This page first posted January 2nd 1997

STEVE HILLIS'S POEMS

Steve Hillis was born at a U.S.Naval Base Hospital just outside Chicago. At the time his dad was in Saudi Arabia with the U.S.Air Force. In 1969 the family seemed to have settled in the Kankakee area of Illinois.
By the time he'd graduated from high school, in 1976, he'd accumulated two brothers and two adopted Korean sisters.
In 1979 Steve moved to Orlando Fla. where he still lives with his wife, Lonni of 15 years (married in 1981) and their three children.
Up to this time Steve appears to have worked mostly in restaurants and so forth (apart from 3 or 4 years plumbing for his grandad).
For something completely different, in 1982 Steve went to Valencia College and then unto the University of Central Florida and ended up with an A.A. degree (whatever that is) and a B.S. in Engineering in 1988.
He now works at Lockheed Martin and, part time, looks after computers belonging to HI-TECH Associates.
Hobbies and other interests include poetry of course, and Karate for which he and his eldest son are preparing for a Black Belt. That sounds like serious Karate to me.

If you like what's on this page (and of course you do)
then try Steve's own home page here.

And now at last - some poems.

CYBER FEAR

It's cold out here in cyber-space
for anarchy defines the place
but a fire burns now in our souls
It's censorship that feeds the coals.
Teach your children, guard them well
'lest they end in cyber hell
but don't tell me what I can't say
because your brats just won't obey

WE WATCH

We watch bone thin children
starve
as food rots in warehouses on
the other side of the world.
       We watch razor edged
       adolescents
       kill and rape
       in the name of peace
       and a vengeful God.
We watch stone hard old men
clutch
at the remnants of a power
that can no longer be theirs.
       We watch dense packed masses
       breed like rabbits
       spewing out refuse
       'till the poisons float in the air
       like wind blown leaves.
We watch race angry mobs
loot and burn,
creating injustice
in an unthinking response to other
(greater or lessor) injustices.
       We watch drug crazed gangs
       terrorize
       the neighborhoods that spawned them,
       as the only means to prove
       to themselves that they exist.
We watch
and still we talk of love.

YOUR GARDEN

              Your garden needs tending, darling.
              It's indisputably gone to seed.
              I know that you feed it daily,
              but it seems you've neglected to weed.
Vines have choked the roses,
and thorns are all that remain.
You really AUGHT to do something
(though it's not my place to complain).
              I used to love your marigolds
              'till the dandelions crowded them out.
              Maybe you haven't looked lately,
              but they're gone without a doubt.
The hedges are all full of thistles
(even the cat won't venture there).
I know this place was your pride and joy,
but others might think you don't care.
              What's that?
You say you don't HAVE a garden?
Perhaps I haven't made myself clear.
The garden is just a metaphor -
It's your soul I'm speaking of, dear.

YET EVEN WHILE

       In the soft warm
       glow of summer's sun
       your beauty
       stirs my pride
              yet even while
              in darkness
              I'm not blinded
              to beauty
              that lives inside.
                     In murmured words
                     and a tender voice
                     you tell me
                     love is true
                            yet even while
                            in silence
                            I'm not deafened
                            to the love
                            I have for you.
                     In the caress
                     of gentle embrace
                     I hold you
                     near my heart
                            yet even while
                            miles away
                            we're not cloven
                            for our souls
                            do not part.

And now it's back to our home page