Is it acting
or adapting?
smiling for the show
of customers:
bright, dapper,
cheery and proud -
pushing product
with a knowing smile,
words animated,
confident and collected.
once they leave i sit and
ponder, I see the stars
in their films and admire
from afar, lamenting that I
cannot act - but can I?

Waved bangs frame
Your fair young face,
And flowing clothes hang
Like drying laundry
From your gangly limbs

We met for lunch once:
You, daughter of
the stars and I the curious
Traveler. My words did
Not flow as I’d hoped,
But hung limp in
The air vulnerably--
For your guarded heart
Ignored their pleas.

I see you daily, star child,
With your hooped earrings
And painted lips, eyes
twinkling like distant suns.
I will continue to admire
you from afar,
Even if our worlds are
Not in orbit and our
galaxies sit light years apart.

Open your eye to the
Misty dark sea,
Brimming with unexplored
Mystery and washing ashore
dead carcasses, sometimes
crab shells sometimes corpses.
Still the people flow in,
Out, in, out, until one day
they’re swallowed and all
that’s left is the
spitting sea foam.

Industrial rust
dusted over and
hardened, tarnished
towers and the solitary
echo of the wind -
perhaps once there
was a presence to
this Plateau, if anything
it’s buried in the woods
of the cemetery with the
legacy. A dead tree in
a dying field, engulfed
by emptiness and a monument
to the past: but how much
longer will it last?

Crowd’s a buzzin’
But it’s just you and me
Nobody knows us,
It’s easy to be

A name to a face,
You’re still just a 'who'
But put us together,
And see? That makes two

Powder room princess,
In veils of smoke
Rugged old gangster,
We’re sharing a ****

Onto the floor,
A dance and a sway
Silly and sultry,
We’re flying away

Made it back home,
To finish the night
Music is playing,
You slip out of sight

Hand grazes powder
A most wonderful find
Nose-deep in snow -- Help!
I think I’m going blind.

Dying dreams exchanged for
Fairy dust and a doting Daddy,
Dollars, drive-bys, euphoric highs:
Glassy eyes and a hazy mind
Just hellos - no goodbyes

No lies of stardom and
Starving on the street for a
Script or a role that never *******
Followed through, none of that,
No work, only play.

Days wasted are over
And sitting pretty is easy
When there’s coke and
Crime and corruption
But you’re still the rose

Growing in the play-pen,
It’s lonely when they go
The house is all to know,
Porcelain doll with her
Nose so white: do you ever
dream of flight?

My eyes are never dry
My head never clear
My stomach churns daily
My mind’s numbed by fears

I’m sorry I’m distant, disturbed
And distracted
I’m sorry I’m silent, saddened
And secluded

I want to be better
I want to be well
I want to go one day
Without facing Hell

I want to make memories
Not dwell in my mind
I want to escape this
I want out of this bind

I keep saying sorry
When I know I should stop
I mean to say thank you
For sticking, for staying,
Not letting me drop.