Journeys
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Timothy M. Leonard's books on Goodreads
A Century Is Nothing A Century Is Nothing
ratings: 4 (avg rating 4.50)

The Language Company The Language Company
ratings: 2 (avg rating 5.00)

Subject to Change Subject to Change
ratings: 2 (avg rating 4.50)

Ice girl in Banlung Ice girl in Banlung
ratings: 2 (avg rating 4.50)

Finch's Cage Finch's Cage
ratings: 2 (avg rating 3.50)

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Tuesday
Mar072006

The Trauma of War and Peace

As we reported from the Mesapotamia front lines way back when, the number of military veterans (19%) seeking mental help is growing faster than you can say, "Kill them all! Fire and aim later for God's sake! You'll never take me alive."

Therapists and divorce lawyers have noted a sharp uptake on their intake road.

Shirley You Must Be Joking, a registered stress professional said, "Yes. It's true I'm afraid. I'm afraid we are witnessing a vast conspiracy to hide the reality. Denial is a way of life here. They come in screaming, 'Not Me!' and "Why Me?" and we give them drugs or, if you prefer the politically correct word, Happy Pills. I am constantly living in fear and it's a scary thing, let me tell you."

"This fear based perception has been developing over time," said Robert Robot, an enlistee from Big City, and a refugee from Nigeria where petrochemical conglomerates screw the local people to make huge profits.

"Let's not beat around the Bush. I'm afraid the light at the end of the tunnel is made of transparent ideology imported from Crawl Daddy," he whispered to a naked truth lying in shadows.

As he spoke, 22,000 men, women and children suffering from post-tramatic stress syndrome, or PTSS, lined up for their weekly injection of peace and harmony in the key of C. This statistic does not include more than 400,000 Iraqi citizens suffering from nightmares, flashbacks and delusional thinking, "Is today the last day I will see my husband, wife, relatives, friends, and children?"

Sunday
Dec252005

a year now

We lived a long way
Wandered through laughter, loving maze
Filled lost sensibility, fighting anger
Rising from laughing bones

A long way
Manufacturing emptiness, our passion
Out of nothing
Constructed temples
Later identified as selfish ignorance

Facing sullen angry outbursts,
Reality wrote a year-long poem from your
Ragged makeup, elements of tender promise
A little girl in woman's body driving sweetness
In a one-way mirror

Once upon a long time
Someone placed romantic roses at your feet
Trampled by fear, they grew back.
Stronger.
You cut them down
They smiled,
Listening to a business voice
Conducting overtures, every note well placed

Mind you, it wasn't easy
Understanding manipulation's manic puzzle
Falling on your incredulous shelf
Where dust words
Swallowed love's lies and eyes
Saw words perfect words
Arranged in perfect pleasing order
Facing a tortured joy inside
Misery creating you

Saturday
Nov262005

sky dances

sky is a dancing watercolor
sunset rages
lightning fires at peak's vision
shuffling child voice
a solitary heart beat

roaring engines hum
colors spread wings
on leaves

wok liquid
solidifies paste
she stands silent
brown eyes burning fire

balancing desire with
hopeful acceptance

hard lessons - cricket sings

loose capsules
roll across deserts filled with
summer's fleeting face of light

no shadows
remain to guide grave seekers home

they roiled, roared and rioted
silence
forming new watercolors
creasing sky mind
with light

OM

Saturday
Nov262005

the cell

we are all hostages
chained to the wall
wearing the same clothing
every day for 564 endless
recitations of plastic rosary beads

threads slowly unravelling
our simple minds

a Black woman in South Africa
said sanity rested
on seeing two ants in her cell

her tranquility

one day

they were not there
and she carefully
dismantled her blanket
tying single strands
into warmth
for her isolation

Saturday
Nov262005

hunt

eye track rabbit
far form below blends in underbrush

wheeling,
floating
on evergreen peak drafts
eyes pierce a path you are destined
to follow across bare country

in out...in out
a flash of fur

patient, eye circles
above your feeling fleeting form

shadows do not confuse
one eye sees where you've been -
the other knows where you are going

rocks, volcano boulders, valleys and dry river beds
(where you never sleep)
old latent images
thrive to harbor your grieving desire

your shelter search takes on immediacy
as energy adrenaline wanes

wings fold with forgiveness,
trusted talons thrust
eye dive

with one last burst
you take evasive action
among wild berries
their sweetness a faint taste

my sharpness tears you away from earth
into another world