Merciel

The Sea and the Sky

July 3, 2012

Intermission

Cramp between cushions
still as a stone
whispering breaths
in a crowded room
heavy with coughs
a humid sour stench.
Dark but for the light
cast on the girl
playing the man
dressed as a queen
lamenting death.
Authentic tears
sweeten the verse
earn our belief
our love her dream.
This fantasy’s
a suitable
eternity.

Intermission,
I remain still
afraid to move
beyond the walls
of fantasy.
The real world
has villains too
not driven by ghosts
but humanity.
Witches and ghouls
imply a god
to protect us
but nobody’s good
outside the stage.
A tragedy
lasts but three hours.
Reality’s
eternity.
June 28, 2012

Minato’s Choice

Yukari’s beacon never sets–
a summer without end.
She’ll always be a friend–a loyal pup–
So he pursue rarer gems.

Mitsuru’s a jewel among the peasant class,
a trident tongue commanding waves
to topple the babble commonplace.
Unparalleled by peers,
the Babel peak unreachable
without strategy. He studies
unceasingly until he speaks in tongues
she prefers beyond the bonjour given to some.

He wins her approval.
He follows her to class and plays,
to dark hours her family made,
to lead the teams she delegates,
a loyal dog, a willing slave.
Mitsuru is paradise claimed
but she’s too busy with academics
to journey through the mall with him,
to call him every weekend,
to be a friend.

Yukari hasn’t changed–
still smiling when he passes by–,
but time she freely gave is now taken
by Ken, a boy more mature than him.
He returns to the dorm alone,
awaiting Tartarus, his real home.
June 26, 2012

Invader Zim

Johnen’s morbid
style flaunts thick strokes
with purple hues,
macabre shades.
A scary sight
for little boys,
Invader Zim
in an underground
lab, plotting schemes
to conquer Earth,
plans foiled by Dib
and sometimes Gir’s
capriciousness.
Whimsical gloom
forgotten by Nick
continues on shirts
at Hot Topics
these days.
June 21, 2012

Cupcakes

A muffin and cupcake fit together–
in the same pan, in the same oven–,
but after a half-hour,
icing crowns the cupcake king,
robed with silver lining,
topped with candy-coated sprinkles.
A fluffy handful of sugar,
a taste of royalty.
June 19, 2012

Old Customer

The blackest veil
could not conceal the joy
his broken body stretched across concrete
delivered me.
Not even hell could parallel
his volcanic temperament
aflame over a missing fry,
a mortal sin.
A lightning chariot
answered our prayers–cast
him to the street, dashed to pieces,
Last Rites denied.
Old Scratch now scraps in the trash.
The worms now feast on bitter rind,
coworkers rejoice on cheese and wine,
deliverance.
June 14, 2012

Evergreen in the Desert

Among the thistle strives a pine
not planted by ambitious winds
but human hands in supple Spring,
breezily moist, welcoming.

Summer sandstorms scorched it parched;
Fall flushed its friends of color;
Winter wrapped it in white shroud
concealed it in ivory clouds.

Wire won’t fend off the coyotes
intent to make their mark.
Holey drapes won’t deter winds
charging it like a cheetah.

The world’s washed out, but evergreen
the tree remains awaiting Spring.
June 12, 2012

Anti-Depressants

The organic machine: humanity.
Nervous sparks light up limbs,
chemicals catalyze love into hate,
variables calculate will.
Product: action or inaction–flight
or fight magnetic attraction–
fusion or fission–propulsion,
repulsion–latency to ping,
hardware physical binaries
crashing with emotions.

A service pack will patch the bugs.
Side effects include disabled
felicity, fertility, possibilities
of senility. But promises
of stability are worth the beta test.
Reverse engineer hopes frozen
by memory leaks, hack the brain,
kill the inner daemons, restart
to apply the changes–fallen man
becomes automaton.
June 7, 2012

Kate Upton

She balances the bottle between breasts
blossoming in flourescent lights, bouncing
off pearly flesh; the pearly gates open.
“Walk into Nirvana’s light,” they beckon
beneath the glittery dress, cleaved to reveal
ivory clouds–horizon of Paradise.

Her human tongue defies her fairy face,
fashioned lavishly with smiles sent freely
to every soul without a plastic coat.
Grace undamaged by chemicals, glamour
with nature’s blessing, beauty that enthralls
lonely men into teenage fantasies.
June 5, 2012

Transit of Venus

Amazing what you can capture with an iPhone and a telescope.

A beauty mark on the Sun–
the final event of the century.
Its procession across the star
observed by passerbys.

A sight to blind, but worth the burn–
history brands the eye.
An encore promised one hundred years
too late for minute lives.
June 5, 2012

JoePa

Let’s remember me for the championships I led
and not the evidence I concealed from cops,
for the morals instilled in all my boys
and not the coaches refuged from justice.

Remember a city still worships me
unparalleled by even the Vatican,
and every child’s desire to kiss my staff
remains after kissing the coach’s rod.

Let’s remember me for my victories
and not my crimes against humanity.