'Flags' Memory's dirge' 'In Memory II' and 'In Memory'

'Flags' timothy r gates, 5/28/2012


Veterans wear them
patches on chests - biceps
Hippies wore them
Pants - shirts - capes
burned holes in the stars.
shared in common,
Flags
always mean something.

Way too many wear them
shoes - shirts - jackets
tattoos with Eagle's expanded wings
not new
but on your ass?
Flag burners
believe they should matter.
Flag wearers
merely are gaudy.

'Memory's dirge' timothy r gates, 5/28/2012

how's a war protesting
MLK - Malcolm X - Gandhi - Mother Teresa
Lover
two fingers in the air
mixed with a fist or one finger
peace love and together
Flag wearing - hole burning
pharmaceutical supplies
tie-dyed jean wearing
CSN&Y - Hendrix - Dylan - Janis
Loving
eighteen year old
Jesus Freak
fill up overflowing
heaven's bottles,
tears both sad and happy?
Memory eternal -
I begin to join the dirge
recalling one thing that doesn't die:
Love.
Here we sing together -
and I say,
"Thank you."

'In memory. II' timothy r gates, 5/27/2012

In memory of the fallen
dead
Soldiers obeying orders
shooting at mother's children
Soldiers obeying orders
Fallen asleep -
dead.
We weep
lost daughters and sons -
then there are the ones
in the way of the bullets
also mother's sons and daughters
not quick enough
also fallen
dead -
Flags need flown for them too.
Pray that our funeral dirges
will be buried -
our memory of the fallen
will die.

'In memory' timothy r gates, 5/26/2012

Mommy and Elizabeth played
John leaped - before you knew it -
telling his mother "I'm ready!"
not much more than a year
they played on the Mt
serpents even smiled watching their hocus pocus
- before you knew it - Jesus wept
head on a platter for a king
head hanging giving queens pause
Mommy and Elizabeth broken
hearts pierced
"Our boys!"
Elijah and Yeshuah,
Word in Angel's flight
Their tears overflowing heaven's bottles
turning sorrow into wine.
Mothers and Sons

stroll in the Garden's dew swept dawn.

'Every kiss remembered'

'Every kiss remembered' timothy r gates, 5/19/2012



Every kiss,

even the forced one

(was thirteen!)

she thought my giving in was a sign

of my pleasure,

remember them well.

"Kiss the Sun!"

eucharists laid within

I thank you

resurrector of my soul,

not unlike that sweet

first one

(me - first grade; her - second).

Your intention

or mine

consummation's anticipation

unclimbed forest

I thank you

the stroll continues

Our lips knowing only this moisture

satiating what otherwise would be insatiable.

Like a tattoo covered,

not blurred by

"Those eyes that see, beholding."

'the morning comes each day'

'the morning comes each day' timothy r gates, 5/17/2012 *for a friend sharing the same bd


the morning comes each day,

sometimes as surprise -

the dew on your feet,

cold

 but wet leaving a bit of green stain,

 not a surprise but still like a,

"good morning and how do you do?"

the moon and sun meet

the same time each day

 in passing,

glad for each other -

i look up and smile back at them,

and then at you

'Martin Luther King's Dream' timothy r gates, 5/08/2012

listening to younger people
do their slams,
competing for a second's prominence
poetic rhythms, often still rhyming
(go figure),
i ask myself,

'what happened to Martin's dream?'
people of darker hues,
as well as those of near white shades
decrying the lack of freedom,
not able to see the difference
between now
and when Martin's clarion call was
begrudgingly heard.
Yes, there's much more to do –
please note what is different today:
people of colour run businesses with all hues working for them
women are now part of the once only big old boys club of D.C.
Conservative WASPs now include Catholics, Jews, some Muslims and Atheists
Gay people don't need to introduce their partners as their uncle, aunt, or cousin
managers to owners of business include all the above - they often are jerks just like those before them
once a Catholic was thought unlikely to become president – today a person of all hues is president.
Yes, there's more to be done –
Martin's Dream was one of One:
As long as we refer to a colour or hue of skin defining 'my people'
the only freedom is superficial
As long as we refer to gender defining strengths or weaknesses for leadership
misogyny and misandry are alive and well
As long as we refer to Gay as a way to claim a normal place in the line
happy is yet to be known as normal.
Listening to these younger Poets,
i hear their voice,
today their voice is not hidden, disregarded, trivialized
i hear that they do not
know more than their own experience
(like me, or those of my time when we were them) –
these Poets happen to be people of all pigmentations, gender, heritage, religion and lifestyles –
things have changed!
Yet, i am reminded,
as long as we march, chanting under our plethora of race banners
(why not, One race, One people, One aim?)
things have not changed as much as it appears.
“I have a Dream” has yet to be We have a Dream:
Peace – Namaste - Ký-ri-e, e-lé-i-son – Mercy

_______________________________________________


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So, how does the dream become more?

    My younger children do not refer to their friends using their skin hue, religion, politics, sexual lifestyles, or even gender as adjectives. EXCEPT when someone dismisses one of their friends due to something like these things.

This is where I DO see some or Martin's Dream, or the Dream of the Gospel where there is 'neither Jew or Greek/Pagan, or male or female, enslaved or free, but one in Christ,' or the Dream of Mecca of all people being one of prayer (what caused the murder of M X because of his beholding this beauty), or the Dream of Israel's Hill of G-D, where all nations are priests of G-D. or the Dream of people see the 'Beauty that will save the world' - Dostoevsky, 'the idiot.' It is only a non-reality for those of us wanting to hold on to the past's failure or success, or the future's never will. The Dream is always known = now.

'without mothers'

'without mothers' timothy r gates, 5/12/2012


without mothers
there'd be no
sons and daughters
"incline your ear, Queen,"
your son might listen to your plea,
"Mercy."
without mothers
there'd be no

mother nursing God

'4 dead in OHIO, revisited'

'4 dead in OHIO, revisited' timothy r gates, 5/4/2012


"What the f'k?!"

My first reaction.

See,  i was there last week

picked up some stuff

(for my pharmaceutical business)

bought my green ecology peace sign decal

(for my car). --

War evading 18-20 year olds

shot into

War protesting 18-20 year olds.

Who gave the kill command?

Who instructed the weekend warriors to change to real bullets?

The President, Governor and National Guard Commanders?

They still say, "no."

Must've been those

18-20 year old war evading young men.

And? The 4 dead in OHIO?

They were not

National Guards or Protesters.

"Collateral damage." Go figure.