The Answers We Seek (Final Draft) – Matthew T.-S.

I.

The beginning

“My son, my sweet baby boy.”

Thrust so unceremoniously into being

This new world well defined in mystery

So many questions to be asked

So many answers I fear to give

II.

Such little creatures cause a great fuss

Unaware of the end

A babe untainted by dread

Please don’t ever grow up

III.

So confident you are in your understanding

Such hubris does not go unchecked

“We did everything we could. I’m sorry.”

The day came and through your tears

and with a cracked voice you cry out to me

“What do you mean mom is gone?

What does it mean when we die?”

I thought I would be strong enough

The answer creeps like frost upon my heart

My own dread rises in fear of the answer itself

and as I speak, the words feel as hollow as my understanding

“I don’t know.”

IV.

One missed call

“That’s as good an answer as any.”

I’m sure if the dead could wake,

It would be our howls of sorrow that would be the cause.”

Their slumber so far unhindered

V.

I’m certain you don’t remember that day

But the answer still haunts me

So noble are you, enduring the ongoing crisis of life

Motivated by your youth

I had never seen you so full of Happiness

There is no Love quite like the first

A passion brighter than any star

Your Love is the one that will last forever

Such hubris does not go unchecked.

VI.

That dragon

“Cancer. 6 months left.”

I did not know your Love for her could be so great

Like two candles caught in conflict with a storm

I saw you shine twice as bright just for her

with a cracked voice you cry out to me,

“What does it mean when we are gone?

What does it mean when we die?”

I thought I would be strong enough

The answer boils, volcanic in my heart

My own dread rises, fear of the answer itself

And as I speak the words feel as hollow as my understanding

“I don’t know.”

VII.  

Two missed calls

“That’s as good an answer as any.

I’m sure if the dead could speak,

They would quell our fears and soothe our hearts.”

Their silence a splinter in our ear

The cloud hung over you dark and foreboding

Every attempt at compassion would end in sorrow

I feared the storm would never break

But like a rainbow in the dark

”Remission. We got it all”

VIII.

Radiant in his presence

Her smile a lighthouse to pierce the night

Her life as treacherous as the shores of a raging sea

She nestled you safely in her harbor

A bastion of Love and Understanding

IX.

If your life were a movie, every frame would be a painting

Happy accidents overflow with every stroke of the brush

“He looks just like his papa,

but he has his mother’s eyes”

I did not think I could Love someone as much as you.

But then I saw the one hiding in your shadow

Such little creatures cause a great fuss

Unaware of the end

A babe untainted by dread

“Please don’t ever grow up.”

X.

How fast you go with your runnin’ shoes on

So full of energy

I’m amazed you can even contain it all

So questioning you are of your understanding

Curious beyond reason, you make me smile

“Look at how much you’ve sprouted

I can’t wait to see you all grown up.”

Such hubris does not go unchecked

“Cancer. We did everything we could”

XI.

I think I am strong enough.

“Grandpa, I was wondering…

…where do we go when we’re gone?

What does it mean when we die?”

An innocence untainted by dread

Curious of the answer myself

Please don’t ever grow up

“I don’t know, and that’s as good an answer as any.”

“That’s what my daddy said.”

“My grandson, my sweet baby boy,

How’d you get so smart?”

“Will you try to send me an answer then?”

“I will shout it from the heavens just for you,

Just for You.”

Such hubris does not go unchecked

What was that question again?


Our Own Devices by Matthew T.-S.

The water cares not from whence it came

Be it from from snow from stream or from rain

Every blade of grass, every leaf the same

It wanders and reaches for that certain vain

That path of least resistance free from bane

There are only so many wonders one can claim

That would not have been possible without innocence slain

Chemical Warfare by Matthew T.-S.

What was once locked safely
Behind fortified walls has become
The pickings of scavengers and terrorists

It is terrible that the people suffered
But how many countless others will
Breathe the poison gas with no one
To stop their greedy hands

How many pictures have you seen of
People standing near the Carnage
The twisted remains of armored doors
Lay blackened and cracked on the ground
They scour the wreckage for weapons and gas

Our president has opened the door for the
worlds greatest enemy
and handed them tools of hell

How many more pictures will you see
Of angels oozing bile from their lips
suffering a result of our leaders incompetence
When will we do something to reign powers
Granted in haste without foresight
When will we hear the truth and settle
Our petty qualms to help people for a change

Be More Like by Matthew T.-S.

