the seven deadly sins like the wonders of the world
shimmer, flecks in the eyes
of youthful clairvoyance.
poetry, prediction, apocalypse,
evolution, education
induce intoxication, like the ebb and flow
of zeroes and heroes and all in between,
the more you know, the higher you go,
and the less you can show for it.

poetry, prediction, apocalypse.
t’is abuse of greatness when it disjoins
remorse from power.
a common american thing.
all-american all-star fling, and

it’s a funny thing, there are as many sins
as there are classics
in our world of envy, lust, anger,
porn and celebrity magazines
are all we have to show for our
babylon of knowledge.

poetry, prediction, apocalypse.
to our chagrin, voltaire speaks the truth:
“a witty saying proves nothing.”