Every time I shut my eyes I see the same blood washed visage
Babies whose skulls have been crushed by Mother’s maul
Vagrants torn and dead in the street
Jagged bits of glass glinting in exposed neck ligaments
Old ladies pushed down stairs until their bodies become an unrecognizable old mess
Quivering on the landing
Drug dealers shot in filthy alleys where garbage from the paleolithic era still reeks quietly
My eyes squeeze shut hard as iron gates yet no tears come
Only a grim sort of desert sand forms in the corners and gums up the works
I finally shoot from bed and endlessly pace the house
Passing works of art and books of poetry
That shall one day lay in ruin too
My anger bubbling and stinking and fogging the air
How did this happen?
The obesity of the world stretching the thin tenets of civilization to the point where its
Permeable to every bad idea that ever was
Everyone’s opinion laughs from the brain box about how wonderful it all is
Echoing off of the empty words booming from the stereo inside a lowered truck that
Sits painfully on the hot night asphalt outside
Chika-chika chicka-chicka chicka-chicka chicka-chicka chicka-chicka chicka-chicka
The Ghettobird awful close for this slice of paradise
Why can’t the poor stay in their trenches of shit where they belong instead of spilling out
Into the graffiti bourne sidewalks
“Listen children to the story that was written long ago..’bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley far below…”
War is all that is real
Wake up and see it for once
Without it the periods of peace would be nothing
The Devil is not about sex or sugar or finality
The Devil is murder
The Devil is the spirit of man
The Devil is the Judge rose bald and gleaming from the brimstone laughing and dancing and
Playing the violin
Hanging babies in trees is as easy as walking head-high through a green park
This fat reality TV land shimmers on my distance
A mirage of nothingness against the truth of death
Know death
Embrace it
Taste it
Find it
Mind it
It’s coming
What did you do? Did you survive a battle?
Blood streaked and pissed and more importantly did you understand love?
War is love
It is
And that is truth too
Love your neighbor
Lest you raise the axe and cleave him twain
Love your children
Lest you tie rocks to their limbs and pitch them in dark water
Love your wife
Lest you murder her out of spite for her beauty
Stay at war
Nothing meaningful was ever peaceful
Cheap or easy.

©2012 Harry Fagel for Cormac McCarthy