Aspersions

How is it you can tell the truth
And some will disagree?
How can you share a simple fact
And face such hostility?

I’ll never learn my lesson though,
I dare not tell a lie
For it doesn’t matter what we say
It only matters why.

This is for everyone who believes anything they
don’t know to be true. It isn’t necessary…
please cut it out
life’s too short

“In God’s Image”

When you start the wicked ways of creative madness
What about supergluing a man’s meat and two veg to his wife’s face,
Or see how long it takes a child to die
Upside down above a spit-roast.

The Marques de Sade wrote books about this
And there is a certain diary in the Tower of London
All about thumb-screws and racks.
The S.S. knew a few cruel tricks too,
Like how many rapes a highly pregnant woman can take
Before she gives birth to a still-born child.

The Americans tortured it’s prisoners in Iraq,
Us British are cruel to our asylum-seekers,
Let no race think that they are holier than the rest
For they are all men (and women) my friend, and man
Was made in the image and likeness of god
Who loved to watch people suffer because he had demanded it so,
Ask Job.

—

The Immortal Bob Smartass
aka Terry Cuthbert

At last the past is over.
I was surprised to see the light so soon.
It was as if I was too far ahead of my time
or I was singing a different tune.
But my past has finally caught up with me
and I wished, for a while, it would stay.
But it soon turned blue like old things often do
when some memories won’t go away.

It is arrogance even to consider
that nothing can, for no reason, go awry
or that success is ever an accurate gauge
of how difficult it had been to try.
But I have to remember, doing nothing at all
means I’m not allowed to complain.
So I need to decide if I’ve anything to hide
because it’s too convoluted to explain.

And here, days later, it is still only now,
slightly different but, mostly, like then.
And it flabbergasts me how I’m just floating along,
the same wash over and over again.
But the river gets wider and debris makes waves
and the whole thing seems to be churning to a head.
And I try not to think of the terrible stink
when the world, as I know it, is dead.

God cleansed the world, because he didn’t like sin
but man couldn’t help himself and started up again.
So God came to visit in the body of a man
and was persecuted, suffering, just as any man can
in order to find some forgiveness in his heart
for man, who will sin when his will falls apart
though man’s will was a joke, God was playing a game
just to prove he and man were, in no way, the same.

one day when all the oil is gone
a new god will denounce the sky
as human song becomes as one
the earth will pray, the sea will cry
and all creation celebrate
how clever are the ones who make
the dinner on a paper plate
and pray the lord their soul to take

one day when all the love is gone
and faces change to suit the needs
of heaven being carried on
by ancestors of ancient creeds
and hating differences they fear
and killing them because it’s right
or taking it as cause to cheer
they did not lose their soul last night

one day when all the hope is gone
the real god will laugh through his tears
as human beings renounce their song
and thank god they did not need fears
but did not know their brothers well
and shunned them lest they stole the show
when relevance was hard to tell
god only told them I don’t know

When the bombs break over some populous hovel
Some heartless capitalist pens some populist novel
Some innocent folks will die, many others still grovel
Life always tries to flitter away

Some birds are singing, some others, the cat’s dinner
Some gamble, lose everything, and admit they’re a sinner
While those who don’t lose don’t even know they’re a winner
Luck always tries to flitter away

Some poets may write without use of a rhyme
Most poets are people who don’t have a dime
Some practical poets will write all the time
Words always try to flitter away

We all have problems as well as big dreams
And we all know everything is more than it seems
Like we all know some of us have dangerous schemes
Peace always tries to…
Maybe some day it can stay

new rules
(debutancy)
 
simple beauty
unleashed, unafraid
needing more than time
to rejoice, to be remade
and revel in passion
all vanity displayed
for a while, as a child
while the games are being played

A Trick of the Trader
 
Nowhere in circles, around and behind
right under the lightly he came
and all the king’s posers had none of a kind
but he knew the name of the game
 
He faltered for farthings and filtered for fleece
and judiciously adjusted the jist
deciding his decision, increasing the grease
while willingly wrenching his wrist
 
He saw what he savored but preferred to be proud
and fell fighting far from the truth
but cowed by the facets of a face in the crowd
tried trading an eye for a tooth
 

Spiritual Usury
 
Miracles are not great feats
but capricious aberrations.
God can do them easily
if it suits his holy whim.
 
Friendship is no miracle,
it has nothing to do with grace,
but a friend in need is a friend indeed,
you can put your trust in him.

