deepundergroundpoetry.com
IN MEMORIUM (Reflections on Memorial Day, 5-29-03, 5:00am, Galveston Island, Texas)
late afternoon
memorial day
i walked this
stretch of shore
a mile or so
each way today
startled to see
so many people
had come
to play
and celebrate
the holiday
with so much
alcohol everywhere
the national
sacrement of choice
based on
all this evidence
i see
of empty cans
discarded
glass bottles
plastic bags
and tons
of paper trash
strewn across
this coastal beach
stretched out
from east
to west
as far as
my eyes
can see
across the
obliterated emptiness
of what was
only yesterday
miles of tranquil
natural peace
now transformed
to immeasurable piles
of human
consumerist excrement
left behind
in insulting heaps
of blatant
abstract ugliness
like used remains
bruised wounds
soul pains
left obscene
upon the raped
and pillaged
once sacred
flesh of earth
like some old
whore
used up
and hurt
so many times
she cant
get up
no more
to fake her
beauty
nor her worth
due to those
who increasingly
abuse her
so relentlessly
her dignity
too soiled
to see
her purity defiled
the stench
of so many
rapists
left upon her
now desecrates
what innocence
she used
to have
this gulf itself
now so full
of toxic wastes
can no longer
heal nor refresh
her battered
beaten face
this disrespected
sickened mess
inhumanity
has made
of her
this once
pristine place
though still sacred
to me
is treated now
by most
like an easy
slut for all
though douched
by each
high tide
her soft white
sandy thighs
spread out
long
and opened wide
before each
new
rising sun
as she passively
lies there
each day
her very nature
is often
mistaken
by many
as an open
enticement
for even more
injuries upon her
yet on this
day today
the usual peace
of healing communion
and reconnection
i came to
this beach
too late
to find
was nowhere here
to be found
for over
two hours
i paced
the tideline
up and down
back and forth
with still
no relief
in sight
nauseated
by all
i saw
in the destructive
trashed out
wake of man
heart sickened
by this sacrilege
of what our
unconscionable culture
has chosen
to become
here in this
hopeless wasteland
of such vulgar
vain insanities
walkng my bike
up through
the hilly
deep sandy
low dunes
out to
the long
marsh road
back home
i came upon
a frantic team
of at least
a dozen policemen
or more
scrambling all around
roping off
a very large
part of
the parking area
with yellow
crime scene tape
when i asked
what
was going on
one of them
told me
a young woman
had just
been found
face down
in the sand
hands tied
behind her back
raped
and murdered dead
right off
this path
where i had
just passed
two hours ago
where i had
come and gone
a thousand times
before
over the
collective
twenty one years
i have lived
on this
long thin
strip
of sandbar island
out in this
restless
gulf of mexico
but now
this sandy trail
through the dunes
which had
always led me
to instant
peace
and everything else
along these
once
much more
innocent
wild and untouched
miles of open
isolated beaches
now have changed
so fast
to violated ruins
that theyll
never
be the same
just minutes later
while riding
home along
the yet still
peaceful
salt marsh road
the sun set
slowly
in the west
bleeding its
blood teared light
throughout
all the gradually
morphing
impassioned
high cumulous
coastal clouds
in illumined
deep reds
pinks blues
and purples
in slow motion
they rolled
and tumbled
spreading out
like heavenly
opened wings
in breathtaking
graceful flight
out across
the quickly fading
light of day
gently into
twilights
fast encroaching
mystic gloaming
as i rode
back home
reflectively numb
into the velvety
subconscious mirror
of now
all encompassing
darkness
my heart
and spirit
still fully stained
from the toxic
realities
of my
shell shocked day
seemed to only
sink deeper
into some lingering
exacerbated sadness
wherein i soon
realized
and knew
at the core
of my usually
resilient
hope and being
that id finally
seen
and had
enough
from whence
there truly
is no
going back
to that which
once was
nor
to ever
going back
home
for the home
i once knew
as that
home
is that home
no
more
Published 1st Aug 2018
| Edited 13th May 2019
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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5th Aug 2018 11:24pm
10th Aug 2018 10:01pm
Thank you for your comment 'Whipped', I am both honored & touched by your resonant feedback of your having been so deeply & vicariously touched by my old poem, to such a kindredly empathic, universal degree! Such a warmly uplifting, unexpected, succinctly expressed, two worded validation, which I honestly thought & doubted when I posted it, would get any response at all... So great to hear how deeply you could relate & feel!
