Conflict of Interest ~ Philip Brent Harris

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What is it follows? Can it be found? It follows you around.
Sometimes in front, sometimes behind. Opens doors, slams doors
in your face. Sneaks in cheek by jowl, cuts no slack, a burdened back.
Into darkness, into light. Never into or out of sight.

Dogs your steps, manacles your joints. Points of pain,
reminders of reminders past, needles and pins stuck in a map
of self.  Physical, mental emotional selfie, psychic yet mundane.
Into darkness, into light. Never into or out of sight

Childhood wounds stab your feet, your arms unarmed. Battles forgotten,
demons ignored, education incomplete, drops a noose, encircles
your neck, your life not growing, tighter yet. Traps you, limits freedom
Can you go? Do you know? Nod for yes. Shake for no.

Con or confidence trickles through, through your thoughts,
Swiss-cheese brains, deluge drains. Rigor of mind leaves you behind
Beware. Do you dare be here, choose choice, run the race?
Can you go? Do you know? Nod for yes. Shake for no.

First chance, last dance, will you, won’t you? Can you tell? What’s
your tell? What you sell, go to hell. Have you ever thought  you might?
Clever now day and night, a dull knife, a blunted tool, a born fool.
Would you? Maybe so. Find it, hide it, don’t let go.

While walking, talking, driving where, going there. Killing time,
rain or shine, sleet, snow, whether weather or whatever. Dreaming is fine.
Toe the line, wait beside, you decide. Draw a picture, draw a conclusion.
Would you? Maybe so. Find it, hide it, don’t let go.

Draw a card, cut for luck. A fiction, a confusion, or only an illusion?
Meaning sought behind the veil, beyond the vale. Last farewell? Who can tell?
Each story lost, forgotten, defeated, destroyed, sings fame, glory.
Run always, slower, faster. Court triumph, drink disaster.

Diverse, disparate, desperate, unique, oblique, star-crossed,
crosshatched, dispatched. Each part, each knot, part and parcel
Each stitch, every thread alive, dead forms pattern, tangled, hidden.
Run always, slower, faster. Court triumph, drink disaster.

Cloth of gold always, everywhere told love and sorrow, joy and pain.
Each tomorrow a new today. Begin again. Tapestry woven each moment,
time’s loom; we each choose glory, doom what new patterns finds room
Win or fail, when finally pale, none may know your urgent tale

Which or where?  Centered, glowing brightly, assumed, subsumed,
consumed by darkness. Heat, light explode, escape compression,
confinement. A grand confession not guilt but being proclaimed.
Win or fail, when finally pale, all may know your tiny tale.

Scattered, shattered, starry jewels  embedded in chill obsidian.
No meridian, fiery heat alive, sub-zero chill alive play opposites.
Above us, within us, in our lives. No one survives, dead or alive.
Ours to choose, win or lose. All battles won. All battles lost.

No energy, no matter what we know, how we strive. All paths,
same maths, ultimate equation, persuasion. Entropy increases.
Combustion decreases. All battles one. Only one final payment. Despite
the cost, where we start, we depart on the platform where we embark.

Ours to choose, win or lose. All battles won. All battles lost.
Can you go? Do you know? Nod for yes. Shake for no.
Into darkness, into light. Never into or out of sight.
Win or fail, when finally pale, you’ll depart, return to the start.

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Peace is Purpose, Nonviolence is Strength, Diversity is Unity, Empathy is Empowerment

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See more of my creative offerings and opinions at:

Brent Harris Fine Art

Philip Brent Digital Art

Vida Voices

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