the more we rage

the tighter our binds become


and are held there

even when we hang exhausted


but in that is the lesson

there is mercy in the judgment


and we broken accept it to allow

a healing of grace we'd take for granted


otherwise






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

self-forgiveness is hard

but the acceptance that brings it

is harder still


and ever are we in the wrong

making our self-judgment so strong


that no song of saint or bard

can communicate even a hint of it

do as we will







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

oh what cunts we are!


in agony over our ignorance and our fear

cursing nothing more than our 'gods'


as self-projections while the true Source of Life

courses through our beings


and sustains wrecks of consciousness

that only add to the misery


oh what assholes we're so proud of being....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

this is our miserable condition

this is "The Will Of God"


more's the pity...

there's more love in our sweet anguish


for each other and the aching pains of desire

and loss than there is in all "HIS"vengeance


or that mercy is in the agony of judgment...

what kind of psycho "godly" love is this?






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

just think of a life with "god"


we'll make mistakes and learn from them

and heal what we've hurt in the instant


and not have some tyrant interfere with our amendment

because "He" demands obedience


("demands"...a sure sign "He" is unworthy of obedience)

but this is as life is and we cannot undo any of it


oh the love and beauty that would be without this vain phantom








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

woke from my trance


said "aw nuts!"


all the same yet something different


probably in me


I'm pliant


open to suggestion


but "I AM THAT I AM"


as hard-assed as any tyrant







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

solitary in some void

while the world whirls around me









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

to live in this world

is to always be living

your entire life as if it were

3 p.m. on Good Friday







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

brought to the floor

I stare up at the stars

my sight fading under

the ego-killing blow


what shape gropes then

under disappearing stars

as a sun slants its light

through this open door?






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I take my place and cease to shed

the crocodile tears of my vanity


I just calm my breathing and my ache instead

before the emptiness of our living mystery








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

misery not only loves company

it fosters an unbreakable connection

in which every good intention done down

is just the taming of our aspiration for perfection

and that is the current of our urgency

misery pulling our hope underground







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

be a fool if you must

no one will stop you


in fact if they love or hate you

they'll join you in a mutual downfall






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

my love was mistaken

it only honored my delusions


and now for love's sake

I suffer from these conclusions


where every realization

shows how greatly I failed


and no amount of love or grace

will fix all the blunders of love I entailed







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I'm eating a bag of marked-down popcorn

right now as I type this


(and you wondered what beggars

and holy men subsisted on?)


the Infinite might as well be

far away elsewhere as I struggle to survive


as I act as commode for some jackass's

imagined glory and wish for my boon








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

the last idiot

is the first wise man


he learned the hard way

and retained the wisdom


how will you or I stack up

against that impossible measure?


we so clever we can

only outwit ourselves....







Content(c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

in the long day when nothing is left

but leaning shadows toward evening


the swelling heart is never bereft

even its sorrows hold love's meaning






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

we had our love for oh so long

it seemed there'd be no tomorrow


but now that it's gone

our memories bring nothing but sorrow









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

so off he goes down the road

a mob hot on his ass


and they will give chase

as long as he has the energy to last


but he is only searching for the root of all tales

the pertinent ones in which he delves


and rumor has it the mob on his heels

is only chasing itself








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

this is where I leave you...


oh I'll back and so will you...


for to leave is to arrive


and there's nowhere else but here






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

how can one go on living like this?

how can one go on living...period?


in the unsolvable everlasting mystery

that holds us in our trances


a result reached under our power

and still beyond our control


puts us in merciless stance of consequence

and that is where we find our apotheosis









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

free and shivering in the heat of the day

I long for the night

having always been this way


no mourning the past that can't be fixed

(though what it has made me has other remorse to harry)

and no fritting a future that has yet to arrive


and when the real you wakens to this actuality

you'll be in place and warm and longing will be filled when

night will be brighter than the day









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

LAUGH AT DEATH

I laugh at death


I know it doesn't exist

and the closer it comes to me


the more I laugh

because it doesn't exist


and I don't exist and you don't exist

except as a momentary image in Shiva's dream


when we awake we will be Shiva or nothing at all






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito

how I hate being old


every young beauty passing me

on the summer street


drives my desire wild

but the body will not have it


the body will no longer respond

and the empty longing


scrapes my insides like a clinical examination







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

no mercy


once you get this through

your thick head


you'll find it easier to act

on your own behalf


that is if you've really woken up

to the horseshit of morality


and learned you have nothing to say

about the outcomes of your actions


mercy indeed







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

you like kissing my ass?


keep doing it

I don't mind admitting I love it


and I love it most because

you're the one doing it







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

proud of yourself asshole?


you thought you were an idol

to be followed and obeyed and kowtowed to...


now you lie in the dust with those

you bamboozled


as hungry and scheming as the idiots

you got to follow you


how's it feel now you common turd?