11th Aug 2018 1:07am
23rd Aug 2018 6:32pm
Wow! Thanks for letting me know Whipped, that's such an unexpected, high compliment & good feeling validation (even if only from one person, esp. another poet/writer like you yourself!).
For the past 5 or 6 years (?) that I've been a contributing member of DUP, I've always loved tge layout & all thd many faceted links & things (pther creative options), which DUP allows us all to do, if we so choose!
Likewise, I've always loved the way this incredibly unique & highly interactive poetry & writer's website also keeps a continuous, ongoing tally of likes, comments, how many poems we've each & all posted & esp. how many other poets, writers & countless, other unknown, non-member, poetry loving, curious browsers & peripheral fans & afficionados of DUP have read (however many?) of our individually DUP Published works & keeps an actual, numerical head count over time of how many people (from all over the world!) have read our shared offerings of our diversely different, creative expressions, via the universal power & reach of the written word!
Yet I have always wondered (thought & just assumed?), about all those many anonymous people (in our individual head counts), who've read any of our poems, whether they each had only randomly read one or two & whether they resonated with them to any degree or not, just simply moved on to continue randomly checking out & reading other member's poems? OR 'if' on the other hand, how many of those curious (head count) readers of our works, possibly have felt some deeper personal or universal resonance with any of our individual works & then because of that, perhaps continued (with a turned-on appetite & kindred curiosity for 'More'!!!?!!!), may have delved deeper into our individual posted pietry archives & maybe even have read a 'LOT' more, than I (&/or any of us) can ever really know?
Beyond all those unanswerable thoughts, wonderings & questions, it still truly blows me away to see in my DUP page's 'head count' of how many people have checked out & read any of my posted poems, that over 150,000 + (& still growing everyday!!!) have read some, any &/or possibly even 'many' of my poems!
It's such an amazingly satisfying (but 'Not' in an ego way!) & quite unexpected surprise & wonderfully validating confirmation, after so many years & decades of my life, where my personal writings (my poetry & my words), as a once truly closeted poet, have now been read & hopefully 'felt' on sone level, by so many people from around the world, instead of remaining, hidden away in dark, private secrecy, in a big cardboard box, stuffed away & hidden from sight & any possible discovery by another hunan being, high up on a shelf in the top of my bedroom closet for many, invisible decades, where I've realized long since back then, that in my deep, isolated fear & shame of it ever being found out (by anyone!) that I wrote poetry & in my hidding my works of most personal creative expressions away up in the top of my dark closets, that I had literally buried them alive & selfishly entombed them away from the light of day, but far worse, from ever being able to reach, touch & potentially deeply move, uplift or inspire any other living human hearts, minds or souls at all & for so many wasted, lost years! But discovering DUP, offered me a very uniquely different & amazingly dynamic new way to openly share the larger body & timeless spirit of all my too long buried, yet surprisingly still relevant, universal & transcendantly timeless, now resurrected & fully liberated words!
But it was 'your' 2nd comment here 'Whipped', which gave me my first ever indication & a now easier to believe belief in the higher possibility & probability, that at least some out of all those many 150,000 + other anonymous people (listed as numbers on my DUP readers head count) , perhaps like you & completely unbeknownst to me, may have also (if so inspired?) read more than just one or two of my hundreds of poems & 'so-called' poems as well?!!!?... (a truly exciting, but also quite unerving (as in 'uncertain' as to whether 'they' may have either loved tgem or hated them?!!!?)... BUT SURELY, I can't be the only one (poet/writer/member) here on DUP, who has wondere, felt & thought about these things, in response to their own similar thrill & surprise about the number (head count) of readers who have also read any, some or possibly a lot of their posted & published poetry & creative works here on this wonderful DUP?!!!?!!! So thank "Thank You" again Whipped, for that (your) simple, yet much appreciated 'gift' & uplifting answer to all my past 5 or 6 years of wondering!!! 😘😁👍🏻☀️
Oyate Inyan Najin / Dennis
👁🔥👁 ~ 👁🦋👁 ~ 👁☀️👁
For the past 5 or 6 years (?) that I've been a contributing member of DUP, I've always loved tge layout & all thd many faceted links & things (pther creative options), which DUP allows us all to do, if we so choose!
