poem

Death Penalty

~ CJ René ~ Leave a comment

Number 26 in 30 in 30, a series of writing challenges. Over the course of 30 days (sometimes even in a row!), I will draft a post within 30 minutes. This 30-day theme is: News Stories. Today’s writing was inspired by an article in AP about the first woman at the federal level to be executed by the government.

In the face of horror
can you hold your ethics close
and lift harm from the shoulders
of the harmful?

The innocent is the easy case
but what of the guilty
the truly murderous
the unrepentant?
Do the what ifs still ring
in your ears then?

Or would you set them through
a conveyor belt process,
running so fast that twice as many lives
are guillotined in six months
as in the past 56 years?

In the wake of one horror,
how can we add another?
Let Mercy grow in lands
where even Forgiveness dies.

Florida Man

~ CJ René ~ Leave a comment

Number 25 in 30 in 30, a series of writing challenges. Over the course of 30 days (sometimes even in a row!), I will draft a post within 30 minutes. This 30-day theme is: News Stories. Today’s writing was inspired by an article in the LA Times about Palm Beach.

Florida Man moves
from New York

Florida Man sues
city over the length of his flag pole

Florida Man drowns
property in the rising climate tide

Florida Man steals
children from immigrants

Florida Man denies
camps are concentration camps

Florida Man salutes
some very fine people

Florida Man shits
on a veteran

Florida Man pretends
he is king of the world

Florida Man runs
from Delaware Man

Florida Man begs
woman to like him

Florida Man murders
219,000 and counting

Let Florida Man be no more

Thriving

~ CJ René ~ Leave a comment

Number 24 in 30 in 30, a series of writing challenges. Over the course of 30 days (sometimes even in a row!), I will draft a post within 30 minutes. This 30-day theme is: News Stories. Today’s writing was inspired by an article about what is happening in the Galapagos.

Sustainable
we say
when we want
to do something
but not enough

Keep it going
this life we lead
trailing detritus
in our wake

Nature is healing
they joke on Twitter
blue birds laughing
at blue birds flying
when the humans
locked themselves away

Could Nature thrive
with us here?
Or is it as the authors say
We are the disease.

What comforts would we
give up to live within
a thriving world?
What comforts would we
gain?

Hope

~ CJ René ~ Leave a comment

Number 23 in 30 in 30, a series of writing challenges. Over the course of 30 days (sometimes even in a row!), I will draft a post within 30 minutes. This 30-day theme is: News Stories. Today’s writing was inspired by an article about voting in Travis County, Texas.

I want to hope
for a change in
the place where I’m from

Hope for something
that did you harm
is a fraught endeavor

How many times will
I let it break my heart?

But what if?
What if the best of it
becomes what it is
and not some aberration
outlier or exception
that proves the rule?

Can I hope for it
and for the first time
since I was knee high
to a grasshopper
feel like I am
welcomed there?

To hope to belong
to where you’re from
is a dangerous gamble.

But I hope.

NO

~ CJ René ~ Leave a comment

Number 19 in 30 in 30, a series of writing challenges. Over the course of 30 days (sometimes even in a row!), I will draft a post within 30 minutes. This 30-day theme is: News Stories. Today’s writing was inspired by the clusterfuck that was the debate.

I don’t want to write about the debate.
I am living on this conveyor belt of fear
Looking for a way off this ride.

I don’t want to write about the debate.
My rights are laid upon the butcher’s block
And the woman holding the cleaver
Will smile as she brings it down.

I don’t want to write about the debate,
Because my rage is boiling
I’ve burned down worlds with it before
But I don’t want to have to do it again

Symbols

~ CJ René ~ Leave a comment

Number 18 in 30 in 30, a series of writing challenges. Over the course of 30 days (sometimes even in a row!), I will draft a post within 30 minutes. This 30-day theme is: News Stories. Today’s writing was inspired by an article about ownership and licensing of the Aboriginal flag.

Who could own the symbols of
our lives
our countries
our peoples
our cultures?

Disney, probably.

Stack them in the vault room
with The Mouse
Already copied, distributed, profited

What was yours was
supposed to become ours

Despite your wealth
Despite the unending parade of
Wonderful, new, lovable characters
You still hoard that mouse away

The rest of our commons caged
By your greed

Synesthesia of the Soul

~ CJ René ~ Leave a comment

Number 17 in 30 in 30, a series of writing challenges. Over the course of 30 days (sometimes even in a row!), I will draft a post within 30 minutes. This 30-day theme is: News Stories. Today’s writing was inspired by an article about a couple in Guatemala whose dance videos, in the wake of their daughter’s death, went viral.

Rhythm
rocks along the ankles
Hips
harmonize the heart

The body becomes
Music
Movement
Revolution

Oh.

The Biggest Rats

~ CJ René ~ Leave a comment

Number 16 in 30 in 30, a series of writing challenges. Over the course of 30 days (sometimes even in a row!), I will draft a post within 30 minutes. This 30-day theme is: News Stories. Today’s writing was inspired by an article about a giant rat winning an award for helping to clear landmines.

The world will be fine
When we are gone
If we leave them
Anything behind

No more prizes
Or accolades
For all the good boys
Out there

No more treats
For the trick of
Sitting on a
Landmine

Yes.
The world will be fine
Without us.

Palm

~ CJ René ~ Leave a comment

Number 15 in 30 in 30, a series of writing challenges. Over the course of 30 days (sometimes even in a row!), I will draft a post within 30 minutes. This 30-day theme is: News Stories. Today’s writing was inspired by an AP investigation in labor abuses in the palm oil industry.

Trees stretch
Heavenward
Eking out from the sun’s
Rays all the
Evergreen lost
In the pockets of
Supervisors, traffickers, CEOs
None to those below
Obscured by the canopy
Encaged, enraged, by circumstance
Tethered to a land, a
Host they cannot trust
Invisible to
Customers grabbing products in the malls, on
Amazon, in local shops,
Living their best lives
Concerned but unconcerned about the
Oppressed beyond their borders
Never seeing the
Serfdom in their palms
Unaware of the deaths they hold
Modernity’s requirements
Palm trees sway
Tipped by the gust of
Indonesian winds
On and on, they trek, the lost ones,
Never ceasing
Unable to escape
No one sees the fear
Dyed in their
Eyes, etched in the
Ridges of their faces, the
Cost of something so cheap
As the filler in my candy,
Put down the scythe,
Ill built for this work,
Take up the loom
And weave all the
Lost ones back
Into our fabric,
Share and
Make the world anew

Sunset

~ CJ René ~ Leave a comment

Number 14 in 30 in 30, a series of writing challenges. Over the course of 30 days (sometimes even in a row!), I will draft a post within 30 minutes. This 30-day theme is: News Stories. Today’s writing was inspired by an article about vivid sunsets on the East Coast caused by the wildfires on the West Coast.

A cliff’s edge
Sounds of the shore
Fall up into
Open sky

Light blinds the seas
Burns the air
In reds and purples
Crowning the sun’s glory

Tinged with a smoky aftertaste
We breathe together
Inhale
Exhale

Together we close our eyes
Awaken to an endless night
For all the stars have gone out