Chicken

Are all our baskets broken
that we cannot fill them with our eggs?
Are all our chickens coming home to roost
among the snake-filled nests?

Do we have an intrinsic worth?
Are we free to keep our heads?
Or are we nothing more than feathers
to fill a suffocating bed?

Can we see into the future
when our present is so caged?
Can you take the shit they give us
or have you found your rage?

We can tear down those cages

And we can find our worth

And together build a future
The like we've never seen

Or we can crawl back in our cage
And dream of what might have been

A.J. Ponder

Have a great week everybody. Here's hoping we can all rise to the challenges life is throwing us.

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin

Draining the swamp of all human decency

In New Zealand
We love our wetlands
They're beautiful places
Rich habitats
Vital to environmental and human well-being

I've heard you're draining yours -
"What of?"
I asked,
And the answer seems to be
"Of all human decency"

*

Where once the bullfrogs croaked
And the blue herons soaked
And the land was buffered from the sea
Now
there's nothing in sight
not a bird in flight
just oil
as far as the eye can...

...look out
upon the desolation
of a once fair
land.

*

Yes, you heard me,
you're draining your swamp
of all human decency
and replacing it with
nothing but snake oil
and swamp monsters
grinning through their golden teeth

and pretending they can hold back the tide.

A.J. Ponder

PS: Release the kraken. :) 
PPS if you liked this poem, you may also enjoy:

The Circle of Life I  

The Circle of Life II

The Circle of Life III

I was particularly impressed with Senator Warren when she stood up to the drug companies. Her fight was my fight. For although drug regulation in America is so far away, it has had a detrimental effect all over the world. She did so, despite the bad optics, because the cause was just and right, and the consequences of failing will not only haunt America, but all the countries that through the FDA's influence allow America's drug industry to influence treatments.


 #globalwarming #kraken #swamp #swampmonsters #golden #tide #oil #snakeoil #drug

Tuesday Poem: Jericho-The snake has killed the dove

There's life on one side -
on the other there is death,
so where were you
when I took my final breath?

The bricks have all been broken
& the mortar's mortal set -
but where were you?
What - did you think you'd get

to say all your last goodbyes
after the bird has flown the coop
and the snake is at the door?
Or do you think you can just

sloop off and never see the sign,
the solid staff
the snakes entwine
the silent epigraph

that's carven on the wall.
Yes, there was a time
when-
but now that time is done


where were you,
my love-
my dove-
When the walls came down?

A.J. (demolished chimney shots will hopefully be put into this post tomorrow)


It's been a fantastic week, busy, busy busy, with a great launch of Twisty Christmas Tales and some fantastic reviews - including - KidsBookNZ "Three excellent anthologies for children" So why not have a little twist on the festive season this year with Twisty Christmas Tales: available at good book shops and on Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Twisty-Christmas-Tales-ebook/dp/B00OWXKEAW


The Tuesday Poem, is a great source of poetry from NZ and all around the world, why not stop by and see what it has to offer at www.tuesdaypoem.blogspot.com

The Circle of Life

We have let the snakes 

Into the hen house

Smoking cigars

And complaining

The eggs

Are not at all

To their satisfaction

"More would be

Better."

"Should we lose

One or two

Or

Wait?"

You get the score

Better lay more

After all,

There's one thing tastier

than eggs...

  A.J. Ponder 

Part of the Circle of Life series of poems:

The Circle of Life II  

The Circle of Life III

Cheers to Ernie Ellis - just as I thought I'd never find an appropriate picture I come across this book-cover, and it's perfect.  As for the poem, well I think it probably speaks for itself.  And as always, the current Tuesday Poem is here, at the Tuesday hub.