My morning coffee
is as bitter as my Facebook feed.
I consume both with the same frown,
not sure if I love it or hate it, as they
give stimulation and
discomfort
in equal measure.
I've convinced myself
I need both, that I am somehow
less
without. So I grimace, and
keep
consuming.
The best men and women
in this life are not the
holy
or the righteous. They
are not
found in the
church or temple.
We live in a world
where religious
virtue
is conflated with
bigotry, racism,
and hatred.
Only the godless are truly
good.
they tell us
having an open mind
is the stake against the
vampire heart of
stagnation
we must discard
what we know
and who we are
because what was
truth
yesterday is today a
lie
I like that - to
be the same man tomorrow that
I am today is terrifying
but then again - I'm a man
who orbits
nothing,
a chameleon of faith,
a kaleidoscope of
swirling belief that is never
still long enough to
find myself
Bravery I thought I was brave with the scars to prove it. My legacy - broken bones, split knuckles, black eyes and loose teeth. Adulation and respect. I fought both man and isms Never backed down. But a black man, driving an Uber taught me the truth of true bravery. Harassed, insulted, threatened by a low-life passenger, white racism covered in a cheap suit and tie, he refused to take the bait...
Send me nudes, you said
I sent you my naked
truths instead -
An unfiltered and unapologetic
glimpse into my heart
my innermost self
That part of me that so
rarely sees the light
of day much less the
judgement
of another soul
In the end, staring at my
demons, at my fears, and
my weakness you
failed to see
my strengths, my beauty,
or my integrity
You looked into the
abyss of me and
blinked
Someone put an asterisk in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence when we weren't looking. They added terms and conditions, the ones nobody bothers to read until they're fucked by them. We live in the 'Land of the Free', asterisk. We have the right to free speech, asterisk. We can practice any religion, or none, asterisk. We have the right of Life and Liberty, asterisk. Rich, white...
l stand in awe and disgust as l watch evangelical Christians subject themselves to moral gymnastics trying to reconcile their faith with their fear and hatred. They place the teachings of Christ on a virtuous scale alongside the words, the actions, and the deeds of the politician they elected and somehow they find a way to proclaim balance. That kind of tortured calculus is as impressive as it is...
A man and his child were gunned down In my neighborhood today. My community did nothing – leaving the blood-soaked street as the only reminder of mankind’s capacity for violence. l did nothing except gnash my teeth at the murder of a small child and wonder if l lived in the wrong neighborhood. l look at myself- the silence in the mirror reflects my face but not my hypocrisy nor the agony of my...
Another junkie died today, his blood steaming, cooling, in Pittsburgh’s winter streets. The pale, blue, afternoon sky, moving too soon into night, settled darkness on the day, and on the junkies’ life. This all-too-common narrative, the background noise of our lives, fails to stir our outrage. Crawling on top of the man, as he gasps his last, his seven-year-old son. They die together, son cradled...
My green-eyed first wife – fiery temper and hair to match – slid the wedding ring on my finger. Twisting on my knuckle, it never left my hand. I grokked with certainty borne from intuition that BAD THINGS would happen should that tri-colored gold band leave my touch. Years, a decade and change, passed and one day I took it off and set it on the bed beside me. For two seconds I was fine, but then...
Ron Sparks is a technology professional, science fiction and fantasy author and poet living in Zurich, Switzerland. His latest book "ONI: Satellite Earth Series Book 1" is available on Amazon.com.