The Righteous Huckster 

Insist if you must but require satisfaction
You deserve to be compensated in full
Don’t let some complainer drive you to distraction
You don’t have to tolerate that bull 

You’ve earned some respect and have gained recognition
For all that you’ve accomplished to date
And if someone expects you to bow in submission
Then they’re in for a very long wait 

It’s your money now and you earned every cent
Even if it’s perceived as an error
It wasn’t your fault that mad money was spent
And you couldn’t have been any fairer 

You provided a service that everyone needs
Even vain, insecure individuals
Who were looking for miracles instead of good deeds
And you only collected the residuals 

When cash changes hands without guarantees
And no one can prove a deception
Then commerce is served with the payment of fees
Caveat emptor allows no exception

A Little Knowledge 

You gave me your hand and said, Can I come with you?
I said, sure, I just didn’t know where to
and we went for a ride to the place
where the magic grew 

I taught you the law so we could scoff at them all
and preached, ‘to our own selves be true’, I recall,
and you learned what you needed,
you didn’t need me at all

tears and truth 

there is nothing strange about heartbreak
it’s like a very rainy day
but a million times more desolate
in a selfish and maudlin way 

and there’s nothing good about honesty
if the truth deserves to be a lie
or the truth is insignificant
and it makes somebody cry 

and there’s nothing wrong with crying
if that’s what you want to do
but it doesn’t change a thing about
the troubles you’re going through

epiphanic shock

just before the song ended,
in the corner of a notion
about how I once defended,
with blank or calm emotion,
an outburst of confused remorse,
encumbered by pure devotion
to an uneventful, maddening course
of deliberate mental locomotion,
to a sentimental favorite sanity

I saw glitter in the night fog
in the shape of laughing faces
and, down the street, a white dog
seemed to be in several places
with its nose dragging the ground
descrying problematic traces
of some rumors going around
that I’ve had a few disgraces
just because of undistinguished vanity

when it didn’t even mean that much,
I was ashamed for no real blunder,
yet shame is pride and, viewed as such,
I reproached myself in wonder
if the song had stormed my vision
and fantasies come out from under
some previous dubious decision
or, only now, do I hear the thunder
of my own electric charged humanity

a small order of jumbo shrimp

grade A buffet with napkins and sauce
to help yourself with aplomb generosity
partake party and revelry sate no loss
kinship friendship mutual dependency
and a mess to clean up
and a child needs to sleep
because the world got lost for a while

indulge consumption the whim of lust
and remember the ones who forgot to ask
or suffered the luck of misplaced trust
or didn’t know the proper test or task
and just wanted it all
as soon as possible
before the world returns

Past Imperfect

She was more than I expected but much less than I could see
as she followed in my footsteps yet remained ahead of me
I held her hand, she was my heart, I couldn’t find my own
and I wish the biggest part of her would yet remain unknown

married before the wedding
parent before the child
servant to chosen masters
domestics in the wild
 
starving for a hunger
groping for release
belonging to an anarchy
unsatisfied with peace

we planned to improvise and still we couldn’t pull it off
and we worried far too much about the things we couldn’t scoff
we cared so for each other though sometimes we wondered why
I wish it was still like it was when we didn’t even try

home became some new place
never felt like it was here
we moved whenever we felt like it
but never came anywhere near

we’d gone so far so randomly
so what else could we do?
we’re flexible and prone to bounce
and ready for something new

we looked back and discovered that all our tracks were gone
so caught up in seeing new roads, we couldn’t see the road we’re on
and the sights we set were higher than either one could reach alone
it’d be sweet to do it over without knowing what we’d known

lighting candles in the daylight never leads to any good
it seems only on my birthday have I ever understood
my life was always my life, she was more than company
and she filled the air with tenderness, most times in spite of me

Heart-Shaped Universe

Her heart-shaped arse
made my arrow quiver
and I drooled like a fool in school

It was cupid, the fiend
shot me full of vigor,
full of bull, and in school bullies rule

Her arse-shaped heart
flipped me a middle finger
and the thing is the sting still rings

It was stupid, it seems
to believe in forever
when never is almost the same thing

The Night Watch

As the garden snake slinks through the verdant high grass
And the mountain goat leaps across the rocky high pass
The divorced man sips absently at his full highball glass
While the television provides slight distraction

The Nature Channel reminds him that life will prevail
That to live is to succeed and to die is to fail
And he feels small success from not landing in jail
Though he’s guilty of sorrowful inaction

His mind is preoccupied with what will I do now?
For he knows why to live but he doesn’t know how
And he longs for a love that his heart won’t allow
As he attempts to recall satisfaction

