Evergreen 

You have seen

with no eyes

the turn of tides

a century long

and you have felt

with no skin

the soft caress

of a gentle wind

and you’ve heard

with no ears

your brothers fall

beyond trail’s end

and you have smelt

without a nose

the smoky clouds

of your own demise.

The New Kind

War and terrorism

breed a new kind

of harden heart 

through the land

as seniors hide

the cunning blows

upon foundations

which they rely

and babies cry

for mother’s milk

replacing all

they ever knew

and a starched collar

binds the neck

that neither turns

to faith or love.

by Dave   

4/18/2011 

Crookinshank

‘Whole life’s are spent working to devise a plan that will help us get all the way through it and all the while this wonderful world works to devise it’s own plan against it.’

Old Crookinshank couldn’t work.  Disabled in a forgotten war.  So he took his $300 a month disability check and built a mule-drawn covered wagon upon a old trailer axel he’d found.  Bought a mule and traveled forgotten highways from state to state.

I met him in ‘01’ while broke down in a campground in western Colorado.  We drank some beers over a campfire and discussed many things.  He said his biggest worry in life was 18 wheelers barreling by and impatient drivers honking and flipping him off.  He said it scared his mule and a runaway mule usually meant he’d end up stuck in a ditch or turned over.  I said my biggest worry was my broke down car and not knowing what to do or where to go.  He advised me to buy a mule to tow the car and follow him over the Unita Mountains to the coast where I could get a job as a fisherman.  I laughed but he was serious.

The next morning he got kicked out of the campground for not paying the nightly fee.  I waved goodbye and later got my car running, found my own way but occasionally I wonder what would of happened if I had followed his advice.

Veteran Preference

The form asked

‘veteran or not’

and I checked not

though I am

but seek 

no preference

from a war

that stole my pride.

Consumers Rejoice

It’s good to know

when the world ends

there will be time

for a commercial break

to numb our grief

and distract our mind.

Consumers rejoice

to the end of time.

by Dave Holloway

Always Duped

Under a strange spell,

a mass hypnosis,

Hitler was the apple

of his nation’s eye,

witch’s burned,

WMD’s weren’t found

and Jesus was nailed

on a cross to die

and today ‘technology’

can do no wrong.

Changing World

When the sociably inept

teach us to socialize,

it stands to reason

we’ll socialize ineptly

and the world changes.

When the enemy states

it will shut us down

and within ten years,

just look around

you’ll see how it changes.

When children control

who’ll pay the bills?

The same inept media

directing their wills?

And so the world changes.

When I’m ever asked

I say I can’t tell.

My truths with the towers

long ago fell

in a changing world.

The Freedom Guise

When bombs are falling

on Cairo and Tel Aviv

please tell me again

what it means to be free

you media fools

capturing every scene

in endless loops

of the same old thing.

The illusive promise

in the freedom guise

but upon those bombs

the real secret lies,

made in the USA.

by Dave Holloway

Adrift 

upon a turbulent sea

a life raft thrown

into his arms

now heavy as stone

with ropes attached

through loops unseen

dragging his soul

thru a horrid dream

breathless and thick

blood crashing down,

a rhythmic beat

beats a distant sound

while fingers reach

into thin air

grasping to find

nothing there.

This poem is my attempt to capture the moment we realize the passion is gone.

 Retribution

Peacefully she sleeps 

within a cocoon 

awaiting a glorious 

re-entry, 

then suddenly awakened 

by monstrous tentacles 

bursting thin membrane, 

releasing the grotesque, 

desiring green blood 

of every creepy thing 

she abhorred so long ago 

in another form 

upon smooth legs 

strutting her stuff 

but now 

on hairy spikes 

she scurries across 

a alien terrain, 

jaws ever working, 

devouring her mates  

soon to be forgotten 

if ever acknowledged 

at all,,, 

Demon Rising

twisting and turning 

as illusions unwind, 

invasion is quick 

consuming the mind, 

fingers to claws 

gripping too tight, 

teeth seeking flesh 

to rip and bite, 

revealing a sign 

of the rising within, 

an apparition of sorts, 

a subtle blend 

between what's real 

and barely unseen, 

in like a storm, 

out like steam, 

scorching then cool, 

rising as it falls, 

power is felt 

the engine stalls, 

repetitions sing 

through partial thought, 

demanding understanding, 

scaring away what it sought, 

pleading then denying, 

smiling then despair, 

greedily devouring 

its pretense to share 

with a pleading host, 

begging let go, 

never realizing 

it rises from her soul,,, 

by Dave Holloway  1998