Blog

Pepper Shot

2020-09-04T17:10:22

Pepper Shot

-Linn Barnes

Lo before me the world i have long

known sad blood ground into the dirt

a shocking stupid mouth uttering

senseless lies and grim fantasies

bringing nothing but hate and contempt

to and for the dead and wounded who

now must collectively dream of a righteous assault

on full auto to end the churlish nightmare

and punch into the thick blood rich ditch

a just measure of long awaited payback

engaging the pepper shot shadow

of the coward who cringes and dives

into the rabbit hole of phony hate

before the new dawn gleams his end

The Iron Maiden II

2020-08-05T11:13:14

The Iron Maiden II
-Linn Barnes

“Good morning Mr Trump
Greeting from the SDNY

I’m required to tell you that we will not
be seeking the death penalty for your

hideous crimes, as unimaginably worthy as
they are of the extreme judgement of the law.

But, well, ‘the times they are a-changing’, get it?
Anyway, have you ever heard of the Iron Maiden?

Well, me neither until I got a
call from the director of the

Torture Museum in Rothenburg, Germany.
It's really cool and kind of simple:

The 'Maiden' is the effigy of a large, fierce
and powerful looking woman, maybe not your ‘type’,

who opens up like a book, don’t worry no reading
required, to reveal layer after layer of

iron spikes, which, once the
'accused and convicted' is ‘introduced’,

as it were, to our ‘Maiden’,
oh, yes, we've ordered one,

well, all you have to do is 'shut' the doors,
and we’ll see ‘what happens’. Should be a howl!

There was a time when this solution was very popular...
We think you’ve made it possible for a come back.

How about that?”

One word of caution:
Be careful ‘what’ you ‘grab’…

Long Ago

2020-07-30T02:21:15

Long Ago
-Linn Barnes

One time long ago
I crested a large mogul

on the top of the last drop
to the bottom of the

hausberg in garmisch
flying into the clear air

at speed gaining
more altitude than

I had planned
soaring into the

snow driven blue
while my love

watched below
and cheered

as i landed perfectly
in mid slope and in

two fast turns
screamed to a halt

and was awarded
a half liter of perfect

augustiner helles
which vanished down

my throat in seconds
with a second on the way

yes it was like that
in those days long ago

Ruffles and Feathers

2020-07-25T00:24:42

Ruffles and Feathers
-Linn Barnes

At the delicate edge
of what is known
is a strange truth
about the world

where good will and reason
have no bearing and time
no meaning twisting
grain to lean loaves

where good will and reason
have no bearing and time
a dim memory of
no more than a brush

where grain into lean loaves
brushed torso to shoulder
swimming in the shallows
where not much is as valid as

your abiding wish for more
and then you turned away
blinked and the dream you
witnessed vanished in less

than a flash before you could
cry foul but there is no foul
in the great little known pottage
of a hypothetical hallucination

that appears to be the world
and we wonder at the evil
and ill will trampling into the
corners and depths of chaos

little more than ruffles and feathers
decorating the long days we spend
gathering berries apples and nuts
for the dark days of coming winter

Dust

2020-07-24T01:52:29

Dust
-Linn Barnes

Stars are blinking through the steam
shadows growing with the spin

our crib careening away from the sun
the darkness of the to be skylit

night boring a hole into the coming dawn
where traces of man are hardly noticed

where the errors and tragedies
no longer matter or bother

with the broadened face of
another world roaring into being

as the shackles of the old are
cast into the dead ditch of time

and yes oh yes it is too damn late
to bother with what you’ve thrown away

with what has been squandered
smashed and wasted before

soon enough another attempt
will surely be ratcheted into being

to once again without a shudder dash
the new very last chance to quantum dust

Mytle for Carol Pilosi

2020-07-23T22:42:06

Myrtle
-Linn Barnes for my old friend Carol

Myrtle the aged wise creature
who it appears adopted you

has left you with crisp and
ghostly shadows of turtology

sparkling the air with sweet
and powerful hauntings

as all things do to all the rest when finally
we yield to the glamour of time

Mid-July

2020-07-20T01:53:00

Mid-July
-Linn Barnes

Tumbling from the
clouds into 97

degrees one drop
of rain splattered

the fading green
and vanished in

less than a flash
while the fetid air

shimmies in the
unholy hostility of

july’s vengeance upon
the blurred memory of

spring when frost
caught the early garden

out of sorts and
gave us a drenching

of green and ice
we will not forget

and tomorrow i’m told
will be worse

as we grind
higher into the 90s

with no rain in sight
and stillness in the

now savage air where
even the storms pass by

teasing the heat
in the late morning

without a spark
or a thunder clap

to lighten the heart
of the weary watcher

The Animals at Prayer in a Time of War

2020-07-16T01:48:41

The Animals at Prayer in a Time of War
-Linn Barnes

Midnight mass high in the hollow
the deer and the bears have all taken

the front rows tinkling champagne glasses
and gobbling bits of blood soaked wafers

between unimaginable prayers to sad antiquity
with ferocity looking for a new ride to something

like an open door policy to heaven’s gate
where the only certainly is not only that it is shut

crumbling rotting and vanishing in a cloud
of poisoned smoke and bad air exploding

in the blue ridge night falling into the pews
that will vanish in the wave of the coming flood

of unchecked pestilence roaring screaming
into the blood and pores of empty lost souls

good night and good luck

Dominion

2020-07-15T01:59:27

Dominion
-Linn Barnes

The elevation before the fall
stamps the days that lie ahead

reach out from your false bravado
grind sustenance from the night

where soon there will be only whispers
blinding the blistering unholy hours

with false hope and dead flowers
for the love lost savaged crushed

alone suffering until the lonely end
when death shall surely have dominion

Roger

2020-07-15T01:58:30

Roger
-Linn Barnes

Oh go on say something
if you have to

no big deal
so he let him off

who cares really
nothing to fret about

just regular stuff
so he was a convicted

fellow on several counts
whatever they were

big deal what’s new
I mean he was kind of funny

the way he attacked women
I remember one time

something like you stupid ugly
bitch I’ll see you in court

stuff like that but he was
well is a great dresser

a real taste for color
shirts and ties always right

and a severe worship of hats
lots of hats great costuming

a jerky vicious smile over
a hawk nose my guess

he is immensely proud of
all celebrated this man

before our country severely
damaged by the capo who just

cut him loose without a day
served for nothing short of treachery

to cheer and celebrate
the dying intubated gasps

of the party falling rapidly
down into the gloaming

where the sad ugly mud
reeks of despair and defeat