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

ON LIFE

Ralph Kramden said it best:


"homina homina homina"







Content(c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

for all one's ceaseless gleaning

incomprehensible still is the meaning

that denotes a soul's purpose

as to whether it could harm or help us


nothing in creation is ours to know

we find our way stumbling as we go

the same destination on separate paths for each

but always available and ever in reach






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

someone will find me

and gather my bones


my one-time self

strewn like stones


across a path

whose way has run out


a soul has gone

none could know about






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

ALL THE EFFORT

the vow broken

the trust lost

all the effort

gone to dust


what can be spoken

of the ruinous cost

all the effort

spoiled by false trust








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

the lost love no longer matters


nor the memories of youth

in a time and place gone long ago


the world in which I lived has been lived

and this world I'm in will bury me


sans sacrement

and it will no longer matter


the shame the waste the loss






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

COMMON DOOM

well we've wrecked the world again


and dance in a frenzy even as the plates

beneath out feet start sliding again


and the tides pull back from the shore

as a mountain of water rises in the distance


and everything cosmic and vital is a hoax

and don't bother us while we're celebrating


what is really our human common doom








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

we wouldn't be happy

until we got back to the wilderness


well here we are


and how trusty is your rifle?








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

HOW THE WORLD WORKS

stupidity be blessed


to not know or care

about one's evil

is a freedom from conscience

so absolute

it's no wonder

people run wild doing harm


with no moral sense to contain them






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

AS IF I KNEW

reality and unreality

are hinges on the same door


real if you're coming in

unreal if you're going out


or do I actually have that backwards?









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I thought the wind was just blowing hard


but it was just the earth stopping for a second

as it spun down its own rabbit hole


it's image plastered on the black hole's edge








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I would not lead you astray


we are all at sufferance

and all of us are the sad victims


of an unmerciful god

but if this source of life is so utterly neutral


that it will punish bad and award good its place

the do what you know is right...you have no control


over outcomes...but the One is supposed to...


let's find out to whatever our conditions

how truly this is so....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

happiness is the height of theft

steal everything you can


because god is not the 'merciful father'

god's a merciless tyrant


and all the good you can obtain

will stand you well in your living


and if this merciless One is not satisfied

well...at least you had your happiness....








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

allow nothing to interfere with your happiness


it is a brief thing but all you have

to maintain some faith in living


god may not give a flying fuck

whether you're happy or not


but god's lack of mercy and forgiveness

is god's will and you should keep it from too much


being your woe...let your happiness relieve that damnable woe....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

OUR JOY

our joy is a small thing

in a season of hope so brief

it might as well not be

for its inadequate relief


this is not our will

we would forgive and forget

but the One never does

and therein is our reason for regret









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

HOW I MISS THE WORLD THAT WAS

how I miss the cigarettes and scotch and sodas

the topless dancers sending money home to Brazil

where corrupt postal officials will open the envelopes

and take the money for themselves


and the ersatz masters of the earthly kingdoms

will act like the most vicious bullies of the schoolyard

and think themselves kings in a world where god turns away

whistling and weeping while sitting on his hands


and all responsibility and all liability is placed

on ignorant us while we ever fail and that entails

more punishment since the One  is ever ready to punish

but never ready to lift a finger to save


how I miss my ignorance and all its joys

now that the judgment ever cries over what it destroys







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

the shift has already happened

a new time is upon us


people like you will welcome

this morally neuter time


while people like me will be pleased to know

death will release from this hell soon enough


you do your damage as we did ours

and the crisis of creation continues its vile circus









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I glide down to the bottom of some canyon

in the landscape of "Da Lawd"


and the places to land are few

and the holding pattern contains many


I'd use the idle time reviewing

all my earthly reflections


but what does it matter? I'm not capable

of knowing what trusted belief brought me down








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I'm aiming all my force at you


it's not revenge and it's not atonement


it's only leveling the playing field

where we work out our debts to each other


and if you don't realize that

then your loss will be the greater


because you'll suffer for the worse you've done


but never realize why it is so






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

A PARODY DONCHA KNOW?

