Panacea

In early evening I saw you dance,
sculpted smoke in silver wisps
gyroscopic movements depurative in the fading light,
scarves in blue, green and gold,
twisting like wind whipped flame.

Blame it on the aspirin.

Todays rant:

Ok, let me put this as plainly as possible. All medicines are poisons, that's why they work. We put labels on them to tell people this, we have folks with years of training who tell us how to take them, we give them a foul taste so that children won't want to take them without being coerced into it, we know that they are toxic.
Now I will admit that the FDA has been somewhat laxed of late when it comes to identifying the dangers of certain prescription drugs, (especially those which are produced by politically powerful companies) but the fact is that no drug or medication is completely safe. You will not find any useful medicine or drug or anything like that which won't have serious side effects if you take 50 times the recommended dose for two years straight with a half quart bourbon chaser. Not one. These things are not meant to make you invincible, they are not meant to fix a broken life, they are not meant to make your world perfect with flowers and butterflies and all sorts of exciting dancing people on the beach. All they are meant to do is help you make it through the work day, to kill infection, to prolong life, and to ease pain. Like wild animals, oceans, or the sandy wastes, they will take you if you fail to show them proper respect.

Caveman Christmas Card

Crushed granite and polished boulders,
twisted stunted fir trees poking up through cracks in almost solid stone,
a patch of ground passed unnoticed on the nightly commute,
landscape almost unchanged since the last great glacier receded,
unmarked by the rise and fall of civilization,
stoically unmoved by human joy or tragedy,
aloof and unbending and perfect.
Tonight under the halo encircled yellowbrown half moon,
half hidden in the drifting smoke,
frost crystallizing in the sparse soil,
a millennia of unspoken history hanging in the breeze,
I saw it for the first time.

Woodsmoke,
sinew and cured hides,
burning fat,
freshcut cedar,
flaked stone and polished antler,
unknown demons beyond the firelight,
eyes in the darkness.

A good hump,
a full belly,
a warm place to sleep.

Blood in the snow.

I don't need to clean, you can still see some table.