Today’s entry started out with an image I had in mind during the early stages of composing what would become my multi-part opus ‘The wonderful mysteriousness of unexpected development’, which started out as ‘The big glass staircase’, and which I worked on during the first Gulf War. This merged with the gist of an essay by my friend Lola Peters, which she read last night at the reading I went to…

As it ascended into the brush-painted sky
a river of clouds drifted slowly underneath

leaving auburn streaks
and a feeling of inevitability

that the suspense would continue to build
until bright explosions lit up the night

The faithless emerged victorious (for now)
even as flames spewed forth from the desert

and the clouds grew
until they engulfed the staircase

now showing the first of the cracks
that would eventually lead

to the end of the new world order
and the beginning of perpetual war

It would not be long
before the fear fuelled conflict within

before we became the ghosts
we imagined were out to get us

Nobody asks the question anymore
we’re too busy dealing with the consequences

of failing to look for the answers

(25 May 2017)