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.

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

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

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!”

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