REFRACTIONS by Klaus J Gerken (2004) I KISSED YOU IN A DREAM I kissed you in a dream last night I kissed you and I held you tight Butterflies were all around Exploding in the underground The sun was bloody like a curse The dove was rotting on a hearse Children playing with a bomb Their parents hooked on cd ROMs I kissed you in a dream last night We held each other very tight Men in white with heavy arms Told us we were very wrong Quoted from their holy book That martyrdom was god's outlook The enslaved women cut their hair They hung men by their underwear I kissed you in a dream last night In fright we held each other tight The murderers were all around No heart even dared to pound And though they called it paradise They had to give it to the lie Where nothing they could say was good Their saviour did not die on wood I kissed you in a dream last night Your eyes were dull you eyes were bright We fell into an open pit And sand was hurried into it We could not see we could not talk Our lives left hardly any mark And yet the world goes round the sun And no one seeks the Helicon I kissed you in a dream last night 9 Sep 2004 - KJG Terrorist Games How easy we die One slit to the throat And the murderers vie For CNN news How often we try To justify facts How often we don't Bin Laden must laugh One president snorts Incumbent attacks A PM debates A msg relates Your husband has died Your son was shot dead Your daughter was raped Your wife lost her legs And the president smiles The incumbent counts votes And the PM debates And the murderers hate I don't know about you I'd bring crucifixion back And I wouldn't retract My vote for the rack These are not human beings They are murderous rags Let dogs tear apart And none give a fart Presidents and PMs Incumbents and staff And then the Bin Ladens And mongers of hate I have no more compassion I am numb - they are not human I would kill them all I would stomp on their graves In fact I wd give them no grave No satisfaction I wd destroy their religion As I would ours I would simply say go back And be the animals we always were Justify nothing Let societies die We have done nothing But destroy the earth One odd-ball empty planet In an odd-ball empty universe. 21 Sep 2004 Just some thoughts on silence: ____ There is sometimes truth in words: There is much more truth in silence. ==== There is always truth in silence, where is none in words. ====== i know silence is more audible than words; but why is shouting necessary? ----- When silence is a memory, You haven't lived. ---- silence doesn't hesitate like words: thought is the disaster shatters any world. --- afraid of silence? afraid of yourself? ---- silence betrays you: words do not. ---- the master said: silence is...well... silence. ---- ----- silence is not just words but also actions do nothing there's no better argument. ---- FIRST SNOW The damp and dirty sidewalks They tangle up my mind I don't know where I'm going But I've left the past behind The snow falls wet and nasty And my jacket's not secure And whatever points to Heaven Points more to Hell I'm sure There's disaster in the offing There's a violence unreal I don't think we can survive it Hell doesn't make a deal Were I to understand it I'd tell you what to do But I do not understand this Let religion take it's due So I shuffle down the sidewalk And I shiver from the cold I wish we had a future That wasn't already sold To leaders who know nothing And terrorists who plot Their entry into Heaven While our garbage rots and rots To everything a purpose I always thought that true Now I face extinction With you and you and you So nothing else can matter I go on with my life No tombstone to support me I walk into the night. 11 Nov 2004 Times Sometimes we wander and sometimes we don't Sometimes we end up where we really won't And sometimes the handouts are not very kind And the morning breaks shadows the night cannot find And the river is raging and the mountains are floss And the thunder is simple where the loving is lost And the frightened demurely refer to the cross And the times they must surely kill the albatross And I don't understand you I cannot relate You speak like a virus I cannot debate Your eyes are not open and your glasses are broke And the emptiness collars a fog in the smoke So what can I tell you the future can wait There's no substitution for what we have "ate" Until Hell freezes over we own no one's soul The devil may own us but we have more hate... 12 Nov 2004 Dog Cat Help Me Out In one life I guess a cat I was In another I guess a dog A cat because my path is sure A dog because I leap too much upon a faulty path-- The cat will always get me back. 13 Nov 2004 Polly Scratching on the window My mother wondered what it was Opening the door This cat walked in Tabby long haired brown And crashed my father's favorite chair And stayed He stayed for many years The chair was his whenever he was over But sometimes when he was gone My mother went outside The old wooden