There was no cure, no vaccine, no salvation; there had only been one backup plan, and that too had failed.The 12 safe zones; securely guarded, cleaned out, and used only for those who passed inspection, were the last and only hope for anyone lucky enough to get in. Yea, it was a good idea in the beginning, but like everything during and after "the event", it quickly fell apart. Once contact between the zones was lost, each one went dark, falling like dominoes to the very thing they tried to keep out...or so we were told. Those of us still trapped on the outside had only heard rumours through the squabble of our radios, so who knows what the truth really was. In the end, even the best laid plans fail.
We are 99% genetically identical to chimpanzees
The cleverest of them can do sign language with ease
Stephen Hawking's can do quantum mechanics in his head
1% of genetic material must mean a lot, enough said
We are not special you nor me
we are made of the same elements as the heavens, don't you see
Hydrogen, Helium, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon have an abundance all around
Only Helium in the human body cannot be found
We are the same as the sun and the stars
We are the same as the atmosphere on Mars
You may feel the Earth is lost in space
But what we are made of is found all over the place
You may feel lost and watch time pass by
But you can look up to all that is upon high
So next time you do stop and stare
You can say, I have a connection right there.
Like mathematical truth, certain are we
Like mathematical proof, revealed to be,
Mobius eternal, two sides into one
A single twist in time, never undone.
There and all over, all at once
Smeared and weird, as it is
Everything waves, the peaks and the troughs
Sinusoidal wheel, unpinnable floss.
But we are observing, the closeness of this
Measure with no error, the unseen with a kiss
Our detailed log of love, and of duality
Point in spacetime, wavefunctions cancel
Collapse our heart’s reality.
Like gravity and charge, another binding exists
Fieldlines and vectors, the arrowheads don’t miss
From me to you, and from you to me
Lines of infinite magnitude, for all of this be.
Bound by laws in an orbit, barycentre of black
Inside event horizon, continuation
We are riding the light, spiraling in
Until death by spaghettification.
The Scientist
As they go wandering off
Feeling a step above the rest
Thinking of how much good
Their theories and philosophies
Might do to the world
They go off inventing
Hypothesizing
And dreaming
Of how their intellect might change the world
But right they are in their thinking
They go off learning and making
Trying to place themselves as masters
Of what is already the master of them
They go off building and creating
Bringing new guns and weapons
To try to bring peace by adding more destruction
They go off thinking and yearning
Of how to save a dying world
Which they infected with their own man made disease
They go off experimenting and theorizing
Trying to define the universe
That was already defined long before their time
They go off storming and raging
About how they are right
Because the theories they made tell them so
Oh yes what wonderful things they have done
Causing the Earth to rot under the sun
Oh yes what marvelous things they have done
Spreading disease amongst everyone
Oh what amazing things they accomplish
Making the world fall for their rubbish
Our empire is massive, an envy to the world to behold. Massive in its beauty and ugly in its strength. The men and women who build it's great army which will be remembered in history throughout the centuries are our brothers, and our sisters. They represent the foundation, the mortar to the wall. We have been taught to believe that democracy is the only and right course of action, the “moral” choice of politics, and while true for the most part, a society cannot thrive within a mob rule. To promote these values with force also as if adding salt to an already infected gash.
This is not the country I was born and raised in, twisted and corrupted I no longer recognize the land in which my forefathers had settled and established. These fields of green now elude me and the ground has become foreign. Laws written in code to fool the simple mind, absurd and yet like clock work drones upon drones of mindless sheep step in line to get their daily dose of 'bullshit'.
This world and it's inhabitants have grown strange, to me and mine. Feeling as if sanity has been lost to the madness like a disease spreading viral by glance. Backwards logic fooled by the twisting of words, snaking your perception by deceit. Slithering into the minds of those asleep or still dreaming. They will wake, staring down the barrel of chaos as their nightmares pull the trigger. Finding yourself lost within the proverbial forest. So much is wrong, in this reality. We can feel it, we can see it, and we can sense it on all levels of morality. A bad trip, a bad ego, drama within a coma.
