December 2020 – Mannino Acid

Burn the Candle at Each End

2020 was a shitty year On this, I think we can each agree Sadly this is where consensus ends Due largely to our dichotomy Skewed sharply by a vast division The red, the blue and sometimes the green Manifest tribal polarity Filling all the spaces in between Bleakly entrenched in our opinions Willing to loseContinue reading “Burn the Candle at Each End”

Anti-Claus

Christmastime, it seems to me, has become an increasingly melancholy holiday as of late. Despite my best intentions, the older I get, the deeper the ache seems to resonate. Perhaps it’s the weight of decades of exhausted anticipation, spent reverie, and cumulative disappointment that has taken its toll, resulting in a profound numbness that canContinue reading “Anti-Claus”

The Legend of Glowman

There once was a hero Or so the stories go That stood watch every night In freshly gathered snow Deep in my memories I can picture the place With the crab apple tree Cloaked in winter’s embrace Out there on the front yard ‘Neath blue incandescence Stood the mighty Glowman In bright luminescence I quiteContinue reading “The Legend of Glowman”

Agents of Entropy

From the order at the origin To utter chaos within a blink The ruthless march of time has begun Before there were even minds to think From the singularity burst A quantum of the infinite Hurtling helplessly through spacetime Ambiguously different Along the arrow of time, it flies Unidirectional by design Defying elegant symmetry SacrificingContinue reading “Agents of Entropy”

The Santa Collective

There lies at the heart of the season A conspiracy of unsung giving Conceived with the purest of reason Mythology that makes life worth living Derived from well-intended deceit Engineered to exploit our naivety Quite an extraordinary conceit That sows our seeds of creativity Born from long-forgotten ancient lore And steeped in propensity to hopeContinue reading “The Santa Collective”

Dominate Your Lane

Why you should never pay the two dollars About 20 minutes into the ultimate celebration of 1980’s teenage malaise, “Better Off Dead,” the protagonist encounters Johnny, the vaguely mafioso paperboy who demands “Two Dollars” for what has already been established to be shoddy service. When at first Lane Meyers merely disregards the demand, it’s throughoutContinue reading “Dominate Your Lane”