Stay Apace

PROGRESS: Writing notes on paper, sealing them in an envelope beneath wax and a signet ring, and sending them out with a courier on horseback solely to keep the NSA from knowing what you're doing tonight for dinner. 

As I said. Progress.

Unsustainable States of Action

There is a conspiracy afoot
I feel it
The red-tailed hawks and mourning doves
Perch together beneath darkening skies
Rabbit ears twitch a secret signal
Received in a bobcat’s slow wink

Hieroglyphs mark the deer trail
Left by porcupine quills dipped in ink
The red squirrel refusing to translate
Their bleak insinuations

A rainbow trout breaks the glimmerglass
Drawing into itself some dark message
Black as the quiet crows

Turkey vultures tip their wings toward
A corpse in the middle pasture
East of the barbed-wire brook
Where snappers lie

The oaks and maples grip the earth
Certain of an apocalyptic wind

A flag in the shape of a properly registered gun
Is pointed at my back
Fear scrambles beneath layers of questions
Doubt raises a shaking hand:
Isn’t fear a chemical weapon?

I collapse from it all
A red line pierces my skull
There is nothing renewable under the sun

-- William Gnade, 9.5.13