Trope-a-dope

What if we're unrestricted variables
Convinced to fit into types
By salesmen selling hype 
Restricting us to limited areas.

Sets of sets that contain themselves
On couches across America
Tell a vision of a miracle
So to dreamers, it all feels solved,

Even though they can't recall
When it all resolved
But the television told
For it's captive audiences to behold.

Our functions have been reduced down
To simple standard roles
So do what you're told
And it will all work out just fine,

As long as no one goes out of their mind
And tries to figure out
Why those who scream and shout
Are ahead while thinkers are left behind.

Subliminal messages sent to convince us
Don't ask questions
It's just the conditions
Criminal practices? Nah, just doing business.

Wouldn't want to spoil the dreams
With inconvenient facts
That feel like attacks
To performers trying hard to put on scenes.

Simple dopes following tropes as expected
Act as directed
Or get rejected
As simply as that, a scene is erected,

A backbone for a culture to grow on
The structural language
That gets used to manage
The very media that the future will spawn from.

Wrong Farms

Pedophilic cannibalism
Executive privilege
National security
Domesticated animals

Brand Plan

Now while you were busy working
I was building up my credit
Buying stuff that I didn't want
So I could take it different places

Set up markets that were not

The most legitimate of venues

But as long as no one asked

There were never any traces

So the things that I was buying

I could turn around quite quickly

Adding credit to my bank accounts

And building up a brand

So that every little thing I did

Built up my reputation

And people sought me out

Just because I knew the plan

My brand began to flourish 

Becoming more than I could handle

So I diversified to different names

Protected by a shell

The properties I purchased 

Are still sitting on their value

So I can trade them if I find

It's become the time to sell

And all of this without 

Ever paying any taxes

Or reporting any income 

To anyone at all

But now I sit here wondering

Upon my mound of dollars 

If the government that issued them

Will make it through the fall

Universe

Time

Space

 Energy

 Matter

  Stars

  Planets 

   Sky

   Earth

    Dynamic

    Stable

     Oceans

     Continents

      Glaciers

      Mountains

       Rivers

       Canyons

        Life

        Death 

         Animals

         Plants 

          Forests

          Valleys 

           Volcanoes

           Islands

            New

            Old 

The Old Amazon and the Sea

there's 48 trees for you there
and 48 trees for me
just imagine all the things that could 
be built with Amazonian trees

48 trees for each human
just growing there for free
resilient species like Greenheart
hard ones like Mahogany

just imagine what could be built
if we cut down all those trees
elaborate log cabins
and marvels of carpentry

woodland palaces to rival the elves
of Tolkien's wildest dreams
there's just so much potential
that exists in 48 trees

totem poles would be back in style
and obelisks of wood
doors and trim of Brazilnut
picket fences of Cumaru

why not built from Ipe
when you want to build to last
we'd better get while the gettin's good
because supplies are going fast

there's only 48 for you
and just 48 for me
if we don't get at them quickly
what then will there be

no marvel's we've imagined
no palaces for elves
we'd have to leave those dreams we've dreamt
upon our memory shelves

leave them just for fictions 
for poems and for cartoons
but where's the value in all of that
versus wood paneling for rooms

wooden sculptures of whatever
robotic arms can carve
wooden halls for massive feasts
to make sure no one starves
 
wooden shelters for everyone
for the young and for the old
with plenty hardwood firewood
to drive away the cold

just think of the grand tree houses
and playgrounds to be built
with hardwood that would be there for
the next generation still

it would be a wooden Renaissance
if we each had 48 trees
masterpieces to leave you breathless
 'cause there'd be no air left to breathe

(okay I know that you're about to say
"but what about the sea
what about phytoplankton
making oxygen for me"

yeah, 
sure, I get that there's
all kinds of 
little miracles

at work in the ecology
but if I start to go on and on about 
the value of simple algae
someone'll want to strain it all out

I gladly make a joke here to
dance around my massive fear
of ocean acidification due
to too much CO2 in the atmosphere

could a pH spike threaten phytoplankton
and thus all of us that breathe
the horror of an ocean algae die-off
is worse than one wants to believe)

A Gaseous Atmosphere

Around town the sound 

of the wind rolling in 

through the foothills 

until the still is interrupted 

by a steady thumping 

coming down the road 

that's letting everybody know 

what song it is and where 

they're going with it. 

Still bumping as it fades 

away into the end of the day 

and again I can hear the wind 

as a motorcycle spins up it's engine 

getting on an onramp to the horizon. 

I'm left wondering was that even 

wind I was hearing 

or just the din 

of the distant highway?

I like it my way better 

so I'm going to forget 

I considered the alternative. 

So anyway, the wind in the hills 

stills the panic in my heart 

as another car speeding off 

kills the silence and comes 

speeding around the curve 

of the yard before vanishing 

into the night. 

All right, 

now this next one is the wind. 

I'm sure of it. 

It can't all be cars as far 

as the ear can hear, can it? 

I remember when the stars 

were clear in the sky 

and with the naked eye 

you could see the Milky Way 

from just outside the city 

but the edifice glitters 

too brightly now 

for the night sky 

to still share it's qualities 

with us, so we send silver seeds

of civilization barrelling out 

taking pictures of creation 

from beyond our smogged up atmosphere 

so that the images captured will be clearer

without the soot in the air. 

I breathe in the remains 

of depleted resources 

burned so we can stay the course 

cheating against Nature's steady tide 

with no concern for all 

of the other things alive 

on the planet with us, 

while we tell lies to our kids 

about how civilized our era is, 

as intentional vehicular manslaughter 

is dismissed in court as normal behavior. 