His glass now is empty and his eyes are now dry
The night birds are singing and he believes he knows why
It’s because in the morning they’ll be able to fly
Without thinking of coming attractions

Her Prerogative

Her word was her sun, her laugh was her moon
Her eyes danced as if she was blind
She coaxed me inside my hideaway of shame
And then she completely changed her mind

I gave her my life, my heart and my soul
I enriched her with all I could find
She wore my jewellery and she ate my dessert
And one day she just changed her mind

And all of the reasons
The things that I did that I didn’t want to do
They passed with the seasons
I fell into darkness so deep and so blue
I never hit bottom
Still falling today at a leisurely pace
Considering last autumn
And the joy that went missing from her face

Laughter drained solemnly from her face

Her days were her works and her nights were her games
Her love was the interesting kind
She took me to heart and then ripped me apart
When one day she just changed her mind

sincere lies and arrogant charm
displacing all cause for alarm
invoking the attitude, what’s the difference?
still knowing the difference
could be your demise
you’ve created scenarios where
all the outcomes are pure compromise
and love is a memory
of a time-killing harmony
make your plans and prepare
to jump right on in
it only lasts until the end
and then you begin once again

intimations of laughter and joy
instilled in a girl and a boy
admiring the scenery, with endless emotions
though sometimes it might be quite nice if they’d end
and you have so much feeling
imagining loving your very best friend
or starting a family
or trying to live normally
love becomes you but you become
love waging war
and it only goes on ’til it’s done
and then you begin once more

_________________________________________

how can I ever trust my heart again
when it mostly just leads me astray
to strange places I could never fit in
to say things I don’t mean to say
but my heart is so hungry, demanding to be fed
and it usually gets its own way
while making me feel I am practically dead
and tomorrow is just another day

__________________________________________

Now it is morning broken free of the night
and another day looming so bland
I dream with more vision than my eyes have sight
but I hope with my hat in my hand
maybe tonight I’ll begin to understand

Now it is summer so hot and sincere
and autumn stands off in a haze
I think like an echo I can’t hardly hear
and explore how the sound always plays
according to the length of the days

Now it is later and time has repaired
the confusion of past cobbled words
spoken in whispers by someone who dared
pass up seconds in favor of thirds
for the hope of avoiding absurds

__________________________________________

God is the prize in a cracker jack box
He melts your all chocolate and resets your clocks
He’s the reason why opportunity knocks
But he doesn’t do windows and he won’t find your socks

Love is the key that won’t open any door
The death row last meal that’s been spilled on the floor
It only satisfies when it makes you want more
But it plays with your toys and it ruins your decor

Hope is an envelope with no return address
It breeds in your pantry and it makes quite a mess
You can’t live without it unless you’re doomed to success
But it comes in many flavors and it knows how to dress

Honesty’s a lawyer with nobody to sue
It finds the lost causes and tells them what to do
It only comes in handy when it doesn’t affect you
But it sleeps in the corner and it doesn’t have a clue

___________________________________________

In the light of my open refrigerator door
As I sat weeping on the floor
With all my heart, to God I swore
I would not be broken any more

And then I heard a frightening sound
As if my fate had now been found
And life was laughing all around
While I lay wasting in the ground

I picked myself up and tried to see
Through false impressions given me
I once believed my heart was free
But I know now it can never be

So there it was before my eyes
The chaos when the baby cries
The solace found in gentle lies
Is all love means when romance dies

_______________________________________

there I was in isolation
here I am alone
there the faces had no names
here they have a phone
outside my heart are butterflies
inside my heart is stone
outside the truth’s what I perceive
inside it’s still unknown

there I felt I was grasping
here I pushed away
there is where I’ll know too long
here is where I stay
outside the morning’s mystery
inside a different day
outside is where I’ll only be
inside another way

 
With ceaseless hope the beggar tries
Some honey ploys to catch more flies
While each rebuke delays his plan
They can’t dissuade this humble man
He plods his path the best he can
 
Encouraged by fast hunger pangs
Around his neck a cross still hangs
His faith unsure but worth a shot
He uses every chance he’s got
To gain himself a higher slot
 
As night beds down his cardboard box
He counts his change and dries his socks
For morning’s trip to paradise
And breakfast with the lord’s advice
So grateful he will say grace twice
 
As always he will strive again
His daylight journey will begin
And faithfully he’ll face the fight
To make his life’s wrongs nearer right
And hope his box is there tonight