After I finally finish my weekly writing stint
and somehow sum on up a 7 day long piece
of work, gathering and holding, processing
the broken pieces, I become a one long sigh

With these people I’ve known so many years
of eternal quest for just pure simple truth
exactly like the Knights of the Round Table
through the dark forests to flowing fountains

And the mouths of labyrinth depths of caves
where the womb of the Earth flashes bright
signals that try alert us to existential plight
this fight for peace in the bowels of empire

Oh, the exigencies of obsessive drum skull
thoughts of the four horses of an apocalypse
galloping out of control of the four corners
of everything threatened, endangered, beat

The poor babies thrown out with the vapid
dishwater of the endless aristocratic feasts
oh, such a pack of convolutions to revolution
gangs of men with long guns and explosives

Blowing up the sanctity of diplomatic embassies
and killing the poor unarmed natives enmasse.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.