John M. Hastings
mighty warrior spirit running free
riding bareback
your hair and horse’s mane blowing together
through the plains winds of Dakota
‘til blue cavalry swarmed, tethered your people.
less land, less buffalo, more rules, more white lies
not little ones either…
like the promise you’d be safe
if you’d come to their fort to surrender.
how could they let you go when they had you in their grasp?
you wanted to believe.
in your soul you wanted your freedom back.
but going to the blue lair of blue liars
you were betrayed by a bayonet in your back.
their deceit won over your faith, your trust,
your wishes for your people.
hearts still weep at Wounded Knee.
GOODBYE
John M. hastings
I see less of my family now
cousins, aunts, uncles...
I call less often.
It’s not that I’m too busy.
just...well...
just feeling more remote
from those I love.
not less loving nor feeling for them
but much less getting together.
Are we all drifting apart or just me?
Is it my way of saying goodbye
while I am still here?
ONLY AN INSTANT
John M. Hastings
it takes only an instant
to tell you I love you.
it will take a lifetime to prove it.
it takes only an instant
to say the wrong thing.
it will take forever for you to forget.
it takes just an instant
to fall in love with your smile.
even a lifetime with you will not be enough.
it takes years to grow our children
but only an instant for them to leave.
it takes years to learn to live and love
yet only an instant to say goodbye.
The Illusion of Meaning
John M. Hastings
from the time we knew
the sun was God
then knew that it wasn’t
to the time we knew
it revolved around our earth
then knew that it didn’t
to now when we know
our galaxy spirals a black hole
search for meaning in our existence
has been endless and oh so imperfect
but what is meaning?
atoms mostly empty
support floors we stand on
chairs we sit on, buildings we occupy
only sensed solid as molecular oscillation
creates a hard wall of space
yet meaning based upon knowing
provides little comfort
for we cannot define the colour red
describe beauty nor measure goodness
without a reference point, itself learned
through limited sensory group-think acceptance
remember our sun Gods?
and is life itself illusion?
for our past exists only
in memory and matter
then it exists no more
its meaning lost...
in eternity
has been endless and oh so imperfect
but what is meaning?
atoms mostly empty
support floors we stand on
chairs we sit on, buildings we occupy
only sensed solid as molecular oscillation
creates a hard wall of space
yet meaning based upon knowing
provides little comfort
for we cannot define the colour red
describe beauty nor measure goodness
without a reference point, itself learned
through limited sensory group-think acceptance
remember our sun Gods?
and is life itself illusion?
for our past exists only
in memory and matter
then it exists no more
its meaning lost...
in eternity