hold onto your butts ag'in

I'm being swung by my nuts ag'in

I'm pukin' my guts ag'in

takin' a chance on love


I'm sick 'n' tired ag'in

my brain's all fried ag'in

oh kill me now my frien'

be-cause I've had enough


(ruff)







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

wrestle with yourself

under an empty sky


the vultures will show

the recovery party


where you fell

in brave combat


with your own vanity

and ignorance








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

congratulate yourself

on your latest good deed


and unknowingly kiss the benefit goodbye

as you embrace your imagined reward








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

all we can make is our next move


the results aren't even in our control

we do what we do


and if it falls then we're wrong

if it stands then we're right


and even that isn't hard and fast

even that may be another blunder


the fatal mistake no One will forgive






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

what am I to repent of

if all our involvement in this world is wrong?


 a hateful One demanding of us

perfection we cannot attain


then damning us for not attaining it

oh you figure it out for yourself


I'll go my own way even if it's

the same way you're going






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

NECESSITY

follow your wild imagination

into the dark depths of your soul

or empty your mind and follow

light after light after light

or follow your wild imagination

into the Clear Inner Light

or empty your mind and find yourself

a stammering idiot stumbling at dimming day

no one knows which way to go

no one knows who they really are

no one knows a damn thing but yet

no one can avoid making a move

whether they follow an empty imagination

or race along with a wild mind

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

you may think you've had enough

but you've only barely started

once you've lost your love

you'll think of nothing but the departed

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

they are always coming

as we are always leaving


they wonder where we're going

while we have trouble believing


it's we who are on our way

our nerves resolved by our humming


as we move along pathways that lay

beyond their yet-to-be-knowing








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

feeling less better day by day


but this is normal for this world


we start from our peak and slide on down

until we end at the ravine's bottom


and eyeless sockets stare passively

after the vultures lift off


normal for this world


beyond feeling at fall of night







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

long as I must be here

I must contend with the rulers

of the earth


like god they have all control

and are merciless in their vanity

and since all of us are at sufferance


I will not give obeisance to any

all you'll get from me is necessary cooperation








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

oh merciless life


between you and merciful death

temptation rages most wildly


and our choice as meaningless as


as any other choice we must make

glory in the right or rue the mistake


either leads to a stone cold end


where nature will mend what it will rend






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

don't believe in yourself


you'll only be misled


instruction comes through others

no matter how like you they may be


we stumble and strangle each other

in love you see


and what tally maintains a balance


is beyond our scoring and not our business






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

how sorry I am for each misstep


and how sorry I am

that 'sorry' doesn't do it...


we pay for what we will

and the rest holds us in hock...


had I known god was a pawn broker

I'd have spent every last dime


on debauchery and fleeting pleasure....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

someone's following me


don't follow too closely

unless you wish to join me


in my own failure to love








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE FUTILE CYCLE

the agony will never end

as long as I inhabit this skin


all that's lost no longer to be found

will accompany me into the ground


and what new shoots will exhibit toil

in breaking up and out of the soil


will likewise fall back to earth

to nourish the next round of growth's lack of worth







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I waited so long

for nothing to be right


will someone tell me again

what's so hopeful about hope?








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

WASTE YOUR TIME MOURNING DOVE

I still regret everything I did

in trying to hang on

to the love we were losing


and still

the mourning dove coos

its sorrowful song


oh all the desire lost

to what I am now stone deaf







Content(c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

if I could keep your love


would things be different...better...

for us...or would it still be all the shit


that finally broke us apart?








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

are you ready?

neither am I


things could turn on a dime

and we'd never be prepared






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

relief does not come

until after a crisis


there's no preventative

drug or prayer


to prepare you

and after relief


comes the next issue

the next care






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I'm sinking fast

but I have been for years


I didn't realize bottom

was so far down


it almost feels like floating

on some days


but won't be so when finally

I hit that final floor











Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

how happy you must be

to see me suffer


when I got what was coming

and your happiness


will also be at sufferance

at some point









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I have to admit

I liked you better

before I found out

you weren't the type

for whom I'd sign on


but we are always done in

when we try to open ourselves

to other experience


as if that would change

nature in any way






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

people love you

until you stop dancing to their tune

aggravating yourself to be

what they want you to be


and if you fail them

know then why you're left out to dry

from the drenching of tears given you

by those who love you so....