Do I, through these eyes of perception truly see this world any differently?
That deep down I am screaming this is wrong, the whole paradigm is wrong?
When its all said and done, and I am dead. Will I be the one who looked mad?
Watch as the world you knew falls to ashes, dust to an illusion so grand, so mysterious.
Like snow on a battlefield where two sides clashes, How does one understand that god is us?
We act like children who just lost their guardian, so much hate thrives in your blood, bitter to the taste
We have became blinded by our own sin, how far we have fallen from our own beautiful grace.
Walk with me, in this garden of dreams. Share with me the sent of all possibilities.
Shaping our future to change our fate, a chapter to be written by what we create.
What if it were all just a dream, that the true illusion is us just being.
On the quantum level death is but an overture, for we are all born from a star.
There stood Monolith,
just past Erie's Backbone and beyond;
its grip tightened upon the farmland and
drew from it curiosities and profit.
Freedom withstood
in the Flatlands at large and on,
but it was a clear threat perceived and
worried over at nearly every post.
There in high towers
made of white iron and colored glass,
a good doctor had stood and heard words
spoken by wise men with a wealth of strange ideas.
They said he was needed
in order to understand the mind of a boy,
eligible and elected for a kind of experiment;
its purpose at large left muddled to him.
Doctor Montion Maynard,
among colleagues and friends who
had recommended he, the faithful shrink,
buckled to the needs of such an endeavor.
Little time was taken
to truly get to know the captive boy,
as we all suspected he was temporary.
Such ambition often leads to unintentional harm.
But as he was devoured by the light,
we all sought to steal a glance from another,
hoping to find blame to cast or reassurance
from anyone beyond the crazed voice in our minds.
All machines then lived,
and then fell silent after belching smoke or flame.
The dripping echoed voice had ceased,
and we felt our stable grip return to us.
The room was emptied,
burned and sealed behind wide metal doors.
Smells of scorching plastics rose through halls
and forced us to evacuate entirely.
Distant, flickering cries
could be heard for many days afterwards,
and the feeling of static was always abundant
when near the place where Daniel had gone.
They spoke of the Theorized Space;
had claimed it able to be sought and found
and probed as if a place on Earth,
but with no rules and no limitations.
Most suspected Daniel dead,
but some insist on claiming grand success,
"Of course he's gone to the other side!
There wasn't a trace of him left to discover!"
The good doctor wept,
and now slumps to the floor often,
unsure of noise that wakes him in the evening;
it often drips as if submerged in the sea.
We gathered our intelligence and ran
with suggestion upon suggestion, turning
to the darkest depths of our collective
imagination, hoping to come upon
some other-worldly presence that
would prove beyond the shadow of doubt
the worth of us and our capabilities.
We composed a house of broad equation
that delved into sightless and soundless waves
of possibility, intangibles that become tangible,
and lucid prescience in the face of the blind.
Our experiments grew wilder with each
exhausted resource that left our disposal.
We refused the climbing unease within
that left us desperate for a result and
an answer with which to ease our pained
curiosity and our standards to which we're held.
Suddenly, as if by accident or fate itself,
we had come upon the Theorized Space,
and sought immediate access to its answers.
Within the Space we couldn't probe -
beyond man's eye the static dark
would flex and bend and wield itself
as a force of unaware allegiance
to the possible and the unknown.
And so we stood and silence fell on
every man and woman present as
the only clear course of action
became apparent to we who dreamt.
With the stature of a morgue's man carried,
we did what those of insight must:
we spread and searched and came upon
a lonesome wretch whom none would miss.
And strapped him in we did well fit
to a machine that we'd hope could stand between
the worlds of which we knew and uncovered,
ignoring his stammered cries and pleas.
