Would you like to sit this one out?

Would you like to sit this one out?

 

 

marigolds country-line dance

as bombs provide the soundtrack

a bleeding nation serves as the slippery floor of fate's D.J.

 

He speaks between songs and bombs

in some foreign accent,

nobody moves

they just watch the flowers

get blown to bits

 

the garden filled with empty seats

the women partners with severed limbs

can't dance or hold hands or carry their dead babes

 

to graves

but he sleeps at night just fine,

listens to Tchaikovsky as he tucks his conscience

 

against his red pillow,

the color of what is on his hands

 

the ones he still has,

unlike the missing dance partners

in a land that has become 

a bland field of headless stems.

 

 

erin-cilberto

8/5/22

Reviews

[keith]

i am personally appreciative and support your politically aware write
there cannot be enough of us that write with such honest equation
there cannot be enough of us knowing truth
your words i find comfort
comfort knowing i am not alone
knowing you have seen such need to express in such eloquent manner
thank you jacob

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, keith,
j.

[Corset]

Every branch a child
nature grows where it will
free, wild, and willful
it does not like containment
but it seems
not bothered at all by changes
cut off the head?
sure,
but the root will remain
and the plant will return.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

such insight...your reviews of my work are always better than the poems themselves.
thank you, Corset.
j..

[Corset]

Hardly, we both know that isn't true, but thank you for your cool response, always my pleasure J.

[light and ashes]

I saw this play out like a scene from a movie.
Powerful as hell.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I always wanted to be a Director...but ended up a poet,
thank you, light.

[light and ashes]

You are welcome.

[John the Baptist]

Really powerful imagery in this one; it definitely makes a grim point. Still, I doubt Putin listens to Tchaikovsky. More likely he plays "The Internationale" until he has an orgasm.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I agree, John.
thank you,
j.

[W. Barrett Munn]

It is demoralizing that 65 million Americans voted for the candidate of a party that grows more fascist with each passing day, wildly cheers a speech by Orban that promotes xenophobia as a positive attribute, and justifies Putin’s aggression as vindicated by American history.

The rise and fall of the America I knew.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your words, Winston,
j.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

and it just keeps falling.

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

Amazing moving true write Jacob
You are one of the few poets that never fail to astound me

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, Julie,
j.

[Julie McCarthy (juliespenhere)]

Very true though
You are everyone’s inspiration
Do not believe otherwise ever please
I see you doubt your work sometimes as we all do but just know how many you inspire here

[Dave Brown]

very effective, slime ball that he is

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, Dave,
j.

[Tricessimus]

Blessedly I have sat out the horrors of war, like one who missed the dance only to have it retold in vivid personal detail by those that were there. The juxtaposition of flowers and dance with dead babies and missing limbs is stark and moving. Usually I try to include a technical note in my comments, a note toward meter or measure or rhyme or cadence, but your extensive library would make such things pedantic. An artist you are and I appreciated these swirls of words. (Crap, just read the other comments, I'm still going to use "juxtaposition" in mine)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

"Juxtaposition" is a great word...and I slip it in whenever I can do that.
Thanks so much for your very kind review, Tricessimus...
j.

[Brad Dehler]

What a dystopian and juxtaposed image you paint. Thank you. Heart wrenching and vivid, all so true. This definitely raises tribulation in Ukraine but definitely reaches the feel of any war. War ravaging and destroying natural beauty. This is one for great pause.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for you kind words, Brad,
j.

[Relic]

This - in a way - reminds me of that photo from the viet-nam era when the guy put a daisy in the barrel of the gun. The fragrance of the flower as opposed to the smell of gunpowder exploding is powerful. We're living in an age I never thought I'd see. Always hearing of the horrors of war and the danger of the next nuclear destruction awaiting. War sucks.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Gee, Tim....yes on that photo...the image of peace rather than explosions...I feel like I am living 1962 all over again.
thank you for your reply,
j.