SMALL MERCIES

if I could I'd leave this sojourn


but we are not to take ourselves out

before our appointed times


I don't give a damn whether you believe me

it's the fact that we serve our lives like sentences


from an unmerciful judge

no way around it and no way out of it


but to endure our time and be grateful for small mercies





Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

ONLY ONE WAY OUT

oh the grief we waste

on mourning our departed


while they look down on us

in compassion on our confusion


detach yourself from the life

in which you inhabit in this time


when you finally know this life is not All

then you will hear your departed whispering to you


only One way out and it won't be the horror

you have been taught it will be


I don't care about the imaginary 'mass of humanity'

we are taught to believe in


we are each a part of a mighty whole that only your fear

and ignorance will keep you locked in the earth









Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

ALAN ROTH (OCTOBER 1951-FEBRUARY 2016)

it's too soon to write this

but I don't care


he (boyhood buddy) was

a master artist (one of Music and Art's finest)

a surrealist beyond what even Breton

had hoped for his movement


a lover of scotch and Southern Comfort

a knowledge of all the old movies and TV shows

on which we grew up

and many nights spent at McSorley's

(dark bock and a platter of cheese

onions and hot mustard) clearing our sinuses

while we lashed at the world

with potent tag lines


I hadn't seen him in thirty years

but at a Music and Art do a year or so ago

I got to see him fit and well despite

the cancer that he'd been fighting for so long

I was beginning to think he would wind up burying

the rest of us


but it is not to be

but sad as I am I do not mourn

like Jarry we believed in The Passion considered as an

uphill bicycle race


I hope he remembered his air pump

like Christ our race continues airbourne


for now pal o'mine

take it easy


our worldly bullshit is

no longer your concern






Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

today is too nice to waste

on unforgiving gods


and fretting a future

you've yet to fashion


maybe you're frightened

and too weak to deal


but I for one will give myself a break today

as nice as the day the bastards never quite go away










Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

unfit for eternity

so your enemy will let you believe


now who is this about?

God or yourself?








Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

THE MERCY OF EVERYTHING

ankle-deep in horse merde

I see that template

from which springs

fresh roots and...well you know the deal...


I will wash my feet and stay

alone in my room whose window gives out

on a fading violet twilight

lighting the land in soft waves...


perhaps I shouldn't have been so haughty

but after all all of us are farmers

crops fail crops succeed

while we are at the mercy of everything


but our own abilities...unless you're wise

you'll know better than to try prophecy






Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

FOLLOWED THROUGH THE AGES

wherever I move

I feel some spirit guide

trailing my shadow

 at the soles of my feet


how tiresome to make excuse

for this metaphysical mook

when I'm deep in conversation

and pulled out of it by this spook


and its lack of concern

for empathy and forgiveness

since all the bone it can pick

is all that makes me happy


but being God's henchman

happiness is not the reason to be here






Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.