duplex on Nelson Street with the steep incline where in the winter I used to dare my friend to slide down the sharp sidewalk to the street below on skates dodging cars and several times almost getting killed and hear my mother call "Polly" "Polly" wondering where that cat could be on a winter night like this Un-be-knowns and only later found out there was a neighbour's wife who always wondered what woman was calling her husband late at night for he would come to the window or stand by the door and wonder When the truth was revealed they like good neighbours had a laugh and had a drink and the cat was in the corner liking his feet on his favorite chair while my father sat on the sofa finally knowing how the hierarchy of nature works Cats are so secure this cat was amazing 1960 Halloween We moved into a temporary flat waiting to move to a house in the suburbs Polly was gone and we looked for him and he was nowhere to be found among the ghost and goblins We were only there a week or so Never even unpacked the furniture The apartment's still there now over an antique book store just a block away from the university crowded with students I went once or twice pawning rare books for a penny when my marriage fell apart But Polly was missing that night and then the whole week My Mother searched the streets day and night and then we moved Polly was gone for good Or so we thought Sitting by the fireplace near Christmas eve in our new home miles and miles away from downtown Ottawa we heard a scratching on the door and then a plain "meow" my mother opened it Polly walked right in Sat on my father's favorite chair and stayed We had an icy winter Polly never left the house The first spring he met me at the road across from the school I went to walking home with me Never crossed the road always waited for the light Every kid knew his name That was also the year my best friend died hit walking home at night by a car never knew until I saw the story in the morning paper It was also the year the landlord tried to change the picture window and in a slow-mo moment crashed window over his head he wasn't hurt but Polly sat in the yard under the willow tree I'm sure wondering how stupid humans are strange year to say the least Next year we traveled to New York and Polly was alone happy in the tall grasses behind the house Polly always loved feasting on a mouse New York was ok Empire state building Times square And then there was Flushing found out why they called it that 12 I fell in love got disappointed lost on a subway train and finally found Home again Polly was there rubbing against my leg It was a good time I was growing up That is when we moved again This time to a small white bungalow across from the shopping centre where my father was manager of a barber shop and Polly who disappeared moving day found us a few days later settled in and purred meow 1963 I was growing up did some stupid things almost froze in a frightened winter broke an Aztec knife watched the fog bowl on tv discovered Scientific American and gathered many fossils which my parents threw out it was a year of happiness and it was also the year President Kennedy was shot I was off three days watching on TV The teachers were upset my mother said I was gathering History and she was right It was also the year I lost religion thrown out of bible class for wearing a leather jacket they would have thrown Jesus out I though for being nailed on the cross and that was the year we also got a german shepherd who my parent's found stranded in a quarry and took pity on We called him Rex and he was a most wonderful companion and then Polly having been away on one of his excursions noticed the change turned around and left and a few days later returned with a rat at the front door my father cruel he seemed to me that day chided him and Polly left I was so upset I could not leave my room That was when a Saturday Polly scratched the front door and my mother opened it Polly looked around saw Rex and said a very plaintive meow and walked away we never saw that cat again 13-16 November 2004 Wall It starts with one brush stroke develops into magic. Canvas willing. 13 Nov 2004 6:48pm Book Review I read a book today oh boy It was a book of heavy atmospheres It seemed a million miles away Where I could never enter insincere Well I just did not know It was all for show I thought the subject was so very clear It gathered everybody by the ear The advertising got inside my head And there was nothing I could do but dread Well I just did not know It was all for show Made better by the crowd I read a book today oh boy I can't believe I went that far I even thought I knew the words But comprehension was too under-par Well how could I know it was all for show I'd love to say it's real Shut up it's out of sight The soul of literature's in flight There's no critic's gonna believe This is what the world conceived And somehow we're still alone Writing on a telephone I love a clear dial tone I read a