Friday, August 24, 2018

Where a wall will be

Every night I wake up in the dark
My shoulder’s uneasy while I sleep
If I let the other shoulder bear the load
Then I can sleep again

I’m ready for the nightly encore
After I say my prayers
On the concrete floor and
Tilt the round space heater towards my kid brother,
And after falling asleep in the comfortable shine
Of my green, never-failing alarm clock
My shoulder starts to whine

The clock says 3:05
And I see a blue white glow
Of a computer screen through the frame
Of where a wall will be

I can see my father
At his desk with nothing to distract him
From bearing a load of worry
that won’t let him sleep

But I can sleep
So I roll over
Back into the dark
Onto the other shoulder

And fall back asleep.

Monday, March 19, 2018

Flatline Sincere


Nothing is as good
As beating flesh in the wood
Thumping with a rush
Jumping out of the brush
Sleeveless, naked and sincere

Wholly aching to live
From the bottom forgive
Pulsing warm or bleeding salt
Attacks every fault
Honest, flawed and sincere

Bold, sore from the start
Only just to break apart.
Willing to be taught
Pouring out each real thought
Fleshy, heavy and sincere

Sunday, November 5, 2017

The Evolving Dream


To sleep so deep
I could hardly keep
One night in the clouds

My thoughts in line or square or right
First they’d walk 
then talk 
then they’d leap with fright

A peanut on the side
turned into a wave of a fuzzy race
Where I would ride
On an elephant’s face

The elephant would begin to ask
All about my purple pants
And how they wouldn’t last
At the fish under the sea dance

The fish could talk and sing and cry
Tears falling into my bucket
Until the water spilled over with a sigh
The catfish barked away the apple’s eye

“I” caught the eye and began to say
“am ever so fine”
The fox turned to Hulk and ask
To change the channel into wine

As the wine slowly dripped 
From his broken hand
I lost a nail and in a jam
Grabbed the ball and slammed

The peanut came back to jump and sing
I rode along to see
If my pillow would wait for a sip

Cause my mouth tasted salty

La Questa

Have the mountains moved on?
The stream seems to be green.
The sky doesn’t want to play.
Or have I moved along?

What have I gained from travel and travail? 
Not much I regret to say. 
I have only learned that I 

Can never go home to stay

Later

I’ve got nothing left to tell her
She’s got nothing left to say
I want to ask another question
But I think she’d walk away

So I smile and say “Thank you!!”
For all the good times and the bad”
She says “I’m sorry but that’s my answer
For all the hope you ever had”

Don’t tell me that you’re sorry
Don’t tell me that you care
You are leaving me lonely
In the wild world out there.

Three months have come and gone
Since we’ve been apart
I don’t miss it and I don’t cry
I’m quite proud of my heart

But truly I still feel pain
Not for the lonely walk I ride
But for the sure look in her eye
That refused to be by my side

I’ve got no dirty secrets
Not from the world that I have seen
She was the princess on the pea

But I’m looking for a queen

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Seven are We


---A small child none could blame,
Lightly laughed with every breath,
Her smile could know no shame,
What should she know of death?


I asked the little smiling Girl:
She was seven years old, she said;
She danced and sang and with a twirl
Her hair clustered round her head.


“Sisters and brothers" I said,
"Why, how many may you be?”
“Seven in all,” she ran ahead,
And stopped to talk to me


“Where play they now? By your side?”
She answered, “Seven are we;
Two of us in York abide;
Another gets a degree.


“My sister and I do dwell,
In the house with my mother,
Near the churchyard where the bell
Sings loud for my two brothers.”


“You say two in York abide,
The other gets a degree
Yet ye are seven!” I cried
“Ye Sweet Maid, how may this be.”


Then did the little Maid reply,
“Seven boys and girls are we;
Two in yonder churchyard lie,
If you like you may come see.”


“You run about, my little Maid,
Your limbs are yet alive;
If two are in the churchyard laid,
Then ye are only five.”


"There they sleep, they sleep so deep"
The young little Maid replied,
“Each other they safely keep.
They are always side by side."


"I play games with rocks and dolls
They turn to princess gems;
There upon the ground I sit,
And I sing a song to them.


“Often when mother comes home
When it is still light and fair,
With a basket on a stone,
I can eat my supper there.


"Dear Andrew was first to leave;
Sick in bed he moaning lay,
Till God helped him I believe;
Quietly went he away.


“Then in the churchyard he stayed;
And, when the spring grass was dry,
All around his grave we played,
My brother Jesse and I.


“When flowers began to grow
I could run and I could slide,
Brother Jesse had to go,
And he lies by Andrew's side.”


“How many are you, then,” said I,
“If they two are in heaven?”
Quick was the little Maid’s reply,
“Oh Mister, we are seven!”


“But they are dead; those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!”
’Twas throwing words away; for still
The little Maid would have her will,

And said, “Nay, we are seven!”

Monday, February 27, 2017

Peas and



I see two sisters 
sitting upon a stone wall
The younger mourns while
The other hears her recall

Tales of friends gone by
No, they’re tales of love; or shame
I wish she would cry
In her face I read my name

She could not keep up
And so I left her behind
The frozen tulip
Grew before the sun could shine

Did I have the sister sad?
I had the elder
I don’t blame her careless look
Lost I’m much colder

I had no choice but to find
ways to sort it out
Couldn’t tell it if I was blind
So I began to doubt

But if the choice that cannot wait
Is never seen again
Then what will I do? Oh twisted fate
What will life lend?

Is all the fault my own?
I pray it be not so
But as I sit here alone
Only I can make me grow

Oh angel of art
Who once held captive my broken heart
Who’s beauty and charm I ne’er could name
Who has finally put me back to shame

Do you view me now
A puppet, a shadow or frown
I’m left in a slough
and I’m completely shutdown

For wisdom and sight 
You have finally seen truth
I am not a knight
But a waste of blissful youth

You have done so well
Radiant light of mine eyes
You took me from hell
And set me free in the skies

Though my heart sour
And I deserve all the pain
I pray by the hour
For the wet and cleansing rain 





Where a wall will be

Every night I wake up in the dark My shoulder’s uneasy while I sleep If I let the other shoulder bear the load Then I can sleep again...