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Poetry Magnum Opus

November 22, 1963


Gatekeeper

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November 22, 1963



I was in uniform

on the drill floor

It was competition day

one squad at a time


My fellow students were doing well

we were headed for a win

all the moves were correct

all the uniforms neatly aligned


But I remember nothing

of the winners or the losers

I honestly don't know

how the squad I led finished


No one cared how it turned out

even as we finished the drill

our actions were on auto-pilot

our heads swimming in fear


The President was dead the Colonel had said!

Were we suddenly at war?

Who could do such a thing?

We were nearly paralyzed!


But there was duty to be served

leading a daily honor guard

to lower the half-staff flag

until the acute fear subsided


The chemistry of the brain

fixes such an unexpected event

much like a sculptor would reveal the form

as if done in an instant





112113 / 2222

from the black desert

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much like a sculptor would reveal the form

as if done in an instant


Well written piece & conclusion.


I am 49, but I remember where I was when Reagan was shot, when the Challenger exploded, and I was in viewing distance of the Pentagon on 9/11. "In an instant".....very correct.

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I can relate to what the conflict in the piece wanted to project.

"Words are not things, and yet they are not non-things either." - Ann Lauterbach

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abstrect-christ

nice capturing of a moment.

I may not have been born then, but the affects are felt long after Kennedy.

Pinhead

"Unbearable, isn't it? The suffering of strangers, the agony of friends.

There is a secret song at the center of the world, Joey, and its sound is like razors through flesh."

Joey

"I don't believe you."

Pinhead

"Oh come, you can hear its faint echo right now. I'm here to turn up the volume.

To press the stinking face of humanity into the dark blood of its own secret heart."

"There's a starving beast inside my chest
playing with me until he's bored
Then, slowly burying his tusks in my flesh
crawling his way out he rips open old wounds

When I reach for the knife placed on the bedside table
its blade reflects my determined face
to plant it in my chest
and carve a hole so deep it snaps my veins

Hollow me out, I want to feel empty"
-- "Being Able To Feel Nothing" by Oathbreaker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBPy3xNwwL8

"Sky turns to a deeper grey

the sun fades by the moon

hell's come from the distant hills

tortures dreams of the doomed

and they pray, yet they prey

and they pray, still they prey"
-- "Still They Prey" by Cough

https://soundcloud.com/relapserecords/sets/cough-still-they-pray

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David W. Parsley

I was young but remember. This poem evokes such a time. Brilliant finish, GK.

 

- Dave

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Your excellent conclusion says it all.... I recall riding my bike through the small town centre where I lived with a transistor radio pressed to my ear. The world stood still . B.

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I had never written about this until now - which might seem a bit odd - 50 years and all.

I was essentially captioning the image burned into my neurons and had no idea how to close it, until i got there. Curious how that works. Guess it took 50 years.

Thanks all for your comments.

from the black desert

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