De Domino Augusti

De Domino Augusti
 
 
He draws the bow.  He casts the pestilence.
He sends the wolves to clear dead flesh away.
He speaks in what fools call a double sense
But tells the truth that rules the crucial day.
Though clouds link arms, his sun will have its say.
Though noise grow loud, his music will resound.
His daughters know there’s heavy work in play.
His prophets know his calmness will astound.
And, when doubts most insistently abound,
That’s when his hand is surest on the string.
High soars the shaft above this broken ground.
He doesn’t need to reign as heaven’s king.
He doesn’t even need our worship when
He is the inner sky’s first citizen.

–Tom Riley

Swineherd

Swineherd
 
 
Eumaeus is a swineherd, but he’s wise.
He pours the nameless wanderer his wine.
Ha!  It’s the Lord Ulysses in disguise!
 
That wine spurs conversation none denies.
The virgin goddess shapes a sly design.
Eumaeus is a swineherd, but he’s wise.
 
His wit sifts truth from vile and reckless lies.
It truly is a pleasure so to dine.
Ha!  It’s the Lord Ulysses – in disguise!
 
He will be shielded from the suitors’ eyes
Till all the circumstances realign.
Eumaeus is a swineherd, but he’s wise.
 
The law of hospitality applies.
Is this indeed a challenge to define?
Ha!  It’s the Lord Ulysses – in disguise!
 
We host avengers.  Justice never dies.
The fruit is swelling on a bloody vine.
Eumaeus is a swineherd, but he’s wise.
Ha!  It’s the Lord Ulysses in disguise!

–Tom Riley

Great China

Great China
 
 
“Great China.”  This is what the Han called Rome,
A legendary empire built around
A legendary sea.  So far from home:
There only is the brightest glory found,
All milked from the mundane.  Details astound
That normally would make a toddler yawn,
And images with fictions stand well crowned,
Twice as suggestive as Homeric dawn.
I look across my California lawn
And see a Tuscan vineyard, bound to yield
Memories of the empire that is gone.
Historic debts aren’t easily concealed.
My lunchtime wine is what I wait upon.
Soon I shall toast Great China with the Han.
 

–Tom Riley

Not Quite a Haiku on Brevity

Not Quite a Haiku on Brevity

Cried the bullfrog: “Short
forms are all my Zen poets
ever have time for!”

–Tom Riley

Lasciate Ogni Speranza

Lasciate Ogni Speranza

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here
Unmasked!” The current message from my church
Seems less than welcoming. Is it sincere?
I have no doubt. Voluminous research
Persuades me that the mask is now assessed
As more important than the state of grace.
Masklessness is a sin to be confessed.
Masklessness is a thing from outer space.
I should be pissed instead of entertained.
The clown show, though, is just too much for me.
Government bureaucrats are mealworm-brained—
And churchmen join them in stupidity.
Part of me think it’s absolutely swell
To see such words, as on the Gates of Hell.

–Tom Riley

Standard Narratives

Standard Narratives

With standard narratives you must agree.
If you spot flaws, you must not breathe a word.
The only virtue: unanimity!
With standard narratives you must agree!
Conformity at last will make you free!
Our pots are sacred pots, must not be stirred.
With standard narratives you must agree.
If you spot flaws, you must not breathe a word.

–Tom Riley

Noumenal Violence

Noumenal Violence

The violence you contemplate
We know that you will not enact.
Your eyes are fierily irate.
The violence you contemplate
We do not fear. You’re filled with hate—
But still a pansy. That’s a fact.
The violence you contemplate
We know that you will not enact.

–Tom Riley

Guilty Party

Guilty Party

I know that
time’s a-wastin’. I am among
those wasting it.

–Tom Riley

Even the Pronouns

Even the Pronouns

Even the pronouns bellow in your ear:
“Request for purer English is denied!”
Amigo: no one holds such standards dear.
Even the pronouns bellow in your ear
That the old words will swiftly disappear,
Replaced by borrowed ones. “Desist!” they’ve cried.
Even the pronouns bellow in your ear:
“Request for purer English is denied!”

–Tom Riley

Promises, Promises

Promises, Promises

Is Ms. Midler declining to screw
Because babies are safer? Boo-hoo!
No more ugly bitch sex?
If bans cause such effects,
Let’s ban seventy other things too!

–Tom Riley