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Lawrence Hall Nov 2016
Conscripting the Dead

Saturday Night, 12 November 2016

They’ve drafted now his hymn of innocence
Into their revolution against the poor
To sing in praise of dreamers they despise
To canonize the poverty of the rich

They weaponize the poetry of love
And drive sweet words into cold camps of hate
There to be regimented and uniformed
And beaten into a tribute unwilling

His alleluia is not their war song
It cannot be; it is his hymn of hope
Hunger and Desire grew
'til bellies everywhere were
ruined for sustenance,
so in went the troops to wage
war against ideas and
when they arrived there were no
soldiers to speak of

so they set up tents
and didn't go away

they sang drunken war-songs
until the moan of starvation bellies
sang louder and more terribly

"That must have been them
the whole time!" they said, and
suited up for the charge.
So they trained their shells at the city
excited to see if target practice
had done them any good

but all they did was mortar themselves to bits

squadrons of video-game experts
sent drones overhead to drop
Hallmark cards titled "Why it's your fault"
and coupon booklets for American
chain shopping outlets to come

but they only marginalized
and condescended themselves

"Bring in the reinforcements!"
they cried, even conscripting
their hapless targets. This mob,
too, was a hungry belly
bellowing for satisfaction,
a cannibal ***
simmering

So they set up tables and stacked
boring paperwork, filing away
spirits broken by shrapnel and white
phosphorus

but they only resigned themselves
to imaginary lines and the plunder
of Control, insensibly
****** themselves to death

while they watched,
perplexed.
“Two things are infinite:
the universe and human stupidity;
and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein
Andre Collier Sep 2012
I've abandoned a withered state, fumbling
Toward your ecstasy - opening windows to
A brave new world: What a scene to behold!
My heart has calmed consuming life’s tonic -
I'm filled with attraction, alike an alchemist
disposition to discover their personal legend
How far, do thoughts travel? Become aware,
we’ve covered only but a few hours of sleep
The vicissitudes of motion - by faith we move
At luminal speed, ’til visions dawn and we’re
Before a sky clearing moon
Shall we recline in that loft above?
While it be suspended in the fetal position?
Or tarry until morn’ when reflections are reborn
From spurts of spontaneity, to cycles of growth  
Apprehending blessings so as to appreciate the
distance of our obstacles
For camaraderie's had since severed –  
And authenticity perfidiously pilfered –
And liars became prosecutors of liars
Pregnant with delusions of grandeur
Freedom is the temporal prison for
Revolutionaries wails of conditions
Psalms of sentimentalism provoke
An emotional tug of war, conscripting
another soldier of love – wearing a fig
Leaf of inhibition and foul remains of
passed transgressions...
Where to turn to when you’re cold?
Intransigent echoes give no warmth
I’ve fallen into the (d)earth of sanity
Erstwhile
        Fumbling
                   Toward
                          Ecstasy
Don Bouchard Jan 2014
The refrigerator did it...

Results are in,
The crime is solved,
The botnet's done its ***** work;
The refrigerator has been caught
Just standing there,
But running just the same,
Cool as a cuc...
Never mind....

No appliance now is safe
Connected to the Net;
Programs roaming find some space
To pick up every megabit,
Conscripting all the little brains
Thinking on their own
To join together,
And while it's cooling Easter ham,
My fridge is on a mission now,
Releasing spores of spam.


(Check today's news...kind of frightening, but also funny.)
Colt Jul 2013
The memory of her sits on a balcony ledge, cigarette in hand.
My green light at the end of a dock.
And this time I am reaching out
like many before,
in pages and poems past.
Macbeth’s face is a book.
Her body is an atlas
tracing a beautiful continent.

Follow the long tributaries that lead to shallow deltas.
This shore begins softly and forms into slender feet,
quiet but powerful when outstretched an angler waiting for prey.
Odysseus, only, can hear this Siren play.  

Follow her legs, those tawny plains,
unbroken, guiding along welcomingly,
inviting curiosity and conscripting imagination.
An oasis.
And her torso is a valley from which
her laughter is ****** upward and resisted until uncontainable.
Dimples break and burst like earthquakes.  
A ridgeline is all that awaits until we see her face.
She is the Americas from bottom to top.

Follow her decorated canyon mouth
but know it is merely a diversion.  
Her eyes are icebergs, which shyly reveal themselves
to sink ships and drown lovers, for always.
Her hair is aurora borealis,
the northern lights,
dancing colorfully
to an unaccompanied waltz
heard by everyone but her.

As the memory of her sits the smoke billows around
like clouds traveling down a coastline
only to dissipate
and disappear.
Phosphorimental Sep 2014
A seed found furrow in my brow
Awaiting harvest, hungers now

Through my fertile mind’s palimpsest
A vine breaks soil where memories nest

Pushing on with a writhing stem
From deep brown earth toward blue welkin

With nostalgic rays, a star unfolds
a leaf, a story, yet untold

Each bud a poem that’s yet to bloom
In flowered couplets for the moon

awaiting dawn, for petals pleat
to release a blossom’s fragrance sweet

And from one strand a spider weaves
a gossamer web on trembling leaves

to capture prey that seeks to read
Poetic verse among the weeds.

