non causa pro causa (sign away your life here, please) ................................... #NaPoWriMo Day 5

from the film 'Dr. Strangelove'
set design by Ken Adams

what sugar can resist salt tides 
inside cell rides, as our lives 
continually intermingle 

they called us into a big conference room 
a dozen or so uniforms around a large table 
a giant projector, unseen  
above the center of the room 
there was a rhythmic droning 
laser pointing, old time movie flickering 
spilling what seemed to be 
snippets of all our lives, in 
random redacts and mind fuckeries 
onto a far wall 
full of maps 

eye looked for a real face 
a reel place 
under any of them  
they had no discernible features per se 
and all i got was 
a misty sense of might have been human once 
little smoky grey congeals revealing bones 
in skin to misty convolutions 
reticulations and other things 

do we fold into expressions 
what we might have once held 
lost to being careless 
memory gambles every ticket to ride 
every stewardship, every place we hide pain 
when we seem convinced war 
is still a necessary evil 

we've lost 
becoming 
drunk with 
scratch-off quick rich illusions 
spirit rattled 
card carrying members 
of the shirley jackson-ites 
we were mostly lost pilgrims 
lottery chanced, tied to menial deaths 
though not allowed to die 
when finally sick and tired 

we had become 
these betweens 
these ghosts 
of what once was 
cousins fizz and fuzz beneath 
wearing marley chains 
werewhoring our souls we lost 

our weigh glow, gone 
hoe to soft earth 
compass-less 
morally disoriented 
we were slipping 
gears, continuously 

here is where the poem 
pulls down the Sun 
and says it has to put to sleep 
the off put incantatorial 

i say story will 
find a way to close 

and thank goodness for sure 
we left the door a jar 
i turn to my other selves 
said have you any wheat bread 
i got creamy peanut butter right here 
let's get ourselves all fed 

EJR ©