.
.
.
.
.
.
That's all folks

(What we need most
is where we look the least)


I opened up
the big blue barrel
dumped out all our past , present
and future quarrels .

(Just so we could
disagree)

♤  ♤  ♤  ♤

There was
a landslide
          of
em(bouldered) words

A tsunami
         of
emotional waves
all come
crashing down

destroying
all the
encapsulated gains

(the days ,
the months ,
the tears)

the living years ,
now come to disdain

(When you tread on danger's angst
Your words tongue
the leaks in dikes)

(When the clouds come promissing drips
. . . . . . . . . . . .
but instead
it's dust you eat)

Then ,
my lapras dear ,
it's time
to end the years

I .
I saw the past flee from me
Leaving puddles of memories -
( memories of sadness , salt and pepper , bread and butter ) -
How close we were together
The Glenn Iris in September

II .
The ocean swelled and crashed on the rocks
We made love not unlike the sea
The winter was cold , frozen in love
Then she chose to leave
All my seed fell frozen
All my dreams winter bare

III .
For February fallen
March ascending
Long frozen tears
soft wails , shivering chills
For the stars out tonight
are older than first love
have endured through the void and cold
and comes to me soft in comfort

IV .
There will be new dawns
There will be healing
There will be a new song
New hope and heart ,
as long as the Irish pipes play and wooden flutes . . .
. . . as long as there are walks at the end of the day
Secret gardens where little girls play . . .
As long . . .only as long . . .

V .
I drape the sadness like a quilt about me and dwell on being small
I'm not saying I'm overwhelmed ,
not saying I'm understood
Just saying a robin is
a promise on a snow covered lawn

VI .
Too much in the band
Standing on a corner downtown
Walking in the surf's foam
early one summer's morn
A train whistle  blows forlornly in a dream I have
Someone has been coming for me all these years

VII .
Was it all wasted ?
Was it something more than we know ?
A cup of tea in the morning
On the table lie the lines of rhyme . . .
and some time . . .
the supreme enigma

Enslaved ?
But the tangled breath
of green thoughts
encrusted by bark
touch drives your
veined forage wild

As you sink roots
deep into the flesh of
insatiable desire
you strip down to
truth and grain

Flesh and bone lay fallow in the field
Covered with the soil of memories
Where crows stalk the furrows
Hoping for dead flesh
to make out a
meal

So be it , So be it
It was not our will
to will it

The piano plays drunk in the bar built like blue
Paid for by the taxiation
on alcohol consumed

You make me into someone that is no one
and see through me
like a ghost

And the world is
spinning around you
Making dizzy a thing
Without the glue
so falling apart

So smile for a while
Laughing
Holding your gin and tonic
To white teeth envy

Soon to stand under
the authority of deigned
resignation

So be it , So be it
It was never our will
to will it

Just takes a second to end a life
Twenty-four hours to make a day
Four weeks to build a house
I have more to say

It takes a lifetime
to define a life
The time you spent wisely
let the unwisely strife

Time is the greatest enemy
Devours one of us or all
The only enemy of time is eternity
That's where time runs into a wall

You sacrificed . . . .and you fell
. . . over dreamed . . . with breath of kerosene

They cut you deep . . . .the pain
was not the worst  . . . as the fear you choked

death was  . . . .last breath taken . . .
and the exhale . . . . . . . .

It's understanding what I read

Not reading what I don't

Understand ?

The tides of destination
have invaded my beloved estuary
Rising fast in deliberation
Washing away the righteousness that I once held dearly deep within

Seeking to bend the reeds of  resistance
the muddy waters of disdain come rushing in

They are lunatically overpowering
Driven to dominate the spirit that I
once held sacred free of sin

I dined on eternity and got cavities !

She  was disprivilged
Left so dejected
Rejected from from her Earthly paradise

The rose fell off
but the brier whereon it grew remains

I come to my father
Seeking relief from the  pain
Knowing he will not answer
In the way I could claim

I'm feeling the sting of the sins of my fruit
Hoping the clamor within
he'll be able to mute

I know I'm forgiven
But that's why I repent
If only my heart would listen
But it hears not laments

But this agony resides
Deep in my soul
How could I have been so callous
Is my heart really that cold

I may be washed
in the blood of the lamb
All of my sins forgiven
But heartwise I'm jammed

These memories claw
like a lion on a rage
Never forgiven
trapped in my cage

Ever the moments
of nothing
Lingering
as gray clouds
before a warm dawn
I feel at home
in loneliness
I see no need
for it
to be gone
Mulling over the
history
of the days
that I could never forget
Some make me happy while
others fill me with regret
It's between just me
and my maker
Who seems to always
be around
He allows the thoughts
to be resurrected
Before I put them
back underground

