she sails the high sands
a spanish galleon
having drifted off course
from the gulf of california
centuries ago
prospectors & geologists
die to find her treasures
buried perhaps
beneath laguna salada
or further north
along the salton sea
may two thousand twenty-five
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
some men are much too dangerous
to live past their prime
and so they are taken out
as if in the ordinary course of business
anger and sadness ensues
followed by collective complacency
conspiracy theories evolve & entwine
but slowly fade from view
meanwhile life must go on
lessons still taught but rarely retained
april two thousand twenty-five
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
Muscle memory
gets me from point A to point B
permitting the retelling
of the same stories
and every now & again
to a brand new audience
I once got lost
in the streets of Japan
unable to find my way back
home for a number of years
Those who knew me best
thought I’d either gained a new
identity or died somewhere
with all the others
in Hiroshima or Nagasaki
Little did they know when I
emerged out of the shadows
[sometime back in forty-nine]
my old war stories somehow
took on new meaning
february two thousand twenty-five
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
the reckoning has returned
gnawing away noisily
at lies & truths
like crows on a carcass
coming & going & returning
for as long as it takes
before becoming nothing more
than a past idea
an overflow of dying thoughts
replaced by lessons
in obedience
—the beginnings of a
new kind of old-school reality
january two thousand twenty-five
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
The skies were blue
meaning the school children
were outside again
observing
& learning
Used to be it was like an accident
when the sky was blue
some calling it
an (once-upon-a-time) omen
a second coming of sorts
After so many years
the skies were blue again
perhaps an anomaly
inherited from antiquity
redefining what it means to surrender
this day & age
february two thousand twenty-four
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
the information age
hasn’t enlightened the collective mind
having changed little what transpires
on a spinning silver-blue jewel
birds & bees carry on with their
multitude of purposes
actors performing on stage &
the silver screen
wild horses yet incapable
of dragging mick jagger away
rather it may be accelerating
the spread of hatred & contempt
fueled by talking fools
who feed the masses their very own
version of fire & brimstone
january two thousand twenty-four
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
there are those unafraid to die
conditioned to care less
about their own body
than other worldly matters
—such as rescuing the distressed
from imminent death
or dying for the sins of others
nothing is really forgotten here
but rather passes on
from various transgressions to the next
eerily similar to ground wars
lasting thousands of years
december two thousand twenty-three
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
nobody knows how he does it
so they forget it & move on
it’s no news saturday
one day a week set aside for peace
you pick up the phone
and say nope
you put it back down
nature always works
always in the background
saying look at me
hike on my spine
use my arms to clear a path
my legs to keep you going
nobody knows how he does it
he’s just a freak of nature
saturdays come & go
and in between
well we’d rather not talk about it
how the weather channel was wrong
how the hostage situation
keeps getting worse
in the dining room teenagers
are playing the board game RISK
one of them eventually
dominates the entire world
vows to usher in the next chapter
november two thousand twenty-three
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
we left nearly everything
there was no other way
to capture the flag
the only thing that seemed to matter
in the summer of sixty-nine
I remember I had
only wanted to play ball
but that was never in the cards
instead left strategizing
in someone’s low-lit basement
we could only assume
our house had been bombarded
likely laid to waste
while surviving relatives
roamed about like zombies
we had received word
of the headless horse
galloping into the orangish moon
a clear signal it was time to fly
the archers unloading their arsenal
june two thousand twenty-three
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
Cutting the whitethorn
inside a fairy fort
was much like committing suicide
and over time it became
common knowledge
much like finding a pot of gold
at the end of a rainbow
Magic of the druids
resided inside the ringforts
and anyone attempting
to penetrate the perimeter
between the morning hours
of one to five
were unlikely to leave
The Lios alive
june two thousand twenty-three
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
it’s like stepping back in time
long before plymouth rock
or the white man’s first encounter
w/native americans
this 12th century castle
was the first of its kind
modeled after nothing but an idea
what it would take to stay alive
you see back then there was
plenty of human ingenuity
artistic accomplishments
& historic achievements
of course what remained
was the insatiable desire to kill
and that spread like wildfire
by way of land & sea & sky
june two thousand twenty-three
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
The yankee & rebel keep fighting
ignoring the call for the common good
dictating their own marching orders
Pigs in dresses sporting red lipstick
at the county fair things go haywire
the yankee & rebel keep fighting
Hit & runs & other baseball games
nobody’s safe on the streets —thugs
dictating their own marching orders
New fake news & misinformation
spread from the darker to lighter web
the yankee & rebel keep fighting
Acrobats & gymnasts feigning death
big bad bulldogs & fat feral cats
dictating their own marching orders
Back to the future & back again
playing the race or injustice card
the yankee & rebel keep fighting
dictating their own marching orders
may two thousand twenty-three
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserve
in america
natural born leaders have been replaced
by natural born killers
at a future date
historians may connect the dots
—the sublime correlation between the two
mapping the evolution from plymouth
to richmond
to the latest school shooting
students learning
all on their own
how the eradication of racism
is a moot point
as long as man & boy
continue to pursue the art of war
may two thousand twenty-three
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserve
i.
she doesn’t remember me
not the old rock & roll songs
we used to danced to
taking cocaine breaks
back in the dressing room
ii.
I’m nearly her age
but she looks twice mine
at least from my perspective
— that irreversibility of time
iii.
I hear people saying
when did I get old darling
and they say baby
you’ve been timeless
since the day you were born
april two thousand twenty-three
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
I was a little kid not that long ago
learning how to read & write
in a parochial school my mother
yanked me out of after a year
[it marked the beginning
of my renegade ways]
fake news didn’t exist back then
but corporal punishment sure did
my father into pabst blue ribbon beer
walter cronkite & tricky dick
totally against creative free spirits
changing reality one media at a time
in retrospect the course of events
became pretty much obvious
the defining turning points
all possessing
a familiar denomination
one in which
I’ve weaved & bobbed though
currently in the process
of stitching back together
april two thousand twenty-three
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
when you tear
at the flesh
do both ears ring
in a canine kind of
frequency
after the feast
your heart rate slows
breathing shallowly
giving way to other senses
this earth talks
probably way too much
probably because
so few listen
the river did not always
meet the road
—natural bridges
evolving over time
december two thousand twenty-two
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
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