Poems
Original Poetry by Warren GastonMilitary Weapons
Automatic rifles were not invented for accuracy. Ask the Russian Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov. Ask the American Eugene Morrison Stoner. Automatic weapons were invented for efficiency. Military efficiency. Mass killing on the battlefield. In civilian hands, they...
Gun Violence
Gun violence is a tautology Violence is the purpose of gun. Gun violence is equivalent to food nutrition. Nutrition is the chief purpose of food. Violence is the chief purpose of guns. A gun incapable of violence is a toy gun. The rationale for guns is killing....
Unfolding
We met as folded strangers letters addressed to each other’s names tightly enveloped eased open creased paper smoothed flat stories read then written on our unfolding lives
The Seagull
The seagull was dying. The bird knew it. I knew it. I wondered if there was something I could do, some intervention I could place between the gull and death. The seagull was not considering repair. With open eyes, smooth feathers, tucked feet the bird watched what had...
Gravid Cezanne
Celebrating Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) Cezanne, out with his easel near Aix-en-Provence, painted gravity with a light brush, coaxing round density out of apples, the angular geometry of men playing cards, mountain massiveness pitted against civilized sight. Sensation is...
Heraclitus’ Mirror
panta rhei In a day’s time, certainly in a week’s, neither I nor the mirror will remain the same. The mirror will not recognize me. No residual impression, no lasting elaborate smudge, no fascial echo, no reflexive wake. What was once Heraclitus is somewhat...
E-stir
E-stir – energy animates the inanimate, a stand against the renunciation of the body, a shout from the ghost ravaged grave. The corporeal scandalizes the corpse. _________________________________________________________________ What had been loosed from the folded...
How to be a Conservative
To be a conservative, first, know what you’re conserving. Value or privilege. If value, best spread it everywhere. If privilege, best guard against loss. Privilege is a pie. Only so many slices. Too much sharing and the pie is gone. Value is atomic, it empowers when...
Entrenched Life
It’s not easy, climbing up, climbing out, of trenches, out of mind grooves. Out of rutted comforts. The walls, dug steep, brief horizon slight view favorable to me. I see that I like what I see.