On the Posting of Revisions

My brother, Walt, suggested it might be interesting to use the blog as a tool for posting revisions to initial drafts I've composed on the blog. I am still experimenting with the use of the blog as a catalyst for creating drafts. Over the past month I've tended not to use it for creating initial drafts (back to using pen, paper, and/or computer files) . . . with the exception of my thoughts on the inauguration . . . captured in the form of a short poem.  

This afternoon I pulled up a copy of an initial draft I composed on the blog on Christmas Day. I find that I can look at new efforts for the first time after about a month. I still haven't got enough distance to revise them objectively (and harshly) enough, but I can start at that process. 

For whatever unclear reason, I've decided to put this initial revision on the blog. 

Messiah Matters

Rooms along the street 
filled with evergreen fragrance
temporary as youth. Promise
day: promised hope 
to celebrate, 
appreciate. The day marks 
another rung to hold the foot on 
before waking 
to a new neighborhood 
of descent. We carve away
the pink flesh from a pig's bone, 
while the more au courant 
bless tofurkey 
to evolution's halting struggle. 

Over prayers, it's strange
to recall that the Argentine air force
would fly drugged innocents 
over the Atlantic, strip them
to skin and toss
them into the blue.
Words welded into weapons,
the military turned every nuance
black and claimed it beauty.
Such a litany, a liturgy
for the redemptive urge
of paranoia. Junior officers
pardoned years later, to walk
the streets with mothers searching
shop windows for children's reflections.
Wouldn't we be shocked 

to find a trench coat and unmarked
van outside the front door?
The whirlwind hovers
in history's porous murk, ready
to snuff civility's lantern.
In the minds of disgruntled cousins,
a mantra regains voice . . . break
the necks necessary
to restore the balance that others
hoard in their vaults
and mansions. Here comes
a new year. Maybe harmony
will bubble forth, all judgments
postponed, salvation's broken tire
patched, and the journey turned
into just the adventure 
each child senses 
living might become.