becoming unafraid of the dark
I close my eyes and am engulfed
by the expanse of this day’s
black sky
On this day I find the courage
to sit and I do not want
to run
Slowly and more often I
give myself permission
to see.
I close my eyes and am engulfed
by the expanse of this day’s
black sky
On this day I find the courage
to sit and I do not want
to run
Slowly and more often I
give myself permission
to see.
when the judgement comes in
the form of a backhanded compliment
from an eleven-year old
that you’ve spent a large sum of money
on a vehicle that is as gaudy
as it is hideous
as it wasn’t a rolling visual reminder of all that is wrong with us
collectively
as it was a main character on the road
always appearing as an antagonist
to those of us who dare gaze upon it
and it’s summarized by young eyes as
exactly what it is
it’s so ugly that it’s cool to look at
no one will make one like that again
or, everybody will do it too because
they’re trying to fit in
maybe five years from now there will be a crop
of stainless steel style cars
and we’ll think differently then
because theirs looks closer to ours
until then I will call it like it’s seen through the eyes of a child
you can spend it all on trends
but you can never buy
style
paradise might be ok
but then again, who knows?
the young with sprite in their bellies
think heaven is like santaland where
you wear white and no one cusses
adults know better but tell the kids
that someday they’ll go there
and see grandpa. once I was sure
Eden must be in the Mekong Delta
of 1962: beautiful beaches, ethereal
sky, breezes right out of Life Magazine
like any paradise it soon went to hell
my Naval Times shows three cruise
lines there now. yes kids, all’s well
“Grief is only love
That has no place to go”
And I think I’ll grieve you
For the rest of my life
And I can understand now,
It’s not my fault,
My love knocked on your door–
Banged, kicked, squeezed in the cracks
You’d barely open the door
The chain lock still in tact
You’d let some seep in
But what I gave could never
Fit through a crack
It engulfed the house
Raided the trees
Tickled the clouds
And finally I can see
That it is up to me
To step off the porch
And take my love elsewhere,
But I’ll never get back
What you keep locked inside
And I’ll grieve that
For the rest of my life
I’m ready for a break
a really, really, long break.
Away from home,
away from the daily,
away from the stresses,
away, away, away, and away,
If only we could change our
struggles we have to come back to.
Venture out
but not too far.
Wish on a star
already know who
exactly that we are.
Maybe it’s time
To buy that ticket?
It’s a dream
A shot in the dark
A slight chance
But we’ve got nothing
Left to lose.
. . . and even when they kill
[murder] [slaughter] them,
those with bloody hands
are still
the ones most afraid.
In my non poet era
I sit quiet
On my new stoop
In my new city
And watch the neighbor girls
Catch fireflies
In their nightgowns
Giddy
Silly
Running in bare feet
Freshly washed hair
I see the poetry
I remember the feel
Of the wet evening grass
The strawberry scent
Of my favorite shampoo
The free sweet
Uncomplicated evenings
Running and chasing
The magical sparks of light
As they danced across
The summer sky
My youth was poetry
Eight minutes of battery
And I’ve finished so little,
Fifty-five minutes of the day remaining,
And if I had made a list,
There would likely be as many items on it
I have written no poem today,
Completed no research
Four minutes now
I have only quested
Through quests I’ve finished twice before,
Checking objectives from a list,
But not my own-
Not the one I didn’t bother to make
The charger…it’s the wrong one
They all look so similar
My dog gets lost in the grass,
Only her leash, snaking through the stalks,
Gives her away
The neighbor doesn’t talk to me anymore
And I can’t say that I mind
His lawn is low, his standards are high
This charger looks right
I almost exercised
But my ankle hurt
So I microwaved Chinese food instead
And I fear, above all else,
Tomorrow
That same dog will praise me awake,
And I will wish to quest yet again
But instead, I shall make a list
Or not.
The words knock loudly at my brain
