None for All

this latent flower blooms
ephemerality
unraveled by perception

doldrum drags the languid line
along the distant
dark horizon

heedless
hapless
scattered bursts
of flinching halcyon light

unheard and unhinged

idly observant
as they lay alone
ensconced in idyll

blindly
sidling up to peer
into the fabled looking glass

the unembraceable oblivion

of life
thus being lived

so beguiled
with wide eyes
transfixed
trained on all aspects extrinsic

thoughts forgo
the burden
of the body’s bound appointment

led
like sleepless sheep
to slaughter

corralled by the lust for dollar

oozing out of every orifice
in opulence
tumescent

sated only by the tendered tears
of silent souls exploited

open skies of pending promise
play out in posthumous loops
pandered shamelessly
to pliant pupils
of capitalist coercion
frantically amassing resources
to quell their crippling stupor
stripped of hope found viable
resolved to plastic revolutions

blaring
from a “life-like” screen
of liquid crystal coiled confinement

brow-beaten
by expectation

shamed into a feigned performance

extricated
to a realm
where obsessive
self-preservation
fast replaces sound decision

superimposed sentience

severing all ties
to our humanity
with conscience numbing
calls inciting indignation

egoism inundated

flags emblazoned
with our visage

every fragile fiber
of our poignancy
resigned to toxic piles
of perduring compost

fingers inconspicuously point
our voiceless voids
toward specious Edens

tragically
the one and only
chance we ever had was wasted

all for one
and none for all

for nothing is more self-defeating
sold-out
and consigned to scourge
than that which only serves
the self

and seldom
does this not occur

[image credit: Riera Rojas]