Imported Poems

Since I'm no longer writing, I've decided to post some work from the past. Here's one I wrote mere days before 9/11:

9/5/2001

HEAVEN ON EARTH?

I look around me and within me and all I see is sin and misery.
I see people passing notes in class and talking in the stairwell, prating
politics.
I hear them register their opinions—“neutral”—on ruptured relationships
hemorrhaging believers.
“Neutral?”* How can one possibly be neutral mourning decay and division?
For my heart bleeds at this gaping wound threatening amputation.

I look around me and within me and all I see is sin and misery.
They say it started with the Columbine killings
--15 shot dead, including martyrs and slayers—
but did it really start with Columbine?* Did it really?
Or did it start in the heart of man when he heard that God was dead.

I look around me and within me and all I see is sin and misery
17 cherubic faces laughing and playing,
now lie in the morgue, cold from the curse of Cain,
45 less days in the company of their parents
and they could have lived again.

I look around me and within me and all I see is sin and misery...
and death, and disease, and divorce, and depression,
crime of the heart,
crime of the flesh,
a crime committed in passion,
and my own sin magnified 1000x in the heart of my child
while dialectical materialism is running wild, running wild...

Matter matters, and what is not matter does not matter.
Doctrine does matter, relationships do not—unless they’re worthy of church gossip, and then they do.
So lets perpetuate the dissent and discord and the malcontent
whispering words behinds their backs...

I look around me and within me and all I see is sin and misery
and I cry out to God, “Why?” and “Why?”
why the futile death of this innocent child?
He did no harm save love his mom,
and dad.

and I cry out to God, “Why? and “Why?”
why the conflict and contention
and competing for what is right?
And why a thousand ways to read
with each eye discerning differently?

and I cry out to God “Why?” and “Why?”
Why do you forbear and why so endure?
For we are a wicked, wicked human race
depraved, destitute and so degraded
In pride we do not beg nor plead with you
for your Mercy and Grace.

And so I pray
please hurl justice down
and right size this place for good.

Nice, eh?

I took some pictures with my camera yesterday (because I was tan - LOL!).
This one looked like a mug shot with the white wall behind me so I added a backdrop:



This is a body shot. I do this once a year to see if I can still wear a bikini. I feel fat even when I'm not so an objective photo helps me see what I look like to others (a tactic used to treat anorexics):