Beguiling Grove

Imagine
An orchard
Lush
With plentiful
Peaches, pears
Apples
And plums

An overseer, however,
Only allows you
To partake
Of cherries
Not already
Snatched
By bird or bug

“Look at our variety”
Says the pit boss
“We have sweet
And Tart
Rainier
Black
And Bing”

Amidst words
The Overseer trusts
Our eyes
Pass over
The divergent
Fruit trees at the heart
Of the orchard

Ad Hominem

There she goes
floating fancy fables
borne of surrogate swill
shielding her captain.

Can we trust this boorish broad
who shapes shifty slander
through twisted tongue
and crooked teeth?

Just look at
her heartless soul,
pint-sized paws,
and feckless face.

She defends demons
and manages monsters
and is clearly unfit
to stand for truth.

But, would you expect less
from one who swims with sharks,
rolls with pigs,
and quacks like ducks?

Author’s note: I wrote this after a reading a disappointing thread on Twitter. I try to model good rhetorical principals, but it is so easy to slip into madness and cheap shots when we confront others. This was as much a confessions as it was a condemnation. I daily commit to do better.

Check out my other poems here.