Of Pigeons and Pirates

Smoketown Pigeons

Early in the morning,

Smoketown sleeps at last!

But the pigeons from their eyrie

Come and go seeking their repast.

 

From their Hilltop keep.

They stand watch in their tower

All the town do they see.

But the only thing on their little minds

Is where their next meal may be.

 

The Tower is their fortress

Its bell is painted white

In flocks they come and go.

Dancing in the air!

Christopher H Holte‏ @CHHolte 7/26/2017

Note: Had to share this before I forgot it!

Pirates Bones

The pirates will come and go

Leaving whale bones mouldering on the beach

With bones of ships & men

 

Their treasure is an illusion

Vanishing in black smoke

Only trinkets of idle scrimshaw

To tell the tale of men and sail.

Treasure Gone!

 

They hunted beheameth to near extinction

Then dug the soil seeking His remains

Reveling in gushing poison

Building empires built on oil!

 

In the ancient game of piracy

The captain's crew comes to town

Promising ease and riches

Spreading paper all around!

Their promises are lies

 

And those who see their invisible cloth

Find a knife in an alley way.

While the glamoured masses scoff

"It can't be other than a new great day!"

 

But their promises are hollow

Their king a glibe practiced grifter

Soon they've robbed the town naked

And depart, seeking riches swifter!

 

Dead men tell a mournful tale

Broken bones, evidence of disease.

Nature recovers but remembers

The land mourns lost virginity.

Rachel weeps.

 

And animals make their homes

In the ruined bones

castles of extraction

Become pigeon eyres.

Smoketown sleeps

Dreaming disturbing nightmares.

Christopher H Holte‏ @CHHolte 7/26/2017

I had two different thoughts here that kind of meshed in a fugue of analogy. One was from watching the pigeons in my local Church. The other is the pressing weight of our American History.