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I thought we had a choice

I thought what we did mattered


and it does but only in a negative way

because we lack the totality of life

to see where all the strands join up

to weave the pattern of all our living


and a dropped stitch is fatal to a florid design

so tight and unforgiving






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

tell people what they already know

and they'll thank you

for affirming their disbelief


tell people what you know

and they'll hate you for presuming to judge

them even if what you know


and what they know draw from

the same pool of ignorance











Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

no one knows good from bad

or right from wrong

or any of the other little

divisions we make in

the whole of this creation


wiser to just shoulder your load

ask for help but don't depend on it

and make your way as others do


just treading along our own paths







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

crisis passing

another in a line

last time was health

this time lost love


next time

who knows what?

another in a line

crisis passing






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

so all harm done…

and no amends good enough…

what does anything matter now?


all that is left is to wait for release…

before that great mystery I’m ready to bow….







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

run for your life…


no…

on second thought

don’t run for your life…


you’re doomed in any case….






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

blessed are the stupid


they ruin everything they touch

and take bows afterward


while higher-minded victims

withdraw and pray for their own selfish lives


stupid are the blessed






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

idiots run wild while god in standard fashion looks the other way

now we know nothing we valued had any value at all







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

if I had all I wanted

what would I have done with it?


would I have done some genuine good?

would I have only wasted it?


I have all I've got

and I did what I did with it


and still don't know the good from the bad

and still don't know whether it helped or was in vain






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

SHOWTIME

this is where I came in


as if in someone else's movie

(which you cannot do any longer

as you pay outrageous prices

for commercials and dozens


of coming attractions for just

one showing of just one movie...

makes those of us who remember

miss the newsreels and the cartoons...)


but still I entered here...saw it to the end...

then stayed to see the beginning to see

up to the point where I came in

which is the point where I will go out


the movie going on for the next audiences....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

TOTAL CONTENT

late summer leaves glow in the haze


slate gray sky lit by the outrageous sun


cicadas buzzing in this soaking morning

where things remembered and their attendant regrets

vaporize into their irreparable pasts

and the future to be roils invisibly


and the total content of a lifetime

seeks shade under the wilted trees








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

SNARK

forgive me but I'll always have

a bit of the snark in me


it makes sense given those powers-that-be

who even at their kindest


condescend a bit...(no master of the universe

gets where they are without some unattractive


trait of arrogance no matter how sublimated...)

while any fool who stupidly took himself


too seriously in trying to figure right from wrong

and found out how much wrong is right and right is wrong


forgive me if I call it as I see it...

if I can't trust my own insight I should give myself over


to the insight of others as fallible as myself?

just say it plain...or let the discussion be ended....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE PLAN (WHO HELP US!)

I will not be broken

by all the distorted powers

of those who claim sanction

of God's Will for their misuse

of their callings and their intentions


we are each other's hells

we all suffer by our 'Oneness'

where it takes only one fool

can drag the rest of humanity down...

multiply that by the millions of souls alive


and you'll see the hopelessness of any idea of righteousness...

we are all in the wrong and God will not lift a finger

but to punish and correct...and even then...we cannot know

what we did or didn't do or why it never sets things right....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE OUTPOST

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

MISGUIDED KOAN

something I thought was right was wrong

it isn't the first time I misread the vision

or didn't catch the inner voice mumbling

but when it's wrong to be right

then I know the verbose self-administrations

of the morally neuter


what is the meaning of this?

I don't know

I was wrong









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

HIT THE RAPIDS

just a moment of your time

will be enough to set you behind


you hesitate and see all endeavors go

belly up in the river time's flow


there are no mercies in the current

it washes away the ruins of your earnest intent


now you know it's senseless to hide

you just hit the rapids and take that ride






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

BREASTS

breasts are constantly on the minds of men


men grow disturbed in their primal desire

because breasts shatter the distinction


between motherhood and hot sexuality


no wonder we are in a constant rage

worshipping women and putting them down


our own twisted psychosis driving us

to slaughter in the name of motherhood


and for lust for the camp slatterns





Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE COMMON DEATH

the common death

that awaits us all

is never to be

feared or mourned against


unless you know you haven't lived

the way you should have

and even then what would that do

but tie you closer to your harm?


give up your control

and detach from your error

make it part of what you'll deal with

at some yet-to-be future


and hope to learn and grow strong

to face that reckoning more wisely







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

END OF SUMMER

storms throb

through the warm plaster

of damp air

blessing the end of this summer

with belated dog days

that nonetheless

bite deep and wet

into the weary soul


you love this horrible weather?

your folk must come

from Memphis where everyone

moves like smudges

through the atmosphere

so like the humid corruption of soul







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

pushing that stone uphill

wouldn't be

such a problem were it not

for gravity


talk about

stating the obvious

but then I though a Hand

would reach out of the sky


to help....








