one
the latest word is that positive living translates as better living and extends the longevity of one’s precious life….
in order to achieve this, one is told they must eliminate and purge themselves of all toxicity and negativity be it in food, water, pollution in broadcast news reports or unpleasant things in general ….
but especially, purge the worries and stresses about things purge the mindless acts of some fellow humans the funny “things “that have we and the world spinning out of control right outside our front doors….
two
CHANGE! YOU MUST CHANGE, THEY SAY. YOU MUST CHANGE HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE AND WHO YOU KEEP IN IT IN ORDER TO LAST LONGER!
CHANGE! YOU MUST CHANGE IN ORDER TO BEAT THE ODDS THAT DEATH HAS ALREADY STACKED AGAINST YOU! PUSH PUSH PUSH ALL THE NEGATIVITY AWAY FROM YOU!
CHANGE! CLING WITH YOUR BLOODY STUMPS TO LIFE’S RIM AND RID YOURSELF OF ANYTHING THAT’S IS UNPLEASANT OR DIFFICULT BECAUSE ITS BAD FOR YOU! ( it will kill you)
LIVE LIKE THIS AND YOU WILL SURVIVE!
three
in this life, we have surrounded ourselves with madness and happily chosen its crooked, rain-slicked paths instead of the alternate straight and narrow highways
we’ve held hands with the other crazies (who are just like us)
the depressed and troubled the pretenders and the man-children to the artists and dreamers those often suicidal and to the lost and bat-shit crazy
we have giggled wildly while tossing wildflowers from the garden scattered petals from the perfect scarlet rose to create a thing of softness and beauty for love with them have skipped and stumbled, cried hysterical never-ending tears with them and, always, they waited for us too…….waited and worried for our safe passage back when we’ve been lost for awhile, a little too long in a dark wood or two….
we’ve climbed up from the benthic depths and raced skyward with those most beloved:
the artists, the madmen and women the loyal who know us best our fellow humans, our chosen blood the creators we’ve known, those who have run the entire gamut ………..the brilliant terrified to cease or fail, they all have tasted on their lips the blood and the struggles day to day sometimes trying hard to simply remember to exhale the precious breath they didn’t realize they were holding…listening to doubt’s voice in their head, wondering aloud: is it over yet? is the Muse really gone? is this the day that i will……….stop?
four
with insight, we have shared and melded their like-mindedness with ours gathered them close shared with them our deepest secrets and fears because we speak the truth and of the unspoken things we know that they too understand balance of this honesty in life. we have loved and cared for these humans in degrees in the present and in the past
danced and doe-see-doe’d with them across hardwood floors and soft talcum powder sands we’ve hollered and screamed with them—and, later, on their behalf, at raging thief rivers at killer waves on beach fronts stood with them in the silence of blessed mountaintops laughed til we’ve cried til’ we’ve peed shared in the beauty of a tender garden, while a lost voice of silliness still whispers behind every leaf…
soul-exchanged and heart filled, we have cared and been cared for…changed roles as the drainer and the drain-ee always have managed to survive, bond in tact strong, yet disconcertingly tenuous….
five
the new sad rule is to eliminate ‘toxic’ people from your daily diet, including all of the aforementioned
another cruel blow to compassion for others!
death laughs, shakes his whitened skull, and with his bony hand, turns to his dusty chalkboard, and adds another hash-mark while we turn, face the red-brick and mortar wall and slowly bang our remaining hearts repeatedly against it
(AND THE MADNESS)
