radical beat poet .. .


wherever dust settles
and the folded flag lays flaccid
sprinkled with bloods of the innocent
a partizan and his gun
the zealot in his zeal
pontificates of power rest easy
who hold the bigger gun
wield one thousand brave men
and women in their khaki's
and their wine epaulets
their medals shining brightly
to catch heaven's glory
through the sun edged clouds
where thousands lay dead
on fields of Flanders
the killing fields
we spoke of once before
we stood among the ghosts
nailed to white concrete posts
each had his pieces placed in a box
his femur and his clavicle
his broken head with one eye rolling
his splintered leg
young men's testicles
hanging freely
we can put this down to loyalty
frailty; ignorance
or hang their memories
on an epitaph upon the skyline
where once Mary Magdalene lay
to see her beloved walking
in the gardens of Gethsemane
and other bolden stories
we read from a large, black leather tome
carried out on Sundays
past the unknown soldier
the woman caught in sin
pro-creation's fight continuing
in the backstreets, in the dark rooms

wherever dust settles
schemes as plans are made
mankind's ingenuity imagined slavery
they wrote a doctrine to support it
ripped pages from the tome
verses that lay heavy
as were a priest's used tunic
laid beneath the sturdy oak lectern
brother Bartholomew once fashioned
from rough, sawn timber:
brother Bartholomew
who read from the Imitation of Christ
by à Kempis each morning
flagellated to avoid masturbation
when he imagined the breath
or touch or breast of a young woman
the softness of her kiss
her splendid conversation
his shoulder blades raw to touch
with unhealed lacerations
did not deny him
his beliefs or erections
until he found his knotted rope
and drove the monster from him
but when he dreamed
he dreamed the son of man
he dreamed of Sister Martha
among the crockery and the ovens
a stove where he found her naked
spilt his Onas seed on the ground

wherever dust settles
fashionable pessimism ensues
as when mentioning God
you become the hypocrite
the racist, fascist
Islamist or Jew
much worse you are a gentile
who in seeing light has the tainted view
upon the hills of Armageddon
where saints, sinners and dark angels
wait to birth their rights
unravel earth's new skies
Enoch knowing God became no more
Job's end was greater than his before
Jacob wrested the angel
who touched his thigh
the four horsemen approaching
arriving late and saying peace
peace to you my brother, oh sister
where no peace may be found
where are the bells ringing
at the sepulchre
of the ascension
of the dead and dying

wherever dust settles
there you will find
leaches cling to staircases
that raise you up
lift you from the dark pool
where pupfish and toads congregate
and mimic creation
in their cold bloodied way
detached and adjacent
from any human sway
we have lost friends over less
travelled assertive into death valley
and returned confused

©edenbray today13.07.2026