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

ALWAYS POSSIBLE

how quickly dawns

will fly away


in the light of

an eternal day








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

PENETRATING THE DARKNESS OF GOD

it's somewhere

all around us


but each

of us must


cut through the

surrounding darkness


to reach it and see it

and be with it







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE

let's break camp people


the rulers of this era's oligarchy

have found us out

(with your god-damned apps people)


some of you truly have no clue

how many of our basic human rights

are utterly gone thanks to your safety


in the bubble of what oppresses all of us

but why say anything now?

some of you are still not sure there's such an emergency


so how explain to you freedoms you'll never understand

while you mistake your smug entitlement as freedom?

oh but traitors to all causes to do right are as timeless


as the struggles themselves and even those who presume to lead

are as bloody-handed as their presumed enemies

but like Pilate find it so easy to wash their hands


but nothing being pure by way of our own imperfections

we must break camp and flee to some limited safe spot

that too will be flushed out and overrun


by the adherents to the current Powers-That-Be

who suffer from the same delusions and sins

as the endless string of tyrants who preceded them


we'll break camp and meet on the other side of these mountains

out of the range of their radar and their satellite views

and try to continue the struggle toward a reality that fulfills


our warped view of justice and freedom


given human nature that's a tall order indeed

since we are never in the right

there's the perpetual meat of the matter


brotherhood alas means keeping a sharp eye on each other






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

A STALL

a stall in the moment of my living


that I am using to recalculate

(using my own brain mind you)


which way I must go

whether God allows me progress


or I won't ruin it myself

I make my move (all I can do)


and am ready when movement recommences






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THIS AUGUST 15TH

august 15


a dog-day weekend

just to remind us


that though the light shortens

with the plunge into


the dark part of the year

it is still late summer


poignant as lost love







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

GOOD MORNING

good morning to some

a worse morning for others


but for all a new day

in the variable world






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

MASTER OF NOTHING

when a storm opens the sky

with its thunder and lightening


the crazed visionary roils in his cell

his visions were projections of his illusions


his mental illness locking him into the pains

that would kill or cure him


a frightened animal hiding in a hole

until the storm passes







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

oh we never learn

except through suffering

that destroys the lesson

and our learning a fresh blankness of mind








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

OH THE FOOL

oh the fool continues


our earthly condition perhaps

but how much vain hope


to wish for an end

without beginning


to understand such a happening

in real-time material world actuality


will the fool bear his selfish hope of an escape?










Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

PLAIN AS DAY

plain as day as they say

our troubles are not only ours

but what we share with too many others


and who breaks this unholy chain?

who is strong enough to admit his blame?

who thinks it's all one just the same?


he who would manipulate his solitary view

he who does the most damage of all....








Content(c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

HE WHO WOULD...

it's said that

"he who would save his life must lose it"


is it so hard then to realize

that the opposite is true...?


that he who would lose his life

will gain it?







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

AND STILL I DREAM

and still I dream

of the ultimate rest

a lifetime in ruins

being put to the test

of examining aspiration

while nothing is in my control

except to keep dreaming

and watch all lives unfold








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THIS IS FOR ALL OF US

the road ahead makes me weep

my feet bleed on the thorns of my strewing


and where it leads isn't an issue this second

it's only to stop mourning a past


that can't be changed and stop fretting a future

that hasn't arrived yet


but still that ongoing road makes me weep

and still my feet bleed with every step







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

INTERPRETING THE NIGHT

for someone

who can't

see the

sky for the

black cloud

over

his head


you're

sure

doing a

brisk business

as an

astronomer


like Whitman

you look up

and imagine

the constellations


but unlike you

Whitman actually

looked up

and saw

the stars








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

GOOD THING I'M NO LONGER A BETTING MAN

what if I changed my tune

and fell in love with life?


woke at last from my childish

rages and said "enough


you stopped being twelve

fifty years ago"


what if all of which I knew better

finally became my daily view


my steady measure of the edges

of our worlds as they bump and slide by?


bet you the day I look forward to life over death

is the day a car will hit me and that'll be all brother....








