As a literacy affirmer I cannot accept the cold ignorance of science deniers
a stubborn mule's a most useless tool, rejected fact makes the donkey a liar
To keep on believing in old God myths, 'tis a slop feast of hogwash for dogs
if human beings all get on page one, we'll fly over dumb, shortsighted bogs!
I squawk as a chicken with an egg in her vent
squeezing like a con man mid grift
I'm stuck on a stanza without any portent
still channeling my muse for a lift
I struggle like a dirt tire spinning in sand
scrambling to first arrive 'pon the line
I'm crashing and burning as a major ode wreck
yet my muse tells me everything's fine
I long to be published, paid well and heard
dreaming hard about my place at Bard's table
I'm hoping my pipe dream becomes a reality
while my muse says I'm perfectly able
I've come to a time when I'm not feeling well
with an illness long or short, which one I can't tell
but for me 'tis a feeling of fatigue and dull pain
and thoughts of disease running round in my brain
I'll live with it, of course, what else can one do
except to accept in my being through and through
this bad news 'tis fated, yet I must soldier on
and revel in moments I still have till I'm gone
Yep, I'm dying, and there's no getting better
despite the fact I always think
I'm going to live forever
Oh, I'm dying, and I know this is my time
as evidenced by the dreadful sight
of death's darkness neath my eyes
Yes, I'm dying, and such truth can't be muted
but I've arrived at a wonderful feeling
where no afterlife's quite well-suited
Science is real, God myth is not
when will malfunction in human brains stop?
Science facts are real, God faiths are not
when will what's evident rise to the top?
Science proof is real, God claims are not
when will our ignorance be cut off and drop?
Scientists are right, God mongers are wrong
when will this knowledge be the truth all along?
I wonder about the place I will die
Will I pass on in pain or sedated
Clutching my chest as I shower or shave
Guess I'd rather flatline medicated
I wonder about the time I will croak
Will I go out alone or with others
Dreaming in bed with my wife alongside
Is the best way if I had my druthers
I wonder about the way I will end
Will I perish awake or while snoozing
Biting the dust in the light or the dark
Only fate wields the power of choosing
I take heart, I swear, with an oath I do
in part because of the strength of you!
I take heart, indeed, without any doubt
taking it grinning I decry with a shout!
I take heart, I take heart, 'til sweet ends
held 'pon happy and grateful my friend
I thought by now they'd all be gone
the blind ones who put faith in Gods
thinking faith would be replaced by fact
in futuristic days of scientific blogs
I thought by now we'd be aligning well
with grand truths of atheism and science
thinking great men like Hitchens and Sagan
would be honored by our trust and alliance
I thought by now all tyrants would be gone
along with hypocrites without open minds
thinking when I awoke in the here and now
this backwards reality 'tis not what I'd find
Take heart my one and only twin
And grab the tiger by the tail
Fear not the cocksure kiss of death
As you make haste the final sail
Take heart my sure and loyal friend
For life is but a rowboat dream
Fear not the mattress of demise
As you drift gently down the stream
Take heart my true and lasting chum
And face the music with a smile
Fear not the looming Pearly Gates
As you conclude the crowning mile
I begin to hike some poetry
the trail feels stubborn and hard
I languish in meadowed foothills
far below peaks of the Bard
I glance up to the mountaintop
wondering, if how and when?
quite far away seem my sonnets
from a summited, immortal pen
I tell the truth; indeed, I do labor!
attempting to scale such a slope
but I'm belayed well to my doing
and in being so, ascending hope
It's under, and then it's over
it's fast, and then it's slow
we're entrenched within a mystery
which only science seems to know
It's hot, and then it's cold
it's good, and then it's bad
we're marching misunderstanding
between the lines of sane and sad
We're well, and then we're sick
we're here, and then we're gone
it's big, and then it's small
yet truthful science soldiers on
Blow, blow, blow off steam
Till the rafters shake
Get it off your chest
Do not bend or break
Vent, vent, vent like mad
Till the cows come home
Tell the gutsy truth
Wither you may roam
