Once thought I had it but I let it slip right through the only answer that I had was not even a clue somehow I seem to have found an obscured View
But I'm ....not sure
if there was anything else
that I could do
Put yourself out there
                          let your feelings be known
and if you find yourself still all alone
you'll know you tried
everything...
that you're mind was shown
and it's okay if for a while
If you feel a need to **** and moan.
because...
. there are times it would be ea-si-er
  to charge into the path of a cannons Roar
than go through how  it felt to go through
what you just had.  to   endure
And every time you say the same refrain
about how you will never be sure
If you'll ever put yourself up there
where the air is so thin
if or when
or ever be that same you again
just  remember that it's in
the getting out there
not the victory that gives you a win
You can win
the battle
and still lose the war
they can give you shiny little Metals
but what are they really for
Just something to show others
that you
were willing to go
To those places that we all had ...and know
Will make us stronger if not harder
to ever convince....but
that's how you deal with
the turbulent Waters  and turbulence
times that will show
you what that metal shows others
and that is the way
  for you to find your recompense
you should keep your body loose
and with a wide wide stance
ready to move
with the always unpredictable swellz
Or those  just as unpredictable
waves - of - goodbye
Can just be life making some room
for what can be
the waves
of some new hello

Row me along a path of...
least resistance ...and in my wake
I will leave no sign of passing

Row me through the rocky rapids
and in my wake ...
I will leave only my fear

Row me down a sheltered stream
and i will slow to watch the world
and all its beauty

Row me out into the vast
and endless ocean ..and I will be lost
without direction
So that is why ....i think of you as ...
my love ...and my Compass !
Row me home!

I been lookin  I been lookin  I been lookin..
......for myself
For myself  for myself  for myself
A poor man am I
In a world of wealth
Wealth.......wealth
I may be ...crazy
But I've got my health.....health
A penny for my thoughts
Will get you change as well

Color blind....with an open mind
Leads me into the grey..grey...grey
Fog my mind as if l'm totally blind
Watching the colors fade away

But I'm still lookin lookin lookin
Looking at the future
As the past slowly crumbles
Echoing like the distant thunder
Under a grey sky
That always rumbles
rumbles  rumbles rumbles  ruMBLES
RUMBLES  RUMBLES.......RUUUMMMMBBLLLEESS

Bought me a ticket on a subway train
Took me a trip that circled around my brain
Went right past the point
Of being sane....so now
I'm never never ever coming in from the rain
Rain rain rain
Rain falls down like everything  will
Will?  will will will ?
I lost my will
When I fell from the hill

I should have just run down...
...run down--run down- r u n  d o w n
Just like any clock will
Tick..Tick.. Tick
Tock..Tock..Tock.....Tock
Like any clock...will
I lost my will ....when I fell ...
....from the hill.

Sometimes
I feel old and faded
derelict and degraded
overly saturated corrugated cardboard left all alone...out in
the rain too long  
or dry and brittle curling up ..creating
a bowl-like middle
adding to the strain like it really matters that that then gathers more dust...more lint
And those
now earth-bound vagabonds
whose time came
and then went
drifters
passing through
as they always do when they ... the fallin
the no longer needed the no longer wanted  disavowed
no longer allowed
to hang around
And so apropos
The way leaves go
wherever the wind may choose to blow them to
always a few ...who find shelter
out of ....the vagaries
of the wind and in
that shallow bowl
I formed
Then like it or not
they may stay ...
Hidden away
catching more
of those infinitesimal
all but invisible particulates
as they pass our way
so you might say
we form a bond
a compilation
a strange mutation
Imbibing
longer and longer
those times
of total saturation
the very manifestation  
what one may describe as a little tribe...that by the weight of fate
and our bonded state we hunker down
here to stay
upon
this piece of ground
And together we start each doing their part
to speed us on
Upon our way
to our future of decay and yes ..its true
I once felt so..
overly saturated
cursing
the corrugated
the very way
that I was created
bemoaning how
I had faded
But in the end
I did not die alone
I did not die
we ...
did not totally decay nor did we fade away we found life
and meaning when
this little tribe found that we were bound
This little mound
To be
Exactly what
all these lost derelicts
These young seeds.......needs
to create life
And to give  
Color to reason
And a new season
To live ....life.
And in a way ...to
Find salvation in decay.