Be more like the mountain

Will unbending

Sights set firmly on the heavens

Immobile, immortal, mysterious

 

Be more like the river

Influence the banks in which you run

Carve deep your canyon in this life

Make valley mountains that stand in your path

 

Be more like the mighty oak

let your roots run deep

Drink heartily from the river

And breath silver mountain air

 

Be more like the wind whose will carries it to

Caress the icy mountain peaks

Plunge into the foaming river

And make shiver the mighty oak

 

Be more like you

Spread love and light

There is no force of nature

To compare to the inferno of your heart

Wooden Idol by Matthew T.-S.

The watchful providers stand humble

Hardly aware to the eons that pass

Every day a beat of the heart

Every breath is that of seasons change

Branches take root in the sky

Arms stretched wide to embrace

All are welcome in this shade

They provide it so willingly

The fruit of this labor will sustain you

This flesh a medicine to sooth your ails

Tender them gently

Impose on them sparingly

And never take them for granted

Helpful writing tips by Matthew T.-S.

Let the words flow like water

Regardless of how they sound

Then pick out the cherries

That are floating around

This is merely a first draft

It’s not difficult if you try

Just move your fingers

You aren’t going to die

Not yet, not today

not at this moment at the least

These words jump onto the page

Like a passionate beast

Its free writing

Its open, its unrestrictive it’s fun

And when you’re all finished

There is more work to be done

You look at the page and think my god

What have i done

This is word vomit at best

Its mostly shark chum

See thats ok because not every thought is worthy

Of becoming an opinion, bold and sturdy

Just find the truth

Lurking on the page

Those resonant words

That linger in sage

Then pluck them out

And build them strong

Use the helpful words of others

Victory is not long

Then hammer the argument flat

Strike it hard, don’t hold back

If you speak the truth you never fear

A large crack forming in your logic spear

Beyond the Horizon by Matthew T.-S.

What went so wrong as to isolate me

To a place where the stars wheel overhead

and every night is as long as the sky is wide

A slave to my regrets

Words unspoken

Words that should have been left unsaid

How long until the break of dawn

When I may spring forth

And meet adventure

Where new faces and friendship abound

With you by my side I need nothing but

Compassion as my language

Kindness as my currency

Mushrooms of Peace by Matthew T.-S.

 

Save us God Emperor

oh Exalted One on High

These demons confine us

And condemn us to die

We must do something

Let us fight at the least

“Fear not my people,

We will become their equal

We must harvest

their “mushrooms of peace”.”

 

The western world is at the table

“They cannot be able”

“Their leaders unstable.”

“We must harvest the mushrooms of peace.”

 

They build their walls

And fill up their motes

And arm their mushrooms of peace

 

Their is no salvation

Without a restoration

Or remediation

And a destruction of

The mushrooms of peace

 

While their existence is futile

Our outlooks are juvenile

Their is no hope

With the mushrooms of peace

 

I fear the day

Of that rain of vain

And the horror

Of the mushrooms of peace

At Arms Length by Matthew T.-S.

Like a long absence

Caked in dread

I long for your presence

I wish to see my friend

But i keep my distance

For the words

Why haven’t you come to see me?

Are sweeter to my ears than

Why have you come again?

Sartre and the Butler Dilemma by Matthew T.-S.

To sartre the ultimate expression of bad faith is to be a butler

My amusement at his encounter with one would be profound

Would he gape, aghast at the free beings bad faith

Would he drop his pipe and cease philosophizing entirely

Here is how i imagine the scene would play out.

Sartre and the Butler Dilemma by Matthew T.-S.

His hands clad in silk

His collar pressed

his shirt as milk

A more haunting sight he had never seen

How could this man, this pretender being

Fool himself into such bad faith

To embody an object so entirely

His essence a wraith

To wear this visage

This mask of the butler

Your being itself

Could not be subtler

Reveal thy true self, or don’t

it matters not you see

To define thine own essence

Is what it is, to be, to me