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i try to look beyond 
the face-filled circle
next to (pick one)
snarkmachine
thedonsaddefender
taytaysbiggestfan91285
hellboundhousewife
to capture the reality
the essence
the raison d'etre
of the poster 
brow furrowed
thumbs above the keyboard
poised
trying to think of, to craft,
to organize
the exactly right
riposte, burn, comeback,
takedown, smackdown
to an original post by
merrymarymakeup
or taytaysbiggestfan91284
a reply that will be reposted
across the internet 
with the speed of 
pegasus, mercury, and hermes combined,
thumbs up, tears of laughter
emoji attached attache by the hundreds, thousands,
even considered by Buzzfeed 
for inclusion in its article
31 way, way, way, way, way
better responses to a lame post
than other lame responses.
the thumbs begin to move.
godspeed to you, my friend,
in your quest
for immortality.

as all the creatures

as all the creature
of the earth
marched by Adam,
he wondered 
which came first 
on the morning of
the sixth day, 
when the populating of the land began.
Did God start with
the common creatures,
those easily domesticated,
or were the exotics
like giraffes and aardvarks
the first to appear?
Or maybe God worked in groups,
like all the cats at 8:30, followed
by the dogs at 9,
and ruminants at 9:45?
Monkeys were a special challenge,
Adam bet.
God probably pulled the herbivores
from the mud first, followed by 
carnivores, so all would have 
something to eat.
Maybe, after all the work
creating the heavens and earth,
separating the water,
and populating the seas and the skies,
He had already begun to tire,
and was reusing designs and parts
that he had used before,
like four legs, skeletons,
placement of ears eyes nose mouth,
tweaking once in a while
to amuse Himself.
Definitely needed that rest
on the seventh day,
as Adam decreed the feline before him
a puma. Wait, a mountain lion.
Maybe a cougar. Panther?
Adam decided
he needed a break, too.
He sighed as yet another animal walked by,
waiting for classification, a name,
an identity.
he thought it was taking him longer 
to assign names
than it probably took God
to make them in the first place.
God worked quickly.
'Jersey Devil,' he thought, then,
'no, Jackal. Definitely Jackal.'
He smiled as he thought of Eve,
wondered what she was doing,
glad that God left her to last,
when he had gotten it right.

lo

lo,
forlorn waif
mourning the loss
of a favorite pacifier
the stuffed bear who was
your intimate, your confidante,
always comforting, never judging,
accepting you as you,
supporting you.
You did nothing
to deserve such treatment,
to be torn thus from bear
and pacifier,
to suffer such a loss.
Ah, my child, your crime
was to learn to walk and talk,
to grow teeth,
tend to yourself in the toilet
to become independent,
to reach school age,
to start your path
to being an adult.
There will be other comforts—
love, success, accomplishment
your own family,
but none will ever match
or replace
those first solaces
of lips around soft plastic
the feel of fur
pressed against arm and chest.

Quiet

is not Silence
is not the
Absence of Sound
is not the 
Cessation of Vibration,
sound as defined by
Scientific Types,
measurable,
quantifiable.
Silence is outside,
destroyed even by 
Mother Nature Herself
even her gentle,
comforting sounds—
wind in the branches 
rain against a window
Destroying A Moment.
People, too,
with their engines and machines
create sound wave upon sound wave,
even the needless nattering of a neighbor,
who finds it Necessary to
Process Out Loud
the troubles of the world
and her grandson’s Poor Grades.
You ‘listen,’
understanding,
not needed, really, in the conversation.
Silence is 
Beyond Our Control.
But Quiet—
Quiet is ours,
inside, protected.
Silence 
is only a component
of Quiet.
Quiet comes when the 
Force Of The Spirit
rises, filling
All The Space,
combining
Stillness
with
Content
and
Hope.