earth note 98

first ninety degree day
breaks with a sweat
twenty year journey
cloudy imaginations
not unlike
that day landing back from thailand
in '89
so many promises broken
& yet
remaining so empty
'cept for a jingo july 4th
sun galloping toward dusty shadows
a dull beige of no distinction

(i remember tasting the mud of a river bottom
in better years)

now there's hesitancy
like a cautious fisher
surrounded in sharp black rock
immobile
only words
& crashing swells
tomorrow

--- e b bortz

advice to new graduates

learning how to kill
doesn't need to be
in your repertoire

i don't know much
about peacecorps
americorps
help america read
that college near you
or anything else
but it's got to be better
than camp lejeune
fort bragg
or life on a submarine
not a yellow one
but the cold gray steel ones
project oil war & empire maintenance

you don't need to accept this
but
your life means
live

--- e b bortz

(published in The New People, June 2006)

the revolutionary act of poetry

turns every mask inside out
so that we can see the imprint
from the scar tissue
the crooked teeth on broken smiles
the original lips
that kissed
a first lover
a tongue & nose
that still tastes
eyes & ears
without borders

there are no commodities exchanged
in the revolutionary act of poetry

--- e b bortz