Author Archives: Brendon Behlke

Clockwork

The hands reaching for places they should not
feeling what is well and the gaps between
while the gears stutter over echoed thoughts
drawing out the whirring sounds long and obscene
a betrayal of the bright golden sheen
and the expertly crafted mechanics;
a token of wit and genius pristine
with disjointed and broken organics.

They keep winding, but no one sets the time
Polish and shine but no one climbs inside
as if admitting damage is the crime
and thus the past is where the now resides,
the future an unspoken thing implied
while savage moments spin along unchecked
and give cause for our fictions to divide
until at last ourselves we will dissect.

Cleanse

Walk against the ravenous waves
though they charge headlong against you
they serve no purpose beyond this
they retreat only to riposte

Though you may not have swam before
walk against the ravenous waves
and become the student once more,
revelations born in duress

Feel your form defined and expressed
a second skin from waters depths
walk against the ravenous waves
and let your falsehood wash away

All that time and effort we spent
matters not for those who Jesus saves
with faith and rocks in pockets they
walk against the ravenous waves.

Cassini-Huygens

Here there was unity A world bound by curiosity.
Seventeen nations held by a vision of clarity
a sole desire pursued with renewed intensity
to see the obscure and seize the great opportunity
of viewing Saturn in its turmoil and tranquility.
It was the ideal love, respect, purpose, humility
the edge of science honed by aeons of ability
to grasp and subdue the sovereign intangibility.
Witness their labor their unwavered solidarity
passions lit like fire raging flames of curiosity
lighting hallowed halls with candles of virtuosity
burn them to wick ends to find the buried prosperity
create divine eyes to see beyond our perplexity.
The passion they had matched only by their tenacity
contemporaries became friends, family, fortuity
they shared in triumph and suffered failures with dignity
overcame so much in the name of secularity
to but sacrifice their scientific commodity.
Though it dies in space it will live throughout eternity
and thus it was launched with some modest publicity.

In ninety-seven Cassini set out with surety
Saturn would be reached and captured in high fidelity
with purposeful stops, choreographed uniformity.
It found Venus twice in all its prehensibility
to latch on tightly and harvest the planets gravity
once and once again leveraging familiarity
searching for lightning any signs of electricity
testing instruments to ensure long term integrity
measuring plasma and the airglow for posterity.
Earth and moon were next despite fears of instability
and then Marsursky an asteroid of immensity
found in eighty-one seen only through spontaneity.
The great Jupiter that overwhelming enormity
turmoilstuous clouds encircling that monstrosity
taking its profile celebrating its complexity
measuring the winds in all their immutability.
Last came the long dark four years of hypermobility,
settling in void with silent sobered sanguinity.
Stars in stark contrast pin points in fugue nebulosity
alone in the cold searching through darkness for amity.
Solace in silence drowned the machine in sobriety
the oppressive calm an inerradicability
but once given time they embraced extensionality.
Together they flew the dynamic confraternity
course predetermined with distance into banality
cradled in abyss benign alienability
become familiar discover comfortability
while hearts and minds wait honoring its domesticity;
proud patient parents full up with sentimentality
bonded evermore in the silent longanimity
quieting their fears of possible fallibility
with kind words shared and the breakthroughs palpability
four years of darkness ventured against vulnerability.
Anticipation At last overcame ubiquity.

Once Saturn was reached they caught its supernormality
in countless photos of its beautiful tangibility
Five moons in contrast expressed abstract linearity
Ribbons of shadow breaking surface contiguity
Sirens of Titan Huygens pulled by volubility
to land amongst bone celebrating insularity
Brave Odysseus in cycloptic impudicity
Dione sliced in two a violent show of paternity
Ice expressed as song with organic sensuality
A fractured diamond forced water in volcanicity
A storm in the north with swirls of ignitability
The dance of Janus subtle motions of duplicity
The black and white of Iapetus’ duality
Crystal palaces exuding fantasticality
The broken fingers, Prometheus’ naivety
Soft geometry moving in strange uniformity
The odd shape of Pan rightly playful with absurdity
Coral like structures Hyperion’s abnormality
All Saturn exposed transcendental luminosity,
lofty origins decades later met profundity
Earth smiled from afar at Cassini’s equanimity.
Embrace the dense clouds enter into immortality;
sleep now with the gods.

The Diving Bell

The only thing that puts me at ease
in this angry red glow;
broken hearted pleas
from a past cast as shadow
“Please
don’t go.”

Broken hearted pleas
from a past cast as shadow
pontificated from bent knees
a gesture I thought then was hollow
“Please
don’t go.”

Pontificated from bent knees
a gesture I thought then was hollow
over and over I press the keys
playing old words on a recorded photo
“Please
don’t go.”

Over and over I press the keys
playing old words on a recorded photo;
it’s all that matters at times like these
the water crushing you countless miles below
“Please
don’t go.”

Anniversary

Twenty years ago the two towers fell
The terrorist attack of nine eleven.
Forced to reconcile a new kind of hell
Sending all those poor souls off to “heaven.”
The world witnessed these events horrified
I saw the change coming. For that I cried.

The terrorist attack of nine eleven
Set us against many other nations
As if that would find the problem leavened
Rather than drown us in complications.
Almost three thousand died in the attack;
We’ve spent two decades now getting them back.

Sending all those poor souls off to “heaven”
Continues to be our bread and butter
With blackwater in two thousand seven
Countless others that would cause a shutter
And all the young people we sacrificed
Those lives that congress has precisely priced.

The world witnessed these events, horrified
As we tore nations and families apart
Our grief and rage could never be subdued
Few ever examined the exposed heart
Killing people often creates profit
An angry public will welcome the deposit

I saw the change coming. For that, I cried.
It was hard to watch those people burning,
Worse knowing that day that more than they had died.
The attack was a desperate yearning
To be given respect on the world stage
But instead we bred terror for the coming age.