It takes five broken cameras
to tell the story in pictures.
No one can hide the truth
by building a wall around it,
It takes one look into
a child's eyes to see the laughter
and the tears, to hear the
geese honking goodbye into the
silent winter of your heart.

another aged vanity
another baby grand
another california king

these hovels each
a museum becomes
all replicated
grandstanded
re-exhibited

exhausted

archivists
conservators
curators
all

On the beach gathering some stones
To decorate the front quarters
Black and white, immense and petite
All set to be carried away
In different baskets we’d brought

From the pebbles I collected
A gleaming object reflected
Rainbow colours inside the sun
Against the evening skyline
A gold coin meant money at hand

I turned the item round and again
Within the palm of my damp hand
Yellow turned into golden hue
With an edge of silver lining
When dropped in the ocean water

Freedom and liberty,
so often a catchphrase
sacrificing sanity
at the end of a smoking gun.

They're not concepts of faith or belief
they are complex ideas with no absolutes
that require thought, sacrifice, and grief
and need to weigh loss with answers.

We live together for better or worse
and freedom to kill is often the first
liberty lost.

So we consider what it means
when we lose the right to cause harm or blame
and gain the good of mutual nurture
guiding us to a better future.