A Game

It takes a lot of luck,
And money,
To discover
That life is just a game.

It seems much more serious
When you’re unlucky
And broke.


~ Russ Allison Loar
© All Rights Reserved

Looking Forward

“When hell freezes over!”
My dearly beloved intoned,
Responding to my request for a hot buttered cinnamon roll.

Not an unpleasant thought,
Not at all.
Free of matrimonial bonds
In the realm of human weakness,
Bundled up against the sudden change in climate,
Sipping hot chocolate
While the scent of warm cinnamon
Drifts lazily into my nostrils
From the buffet of frosted pastries.

O yes, when hell freezes over,
Now there’s something to look forward to.


~ Russ Allison Loar
© All Rights Reserved

Best Seller

He was the anointed one,

And the literati decided,

Agreed,

Confirmed,

This book was his finest work yet,

Prognosticated as:

“The best book you will read this year,”

Though it was only June,

Though it was generally agreed “the best” was an anachronism.

After all,

Did they really believe the future could be so blanketed,

So predictable,

So immutable?

The book vendors ordered dutifully,

Feverishly,

Inspired by so many reverential author interviews,

So certain this was indeed the next big thing.

Who am I?

Who are we to belittle such pronouncements?

Such hysteria?

So I,

So we dutifully purchased the book in droves,

Eager to possess the sacred knowledge,

The newly christened insight,

The talisman,

Ready to verify the conclusions of the cognoscenti,

Ready to approach the godhead and be blessed,

Though by page 83 most of us stopped reading,

Already full of enough dispirited angst

To last a lifetime,

Our purchases already having confirmed the acclaim,

The acclaim of the marketplace

Bestowed on all such highly strung best sellers,

So infrequently read to conclusion,

So soon forgotten.

~ Russ Allison Loar
© All Rights Reserved

Erosion

Our amorous embrace of technology,
So insatiable and promiscuous,
So quick to abandon the newly outdated,
Quicker than a snake sheds its skin.
Like an addict injected with a new drug
We are hooked on the rush.

Why, then, this obstinance of belief,
This reverence for ancient prescriptions,
This persistent resistance
To the evolution of the soul?

We shield our carefully crafted personas from scrutiny,
From introspection.
We create entire lives from timeworn templates,
Assembling friends and families
Who believe in these concoctions of fact and fiction,
These cultural clichés we inhabit,
These large immovable stones we become,
Stuck in the river,
Eroding.


~ Russ Allison Loar
© All Rights Reserved