Strider Marcus Jones (Western Voices 2023)

Bio: Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. His poetry has been published in numerous publications worldwide including: Otoliths Literary Journal; Drawn to the Light Press; Setu 2022 Western Voices; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine and Dissident Voice.

 

HATS OF SOCIOPATHIC ECLIPSE

the cream

is a nightmare

seldom a dream,

that blood rare

stream

that rises

unstopped,

soured by bullies

whose wisdom has no worries

and despises

those who are not.

when truth becomes twisted

then hard fisted

and spoken rotten

over all we have forgotten,

you know the mask

want it to last

over us like the past.

they want us to be clones

of skin and blood and bones,

like frightened, servile drones

grateful but outcast.

corruption is the god

of the Significant,

so be wary as you plod

if your mind is wired different-

sordid business

gives soiled forgiveness

now the politics and technocrats

are Fixed:

let your individuality and normality

be the sense and conscience

against these hats of sociopathic eclipse.

***

 

WE MOVE THE WHEEL

we move the wheel

that turns through each mistake,

giving motion

to the roles we chime

until both trickle out of time

like brittle steel

that rusts and breaks

into lapsed devotion.

less, or more,

you imagined it was sure

sharing the road

with you,

treading under dark, grey and blue

sky, wondering where it went going

to unfold

in fates wind blowing

fondling your full face

to some top-to-bottom place.

we have moved the wheel,

only to reveal

our high Metropolis

is still the same Acropolis

of extremes and obscenes

spreading gangrenous genes.

we have separated Dream from Time

and live in mirages

like Bacchus and Libera

duped in an era

condoning crime,

altering the images

of its illustrious self

stealing the wealth

of massed, divided synergies.

***

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Western Voices 2023 :: Setu, February 2023