book today oh boy I didn't even watch my own TV and with nothing on but news I turned the page and fled the scene I guess I didn't know The world was full of snow I love to watch the fun.... 16 Nov 2004 Dubya's Basketball Good ol' Georgie boy gonna make Iraq his toy and bring them Liberty felt so good he thought that he would pee He he he he Rump the Terrible quoted unknown parables Said "They've got "MD's" Pressed he laughed a' loud "We will make 'em free" But as he read the morning news His fist went through the floor Thud thud Dubya's basketball bounced through the wooden shed Thud thud Dubya's basketball said "Ol' Saddam is dead" Morning came again, the rice was grain again And no one was amazed "We knew all along that he was crazed" Not wishing to display himself he ran into the bath The newsmen could not fathom this and had a slothful laugh So he directs the war With paper from a roll And no one knows what drives his crazy soul Thud thud Dubya's basketball bounced through the wooden shed Thud thud Dubya's basketball said "This dictator's dead" Rump the Terrible washed his head in rum And wrote upon the wall "The Iraqis now will worship basketball" He he he he... 18 Nov 2004 When He Was Standing There Well I was just in the 'House Chasing a ghost And the way he looked was steely-eyed and sure So how could I fight with another Oh, when he was standing there Well, he had that look And weapons made of wood And before too long I knew I'd have him where He couldn't fight any longer Oh, when he was standing bare Well my heart wet whoops when I saw the troops and they found him in a hole Oh I pranced through the night and I held old Rumple tight and before too long I was teary eyed with goo I never felt any better When I saw ol' Sammy's hair Well my heart went whoops when I saw the troops and they found him in a hole Oh I pranced through the night and I help old Rumple tight and before too long I was teary eyed with goo Now I've avenged dear old father (And the oil is in good hands...) 23 Nov 2004 Amelia Amelia got her card today She is now a full adult She's allowed to shop where ever she wants With whatever grave results You see the world's a better place With bio-genetic registration Just a chip behind your ear And as they say: You'll know your station Amelia thinks life's pretty good She's got everything she bought Advertising's got her head And the government her thoughts You see the world's a better place With what you do not know After all Mulroney said "No 'ho like a 'good ol' 'ho'" Amelia knows she's being watched But it doesn't bother her Big Brother is a pacifier Conquers all her fears You see the world's a better place When the law's a Peeping Tom They say it's for our better good To keep the "standard" down Amelia sleeps secure at night Her Teddy Bear is bugged Amelia's only 13 years And her life's already fucked You see the world's a better place When companies attack Common morals and we wear Their trashy clothes off rack I guess I write this out of step With time and future goals I was born when times were good And no one lost their souls... 23 Nov 2004 Kill Kill! I gotta kill someone Kill! and not just anyone Kill! I gotta kill Saddam Kill! While my dad was President, I couldn't stand it when He was so humiliated, it was like I broke my pen But now I'm in the white-washed house and in total control I can do most anything while congress' on the dole Kill the bastard if you can, I'm just a little clown And I know you've had enough to drink all over town Won't you please kill for me? I've asked the CIA to shred the simple truth I didn't want to see me in an old phone booth But it feels so good to trump the gaming table in the woods And get the bastard even if we didn't get his loot Kill the bastard if you can, I'm just a little clown And I know you've had enough to drink all over town Won't you please kill for me? While my dad was President, I couldn't stand it when He was so humiliated, it was like I broke my pen But now I'm in the white-washed house and in total control I can do most anything while congress' on the dole Kill the bastard if you can, I'm just a little clown And I know you've had enough to drink all over town Won't you please kill for me? Kill Kill Kill for me.... 24 Nov 2004 I Once had a dream I once had a dream What can I say It once had me It gave me a clue As to what is Isn't it true? The paper cup orders of paper cup gods May rule the world But somehow we manage to paper their rooms With paper clip curls I woke up alone In a strange room Couldn't recall.. It was a strange moon And somehow I felt I was here way too soon The morning came pervious Of a respect The tide of the news room Would never accept So as I walked out Regained the truth Reality beckoned But lies held the clue As to what is Isn't it true? 5.55pm 25 Nov 2004 The End And in the end The Hate you make Is equal to the Love You fake... 6:22pm 25 Nov 2004 Copyright (c) 2004 Klaus J. Gerken Published by Ygdrsil Press 2004