His words were choked by flying volts
that found a home beneath his skin and cells,
scrambling him, his very being to
something beyond what we'd suspected.
Light devoured the room we had taken
and became something of a tomb for this
boy and his humanity, for as the bright
subsided, he had gone from us here,
and had become something far beyond
what we were able to comprehend,
or even control in the slightest sense.
We struggle to observe this young man,
this Daniel that moves between phases
and submits to nothing and no one that
could utter a word towards his understanding.
And as he prevails against reality's norms,
we'll fight to deny our hands in the matter of
such delicacy and such implications;
with which while had, could cease our endeavors
for the rest our lives.
Standing atom under glass
Tasked with eyes that understand
The rationed state of things alike
That drive a man to burn alive
Created by a force of steel
Sterilized betwixt the frames
Brought to life by light and flame
Given code in lieu of name
Birthing bit of mother star
Anti-matter held by hand
Meant to alter time itself
Swell to bold our fading strand
Mankind peaks in micro scope
Evolving to the grayest sea
Departing from mortality
Denying all causality
Glowed amidst the fading skin
Housed us once before the change
Leaving bone to feed the dogs
Chewing 'til their jaws may break
Atom sits as yet unused
Under lock and key of choice
Promising to save our lives
Yet to realize its voice
Highest bid of world at war
May condemn or grant our vice
To feed upon immobile sky
Ascending to our reasons why.
Homage to Geneva
Ugonna Wachuku
(c) 1998: Ugonna Wachuku
Contents:
Dedication
Prologue
Escalade
Homage to Geneva
Fireworks
Spirit of Geneva
English Garden
River Walk
Alpine Garden
Take My Love
The Author
Dedication:
To every Genevese
and to every other
human being who,
in oneness, symbolize
that Genevan spirit
of tolerance, peace,
humanitarianism and
brotherhood of all
humankind.
Prologue
"Man is born free;
and everywhere he
is in chains."
~ Jean Jacques Rousseau
"The desire to be as
civil as possible is
a deep motive for the
contemplative life."
~M. Scott Peck
In Geneva today, the human creative spirit is
not in chains. One is invited to let one's creative
essence run calmly wild for the peaceful good of all
humanity.
In contemplation therefore, Geneva will never cease
to awe and inspire my deepest poetic emotion. For
me, Geneva is not just a small, global city and state.
Geneva is an emerald beauty of huge, natural, creative
inspiration so unexplainable.
In paying this homage to Geneva, it is my kind wish to
invoke the most subtle feeling in every human heart -
so that we can begin to see Geneva anew based on her
ancestral heritage in the reformation and humanitarianism.
And also in the moving spirit of her hard-won independence
clothed in that strengthening solidarity of the human spirit.
In Geneva's great name, let us continue to live with that
cherished spirit of peace warmed in the sky-blue garments
of love and solidified in the flame of human adversity
and soulful yearning for survival through this journey
called life.
At the very dawn of the new millennium, let us embrace
one another with that sweet fragrance of humane care
and healing oneness.
In Geneva's meadow gardens and green country-sides
of inspiration and peace, :- from Hermance to Dardagny;
from Veyrier to Versoix, to Plan-les-Ouates - where
inspiring Patek Philippe have been humanely creating
worthy watches for humankind since 1839, let us, indeed,
affirm our love for one another despite our skin colour,
religious creed, social status, level of education or ethnic
origin:
By doing so, we will surely build an enchanting world of
peace and humaneness where everyone will sit with joy
and fulfilment under his or her own Alpine tree
or palm tree.
Subsequently, let me specially call on all women and
men of inspiration and goodwill to join me in paying
this heart-felt homage to Geneva - with additional
inspiration and encouragement from abiding friends
such as Franck Muller: Master of Complications!
Let my creative tribute to this humanely great Canton of
the Swiss, Confederation Helvetia, which I have come to
christen: Poetic Geneva, outlive the monuments of time
and stone. Let us cherish this humble homage to Geneva
now and forever!
