MathGeek Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 The whistle emits a screech as the cannonball rolls down the walk Quickly it departs into the bluegrass, over the apologists that talk Mowing down these straw men into the hay bales they deserve to be While the memorable bass line plays, the girls dance around with glee They dance around for shits and giggles, no more reason than that Better than lying naked with the ass in the air, the chest pressed flat Held prisoner by perverted inquisitors with eyes emitting rage Suddenly comes the cannonball to turn it over to the next page Call it Epicurius, call it Hume since the problem has been redefined Flattened at first but the corpse rises since the human will is inclined To take up superstition as our so-called rationalizations allow And then impress them virally on everybody else somehow Be it through the tool of witness or the tool that fires projectiles And leaves heaps of statistics on the ground in tall, bloody piles But Malthus's prediction about the future bombed, inventory refilled Yet all innocents are hereby found guilty and then summarily killed Since they followed the cannonball and became heathen breeders Sardonically, they became the Abrahams of freethought seeders Planting ideas based on the notions of logic, science and reason It was time to cure this disorder over a perpetual sowing season But the corpse reigns on a seat of lies, secrets and pedophilia And the defenders of the faith have wantonly raped Cordelia In the abstract and in the corporeal, both ways sanctioned by A sadist who has the submissive altar server undo his fly But, the cannonball and a million more of his metallic brothers Break down those metaphysical Bastille walls, out come mothers, Daughters, sons and fathers, all folks practicing in name only No longer does hypocrisy bother them, no longer are they phony There will come a day where disbelief shall utterly strike the roots Even though the branches are being hacked at by a thousand coots The Jeffersonian maxim enacted and all the righteous fight hard This imagined cannonball, all these members carry the card We the people, we the nonbelievers, are here to say our piece Get the fuck away from here, and let us return to the prior peace And the zombie wanders away to the desert, the dustbin of the mind And the zombie stands alone and effervesces with the sands of time The cannonball retraces the path to where the apologists were dashed If offers them spiritual guidance based on reason, free of cost and cash And this cannonball of wonder motions another time around that yellow star We, this group called humankind, has finally evolved so very, very far Away from the times where religion held us in shackles until our dying breath Away from the times when statistics were measured in bodies with open jest But the cannonball was fired at the right moment like a popping cork Religion has met its rightful match, the cannonball is the serving fork The nonbelievers bid you farewell, it was a game and it was so much fun But the fork has been pressed into your chest, you are officially done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jchpiper Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Profound write mathgeek...as usual. I first read this a few days ago. Read it a couple times...then read it again today. My first thought was about a shot that was heard around the world, the cannonball being various thoughts/doctrines/ideologies, many with an authoritarian stance. Then I thought of the cannonball as the earth itself, constantly revolving with history repeating itself over and over... with each round a few wake up. I really liked these lines: And the zombie wanders away to the desert, the dustbin of the mind And the zombie stands alone and effervesces with the sands of time The ending surprised me. I could feel the ball striking one in the chest, right in the heart. Have you pondered changing the style to verse, with four to eight lines per stanza...every other line ending in the the rhyming word? Just me, but it might make it more easy to read to the eye. But then again, my eyes are getting old. hehehe *thumbsup* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathGeek Posted January 26, 2008 Author Share Posted January 26, 2008 Thank you, jch... I was inspired to write this by a video featuring Kim Deal of the Pixies back when she was part of a band called The Breeders. I saw an actual cannonball rolling into the grass and then I just ran with the idea. I agree with you on my overdependence on rhyme scheme, but it is helps me anchor the rhythm. But, after Hicks' was published, I figure I may have the ability to pen free verse if I just let my mind run with it. I agree, may it is time for me to expand my range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jchpiper Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Thank you, jch... I was inspired to write this by a video featuring Kim Deal of the Pixies back when she was part of a band called The Breeders. I saw an actual cannonball rolling into the grass and then I just ran with the idea. I agree with you on my overdependence on rhyme scheme, but it is helps me anchor the rhythm. But, after Hicks' was published, I figure I may have the ability to pen free verse if I just let my mind run with it. I agree, may it is time for me to expand my range. Well, dangit. Sometimes I despise this computer at work. I had a nicely composted response....and poof...the sucker disappears. grrrr.... I'll try again.... hmmm.... ********************* Do you really think you are over dependent on the rhyme scheme? Sometimes I rhyme and sometimes I don't, and when I do....mine isn't real consistent. I enjoy a good rhyme scheme. What I meant in my previous post was to perhaps break the lines at the rhythm breaks so as to possibly make the piece more inviting to the eye. But then it could just be my old eyes. :wink: I have told myself over and over that I am going to learn about and try to write different forms. The only form I have written, other than free, is acrostic. And anybody can do that. I did google 'cannonball' when I read your poem and saw The Breeders links; but I didn't take time to research any further. I learn quite a bit on forums reading poetry. If I don't understand something, the holy and almight google is called upon. All that being said, "Run baby run!!!" Cheers, ~carol ps: Jch are my first 3 initials; nothing to do with the big man. It never really stuck out to me, until you addressed me as jch. hehehe I thought, "hmmm...that looks like jesus christ holy piper." Judy Carol Hamby is my maiden name; Judith Piper is my pen name. But hey, maybe...just maybe....me and the big guy are related, since we share the same initials. Yah...I still hope; imo, ain't nothing wrong with hope. *thumbsup* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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