Layers

The flash of synaptic energy
The gray pulsing throbbing brain
The focus of sight energy
The curved watery plane of cornea
In the space between that

Between that and the window’s pane
The dusty remains of springtime’s rain
Streaks the glass and spiders web
The space between that

Between that and the leafy
Rhodedendron tree
Buds promising pink white
Floral explosions to mask
The space between that

Between that and the sunlit
Hedge beyond wearing the
Soft green of new leaf
Swinging in the vernal breeze blowing in
The space between that

Between that and the flowing stream
Brown with the silt of recent storms
Slowly clearing
Moss and rock exposed in
The space between that

Between that and the shrub-strewn bank
Rising up and out to the hills beyond
Cloaked in the velvet green of new grass
Points of poppy-orange in
The space between that

Between that and all that lies beyond
The blue of day
The evening’s orange
The black of night
And the space between

===========

Copyright E. Bond Francisco March 2007

Imagine a World Without Rape

The train stops
A faint screech
Echoes down the tube
Four bodies black pants
white shirts
Black letters:

"Imagine a
World
Without
Rape"

Upright subtle motion
They sway without sound
Pushed by the quiet whoosh of air
Disturbed by passersby
Imagining instead a world
Of cheap toys made in China
And crock-pot dinners
Cooking on lexan countertops

"Imagine a
World
Without
Rape"

Lost in pornographic reveries
Fucked by the system
As in a dream the flowing crowd
Parts, stumbles over the message bearers
And recombines on the far side
At the bottom of the stairs

"Imagine a
World
Without
Rape"

It is too much to ask
To imagine a

World without rape
Without war
Without oil
Without cars
Without tv
Without drugs
Without garbage and McDonalds

~~~

The moving stairs slowly lift the crowd upward
Staring ahead

The stench of rotting conscience
Trails the departing train

===============
Copyright 2007 by E. Bond Francisco

Edited 10/20/26