There are no stars in the midnight's sky
No clouds but there's rain running down my eyes

No leaves on the branches of the summertime trees
Ever since you turned around and walked out on me

No comfort when I lay in bed
Not with all those memories swirling around my head

No joy or pain feeling oh so lame
I can't see me ever loving again

The clock has lost all of it's tick
Time stands still my heart's so sick

By the time that the year will end
They'll be saying rest in peace , and amen

All because you say we are no more
Goodbye you said as you closed the door

Nothing will ever be the same for me
Ever since you turned and set me free

Ever since you turned and set me free
Ever since you . . . you set me free

2 mother's die from complications of
   childbirth
4 children are killed by abuse or
    neglect
6 children or teens commit suicide
7 children's or teens are killed by
   guns
21 children or teens die from
      accidents
41 children or teens are injured or
      killed with a gun
65 babies die before their first
      birthdays
167 children are arrested for violent
        crimes
 384 children are arrested for drug
         crimes
 690 babies are born to teen mothers
 874 babies are born at low
         birthweights
 927 public school students are
         corporally punished
1,151 babies are born into extreme
           poverty
1,345 babies are born without health
            insurance
1,903 children are confirmed as abused
            or neglected
2,315 babies are born into poverty
2,857 high school students drop out
3,617 children are arrested
4,396 babies babies are born to
            unmarried mothers
12,816 public school students are
            suspended

Every step
toward truth I take
I find my ankles
chained with fetters that
underestimate

Behind those veils
that obscure the truth
I searched for the fruit
wasting my youth

I grasp the meanings
with opened arms
finding
unjust deceptions
that created harm

Oh , by God !
Where does the truth
really lie
Just one step away
in the questions
of why

I want to be your everything
but I don't want you to learn to have to cling
I love the space of your confidence
Mentally full of opulence

Someday everything will come true
Together the complications we will undo
Then nothing will block the bridge over our gaps
We will conquer all mishaps

Long have I desired to lay by you
In the darkness breathing in silence just us two
To hold you is more than holding life
for you are my sacred one , my wife

Laying still cheek to cheek
The faintest breaths that come so meek
With lip to lip and hand on hip
And curls across your face I flip

As you lay across my chest
my fingers follow spine up to the crest
The moon has risen and lights up the room
Far away comes the sound of loons

How now is my wish it would stay all night
If came true there would be no morning light
No end to this enchanted interlude
Lost in our eternal solitude

No one listens
when you talk
in black and white
Only when
you color
the conversation
can you get them
to think twice
Black or White
they fight back
Turn to color
sweeten truth
Make it smell better
they hear only
what they want
Their minds
have become
untouchable
There is only
Silence
now
in the black
and white

.

Everytime I hotwired reality

I took a bite out of animosity


I followed all the wrong examples

Danced to the music I didn't know

I never knew the new ground

Before it brought me down


In the end we all dance to the music alone

Twirling until we are nowhere to be found



. . . . dancing our sorrow away . . . .


. . . . all the dying years enthused . . . .


. . . .  in the end keep the fire burning
         in your eyes . . . .


. . . . until the light in you reaches the sky . . . .

The fingers twist
with time
wrapping up the vìne

Those eyes ,
nebulas of pain
with lens a'flame
compares to the nothing's do

Rondel , daggered
twists and flagered
eviscerates the soul

Do you not know anything ?
?
!
Not for naught !

Evolution doesn't swing from trees
It flows inside its veins
It likes to stick out its foot
tripping up with pain
It doesn't like to go with flow
Hates the way it should
Says what is wrong with subtle change
It's time you understood

Excuses
are the white bread
spinal taps
that alleviate
the sticky
super glue
of truth

I had someone's extra time and money
So I planted it in the rose garden
Man , that was a waste of time !

For all those times
all those holes
All the wrenching
that misery unfolds

Sometimes a helping hand
perhaps a kind word
can make all the difference
to the one who heard

Those who lost their soul
Their way on the road
Perhaps they fell through
the grates of life from an overload

No one can have anything
Until they have lost their all
For the first step forward
One must learn to fall

For the ice skater
It is better to have
little faith
on thick ice
Than great faith
on thin ice

Faith is the substance of dreams hoped for

and the evidence of things not seen

You said you love me
I had to let it go
You let your tears flow
I said , "I don't know"
Faithless love is like a river
So it flows
When the rains come
It will flood
And wash away
The debris

My heart fell off her shelf
hit the hard floor
of life
shattering all my
dreams
and all the cracks
fell apart
and it seemed
to be only a ghost
of a chance . . .
or none at all

Whose to blame here ?
After all I opened the door and let you in
Whose crazy idea thought this is finally
my search come to an end ?

