Allegiance

Rise up --
from out of the deep,
awash
in the black tide,
the red wake
of past transgressions
decaying
in the dry maw of future dreams
bankrupt
on the failing credit
of yesteryear.

I can hear them,
static transmissions
from star to star,
words made meaningless,
hollow without truth,
spilling
from a thousand mouths,
dancing
as precariously
as fruitless prayers,
muted whispers
falling on the deaf ears
of a dying deity.

And so we bare the flesh,
white gold
before a voyeuristic sun,
ashamed
and yet captivated,
we taste the sweet flavor
of strawberry lips
and lose ourselves
in the writhing
of dew glistened hips,
minds drowning
in the thoughtless pleasures
of a world
flat-lining
in the stagnant jet wash
of our ravenous gluttony.

He screams
in triangulated fire,
a brother lost
is another statistic we ignore.
We swallow
sweet fantasies with poisoned water,
fluoridated lies
go down easier
than the bitter charcoal of reality.
A dream within a dream
is the new American nightmare --
bullets and batons,
shoot the dove
and trade the olives for
prescription pills
so that we can all agree to pretend
that we're alive.