A Priori Me

Staring at machinescapes
Fractal music in my head
The inflammation of my spine
Confirms for me I am not dead
A priori me
In the wind, dust, and shadows
A posteriori me
Weighing and measuring my battles
Knowing what I know
Without knowing the reason
The eerie absent answers
Feel like my mind committing treason
I accept the betrayal
My cognizance shoulders on
Knowing some framework exists
Both before and after I am gone

Gene G. McLaughlin 2022

Today Was Like Dust

Today was like dust

Floating away from me

The reason I saw it at all

Is because it danced

In rays of morning sun

Promising a confidence

If I didn’t look away

I barely moved my eyes

Still, the secret was withheld

Promised in due time

Dwelling in a future moment

Gene G. McLaughlin 2022

The Dreaming Soil

The wolf sees the man as meat

A means to hunger’s end

The x-ray sees the man as bone

What he is, but does not comprehend

The fly sees the man as stone

Ancient beyond the fly’s years

The worm waits for the man to be soil

Oblivious to any and all of his fears

The soil is a measure of time

Under the gaze of a blazing unforgiving sun

The worms live in the layers of history

Where everything silently dreams as one

Gene G. McLaughlin 2022

The Art of the Spider

The Art of the Spider

The art of the spider is patience
Its venom is held in reserve
For when the web breaks unbidden
Or if the prey works up the nerve
To resist that which nature intended
To swerve from the course of its fate
The spider’s unseen strength
Is the will to sit and silently wait

Gene G. McLaughlin 2022

Lonely Skee-Ball Lane

Lonely Skee-Ball Lane

In an empty arcade, exists activity

None arising from life

Sounds of machines humming and beeping

Existences clear and free of strife

Bells ring to alert no one of nothing

Digital voices entice the absent to play

They can’t distract their intended targets

To attempt to chase their worries away

Oh the pop-a-shot lights

Are ever oh so bright

Offering buttons to press

Promising prizes and tickets to win

As the cabinets bathe in fluoresce

Waiting for the day’s simulations to begin

Gene G. McLaughlin 2022