american anthem

like a mad preacher bent on
saving humanity I
worry for the soul
of my nation
this great miasma of
translucent humans who walk
in notions of splendor
bent out of wild vines by
men w/cojones bigger than Asia
a land made of men who in
another time & place
felled great beast & one another
with casual impunity
wild men who rode the savage
night without fear
mindless to their ends found
beneath rock boulders or
the at the end of ropes
swaying in a breeze
the kick of mules &
buffalo guns blazing
in plains saw grass
blood painting the afternoon
sky a brighter shade
of pale

i fear for my own soul here
locked in mortal combat
with desperation on ground
i can't hold for long
bleeding out my time in
long rivulets of red minutes
hours weeks years
all the human juice flowing on
behind some great dam beyond
the canyon of my mind
a Colorado River of madness
raging down my days
youthful green light fading like
trees on the foggy bank
on a smiling canoe trip through
rapids I can't survive
on a trip I couldn't stop
even if I wanted

when the time comes let me
breach the falls like an
iron man of old
wailing over the cascade with
fiery curses to a god i never
invented in a time i didn't see
in a land where nothing matters
but perceptions of what was
when the sod has grown back over
dark holes & the sunlight climbs
in columns to a heaven left
far behind
gone somewhere along those
paths missed in the journey
from there to here
gone & finally forgotten


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