Premeditated murder of civilians 

on crosswalks 

is specifically legalized 

if any one of them tries 

to block the drivers path 

that driver now has 

a legal right 

to crash into the crowd 

and mow down 

anyone in the road 

even after the public outcried

when showed the footage 

of the damage 

and deaths 

caused by this 

extreme vehicular violence 

for the sake of impatience

and making political statements.

Then there's silence from corporate media 

that's always trying to sell you a vehicle 

with crumple zones so you can feel protected 

from any objects that might be rejected 

from your path. They'll show you videos 

of how well the car can smash into 

all kinds of barriers 

but it's a lot scarier 

when the bumper 

is crunching 

against the mass 

of human flesh and bones. 

I don't think I'm alone 

in thinking this 

but perhaps my position 

is different from where 

you've been seeing it from. 

You could be focused 

on looking past it

but I'm asking you 

to look back 

and react not to just the act itself 

but to how we can now tell 

that the media reaction back then 

was inadequate. 

That the laws that came out of it 

were to protect murders committed 

with a deadly weapon 

that every panicking 

late-stage capitalist 

is driving around in.

River Bed

On rainy days I'll read a book
Can't find a thing without taking a look
Often I'll find sparks that remind
Of someone I should thank

Like Einstein for his useful notions 
Such as relativities or photons
Speaking of sunshine it must be time
To head to the river bank

Avoiding the poison ivy
Just like my grandma taught me
Under the trees I move with ease
Until the slope is steep

Using trees as hand holds
Scanning for roots or a rock that won't roll
I make my way to seize the day
Until I need to sleep

When the sun is brightly shining
I'd rather spend my time outside in
The shade of boughs or windswept clouds
Each molecule a blessing

With new leaves to be turned
Unimaginable lessons to learn
I'd rather be where I can see
What others have been missing

A garbled screech breeches my calm 
I raise my head up in alarm
What is the wind now carrying in
It seems a familiar cry

Into view a squawking pelican
Flew past the canopy opening bellowing
Letting me know a brief air show
Was passing in the sky

I see in the trees a branch that had split
And a new branch has forked off from it
Off from the stump where the old one was
A new effort grows

A swath of smooth stones line the other shore
Perhaps there was a bridge here before
With time it crumbled and pieces tumbled
Splashing in the water below

The bank is flanked by block-like rocks
That at one point must have been built up
Corners in the stream hint that these 
Have not long withstood the flow

A natural formation 
Or a builder's creation
Once went across this river's course
Which it was I cannot know

Unless I get lucky and perhaps
I can come across a historical map
On which an old path for the road
Is there and clearly shown

That's the only way to know
Now as I sit here with nowhere to go
I'll imagine any option
That could've created this swath of stones

Rolling down a bed slick with algae
To ever go back upstream is unlikely 
A one way trip for stones that slip
Off from their original formation

Their mass resists the constant flow
But there's simply no other way to go
The momentum will erode them
Ever onward to new locations

A crumbled block got to where 
It is now by just standing there
Going on slow with the flow
Scratching the bottom

River stones off tumbled ridges
And forks that split to make new branches
Caused by rain drops that do not stop
Where they've fallen

Where they fell was wet already 
So with friends they started going steady 
Always downhill as water will
To join up with a stream

Until it winds it's way to the sea
Either to sink down deep as can possibly be
Or be splashed from waves and evaporate
Or somewhere else inbetween

Forming bodies of water so wide
The moon's pull creates tides
That make beaches wherever water reaches
From cracks in the rocks

Expansion and contraction
Split cliffs up into fractions
Then those all fall into small small
Shards of tiny blocks

In the ebbing and crashing tides
Or in the river's course to slide
Rounding the rough square edges off
Polished smooth and clean

The bridge ridge rocks lay splayed out
As in the sky the rolling clouds
Will continue bringing rain to
Refill the rolling stream

It seems like magic that it's an
Automatically recharging system
Solar powered just like flowers
Springing from the ground

Like a tree swaying in the breeze
Pumping sap to feed new leaves
Evapotranspirating glands
Ejecting future clouds

Like a farmer gleaning fields
The trees photosynthetically yield
Both nutrients and seeds to plant
For later rain harvests

Winds direct where these cloud will be
When they've gathered moisture heavy
Enough to form droplets that pour
Down on some distant forest

Or fall as snow on a mountain peak
Or dump directly back onto a sea 
Or on dry earth to quench roots thirsty
Absorbent hairs

A plant that had gone dormant 
Gentle rain starts to reform it
Just what it needs to make new green
Foliage appear

The newly sprung buds receive
Solar power to grow into leaves
To soak up more sun than before
Now with more surface area

If you think of it as beauty
Science doesn't feel like a duty
If you don't want to miss magnificence
Don't let the math scare you

It might just be wrong anyway
And who is anyone in the crowd to say
That it's all wrong while playing along
Nodding in steady movement

Trends would show it's likely to be
Some sociopathic corporate scheme
With experts paid to take what they've
Been told and go and prove it

That's called motivated reasoning
Like adding too much seasoning
To hide the taste of rotting waste
That should have been discarded

But with the fallacy of sunken costs 
Bosses refuse to take the loss
Trickling it down onto some clown
Who's just glad to be regarded

The clown takes it as a chance to see
How the paper ghosts avoid defeat
These ephemeral wisp criminals
Known to all of us only by name

"Nonphysical entities are people too"
There's nothing that you can ever do
To make me agree that you and me
And an abstract idea are the same

But this gives me reason to recall 
A lesson learned from taking a fall
Is harder than words from a friend
But easier to remember

So I'll listen when a teacher speaks
But still I'll try to climb for the peaks
The miles earn the lessons learned
With theory and practice together