All That's Left of the Old Man
under the rustle
the leaves given voice
the oak playing tricks
old men and their love of unnerving
the young and unsuspecting
it is what comes
from being rooted
in one spot for too long
boredom sets in
something wicked
this way comes
the wind abets
his evil ways
grants an alibi
by pointing a finger
at his next of kin
but has the old man ever asked
who is really in charge
instead, he insists
no pictures, please
the oak hides in the shadows
but I have him in my focus
click, click, click
time now to retire
from the coming storm
the wind blows
a little too hard
and it’s done
all that is left of the old man
his soul and wicked ways
is a captured photograph
So we are now closer to the end of October than the beginning. Halloween draws near and the time of spooks and goblins and getting afraid on purpose, so perhaps we won't have to be sooo afraid for the rest of the year.
Think of it as the reverse psychology of sympathetic magic.
For one night of the year, you can wear your terror, or become your terror, and thereby defeat it. Cool trick. I wonder if that is why so many unsuspecting do-gooders go into politics. Rotten trick on the do-gooders.
Yes, October is also the time of political campaigning ... here and in the US.
That special time of year when the very worse nightmares of humanity hold sway. Instead of ghost stories, we get propaganda tales and media spin, fear mongering and headaches, rather than chills and tooth decay.
If only we could uproot the old men, and women, who makes us afraid ... or worse hate ... on purpose for their own political or financial gain with a strong wind, just like the immense but decaying oak in our poem, weed out those who take delight in causing suffering among those they see as naive or on the other side of the garden. Let in some light so something new can grow.
VOTE
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Words and Images are my own. All That is Left of the Old Man is published in Monsters, Avatars, and Angels. Monsters, Avatars, and Angels is available in paperback or digital through amazon and your local libraries and bookstores. Click on any title below to further explore and support my writing.
Well said.. VOTE! and do it for change. It IS time to get rid of the old political ways of corrupt ideology so that new things may have a chance to root, grow and provide rather than strip us. Oh how some find a familiar comfort in the old oak, but don't be lured into the darkness it casts onto those who gather below it's limbs.
A poem fit for the season. 😁
I like that analogy. It does seem it is old oaks everywhere. But one at least seems willing to listen and invoke change. People sure do seem hungry for it:0
Funny just like the monsters in Scooby Doo were people behind the masks, so too the politician are the scary spooks!
That is an apt way of putting it:)