So all my hopes are swept under a sea
estranged where all the monsters of my past reign
Below the ***** paws of
dragon flies shame

They fall far , they fall hard
They leave stained and ***** feathers
Some soaked in tar

Their kisses form shallow
Their embraces colored weak

Their hearts are shredded
Their pulse timid
Barely a beat

Love has been cruel
A diversion in pain at best

Little did they know that
When they flew
From the nest

Now broken and battered
No longer good of wing

They perform as requested
Or chance another
Beating

All of their tomorrows lay in powdered dust
Nothing to hold onto

No children , photograps , ring  
Nothing
Except the next man's ******

I tripped and fell into temptation
The hole was exceptionally deep
The futher that I fell
the deeper I would sink
I built stairs
that were made up of all colors of lies
But the more that I made
the top was never nye
But the hole was much deeper
than all the stairways made to Heaven
I needed a friend to save me
one who converts sin into salvation
from bread that must be unleavened

Those that people believe all religions as equally true

The philosophers that believe all religions are equally false

The politicians that believe all religions are equally useful

Everyone has their fifteen minutes of fame
They carry their torches high
while going up in flame

The ashes of the past
become the hope diamonds of tomorrow

As one ages time flies by even faster
Yet they do less and less before they are put out to pasture

If you find a hole inside your soul
It's where your heart once called its abode

Fried interpretations
lazy goodbyes
Skeletal remains of grief
bearing down upon my
consciousness with remorse
My motions are devoid
The streets of paved
dead ends
navigates my life
to final disaster's grasp
Long gone
the fumbling foolish ways
The sacred divination
of youth wasted on youth
The prime existed
for no one
Just another night
of callous hands of the
indomitable spirit we thought
would be forever
I drink to the brevity
of early destinations
Before the curse of suits and ties
imprisoned the imaginations
running amuck
in the valleys of our
angst

I follow the fault lines
of your soul
Cracked , shaken , go ahead you are stirred
No need for apologies unless you are willing to listen to mine
I can patch your frame but I will never be able to repair the brain
It has been under too much strain
Still we can sit on our hands
Contemplating all the edges of nonsense
Laugh at all the pain we drag around in the barges of our past
Let us embrace around the  corners that cut sharper than suicide
Kintsugi my life with golden voice
As I hold your broken milk
of dispair
Put your fingers into the gaps and tears
Plug the dikes of my failures as you fight my fire with your waters . I don't care but I do as long as you do but don't care . Breathe the breath of my exhaust as I lick your lips of regret . It seems we are beyond repair .

The fear of God
is Jesus looking
over your life's chart
and shaking his head

It's not the weight of a feather
that crushes you

It's the fear that it could

Time is the tick that ***** the tock out of you

Death is that time share you bought long ago thinking you'd never use it

Yesterday was the first day of the rest of your life . . . .
and your last

The future holds no favors
The past all your grudges
The present by your *****

Did I leave anything out ?
Did I hold anything in ?
Did I forget a thing ?

A feather for your thoughts

The Eagle's wing gives us feathers supreme
Stroked against the face
Such a loving grace

The Owl's wing gives us knowledge best
Touching breast
Makes the ******* stand up to test

A Falcon's feather slim and fast
Teases the senses of all the lass
Stroked between the legs
And the young girl begs

And the sauge goes on

A Mockingbird's feathers
Between the toes
And soon soothing giggles
Just explode

Then twisting behind the knees
Oh mercy !
Only if you please

But the Dove's feather
upon the eyelids
Such pleasure !
Dreams are made of these

Now the pinpoint of any quill
Repetitiously pointed at will
Makes then shudder
before they squeal

And that is how you make
A Bird of Paradise
Shake , quiver , and utterly
Entices her will

He's a feminist ****
or least
he said he wants to be
Wearing rubber latex shorts
with a matching vest  
holes cut out for his flabby breast
He has his whip
he cracks their ***
and they jump
before he blasts

.
Fifty years ago
to the month
that they laid
you in the ground

.
Only now
have I found
the words
to make a sound

.
You came home
closed coffin bound
Not suitable
to be viewed

.
Only now do I frown
Thinking about
the name in stone
that's hewed

.
That day you died
I was left to cry
I didn't know
what to do

.
Two teenage lives
both said goodbye
never
to be again

.
One under
21 gun salute
The other
under pain

.
They are
still burying you
in my mind
my time has been unkind

.
I've lived through
a thousand deaths
looking for reasons
to find

.
Resigned
I am bound
by the truth
of October '69



Dedicated to :
Marine PFC
William Le Grand Dawes
Born 6/24/50
Died 10/19/69
Quang Ngai Province
Vietnam

