---

Gray, drab veil blotting out the universe

Stars hide in their little pockets of space

I think of love and wife and life

A wanderlust woman comes railing about a chocolate tragedy

Outside the window nature is comatose

And maybe in some weird, alternate dimension

There are no such things as stupidity and war

I can hear dogs barking in the middle of midnight

The leftover Christmas cookies lie still in their plastic coffin on the kitchen counter

Aging and rearranging, their molecules

As I wonder if I am still alive

Flashes of light coexist with hypnotic sounds

The wind, the dusty box fan

And like the cookies, the Christmas tree is now packed away in its cardboard coffin

To be shuttled to the basement where it will rest in damp darkness for 10 or 11 months

Until the season comes again and it gets hauled up once more, unpacked, assembled, lit up, decorated, my shining star on top…

Unless the world blows up, choked by asinine wars, vanity wars

Wars to feed ugly egos and fill pockets with cash

Senseless power

Dime store minds

Cryptic love scratched on cold glass

As the bombs come raining down

Endless eyes swim through a window

It’s snowing in a tender snow globe

Tears pause, dinner bells beckon

Then the raging orange glow consumes it all

The wandering warhead brought on by all the garbage they swallowed

And we all wonder

Why did we let this happen?