Ugonna Wachuku
Wednesday 20 May, 1998
Geneva, Switzerland
i:
Escalade
There is a spirit so strong
and beautiful on this land
called Geneva where the
rivers Rhone and Arve
calmly flow.
On a summer boatride down
the Rhone town and country,
one's joy is aroused by the
enchanting nature of Geneva's
bloom and glow.
Geneva is a beautiful land
beckoning to love and to
embrace with a maidens's
charm.
The people of Geneva are
beautiful too. It is the
people's strong spirit
that sustains the land in
beauty an peaceful
independence.
This strong spirit came
on firmly during that
dark night of December
11, 1602, when it seemed
the stars of hope and
light had fled from
Geneva's sky.
When it seemed the people
of Geneva will smile no
more in the land's beauty.
With Charles-Emmanuel -
Duke of Savoy on the brink
of conquering Geneva by
suprise, the land's peaceful
soul was shaken.
From the city walls at
Plainpalais to the
clinging bells of Saint
Peter's Cathedral, the
Genevese raised their
loving lanterns in
oneness.
Jacques Mrcier's first
shot of warning can
still be heard today,
raising that strong
spirit for the land's
fragrant, uplifting
freedom.
Even Francois Bousezel
who gave his life to
keep Geneva's peaceful
independence and beauty
will still be remembered
till the end of time.
In a spirit of oneness
and love, Geneva fought
to bring glorious light
and freedom during that
night of terror.
Through the years, that
sweet aroma of Mere
Royaume's pot of saving
soup can still be breathed
in soothing defence of
Geneva's independence.
Lady Piaget's keys
unlocked the darling
door to freedom and
joyful victory.
Geneva won her freedom,
her peaceful independence
when Isaac Mercier dropped
the Portcullis at the
blown-up gate of Porte
Neuve.
The stars smiled.
Heaven heathered.
The dark grey sky
bloomed into dewy
dawn on that glorious
sunday morning when
Theodore de Beze and
Simone Goulart led
Geneva in worship
and praise to God
Almighty who made
all things peaceful
and beautifully
healing.
Remember, there is
a strong spirit so
splendid and uplifting
on this land of heaven's
earth called Geneva where
the rivers Rhone and Arve
freshly flow with gladness.
There is a spirit so
strong and beautifully
inspiring on this
Genevese land called
Saint Gervais where
eighteen men lie
while the freedom
and peaceful
independence
they won live
for you and
for me till
the end of
time!
....... From my book: Homage to Geneva .......
(c) Ugonna Wachuku: May 1998
Geneva: Switzerland
_
Homage to Geneva
~ Critiques/Comments ~
Serene Moment
belleloved@excite.com
A very nice tribute to Geneva. I've learned a lot on an historical perspective. Great work. ^_^
http://www.postpoems.com/members/serene
Helen Schmidt
heljac123@aol.com
Ugonna,
What a wonderful homage to a beautiful city. My husband and I have visited Geneva and found it to be a lovely, ethereal place whose citizens are friendly and welcoming. I enjoyed the historical citations in your "Homage to Geneva." A beautiful piece!
Best regards,
Helen
http://PostPoems.com/members/helen
2002-02-22 12:03:50
Farah D
fiffi_d@yahoo.com
I was in Geneva last month and I can totally relate to the sentiments that you have expressed so beautifully here..Ugonna. Its a most wonderful and humane city...and you have brought that aspect of the city so well in your poem. Its as if Geneva is speaking to you and through the words of Geneva you speak to us. One of my most memorable memories of Geneva is from the air as the plane swoops in to land ..with the calmness of the lake beckoning you to come down quickly. I will surely be back again in Geneva soon and I will surely be back before that to read your wonderful words. Thank you Ugonna.
http://PostPoems.com/members/destiny
2002-04-14 13:53:42