A return to dull

days without tinsel and song

brings its own delight 

Merry and bright are

the moments between utter 

chaos and your fears 

 The bells ring out and

fill souls with joy no matter 

they're prerecorded 

Bitter pills too large

to swallow stick in craws and

choke into silence 

Rage bait sells souls for

attention by sucking the

empathy from all 

They entertain us

with their corporate cartoons 

then slip us mickeys 

Victorious claims 

from prevaricating polls

can no longer soothe 

Rain shined streets lonely

for feet wait impatiently 

til the sun returns 

Broken systems and

fractured lives haunt dreams built on 

bootstraps and lies 

The rusted gate in

the wind makes a fuss like an

old man blustering 

Take back the pride, 

the rage, the anthems, and wash 

them of the hate 

The fog comes on quick 

and thick, clings like a spider's

web to your senses  

Last legs wobble but

still bear the weight of all our

sins and misdeeds 

 Serpentine thoughts come 

wriggling and wrap around your

soul, whisper like Kaa 

Buy and sell us like

cattle or corn or other

such commodities 

We sang songs from her

childhood on her last day on 

earth to send her off 

Your dreams crushed like a 

can in a ruffian's mitt 

can be recycled 

A dark horizon,

a reverse of what should be,

expands outward, looms 

Blue of eye and black 

of soul they preach agape 

with a knife in hand 

Baffled by basic 

logic we've returned to an

era of witchcraft 

The tangled lights are 

out and flaking ornaments 

wait to shine again 

Break your bones on the 

borderline between love and 

hate before the fall

In the storm take paths

laid out by others or risk

falls on unseen ice

Sick of blank stares at

her bon mots, she pined for the 

beau monde's resurgence  

Turn up the volume

like you used to do and get

lost in the music

The snow, crystalline 

white, clings to the bleak branch and

prays there is no sun