Hogpile

Part I

Bursting forth,
From burial and fluid-
Into this world: A child.

Given a name, a bloodline
But no voice or vision.
The way of the world: To break you.

Fearsome and loathsome,
System to slap the face and hands-
The world: a brush upon your canvas.

Bewildered and blinking,
In awe and in question-
The world and it's mysteries, waiting.

Years of the simple,
Learning, walking, talking
The world's eyes, watching progress.

They teach you, they tell you, they hold you,
They clutch you tight- and crying.
They scold you, they grow you, they scar you,
They limit your sight- while smiling.
They condone and condemn, bred into sanctions and sins,
Controlled by their warmth, their fear, their blood in your skin.

Eyes become swollen. Minds become sullen. Fingers numb from reaching.
Money and madness. Children and wives, and middleclass lives. Two cars, a house and vacations: On someone else's clock, we beg for change.

Pondering, wandering, wondering why?
We stumble along our programmed lives.

For god and for country, for family and friend:
We toil, we play, from color to gray, we worship and pray-

That the next life reaps this one's reward.

__________________
Through dead blue eyes.