"Lizard Brain"

A clear objective—survival       
Tuck head down and traipse through desert sands—       

            An Arrakis boiling with religious certitudes,     

                      ancient political nuances   

Multitudinous paths leading to destruction       
Ignore the razor winds that slice through reason   
And only hone instinct   

Survive   
Clutch the knife of insanity in your righteous fist   
Rip into the enemy’s flesh   
Retaliate—an eye for an eye—until all are blind   
Blades become bombs   
Homes reduce to rubble housing mutilated families   

Logic stumbles through the wreckage   
And gets lost in the stench of decay   
Becomes overburdened and overrun by molecular rage—   

            (Passed down from evangelist to fanatic     

                       to zealot to extremist)   

Until it dries up and dies   

 

Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman 

 

“Too Hot”

 

            For the last couple of years, we’ve headed to our cabin in Leakey during the longer Memorial Day weekend as a way to celebrate our anniversary a week late. Our plans to go this weekend stopped dead with the weather report for an entire hunk of Texas—HEAT ADVISORY!

            Heading into the hills with the goal of hiking, weed-eating the overgrown grassy areas surrounding the small building, and collecting rocks and shoveling gravel to bring back home for landscaping doesn’t appeal to me at all with temperatures sweltering between 108°-111°.

            In 2022, a severe hail storm battered our cabin during this same weekend! We “saved” our Bronco with every cushion and quilt in the building. We’d never experienced such a severe storm in Leakey in May.

     

            So for today, we’ll spend inside on Arrakis, binging on both parts of Dune. 

Copyright 2024 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman   

 

"Lizard Brain"

 

A clear objective—survival       
Tuck head down and traipse through desert sands—       
            An Arrakis boiling with religious certitudes,     
                      ancient political nuances   
Multitudinous paths leading to destruction       
Ignore the razor winds that slice through reason   
And only hone instinct   
Survive   
Clutch the knife of insanity in your righteous fist   
Rip into the enemy’s flesh   
Retaliate—an eye for an eye—until all are blind   
Blades become bombs   
Homes reduce to rubble housing mutilated families   
Logic stumbles through the wreckage   
And gets lost in the stench of decay   
Becomes overburdened and overrun by molecular rage—   
            (Passed down from evangelist to fanatic     
                       to zealot to extremist)   
Until it dries up and dies   

Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman
 

“Lizard Brain”

A clear objective—survival       
Tuck head down and traipse through desert sands—       

            An Arrakis boiling with religious certitudes,     

                      ancient political nuances   

Multitudinous paths leading to destruction       
Ignore the razor winds that slice through reason   
And only hone instinct   

Survive   
Clutch the knife of insanity in your righteous fist   
Rip into the enemy’s flesh   
Retaliate—an eye for an eye—until all are blind   
Blades become bombs   
Homes reduce to rubble housing mutilated families   

Logic stumbles through the wreckage   
And gets lost in the stench of decay   
Becomes overburdened and overrun by molecular rage—   

            (Passed down from evangelist to fanatic     

                       to zealot to extremist)   

Until it dries up and dies   

 

Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman