The Literary Review
Blessed be this Armageddon
Blessed be this Armageddon.
Blessed be the fire that falls.
Blessed be the rivers of poison.
Blessed be the disease in the wind.
Blessed be all this death and decay
that we gift to each other
and to all living things.
Blessed be the ways
of men and governments.
All hail this end
we have made for ourselves.
- Joseph Farley
Mercy Please
Angels dancing on the heads of pins
should pause in their aerobics
to come save the world.
Music and motion is all the rage.
Even I would be tempted
by a good tempo,
but guardians are needed
now and always
to save us from ourselves
and all the other beasties
across the sea and near to home
or out there beyond the sky
thinking up ways to end our lives,
faster maybe,
than what we can devise.
- Joseph Farley
To The Woods
Among trees I felt holy.
Yes. I did once.
Many years walking
along paths and making my own.
In the woods I found,
if not a home, a place
for my soul to feel its best.
Now I can barely walk.
I see pictures of forests
and drive by parks.
I want to be there,
close of God and creation,
but I can’t go there
anymore.
Now it’s just the gym
and rehab and therapy.
It’s not quite the same
among the lifting machines.
I guess I’ll be buried in a forest
or have my ashes scattered
among trees, near a brook,
where deer run at night
within the gaze of weary owls
and chipmunks shivering
in the spring foliage.
- Joseph Farley
Who Needs The Alpha and the Omega
Everything I did I did for U,
rejecting other vowels,
ignoring all consonants.
And yet, when I needed U
more than forever,
there was no U to be found.
Only I and X and W
and outcast letters
from a foreign alphabet.
Together we made
our own language
that none could understand,
and it was you
and it was different
and we forgot it
the more we spoke,
sobering to
the horror
of mere communication.
- Joseph Farley
The rain will come
Loosed from their cages
the days ran away
and disappeared
over hills.
The sky turned gray
and so did I,
laughing at the arrival
of a rainbow
before the storm
- Joseph Farley
Not Like In The Movies
In movies the lovers spread a blanket on the grass
and make out among the trees.
Very romantic.
The reality is not always so nice.
We should have brought insect repellent.
Too many bugs.
We gave up and went back to my apartment.
That’s where we saw the first tick.
It was better together in the shower,
with more time to touch and feel,
while checking every nook and cranny,
and sorting through every hair
for any thing sinister
hiding there.
- Joseph Farley
