Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Stupid, Stupid

Stupid, stupid, not so bright,
Leaving on the lights at night.
What masochistic fantasy
Absolves my sin 'gainst synergy?

Killing dolphins in the sound
With wasted oil clawed from the ground,
Power purposed to gladden lives
Instead spewed forth to darken skies.

With every heedless step I make
Scores of living beings break.
With each unthinking breath I steal
A furry mammal's share of weal.

How to assuage the spirits gone
Because I left the power on?
How to berate myself enough
For sqandering such precious stuff?

No debt so small that I can pay,
No sacrifice that I may make,
Which ever can erase this day
The thoughtless blight of my mistake.

What hammer sufficient to strike the blow?
What words so vile to excoriate enow?
O let me stanch my primal force
Sooner than blanch the wild water's course.

Crack my head upon a rock,
Encase my heart in concrete block,
Buried beneath lifeless sands
In half-payment of life's remands.

Stupid, stupid, not so bright,
Leaving on the lights at night.
What masochistic fantasy
Remits my sin 'gainst harmony?

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Psalm

A Psalm
for the Master of Music, and Leonard, if he's still here

Who can make fun of God?
Is not His sense of humor apparent to all?
The platypus, mucus, the big toe,
Do they not proclaim the Lord's laughter?

Who can mock the vast oceans?
Or belittle the mighty forests?
If I laugh at the least of God's creatures,
Does the splendor of the Almighty dim before my derision?

The dog stirs and twitches
As it chases after dreams.
So too are my feeble japes
Mere dreams of Thy cosmic laughter.

How can any gag of mine
But pale before the smiling Holy Spirit
That blessed the world and its creatures
With hiccups, the sneeze, and flatulence?

If I tell of Thy jokes and wonders,
They are too many to be numbered.
I hear not the lying voices of the humorless.
I will bend mine ear to the heavens
And hear the laughter in the wind's whisper,
The wave's crash, and sudden thunder.

Enfold me in Thy infinite humor.
Protect me with lovingkindness.
For I am beset on all sides
By vile lies and passionless evils;
Detractors and unbelievers
Spew their bile at me.
The gall of the unfunny
I cannot swallow.

Though one thousand sullen ones
Stand stupidly in line before me,
I shall laugh with Thee, O Lord.
Though five hundred minutes
Are poured out upon a waste of rocks and sand,
I shall chuckle as I stub my big toe.

The sun rises in the East;
I shall awaken laughing.
The stars shine in the darkening skies;
I shall recline to sleep, laughing.

May I laugh all my days,
As you have laughed since the beginning of time.
Help me in times of torment,
And may I laugh at Thy jokes,
Even those I do not get.