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

BURYING GROUND

wondering when I'll finally get here


whatever afterward

I can only face

whenever I get there









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

WE CONTROL NOTHING

neither happy nor sad


just wasted and waiting


done is done but though I'm done


the One is not done with me






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I only have the slightest feeling

of how this day will go


my sixth sense is shot

and no hint helps me avert


what bullshit awaits me

as I deal with my fellow creatures


alleged we're all One but that's not the reality

we make for ourselves here







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

you will see for yourself

your raging end in the skin


and what you see afterward

will be your start among many others


and each and every one each other

different patterns cut from the same cloth


and all will be glad to be what we are

exactly where we are







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

corks

bottled messages

corpses

debris of catastrophe


all the world washes up

on beaches

amid sand castles

and blankets inches from incoming waves


where the living watch

the splendors of the planet

foster an idea of eternity

as limited as it is beyond knowing


corks and bottled messages waiting

to be launched by these eventual corpses






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

WHERE WE'RE BOUND

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

MONHEGAN 2014

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THIS WAY

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I can only imagine

the next somewhere

I'll have to go


so I'll stop imagining

and as quiet as I can be

will take the road as I find it


as you will find out for yourself

eventually

none but yourself can tell you


I certainly don't know....











Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

YOUR TRY

failing in your try

you can only cry


grown from a lie

love can only die







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

FRIENDLY WARNING

too holy for my own good

I answered a call


and failing saw for myself how pride

went before the fall







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

ALWAYS THE COST

the brief lift of attraction

to your subject of desire

is always followed by a drop

that lets your soul retire

onto the flames of your love's pyre

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE ONLY SEPARATION

the only separation that matters

is the difference between men and women


but it is our own incorrigible egos

that make what should be a meadow of peace


into a field of war








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

A MOMENT AND NOTHING MORE

look at the easy flirty smile


two asian men with a moon-faced

eastern european beauty


as she left the store

I saw her look at me


and as she walks away with her men

she looks again and flashes


a fuller smile with a modest glance away


oh dear girl


you are so many years late

how could you know


you wasted your momentary desire

on someone who was done


years before you first bled








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

CHAINED UNTIL...

all I've done and will

continue to do

will add to the chain I bear

from life to life


but the chain can break

at any instant

and all (including my ego)

will fall away


and facing what actually

there is of life itself

will not require my rude thinking

my pain and my fear


but what will that actually be like?

all of the only Reality but without these conditions?






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

PARADIGM

words are disappearing

and all our old ways are outgrown


even visuals and voice transformed


in the new paradigm

a new consciousness


raises our game


but our follies will still be our own

even this new thing must be transcended....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

PARK AND RIDE

where I will eventually leave

this body....








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

AFTER MIDNIGHT

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

AGAIN

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

PASSING

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

nothing gives pleasure

when you know pleasure

is as finite as a

bowel evacuation


and just as satisfying


this is what you get

for worshipping the earth

instead of the power that created it






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

POOR MAN'S DEBT

as a poor man

I'm used to having

everyone pick my pockets


I just wish they

(including the Almighty)

wouldn't take so much pleasure


in squeezing my nuts

while they do so






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

NOT THERE YET

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

MONHEGAN ISLAND 2014

this is where I wish to die

this is from where I wish to leave this sojourn


it probably won't be allowed to me

but if there's time enough to think


before I go then this place

is the place I'll have


in my mind...this place where for me

heaven and earth are joined....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

STOREFRONT SIGN ON MONHEGAN ISLAND 2014

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

ANYONE HOME?

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE NEXT TURN OF THE ROAD

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

AT LEAST IN THE EARTH

I am unequal

to this beauty


let others

project themselves


onto creation

all of us


are unequal

to this beauty








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE TOR

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

MAN THE BUILDER

I made my own

and only hell

I did it alone

and I know it well


though aspiration

to right was meant

stagnation

subsumed purpose spent


what power vanity gave

to allow me to misuse it

until "he who would save

his life must lose it"


now if I want out of all this

can I start building an exit?







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

WHERE I ALWAYS MEANT TO BE (MAST HOPE, PA.)

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

6 TO 5 AGAINST?

all that remains

is to stumble over

the finish line

of this life


and hope there's

a winner's circle

my soul can enter

where the garland won't be snatched away








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.