I    have.   Been
living like a madman  sinking
deeper and deeper into myself
Is not...is not ..is not...
...where I want to be
No No ...nonono
But it's where ...its where
..its where I find myself
No body seems to care about ....
....the things I care about now.
No body seems to really even
wanna wanna wanna even check it out.
So ...I.... am ...on .. a...
.... On ...A ...train to the next station. Looking for my own correction
So i do hope I do hope I do hope
That when I get there
there will be
A big ...A big selection
cause, I'm tired ...oh so tired
Of the same ol same ol same ol things that I've been doing.
And I got to be somewhere
Somewhere where  there's...
... Something else brewing....before
Before I leave here, if I don't
If i don't make some kind of
Some kind of sense to myself
Well .. Then I might as
Might as well stay right here...
Inside myself ..inside myself
Because Im not going to find
Not gonna find the answers...
Anywhere!
If I don't find ...
The questions in here !

I looked into an hourglass
And watched the sands of time
Racing on their downward trip
And blowing cross my mind
With each falling grain
That mountain grows higher
Time remains the same...
...Don't believe it
I'M A LIAR!

Time is an old man
With a sturdy cane
His body bent with age...but
His eyes remain the same
Those eyes
Have seen everything
In so many different ways
To flash by all ..that he has seen
WOULD PUT YOU IN A DAZE

I'M A LIAR ...WHEN I SAY...
TIME...REMAINS THE SAME..
every second is
a different link upon the chain
I'M A LIAR...A VILLAGE CRYER
SCREAMING
In the night
Carrying a message and a light
The MESSAGE is to guide your steps
The LIGHT,Is to guide mine

If we walk together
There no telling
What
We may find

The hourglass is empty now
The sands have blown away
Time like everything else
Was not.....
......HERE ...TO ...  stay.

Sometimes the hard road ahead
Is the easy way out
A whisper is often easier to hear

Than is a shout

Calculations don't always
Add  up to solutions that you seek
There are times when we are stronger
By accepting that we're weak
That doesn't mean that you should
Try to cover up every scar

Scars can be badges
Awards
for living a life
Scars are reminders
Of lessons once learned through
Trouble and strife

Sometimes the easy way out,
Is the hardest path you can take
Denial
becomes the weight you bear
That your body just can't take
A monkey riding on your back
That you just can't seem to shake
So ....
If you carry it throughout your life
Don't complain to me
About how much you ache

Do what you will
do what you don't
do what you will
do what you won't
You want what's right
And you want what's left
You take the best
And you leave the rest

you're just a scavenger
A scavenger in disguise
You do a **** good job
Of hiding it ... but I can see it
In your eyes
It ain't no big surprise

Do what you will
do what you don"t
Say  what you will
Say what  you don't


You want what's right
and you want what's left
you take the best
then you leave the rest

youre  just a scavenger
A scavenger in disguise
You do a **** good job
of hiding it
but I can see it in your eyes
it ain't no big surprise
I can see it in your eyes
I can see it in your eyes

Just a scavenger in disguise

That mantle we placed upon you
Is not to be assumed
a shield or shadow to hide behind
Nor is it a place for scavengers to await
the approaching fate.... ....to create
its own existence
So that you can then
assume a place
among the remnants left behind
.If you stand on the side
In the tangled weeds
among the reeds... thinking
Instead of acting... reacting
To all that is sinking
what now may only be
The fingers you see
above the surface
while deciding
to weigh out
all values to yourself
before making your decision
while you ignore the march of time
and the banging and clanging
those plaintive peals of Liberty
In a frantic wake up call... To all
As it echoes out...
,... among those hollowed-out
halls of Justice
so to those of you...
... with the mantle of power
that we placed upon you ...
must decide to rise up and roar... becoming
an American icon
that future generations will
look back on with honor
or will we someday realize
That by believing all these lies
accepted what we were told
Bought what we were sold
We never knew
that only The echos
of Liberty's Bell were being heard
long after the Hammers were curtailed ..as were
all of us that you have failed
While weighing out
what values yourself
You did not stop and think
It was those
hands of time....
the fingers of fate
ringing the Alarm
until allowed to sink
into the murky history of that ever-growing swamp... while you decided to wait!

