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...
The Penguins are playing tonight I have a belly full of high-quality whiskey, a fine cigar between my fingers, and a pleasant buzz dulling my constant anxiety. The announcers play-by-play, constant and frantic, blares through my 70-inch television adding artificial drama, but I like it. I’m surrounded by my precarious middle-class wealth while thousands of slaves suffer and die in Lybia. But I’m...
his hipster beard – mandatory accessory for this gentrified borough of Pittsburgh – leads him back and forth from the kitchen to the tables he serves more tables than he should I wait too long for my overpriced salad as he drops a plate of greasy wings in front of a table of oblivious professionals who judge him find him wanting without ever looking up from their phones a small bead of sweat...
I walked out of my office today at noon and slid into the stream of pedestrians – the hipsters stroking their beards, the pale professionals blinking in the sun, mothers pushing strollers through the crowd with more skill than a racecar driver before I knew it, I walked past my lunch destination I kept walking – and watching the people of my town share a sidewalk without attacking one another for...
“My fellow Namericans; if elected President I will make it my top priority to refreeze the icecaps and push back oceans to pre-century levels. I will increase funding for aquatic clone nurseries and revitalize the life in our seas. I will push for more algae farms on the oceans, reducing their acidity.” Senator Juan Martinez looked at his cue cards and frowned. With a whip-arm...
on this cloudless night
pushing through the Pittsburgh haze,
daring to present themselves,
entwined in cosmic tango, are
Jupiter and the Moon.
the bands play across a
diluted Jovian face. while the storm
rages on
the lunar rocks and craters,
perfectly visible imperfections,
cast petulant shadows –
reminding me that
from destruction one can
still find beauty.
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.