When we
battle
with the Lords authority
we fight
from a place
of Victory
Not from a place
for victory

I'm finding there is no peace
Nothing more than simple grief
I'm climbing up a rocking wall
Knowing it's a certain fall
I'm scratching a brick wall with fingernails
Digging blacken tunnels down to Hell

So where do I choose to stand ?
On the blood from my evil hands ?
What do I have to say ?
While the truth quietly slips away

Hey ! Hey ! Hey ! Hey !

So before the moments of sun arise
Before I put on the mask of my disguise
Before I set out on my day
I stop for a second so I may pray

Hey ! Hey ! Hey ! Hey !

And in the center of my mind
I'm still hoping I will find
Looking all around I feel
That someday I surely will

I held your love
with the fingers of my heart
I tattooed the promise
to all my tomorrows
across my back to be carried for eternity
. . . where are you now ?

It takes forever for distant stars to burn my lips
There is no mercy found on the floorboards that walk across my kiss
. . . where are they now ?

Remember how the needles of time stitched the nights together ?
How easy does the fabric of love become unentwined
. . .  remember ?

As the fingers of my soul ,

reach up to be entwined . . .
their thoughts surpassed ;
be driven . . . boundless to
the layers of my mind

I lay hold of the untouchables
I trial but cannot bind

The light flickers on and off
while spirits shout . . .

"It's time ! It's time ! It's time !"

I have fire inside my bones
It burns like red hot stones
It is as wicked as glittering gold
I am ****** sober cold

I breathe the breath of fire
I take liberty with desire
I singe everything touched
Overheat your slipping clutch

My heart turns molten steel
Poured out into my will
My footsteps leave a smoking trail
As I tread back home to Hell

You always had that fire
burning in your eyes
Life's force flowed
through your veins
So vibrant , so alive

You had a laugh
that rocked the boat
You made the difficult
into a joke

So I was unprepared
to find you there
Laying still as if asleep

I studied every wrinkle
upon your face
But I could find no trace
of the you
I used to know

I sighed
with the loss of an age
I had come to find
the very last page

Peace was so unbefitting
of the manor I knew
You would be so
unapproving of the show

I came to say goodbye
but you were not there
Instead I found you
in the sunset of my dreams
that night when I looked
up into the stars

Always ,
. . . kept a fire
burning in my heart . . .

Even though
in years
we grew apart . . .

Never could
just let
it go . . . let it be . . .
so now you know

We would dance
coming
in and out of view

You'd cling
to me . . .
I'd hold
onto you

Neither one
cared or
knew better . . .
what
were  we
to do ?

(Chorus)
So we
just kept
dancing . . .
dancing . . .
dancing . . .
the night
away . . .
holding onto dreams
we made up
along the way)

(meanwhile
dancing all the
night away)

(Music) . . . .

Sometimes there was
no better way . . .
not until the sun
chases the night away

so we
kept on dancing ,
dancing . . .
until
we were out of view


(Chorus)
So now
there is
no other way

Stepping back
is impossible
you say

So I'm dreaming
I'm dancing ,  
dancing
all  
the night away

(No better way
til the sun
comes streaming in)

I'll be dancing
the night away

When I was last
I dreamed of being first

When I became first
I wished I was last

Those in the middle
looked left then right

Shook their heads in disbelief
And prayed with all their might

Who was it that was left
Who then was the right

The fix fluctuated
like a butterfly
on acid

Every word a demonstration
of the vunerability
of flesh

Come Fix all our world of longings

A mausoleum of pain
sealed for perpetuity
hidden behind the eyes
in chains of DNA burn the slow after effects fueled by  choices made in ignorance

Once upon the road
of infamy , in the footsteps made in sacred dust , millions of years beyond and older than the thirst for knowledge that you choke on . . . you've become consumed in flames ; illumimating the path before you as you go , so you don't stumble over the errors of the past and fall into the future upon the stakes of fallacy

Step away from the window
Or you may get hit and die
From the lead bullets
Of a car passing by

Don't drink city water
It's full of poisonious lead
Don't trust the governor
when he says it won't mess with your head

So he was bullied
One day after school
Drug  into the alley
His funeral was cool

Stopped because your
Left turn signal was out
Beaten and shot
Because there was some doubt

There is no North side
South side , East or west
It's all no man's land
Don't be foolish and second guess