Cry Catepillar

A moment of stillness
In a chaotic world
A choice
The bitter wind turns
It must find a home
For change
Nature
Can not be ignored

The fuzzy little catepillar
Brown coat atop countless legs
Awkward
Solitare upon the dry soil
Searches

The pull, intense
Climb
Spin
Alone
For alone is the only way to grow

Fear settles deep
Unkown ahead
Ugliness of existence as it is
Small, inconsequential
Climb, yet again alone

Surrender
Bleak desolution of winter wins
Cold, alone on the ground
She whithers and dies

If only there had been no fear
A beautiful butterfly
Would have emerged
With the Spring sun

(C) RM Brandon 2012

Corporate America the New Nazi Regime

America the land of the free and the home of the brave, unless you are employed for Corporate America. In a country where we have fought to free ourselves from
Discrimination based on color, gender, or race, our liberties are still being violated.
Why? How?
We have allowed corporations to dictate what we as individuals can do in our own lives in the name of "health promotion". And big buisness is using our fear of unemployment in a shaky economy as their right to violate our civil liberties.
Because we have not made it illegal.
In promotion of a "healthy environment" a person who chooses to utilize tobacco is ostricized, fined, and persecuted openly.
This is a legal substance! As legal as the can of coke you drink at lunch. But because of the well known associated health risks corporate America raises the cost of health insurance coverage for smokers, adds additional "employee use fees" and then places policies which make it "a violation of employment" to use tobacco products during hours of employment including breaks and lunches.
How is this legal? Because it is not "illegal" it is still however discrimination over a "lifestyle choice".
Is your cholesterol bad? They will raise your insurance rates, fine you, and force you to participate in "wellness programs" to keep your employment.
Again discrimination, yet not "illegal".
Vaccinations are a choice. Not if you wish to remain employed without being ostricized. You must allow them to inject you with whatever they see "necessary" or be forced to wear cumbersome "protective gear" that make the work environment stressful and isolating.
Discrimination to yet another lifestyle choice.
What has become of our civil liberties? Where is the freedom of personal choice?
Corporate America has a stereotype they wish everyone conform to without regard to personal values.
It's ok. When your emploer forces you to pay extra, do nothing. When you are required to eat only tofu and water at lunch during a 13 hour shift in which you are not allowed to so much as exit the building, do nothing.
When you are forced to take questionable vaccines that pose potential risk, do nothing.
If everyone keeps doing nothing about this legal discrimination we will soon become free from all rights to choose.
What makes America beautiful has always been its diversity. The ability for the melting pot of society to come together to achieve brilliance. It's ok. Let's keep saying nothing as that diversity is slowly stripped from us to create a stereotype, an elite workforce filled with one BMI, one lifestyle, one belief system.
Or make your voice be heard!
Let your legislators know we've had enough!
Make discrimination in ANY form ILLEGAL!
If you continue to do nothing, say nothing, don't be suprised when the Nazi patrol confiscates your cheeseburger and coke because it's not a "healthy choice".
Health promotion, the devlopment of safety policy, and the promotion of a positive, productive work environment have been mutilated by forced policy and open public discrimination. It is time for a change.
After all a lifestyle choice is supposed to be chosen.
(C) R.M.Brandon 2012

Headlines

Today there was no war. Pain, pestilence, misery no longer existed. Hate was a distant remnant of a past long discarded. Children knew no tears. 

Imagine a world in which such a thing was possible. A world where hate had no home. Lies were impossible and war non existent.  Imagine a world in peace. 

Why are such things common place in this world in which we live? Why do our children fall by their own hands? Why do they fall by each others? Would we honestly choose a cookie cutter society? One way of thought, one appearance, one belief? Given the choice' as a whole world society' would we eliminate all that is different? How bland would that be?

If we as a collective would not choose such a path why the do we ostracize that which does not conform? 
Self doubt, solitude, hate. These are the things those who claim to matter endorse. Why? Why do we give these people the power of a voice? What of the innocents that have fallen victim to their propaganda? Whose hands are their blood truly on?

It is by far more difficult to stand out than it is to fit in. It is even more difficult to rise above hate and lies with silence. This world needs more. Beauty is not a body type, intelligence is not a GPA, wealth is not in the material, and strength is not in a medal. How do we teach our children to excel in their own life path in a society that pushes them to conform like cattle? 

For me, it is and always will be, Do No Harm. I am a misfit, an outcast, a vagabond. But i do what I can to bring hope, light, and happiness to this world. What would the world be if we all did the same?

(c) R.M. Brandon 2012

Be as You will

Life was given.
In its birth dreams, hopes, and promises formed.
Yet the act of living impedes.
Time slips freely away while everyday planning is made.
Bystanders cast their stones.
The path walked feels ever alone.
Intent falls victim to pain by false judgement.
Who dare estimate the cost of a load they do not bare? Compassion long gone.
Like the door to home.
Stolen memories nothing more.
Yet the gift is still given.
Will be forever.
The foundation to live a life worth more.
All life is precious yet so rarely valued.
The world pushes down those who struggle to carry on. Where do you stand when the long night is drawn?
Are you helping to achieve dreams or ripping them from someone's arms?
Be as you will.
Be careful as you are.
Empathy is a dying breed in a world lost to greed and war. (C) R.M.Brandon 2012

Around the Corner

Beneath the city skyline two old men watched the world walk past on the stoop of an apartment building. "You are so lucky. I wish I could still hear the sweet call of the birds as they frolick on the lawn." Said the old man to his mate.
His mate turned in astonishment, "What I wouldn't give to see the glisten of a black birds feathers or watch the sun as it falls from the sky, just one more time." His voice was a shout to accommodate the old the man's hearing defecit. Tears welled beneath his darkened glasses at the corners of his cloudy eyes.
While the old men sat talking a buisness man walked by. His gait hurried, he shuffled his brief case from one arm to next while holding a cell phone to his ear and chewing an apple between "Yes "and "sure". With a nod he passed the men a look of envy on his face. Whimiscally he uttered, "What I wouldn't give to spend my day just watching the world pass by."
The buisness man rounded the corner, the apple he half heartedly chewed slipped from his hand into a trash reseptacle as he fumbled between phone calls and files. Between the buildings he briskly passed a young woman in tattered clothes eyed his discarded treat. She rushed to the trash reseptacle on his passing and plucked the half eaten apple into her heavily dinge covered hands. Retreating to the darkness of the alleyway she pressed the juicy red to her lips with a far off look in her eyes, " What I wouldn't give to have enough food to waste half an apple."
From an adjecent building an old woman peered from her window watching the young girl chew a delicious red apple. A low hum filled the air in the room around. Faint electronic whirls and beeps of the machines that kept her alive. Trapped inside four walls with only a birds eyed view of the world walking by she thought to herself, "What I wouldn't give to be able to feel the wind on my face, the dirt beneath my feet, taste food once again. Even being a beggar would be better than the life I'm in."
Just up the block the sound of sirens filled the air. The static filled chirp of a first responders radio, " MVA vs bicyclist corner of Broadway and Pine. DOA." Shaking his head he placed a sheet over the remains of a tiny body. Pink Barbie handlebars jetted from the tire of a sideways sedan. He looked from the apartment buildings in the area where onlookers emptied into the streets. The Sedan's driver stumbled drunkenly around the roadway towards the EMT's oblivious to the severity of the scene around him.
The Medic spoke quietly to his partner wiping tears from his eyes with blood soaked hands, "She couldn't have been more than four. Will people ever realize how precious life is?"
Life is but a fleeting moment in time. Don't let it pass you by.
(C) R.M. Brandon 2012