I've been pushed and I've been pulled
I've been tricked and I've been fooled
Through it all I have to say that I've been schooled
I dropped out when I began to feel
I was a rock in  a sack full of jewels
But when I got out into the real world
I realized that may be the other way around
Because it's a harsh and bitter place
To try and find your own space

Some days you wake up feeling Punch-Drunk
When I see the person in the mirror
Staring at you ...swearing at you
With the  eyes of desperation
so far back and sunkin in

But you swear like you do every one of these kind of mornings
Never again ...never again
will I touch that s*

Then you do just what any wounded soldier would do
You shut down and lean back
as you wait for the  corpsman
Throughout your body
the world is stormin
While the torrential rains run around the brain
And the lightning keeps tightening the nerves along your spine
As Thunder lays asunder those places
Where so  often one might find sanctuary
As the wind come splintering in To tear loose any pieces
neglected left unprotected
that will later be gathered
and then collected
  to be given to me
as it and all things that I rejected everything to become a monument of my passing through...  so.....

Someone needs to know
Because too often that
"never never "
in the morning

Turns into
"oh! It'll  be alright"
in the afternoon

And that's a sad sad song
An old sad song
no matter how much
you update it's tune..
-


Recess is over however.
So...
Oops gotta go.

Scrolling along
My finger on high
Sudden stop scrolling back
To see what I just went by

A baby in a high chair
18 months - maybe ....a tater tot
On the end of a fork
.....dancing chaotic
Seeking to aim at the right spot
First thought I had was IDK
Young for a fork but who knows
Having a little trouble -and I
I start to think cute, and then froze....
...the fork she was using was between her toes
Then I get confused inside of myself
I realize it may be sad what I just said
I know that it's cute she's a little doll
With a happiness bright lit so easily seen
I battle myself as i get stuck between
Cute and/or tragic.cute or tragic ...
Neither feels natural as i try them on
So in compassionate relief I to myself
As i take in a wider view and thought .

I am slowly slipping
my fingertips
no longer gripping
all progress
in regress
and i do feel
a need to confess
that i base my decision
on a questionable guess
but then without more
then that's it  
naught  else to address
nothing more
nothing less
than a wordless postmortem
as  it takes its last breath
then goes to find  out
if there is life after death!

According to the movies
Americans
Love fighters and hate lovers
We push our values... and we
Value our pushers
We believe in helping the needy
And yet... We need help in believing
We freely express our opinions
BUT...
.....WE still have opinions about free expression
So we're quick to compromise
Compromising ourselves to the quick

We still pride ourselves on the price we paid
For our hard fought independence and freedom
Yet it's our pride and independence
That's still our hardest fight
Our freedom is the price we seem
Willing to freely pay--
We've gone  from:

"JUSTICE FOR ALL"
   To
"ALL FOR JUST US"

The police are here to protect and serve
Not just to protect those who serve the police

Still , we believe everyone
Has the right to be free
But not everyone
Is free to be right

Just like we believe in GOD and country
We seem to believe we're a country of gods
We're always feeding the needy
While acting like we're always
In need of a feeding

BIG BUNCH OF BABIES
IT'S TIME TO GROW UP !

Someone recently told me your name
But I already knew...who you were
I've known you for almost......
      ....my entire life!
You are the one who inhabits my dreams
   when life is calm and the good time occur.
  So I do hope to see you again...and soon!

