What is the shrill high-pitched alarm
That affronts the plugged ears
But the insistent sound of reality?
What is the hammer blow
That crushes the armor of bones
But the relentless force of reality?
What is the shock that sits
You upright in the middle of the night
But the jolt of reality breaking through your slumber
And making Reality known?
Evade and distract as you will—it is there.

There is a creature of festering hate
Locked undeground in an iron cage
That if an escape it could create
Would shatter the world with shaking hate
Engorged with a surfeit of empty smiles
And shameless coy deception
It waits with mounting bitter bile
To end its cruel frustration

Accosted in the house of prayer--
A beggar puts forth his hand
“I need money,” he says in your language
Speaking with a contorted mouth
His face otherwise blank, including his eyes
His hand makes grasping motions in the air
Like a claw
“I will pray for you,” he says
His face getting closer
“I will pray for you”
When you give him some coins
He looks at them and continues
“I need money,” he says
With a bent mouth
“I will pray for you”

In the haze of the autumn afternoon
You wander the streets
Until you pass the zoological garden
The sun makes you sweat under your coat
As you watch the crowds gaping
At monkeys and tigers
You enter a dark hall
Leading to the aquarium
And walk past schools of fish
And darting sharks
Until you stop before a window
Where, in a vast pool of water,
A walrus descends upside down
And presses himself to the glass,
Staring at you

You look to the trees
And offer prayers
That God will love you
You meditate in the sunlight
And feel its warmth
But when the sun sinks
And darkness comes
You feel the cold and fear

With terrorists at the city gates
You spend the night at the hotel
While armored cars roam the streets
A night you always knew would come
You lie on the bed watching searchlights
Cross the sky
And the blinking lights of the corporate towers
Beckoning to the unknown

The smokestack
In the abandoned factory
What is the sign of desolation?
The prophecy
Not two bricks left
One upon the other--
Moving through the days
Your breath heavy--
When the pillars fall
The temple comes down
With the heaviness of a sleepless night--
You reach for the pill that cures
Through destruction
While gazing at the face of an angelic androgyne
On an enormous billboard