Icarus falls

Icarus, fly higher, with your new formed wings! 

Your wax will hold, as fortune on you smiles. 

Fly higher Icarus, and reach for shining things 

For he who dares traverses many miles.

Ah, Icarus, how high you fly, young man! 

Your glistening wings soar higher in the light. 

They take you far above the rolling land 

‘Til you are stolen from our waning sight.

For when on wings you dare to touch the stars 

The world is but a sphere to gaze upon. 

And take no thought for anything that marrs 

Your quest to conquer flight and reach the sun.

What’s this? A fearsome sight my eyes behold! 

A figure plunging earthward with no sound! 

My heart is frozen in my chest, so cold 

To see you fall as lightning to the ground!

Steve Wheeler © 13 July, 2021

image source

Heaven's gateway

The gateway into heaven is not forged from gold or pearls; 

It’s a trans-dimensional portal into another world. 

Transition from this finite time into that eternal realm 

is a sudden, one-way journey from which there’s no return. 

Transition is instantaneous; there’s no time to acclimatise 

as you watch your world transforming before your open eyes 

to colours unimaginable, beyond earthly comprehension, 

and time will cease to flow, inside that eternal dimension.

The laws of science and the laws of man will fade into oblivion, 

as souls fly to their destination in the beautiful Elysium. 

There, standing at the centre, above a sea of glass, 

is the throne room of the Ancient One, the future and the past

The Ancient of all Days, the Almighty God of old 

who reigns in glorious power in that City made of gold. 

Though anyone may enter, if they love the Risen One 

the gateway into heaven cannot welcome everyone.

Outside the walls are those who gamble with a loaded dice. 

The Redeemed are those whose trust lays in His final sacrifice. 

The Lamb of God will separate His sheep from the goats of sin 

on that final reckoning day, when the souls are gathered in.

Steve Wheeler © 9 July, 2021

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matt 7:13-14) 

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Our imaginary friends

A substitute in each and every way 

Oh, the ersatz neuronal pathway! 

Electrons firing across the gaps 

Replacement dendrites, false synapse

In digital brains that buck the trend 

we place our trust - our imagined friends 

Google Now, let’s see what’s what 

Cortana says when something’s hot 

Siri, what is the state of play? 

Alexa hears each word you say 

We’re bonding with imaginary friends 

in a servitude that never ends

[If/then] AI fails to adapt 

expect some catastrophic mishaps 

[For/next] the algorithm fails 

Caught in a loop, the program bales 

Autonomous vehicles block our way 

on the digitally rendered fake highway 

Alexa, I asked for a coffee .... 

What the.... 

Steve Wheeler © 5 July, 2021

Image from the film Metropolis (1927)

Raise your glasses

You could die of thirst

in the amount of time

it takes to get a drink

(Barman, please! 

Barman!

Over here!)

But when that pint arrives

across the wooden bar and

pulls you from the brink ...

Raise your glasses....

Let’s drink to you, 

and let’s drink to me

and drink to all, 

for all they be

a toast to every silver maid

and to every fool

their thoughts un-played

Let’s drink to the future

Let’s drink to our history

and all of the wonders 

of life in its mystery

And when finally done

and our glasses are gone

let’s raise a toast

to the staggering moon

Let’s drink to our families

Let drinking commence

Let’s raise up our glasses

as the recompense

For the lost and lonely

and the souls of the dead

for the millions of homeless

and for those without bread

Let’s drink for a lifetime

together in chains

to the liquor that binds us

and its happy disdain

Let’s drink to our country

and the drought of the Earth

to the damage we've done

and the trouble we're worth

Let’s drink to the average

to the one-out-of-five

to the kids with no water

and their fight to survive

Let’s raise up our glasses

so golden and full

Let’s drink till we’re stupid

and our thinking is dull

Let’s forget all their troubles

and just bury them all

under glasses of amber

so we don’t face the call

Let’s drown all their misery

in a lake of our choosing

at the end of a glass 

you can win when you’re losing

(Barman, please!

Barman, over here!)

You could die of thirst

in the amount of time

it takes to get a drink... 

 Steve Wheeler © 1 July, 2021

image source