Likewise, I've always loved the way this incredibly unique & highly interactive poetry & writer's website also keeps a continuous, ongoing tally of likes, comments, how many poems we've each & all posted & esp. how many other poets, writers & countless, other unknown, non-member, poetry loving, curious browsers & peripheral fans & afficionados of DUP have read (however many?) of our individually DUP Published works & keeps an actual, numerical head count over time of how many people (from all over the world!) have read our shared offerings of our diversely different, creative expressions, via the universal power & reach of the written word!
Yet I have always wondered (thought & just assumed?), about all those many anonymous people (in our individual head counts), who've read any of our poems, whether they each had only randomly read one or two & whether they resonated with them to any degree or not, just simply moved on to continue randomly checking out & reading other member's poems? OR 'if' on the other hand, how many of those curious (head count) readers of our works, possibly have felt some deeper personal or universal resonance with any of our individual works & then because of that, perhaps continued (with a turned-on appetite & kindred curiosity for 'More'!!!?!!!), may have delved deeper into our individual posted pietry archives & maybe even have read a 'LOT' more, than I (&/or any of us) can ever really know?
Beyond all those unanswerable thoughts, wonderings & questions, it still truly blows me away to see in my DUP page's 'head count' of how many people have checked out & read any of my posted poems, that over 150,000 + (& still growing everyday!!!) have read some, any &/or possibly even 'many' of my poems!
It's such an amazingly satisfying (but 'Not' in an ego way!) & quite unexpected surprise & wonderfully validating confirmation, after so many years & decades of my life, where my personal writings (my poetry & my words), as a once truly closeted poet, have now been read & hopefully 'felt' on sone level, by so many people from around the world, instead of remaining, hidden away in dark, private secrecy, in a big cardboard box, stuffed away & hidden from sight & any possible discovery by another hunan being, high up on a shelf in the top of my bedroom closet for many, invisible decades, where I've realized long since back then, that in my deep, isolated fear & shame of it ever being found out (by anyone!) that I wrote poetry & in my hidding my works of most personal creative expressions away up in the top of my dark closets, that I had literally buried them alive & selfishly entombed them away from the light of day, but far worse, from ever being able to reach, touch & potentially deeply move, uplift or inspire any other living human hearts, minds or souls at all & for so many wasted, lost years! But discovering DUP, offered me a very uniquely different & amazingly dynamic new way to openly share the larger body & timeless spirit of all my too long buried, yet surprisingly still relevant, universal & transcendantly timeless, now resurrected & fully liberated words!
But it was 'your' 2nd comment here 'Whipped', which gave me my first ever indication & a now easier to believe belief in the higher possibility & probability, that at least some out of all those many 150,000 + other anonymous people (listed as numbers on my DUP readers head count) , perhaps like you & completely unbeknownst to me, may have also (if so inspired?) read more than just one or two of my hundreds of poems & 'so-called' poems as well?!!!?... (a truly exciting, but also quite unerving (as in 'uncertain' as to whether 'they' may have either loved tgem or hated them?!!!?)... BUT SURELY, I can't be the only one (poet/writer/member) here on DUP, who has wondere, felt & thought about these things, in response to their own similar thrill & surprise about the number (head count) of readers who have also read any, some or possibly a lot of their posted & published poetry & creative works here on this wonderful DUP?!!!?!!! So thank "Thank You" again Whipped, for that (your) simple, yet much appreciated 'gift' & uplifting answer to all my past 5 or 6 years of wondering!!! 😘😁👍🏻☀️
Oyate Inyan Najin / Dennis
👁🔥👁 ~ 👁🦋👁 ~ 👁☀️👁
