To Breathe or Not

Will someone please explain;
why I should bother to breathe?
Why take another step forward
moving closer to obvious oblivion?
Maybe I’ll strategically withdraw;
way back within my scarlet aura;
where a comforting gold yurt exists
floating there in a murky blue haze.

An oasis for Psilocybin trippers
and amoeba-like shadow dwellers.
Perhaps I’ll just awaken from this
rancid fantasmic imagery and break
through to an orgasmic reality while
sipping on a large tepid green tea.
I breathe not; but my choice is void;
auto function appears to trump me.

I feel strangled by a fortuitous life,
where oh where are the good times?
An entire country living but a cold lie
full of deceptive demons we’ve elected.
A place where we spend millions
guarding poppy or oil fields overseas,
as our Veterans die on the streets.
Homeless, hungry, frozen, forgotten.

Proud we once were, as tears fell freely
when our National Anthem was played,
but we tremble now while standing and
watching our flag burned on our campus’.
I want to go back to those good old days,
I want to live in a Rockwell painting with
a cold coke, while my trusty dog smiles.
Yes, today it’s tough to take a breath.

Ken Allan Dronsfield is a disabled veteran and prize winning poet from New Hampshire, now residing in Oklahoma. A proud member of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, he has five poetry collections to date: 'The Cellaring', 'A Taint of Pity', 'Zephyr's Whisper', ‘The Cellaring, Second Edition’ and ‘Sonnets and Scribbles’. Ken's been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and six times for Best of the Net. He was First Prize Winner for the 2018 and 2019, Realistic Poetry International Nature Poetry Contests. He has most recently begun producing Creative Content on his YouTube channel and has had wonderful success sharing his poetry. Ken loves writing, hiking, thunderstorms, and spending time with his cats Willa and Yumpy. Ken Allan can be reached at kadfield@gmail.com. Read other articles by Ken Allan.