Some people in power will say anything to win nothing. 

Strange Abode

 Strange Abode

A leery and winding road led me to a cul-de-sac,

an old residence, this strange abode lured me 

in its doorway like a warm guest,

I entered the ravished gem-shackled mansion,

upon my entrance,

I stared long at this black widow spider in a corner

as it played Mozart's "Serenade Gran Partita."

My first step nearly squished a flamboyant mouse

who seemed to dine alone as it grinned

with a diastema wide as an ivory key.

The hallway lay in oak hardwood and stood firmly

as I creaked across the doorway of some forgotten

servant's room, a ghost appeared as some mute

ageless hologram, my guide to this eerie museum

of otherworldly mystique.

The ghost led me to the stairwell,

I climbed each step,

as if I were Lord Hyattsworn himself;

there on the first-floor hallway

each passing portrait lit up

as if I were their new resurrecting god.

On the balcony, I stared up at the full moon,

and slowly turned around,

"Good Evening Sir, glad you could make it," the figure

said in the shadows, there at that moment I knew

I made the wrong turn.

The Price of Exploration

 

The Price of Exploration

 

 

                                   Race to the South Pole,

                                   Amundsen used seasoned dogs,

                                   Scott used large horses.

 

                                   Amundsen reached first,

                                   Scott faired better with Mammoths,

                                   than trod through cold death.

 

 

                                      written(c):8/24/2014    

 

                  * Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole nearly a month before

                     Robert Scott, because he used seasoned dogs, Scott used horses,

                     they(Horses) were out of their element, and all of Scott's

                     party soon perished!

To Dr. Higgins:

 

Dr. Higgins, 

If I sound like a groveller, forgive me. Time is an element with no variant other than subtracting breaths from fools like me. 

I pride myself on being a verendus fool, but I never truly had the right time to thank you for the miracle you performed. 

When one travels upon the grounds of Golgotha between living and dying, he truly in retrospect owes the man who gave back his life, and that person is you, Dr. Higgins! 

To Sammy:

 Sammy,

I pride myself on having a righteous soul. You're so sweet, Sammy, you could effortlessly charm the sugar off a sugar plum tree. You've been a godly trouvaille. I swear too, you're the Greek goddess, “Aceso,” the goddess of healing. Your aura is bright and clinquant. God bless you! 

Sincerely, 

The Reminder

 

Visiting my church’s graveyard,

the vault of so many displaced souls.

My dear Grandmother, Grandfather, 

Father, Mother, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins,

and Friends all in quiet solidarity stare

 up from empty skeletons. 

No surrogate Angel of Death will lead your 

asystole heart and pulseless body through 

death’s portal because there's no heavenly 

gate, no awareness of any journey will be 

recorded by any supreme being, your life

of breathing suffocated through various 

Myths and Pagan beliefs, and worrying 

and sulking is the thief of time. The lifetime

bond between two friends each time-locked

in historic muses, trying to outrun death only

forward the demise. The gravestones symbolize

human weakness and imprints man’s silly 

quest for immortality. 

- John Hardesty

June 16, 2025

 

Vengeance is mine says the Lord but that 

doesn’t mean squat to an Atheist. The White

Man in his wake annihilated the North 

American Indians with genocide. 

Every wound and scar upon thy brow lies 

an enemy’s grave.