Plant and spider thus conspire
conscripting minds of like, inspired,

to sew words of thorns, that never wilt
till every bough, a bookshelf built
"A Seed Found Furrow" is a collaboration between Maureen Seaberg and Phosphorimental.  Read about Maureen on http://about.me/maureen_seaberg (you'll find it very interesting!)
Kurt Philip Behm Dec 2023
Religion
is the death of God
conscripting Him away

Cloaked in false
propriety
enlightenment at bay

Religion
is the death of God
scriptures to mislead

All piety
a false disguise
worshipping the creed

Religion
is the death of God
whose armies rage and burn

Killing
in the name of One
—whose love they claim to yearn

(The New Room: December, 2023)
Kurt Philip Behm Jan 2022
Is there something unwanted
or even decried
that lives in the bottom
of all you’ve despised
to weep when you’re happy
the prefect of tears
confusing the moment
defying the years
its magic conscripting
new days into night
trapping what’s in you
embracing the fright
one saving question
the clock striking twelve
destiny tolling
—your answer indwells  

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)
Kurt Philip Behm Aug 2019
Dying the slow death of political infection,
it hides within our words

As we try to run, and try to hide,
its plague a constant scourge

Poisoning the water, despoiling our thoughts,
all freedom it commands

Directing the folly, conscripting all joy
—our blindfold it demands

(Dreamsleep: August, 2019)
Michael Marchese Aug 2021
Ensnare with my arrogant hair
Barren gorgons
And arid wastelands,
Robber barons,
And Mormons
Alike
And still stormin’
The shores,
Waging wars
Then awaiting the swarm in...
Ignoring the warnings,
Invade any brain draining
Third world conforming
To get back on track,
On the road,
To the beacon
The opportune nest,
Restive garden of Eden
Distribute it evenly,
Plunder its troves,
Then enrichment,
Conscripting
Its voters in droves
I convince the invincible
Youth to support us,
And bury the gentry
Who choose to abort us
Beneath what their legacy
Formerly claimed
A hegemony over
The soldiers enchained
‘Gotta cavalry charge
Of the labor force
Horses
And infantry drones
Who have grown so remorseless
So prone to divorces
Their arguments formed
In a silence’s moment
When omens of showmans
Class clash
Is the act
I remind the fine-diners
Of how to react
To the change
They don’t want
To result from the bill
Like hypocrisy
Eats,
But can’t stomach the ****
Kurt Philip Behm Oct 2024
Conscripting my dreams
attacking my doubts

Each wish is a soldier
whose loyalty shouts

Enlisting new feelings
with hope as my guide

A liege to the future
— where time will abide


(Dreamsleep: October, 2024)
A mouthful
of hate
A bullhorn
of lies
Dissected
infected
With terminal
pride
Conscripting
the fledgling
Embedded
in brine
Indicted
convicted
True felons
— of time

(Dreamsleep: June, 2025)
HerrAichach May 2020
Yeah Im introducing the real one...
the one they can't get away from and will all know of
they don't want to deal with a man stuck in his mind,
they don't want no association with his rhyme
but i'll tell you that no amount of pills will make his last meal an unforgettable time

You think you understand it all but really ask yourself what do you know when **** hits the fan then everybody starts to walk out of the door, family is only mutual if you both are in that long-term haul
illest be the ones watching your back and holding the front when you around
the back.

F the system where is the reset button for all this bs life has to offer on a silver plate, yeah I don't remember conscripting to a lifetime of struggle, hustle and pain but then again I can't remember when I fought for survival upon arrival when being brought part of this jigsaw puzzle.
Looking to get back into HelloPoetry again, would appreciate the support
Kurt Philip Behm Nov 2020
Politics governs our
temporal lives

Religion conscripting
eternity’s prize

Together they’ve killed
more than famine and war

A plague that still haunts us
—to shun and deplore

(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2020)
Self-Owned

Remember
the day
you became entitled
to yourself

No debts to pay
no last charade
the circle closed
— indwelt

(Dreamsleep: May, 2025)


Reflection

Do we just recall
a memory
Or its cause
and its effect

Is consciousness
a chain of links
To front load
— or dissect

(Dreamsleep: May, 2025)


Beatitude

The deeper you question
the more you constrain
God’s true existence
to never explain

Loosen your grip
on what holds you back
Surrender to glory
— Divinity’s tack

(1st Book of Prayers: May, 2025)


The Only Thing

Winning is always
undefeated
Score
to tell the tale

The victory plum
is zero sum
With glory
— to regale

(The New Room: May, 2025)


All Is Now

Unplugging tomorrow
recharging today
Conscripting the moment
— inside which we pray

(1st Book of Prayers: May, 2025)

— The End —