CONFESSION ZERO

I followed you. Your footprints led me here, maps that moved ahead of the bullet, before the blade, the knuckle and the belt. You are fading. I followed you in the fog of affection, my tears washing away the blood printed by your feet. Your heart thumped a prayer, a plea for now , for immediacy. You clasped your nameless hands and called for an end to the ache, an end to the widening bruise that stands inside you, boots of steel, fists of rage and your skin scraped away. At your grave I’ll lay a wreath of flowers made from my own flesh and vow to you, no more. An end to angers teeth upon your love, I pledge. © 2010 by mark prime Healing Abuse Working for Change | Springtide Resources | Connections for Abused Women and their Children Abused Women.org Center for Domestic Peace Abused Women - Aid in Crisis Legal Advocates for Abused Women

(Non-Violence International - An Introduction) You shoot me first. Then, I shoot you, and we fold into the sun. Before we part, end our vow, pledge to love me evermore and now. Shooting stars, gatekeepers, wink affection over our shroud. Promise us. A steady aim, flames reach down with your blazing limbs; harmony. Raise our song. Boost goodness to its original tallness; laughter’s soaring gaze. You shoot me first. Then I shoot you, and we fold into the sun. Ready, aim, then fire. See you on the other side of love. Take aim, pull your trigger like a rabid dog in a fetid cage- boom boom. © 2010 by mark prime Nonviolence and Human Unity

Veronica, our fruitless misery is disintegrating, it is ready to be woven into your goodness. Perched alongside our grief, your happiness, fluttering wings of heaven and ballet in the air, moves across our cruelty with a shrieking love. Lurking near the exit with your carry-on baggage, photos dangling, offspring in tow, crooning of now, of immediate love, of kinship, your violet-blue flowers beckoning. O! Veronica, your mutiny is swift! Your tears at our death, man’s tattooed demise, absorb through our skin like a virus until they carry away our potent rage. Come Love, let us bow at her feet, make an art of her devotion and joy so we might remember she weeps. © 2010 by mark prime

In the beginning was great silence. And the silence was with all. And the silence was love. And the silence was vast. And the silence was gentle. And the silence was good. And the silence draped all things. Life emerged from the great silence and love coated eternity, affection exhaled its residue, the sound was noiseless, silence was worship. And of the goodness, we waged battles in Eden and noise was king. A chasm filled with longing rose up to our cries of “why”. Man sought his demise in the darkness and filled his mind with noise. Why did we leave ourselves quivering while the eagle lifted its cry and our child was born? Man unwrapped his jaws, shattering stillness with ownership. Prophets of doom float near. Harbingers of the dark call our name. Where is love? Where is our affection, our hands of charity? In the buildings of our worship, under our idle feet, beneath our contempt, poking out its head like a newborn child searching for happiness, ai...

I am walking the labyrinth. My destination, I know not. My journey moves me forward. I will not, shall not slide back. Behind me are my little deaths, shards of me, glimpses of self, hidden in the matrix, lattice of my existence. Behind me, years of suffering, not all mine, but of me. Ahead, i.e.d.’s I’ve buried deep, that I might remember. Turning back now would let slip a hypocrite and liar. I will march on, searching for truth, walking ever so lightly. Words mean nothing, said the poet. Tongue’s too small, the battle’s coming, red and furious... I steady my legs. © 2010 by mark prime

The shadows of our lives run through the seed, inside each of us, like blood, not separate, but whole. Man's fists are but his sadness regretting its own ruination. Mankind's mouths are famished, seem powerless to feed. So be it… © 2010 by mark prime

US Navy HM Edwin Gonzalez , 22, North Miami Beach, FL US Marines LCpl John T Sparks , 23, Chicago, IL US Marines Sgt Frank R Zaehringer III , 23, Reno, NV US Army SSG Dave J Weigle , 29, Philadelphia, PA US Army SPC David A Hess , 25, Ruskin, FL US Army SPC Matthew C Powell , 20, Slidell, LA US Marines LCpl Raymon LA Johnson , 22, Midland, GA US Marines Cpl Justin J Cain , 22, Manitowoc, WI US Marines LCpl Phillip D Vinnedge , 19, Saint Charles, MO US Marines LCpl Joseph E Rodewald , 21, Albany, OR US Marines PFC Victor A Dew , 20, Granite Bay, CA US Army PFC Jordan M Byrd , 19, Grantsville, UT US Marines LCpl Irvin M Ceniceros , 21, Clarksville, AR US Marines LCpl Alec E Catherwood , 19, Byron, IL US Army SGT Eric C Newman , 30, Waynesboro, MS US Army SGT Carlos A Benitez , 24, Carrollton, TX US Army SPC Rafael Martinez Jr , 36, Spring Valley, CA US Army PFC Tramaine J Billingsley , 20, Portsmouth, VA US Marines LCpl Joseph C Lopez , 26, Ros...