Shadows – where faces hide –

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Shadows
         - where faces hide -

In time dawn’s shadow
Would dim the cruelty,
A face deemed bide 
From its carved path,
Will transmute hide
Said nature’s trap,
For wind burnt flesh
That reads like brail,
Or weathered mesh
On skin humanly frail,
Finds soon be paired
To rock-strewn canyons,
Reflection of a dire face
As pain unravels memory,
Of its passing shadows
Hence where faces hide,
Among phantoms of the past 
Where these faces did emerge! 

                                                           © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Images – Private authors; Malik Earnest 2015

Music – Leaving by Chet Baker

Audio Recital – Jean-Jacques Fournier

                                                                             written in Sweetsburg

                                                                                   January 2, 2022

                                                                       edited January 10, 2022

“ Followed Heroes ” ~ that weren’t ~

We followed heroes

That weren’t,

They who sent boys

In their stead

To get burnt,

Maimed, lamed

Or wretchedly dead…

 

We follow cowards,

Who professed

To undo the mess,

Of affluent power

Held un-confessed,

Orchestrators

Of partisan-fests,

Only to find

They heroed us blind,

To pocket what’s yours

And what’s mine…

 

Yet we the naive

Follow heroes that aren’t,

Who cause us grieve,

The while charade

Fixing the morrows,

To incarnate their masquerade!