Two Poems by Michael Aaron Casares

Two poems
by Michael Aaron Casares

Insufferably Didactic

She walked to the door
opened it, greeted the salesman
with bible in hand, invited him in,
asked if he needed coffee or hot cocoa.
He did not need evidence to believe;
she did not need to believe to have evidence
because it was there hidden in the books of man,
the ones the preachers refute and call blasphemy.
Do not believe in the works of man, he’d been told,
for their works are nothing compared to the Lord’s.
What’s there is there before your eyes, even if you don’t
understand, she’d thought. The mysteries of origin were
becoming undone, science was opening the doors of spirituality,
unmasking the face of god, showing man He and at the same time
Himself. But the preachers could not have that, could not turn over
those stones, could not find God in the forest or God in the trees, could not
find God inside you or inside she. We are energy, she said and meekly
bowed her head, and slightly smiled because she knew that
when we were at an end, no matter what faith we labeled this
existential dream, we would be the same, free from all this
constructed dust animated and given names. The only question
was what experience we chose as we walked our
circles down the path and off the trail.

++++++++++++++++++++

Jefferson in Chains

Necessity stuck in the minds
of men who haven’t developed
enough to look around and
realize blood is blood beneath
the skin. Idealize the father
of this land who went abroad
and slept with whores. This
is freedom at its best—pleasing
the self; offending no one.
Watch the death slowly decline—
no need to stack the coffins—
no need to light the fires of
the biggest human barbeque.
Sacrifice life to save life, give
to get, take to lend, trade for
trade, life for liberty, peace
for security and back again
to the primary square where
we began, an interlude from
global governance, the American
mistake, the ones who got away,
the lucky bastards back where
they belong.

Author bio:

Michael Aaron Casares is a writer and artist from Austin, TX USA. He owns and operates an independent press called Virgogray. Recently his poetry has appeared in several publications both in print and online. He has a new collection entitled Green Tea America which was just released by New Polish Beat. Shadow Archer Press will publish his epic prose poem, The Winter King, in early 2010.