Not Pretty

Too damaged to be of any use to anyone?
Finding a convenient excuse when under the gun?
Too ravaged by ravenous beasts to even know
North from south
Or west from east?
Too self-centered, self pitied, self absorbed, to help “the least…?”

Fallen so far down it hurts to look up
A bewildered tourist naïve and trusting
Drinking specks of dust from an emptied tin cup
Walking past glaring neon lights through cityscapes and scrapers
Soul picked apart, heart and trust, pick-pocketed by hustlers and rapists
And love…
Has been Judas’ kiss

Abuelita is burning incense and candles
Purchased from botanicas y bodegas
to ward off evil spirits
prayers to Yemaya, o San Martin De Porres,
o Sietes Poderes Africanos o Caridad De Cobre
This is not the way...Hermanos Christianos!
Did you forget to play your lucky horoscope number today?
One God!
One Saviour!

While they're Wilding out
Jumping turnstiles running through subway cars
Snatching chains and purses
Cashing in at pawn shops
Little Debbie snacks
passed through small windows in thick plexiglas
Armed with cans of spray paint
A name is not lost
but a cloud shaped colorful dragon spanning several subway cars 
thundering across elevated tracks

Twist a brown paper bag around a pint’s neck, tight fisted
Bleeding from every pore
One for every vow broken ever swore
Too far in the red
To even be considered blacklisted

“Sorry, That number is no longer in service
Or appears to be unlisted”

In the kill zone
Sniper's crosshairs zooming in
In the spirit
Of spirited libations
Promulgating ignorance embracing sin

No mix up or dub or double minded track
No contradiction in cutting to the chase
Forgoing humor or fiction

Living in the world
Being of the world
Makes for very few
“happy endings”

Went to a faith healer
Out of sheer desperation
He said some words that were difficult to understand
Then shoved forcefully against a forehead
With the open palm of his hand
Hallelujahs, praises and Amens
Faded while falling back
then dragged back stage
by both arms once the cameras stopped rolling

"cut...that's a wrap!"

Walked away dazed and confused
but feeling no different than before
Bleeding a bit from the back of the head
But at least now
According to them

“SAVED?”



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Parable of the Life-Saving Station

(complacency, who shall save the "saved" from ourselves?)

Why do we do what we do? Sometimes we lose our sense of purpose.
On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and gave of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little life-saving station grew.

Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club’s decorations, and there was a liturgical life-boat in the room where the club’s initiations were held. About this time a large ship wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house build outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split among the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station. So they did.

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.

Reprinted from Ideas books by Youth Specialities, Inc. 1224 Greenfield Drive, El Cajon, CA 92021.