Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Pale Riders



image from pinterest.com 

Pale Riders


“Behold a pale horse. And his name that sat on

him was Death; and hell followed with him. “

--Revelations 6:8


These halcyon days have fled.

Pale sunshine barely registers day.

Flowers are dusted with sullen ash; we

Might think it’s a nuclear winter, so very

Still and gray and sad--daises dirging. I

Have expected calamity, not this toxicity. It’s

Time to face off with climate change.

To deny it is lethal folly; even

Fruit cannot brighten the hellish haze.


Wildfires blanket the west coast, roaring

like hordes of hell hounds breathing fire,

like rabid dogs, like winged

gargoyles dropping embers

as thousands of fire

fighters battle

terrible

dragons

now.



Glenn Buttkus


Posted over at d'Verse Poet's Pub

at

15 comments:

  1. JadeLiSeptember 15, 2020 at 1:04 PM

    Speechless with horror and sorrow, Glenn.

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  2. brudbergSeptember 15, 2020 at 1:08 PM

    It's like all the riders of the apocalypse is here to murder us... will there be war as well?

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  3. Laura BloomsburySeptember 15, 2020 at 1:08 PM

    up to the minute and straight out of revelations - an ingenious take on the prompt and not least how you wove in a Nonet at the end

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  4. JennaSeptember 15, 2020 at 1:30 PM

    My favorite phrase in this is "daisies dirging."

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  5. Ron.September 15, 2020 at 4:04 PM

    Bold work, Glenn. It does feel like The End, right now, eh?
    Write on.

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  6. DoraSeptember 15, 2020 at 4:40 PM

    Powerful use of metaphor to capture unexpected "toxicity" -- like an apocalypse that already begun.

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  7. Ken GierkeSeptember 15, 2020 at 5:14 PM

    All of this, while the denier-in-chief prattles on.

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  8. Arcadia MariaSeptember 15, 2020 at 5:22 PM

    Well done poem. Themes are so relevant today.

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  9. robkistnerSeptember 15, 2020 at 5:52 PM

    Excellent writing here Glenn. I am trying to stop thinking about the infernos raging around us — so I turned to fictitious horrors.

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  10. GraceSeptember 15, 2020 at 5:55 PM

    They are horrible images of those hellish haze. Time to reflect on what we have done to mother earth.

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  11. Dwight L. RothSeptember 15, 2020 at 6:18 PM

    So very sad to see the destruction happening across the West Coast! The Dragons of old were nothing compared to the Dragons of fire all around!
    Very nicely done Glenn!

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  12. TruedessaSeptember 15, 2020 at 6:23 PM

    The smoke has made it's way to the east coast. The sky is hazy and I can only imagine
    the hellish nightmare on the west coast. This has me wondering where this is going wildfires and hurricanes. It feels like doomsday is upon us.

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  13. peterfrankiswrites.wordpress.comSeptember 15, 2020 at 7:18 PM

    So glad you wrote this powerful piece - I'd been toying with writing on the coming summer here - watching California ablaze again - and those hellish skies. And you're right - until we really address climate change (our guys are spruiking more government funded gas plants for goodness sake) - summers are going to be a time of dread.

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  14. Kim M. RussellSeptember 16, 2020 at 12:01 AM

    Wow, Glenn! Your poems convey your hellish summer to me so vividly, especially the flowers dusted with sullen ash and the ‘gray and sad--daises dirging’. The nonet is intense with horror; the ‘winged gargoyles dropping embers’ are scary and bring me closer to the devastation.

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  15. HelenSeptember 16, 2020 at 9:16 AM

    Bravo! Difficult to write about something this horrific, you managed it beautifully. Stay safe.

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