Three Poems & Chimps and Bears - Flash Fiction by dan smith

 

Store Bought Toys

 

 

I’m lost in the noise 

Loves voice now a whisper 

 

Old songs echo in my mind 

The wheels of fortune slowly grind 

My dance partners are all ghosts 

 

World leaders go unconvicted of their crimes 

The only schemes I want to hear are rhymes 

The long lines I want to see and hear are Whitman and Ginsberg 

 

When others speak of love I just hear your name 

Poets don’t make much money few attain fame 

I’d still rather be one than anything else 

 

Manned flight to Mars will take a lot of planning 

A major part of comedy is just deadpanning 

Life’s a toy store: the fun is free but all sales final 

Le Jazz Tellement Cool C'est Chaud 

 

Sun Ra 

always came out 

swinging for the stars 

 

so cool it’s hot 

Monk’s jangled beauty 

his B-flat stride 

 

Fats and Mezz  

If You’re A Viper 

Really the Blues 

 

out of the desert 

subtly rocking 

Tinariwen

Two Trees 

 

like the Pieta 

enveloped   

 

in the thick fog 

of wars 

 

as countless mothers  

mourn 

 

 

we silent  

on a windswept peak 

surmise 

what Gazan, what Ukranian, what Syrian

what untold others 

might have risen  

to save us 

compose

sing  

paint 

live 

less desolate 

less inconsolable 

than we who remain 

in this landscape 

 

This Golotha   

of two trees

Recently published at The Ekphrastic Review Challenge. This poem was inspired by a Franka Gabler photograph.

Chimps and Bears

Flash Fiction

by dan smith  

 

As travel and related stocks plummet amid the continuing violence we at In Depth Business News have put together an historical report along with footage of the riots. We must warn you most of these images are unsuitable for children and not for faint hearted or squeamish adults either.

The chimpanzees having taught even the bears to talk over the last hundred years are now demanding equal rights under an obscure and oddly worded passage in the Terra Reclamation Act of 2200 which soon after that year led to the creation of the Department of Terra Tourism although the Department had it’s philosophical underpinning and true origin with the abolition of octopus farming in 2092. The move toward tourism began in earnest under the planet wide so called Global Species Act of 2104 when Dr. Allison Fahid Muhammed and her team at The Chomsky Institute UC Berkeley broke the code and began the first meaningful conversations with dolphins. Perhaps most amazing was their lack of any lasting hatred or even resentment but neither did they give any explanation for their resistance and secrecy. No doubt they thought it self-explanatory and irrelevant.

It is well documented the cross species attacks against humans by virtually every type of mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, cephalopod and even insects during the late 2000’s led to brutal reprisals and repression by humans while they also struggled to survive during the Great Warming. The non-humans to their credit have taken the high road in this since about 2100.

At this time, the planet has a carefully regulated 100 million visitors a year. These visits have become a religious pilgrimage for many and vital revenue stream for our ongoing explorations. So it is with regret that troops have had to be sent to quell the protests that have turned violent in recent weeks. Negotiations remain ongoing but so far the chimps and bears demands for greater autonomy and a bigger share in the revenue they help to generate have been rejected by DTT administrators. This impasse and the ongoing violence has prompted many at Galactic Command and even a few members of the High Council to float some radical ideas including extermination of the administrators. Now, back to you Glurg in the newsroom.

 

dan smith is the author of Crooked River and The Liquid of Her Skin, the Suns of Her Eyes. Widely published, dan has had poems in or at such diverse journals as The Rhysling Anthology, Deep Cleveland Junk Mail Oracle,Dwarf Stars, Scifaikuest, Gas Station Famous, Jery Jazz Musician and Sein und Werden. Nominated for the 2025 Pushcart Prize, his most recent poems have been at Five Fleas Itchy Poetry, The Ekphrastic Review Challenge, dadakuku and Lothlorien Poetry Journal.