Motivation is the key
for me to maintain a sane
disposition for
the recognition that I’m
defensive in my
application of vengeance.
It’s not the person I hate
but the behavior
I endeavor to snuff out.
It’s about defense
not offense that presents what
needs to be dispensed quickly
with amplitudes that
exude a fierceness toward crude,
harmful aggression.
[Marlene]
I find it interesting
to perceive closely the kind
of entertainment
people choose to pursue with
win/loose challenges.
Ancient gladiators fought
brutal battles to the death
before spectator-
packed Roman colosseums’
protracted blood baths.
Revenge seems to be absent
but floods of blood . . . prominent.
We are no longer
so barbaric. We stick to
our favorite
football mania each Fall
enthralled with all the conflict
minus blood letting
with robust betting from fans
who plan to enrich
their coffers to predict which
opponent offers the sure
bet on who will score
more points to be anointed
supreme combatants.
Hence, body crushing tackling
and blocking cements ardent
zest for physical
conflict and competition.
Employed vengeance lives
on both sides of foes who seek
to control an oblong sphere
of mere compressed air.
I must confess a strong sense
that barbaric still
rests firmly within the chest
of humanity that speaks
of their civilized
nature as they puncture land
with bombs and missiles
to demand acceptance of
their invasion and their theft.
Laws require strong
voluntary compliance
elsewise defiance
rules the day that strays away
from democratic rule toward
breeding police states
that await the simple step
to dictatorship.
[Collin]
Marlene is exactly right.
If a fight for compliance
exceeds acceptance,
of laws for governance, then
civil unrest peaks
to a foul stench that reeks of
civil war to quench the thirst
for mortal combat
to settle the score between
those who freely swore
their undying allegiance
for our democracy.
[Grace]
Please Mom, may we speak
privately? I need to see
clearly your thinking.
[Shey]
This is a good place to break
and take time to trace what clear
ramifications
that we may fear to prob as
hard, frightful lessons
that we have not yet mastered
but are anchored in our
evolution’s path
toward a measured improvement
over past errors.
Grace, let’s take a walk and talk.
Our friends can find a fourth
to course away their
evening’s fair entertainment
meant to sharpen skills.
[Grace]
If you play poker, not bridge,
why did you bother to come?
To envisage you
in a smoke filled, dimly lit
room with other men
seems so unfit for such a
woman like yourself. It’s much,
too much to perceive.
[Shey]
Marlene deemed it wise for her
to strongly advise
my socializing at Carl’s,
but she failed to state bringing
you there as her date
to relate with my good friends
and take in some bridge.
[Grace]
I cringe at your use of ‘date’
to impinge upon my clear
sphere of dating males
over females to assail
my frail distinction
for attracting masculine
desirous affection.
[Shey]
Calm down, Grace, you race
too fast to imbue my words
with fear you then glue
to my meaning to foreswear
from a denotative choice.
Perhaps, you would rue
that I had a date to skate
with my lovely Grace?
Beware of connotative
fusions to denotative
neutral word choices.
You’ll betray uncertainties
bound internally.
Certainly you’d agree with
the fact that a date equates
to agreeable
folks who will share an event
that evokes pleasure
that accents mutual likes
that strike their fancy be it
card playing, deep sea
diving, mountain climbing, or
gardening apart
from sexual endeavors.
‘I have a date with Marlene
to see wind chimes’ is
truly asexual but
you can easily
assume more connotative
meaning than was entombed in
my simple message
that focused more on Marlene
than your touchy self.