The captain of the legacy
Retired his ship this noon
Yet I feel after 91 years
It was still a bit too soon

But never having held the helm
Or sailed his troubled sea
Who am I to say just when
His time of rest should be

So now that time has come
The flags sail halfmast
In tribute to a legend
Who's time has come and passed

Now at the rail he's standing
To wave a final farewell
To all the tiny vessels -- sailing
In the shadows of his sail

No more great regattas
Or ventures will he lead
No more anchors holding bottom
When the dingies are in need

The great ship still looked impressive
As it set its final course
Amid the sea of tears------
------and bellows of my remourse

FAREWELL MY CAPTAIN.......
               ....FAREWELL !

My shadow follows
   Wherever I go
Keeping me anchored to
   The ground
  I know that
I am more than
Just a hollow shell
But if you try to color me in
     Be sure to go
Outside the lines as well
Because I am more than
A cut -out pattern
I'm an IN-DI-VID-U-AL
  An individual
I have my problems
    That I hope to celebrate
Perfection is not a goal
To which I can relate
My shadow knows me
For who I really am
My shadow shows me
Who it is I  really am
Who I really am
There is a pattern
That I know I have become
Although I fought
All the forces to which
I finally did succumb
Surrender is not a fate
To which I can subscribe
     I will live for
As long as I survive
That pattern describes me
For just a fleeting glimpse
I have lived
A thousand lives
In that moment since
So if you try to color me in
Just be sure to
Go outside the lines
As I am a shadow
Of your vision
Not a product of your designs

Just never know what will trigger
Those memories lost forever
Like the scent left on her pillow
I've tried to recreate but never ever ever
Even....came.....close
Close is the word I lie to myself with
That doesn't come with repentance
For the two purses closed locked in a closet
I share their fate we're all serving out our SCENTence.

Falling short
In all long term endeavors
Accepted long ago
How the sharp word severs
The tenative and the cautious
The passive and the pensive
The hopelessly lost in battle
No truce calms the overly defensive

I fell
lost and forlorn
upon
the grief stricken
darkness ladened
Time braided
,minutes and hours
While she lay
in chill surround
Far away from
All things familiar
I like to think
I feel her energy
I must believe
She lives to see me
To cry out in mournful relief
At my arrival joyous wailing
Not the bellowing of my own grief
When this morning i return
To the vet and hope my baby
Was not in need of all  my woes
Of my long night
of overflowing  concern
Yet.....
Im scared to death
of mornings light
And what will be the things i learn

"Please Oh God of  love.....don't......"

She walks now
With the  springstep of youth
The pain all in the past
Like the child of yesterday
In a childhood
That had flown by so fast

She runs now
With the absolute freedom
Like the horses she loved so much
And now touches
Those loved ones
She has so longed to touch

She flies now
With the grace of the angels
Soaring like the most beautiful bird
Lifting her voice  in song
From a voice as sweet as honey
That had been missing.....
......for way too long.

I know that someday
The walls that surround you
Will come tumbling down
      All around you
And you can be certain
That's when the curtain
Will rise up on the first act
The debut of a new play
That you've been rehearsing
One that noone has ever seen
     The actors are ready
    To see how steady
They can be-as they deliver
The performance of a future
    That's taken forever
    To get it all together
The scenery is authentic
The writing is so insightful
That it creates a delightful
Illusion of an intrusion
Into the personal lives
Of the actors themselves
As they pour out the words
That they had to memorize
Then they look with surprise
As they recognize -the disguise
That's been shielding
The very unwielding plot
That has come to the surface
Where it is now- gasping for air
           And aware
Of the mortality of any reality
That has been set loose
And exposed to the light
    Held up....as an example
Of just what can happen
When you sample the emulsion
    That you been trippin on
    Along with the beast
That's been secretly hiding
And has now been caught
     Along with the plot

Constantly in perpetual emotion
   Going around and around
Like a pinwheel-that's being
Held out the window- Of a car
On a highway-going somewhere
             In despair
Knowing that my way is taking me
In the opposite direction
As a means of protection
And having no need
    Of any type of correction
    BECAUSE..... the
Curtain has fallen down
     To surround....you
Like the walls that you built
That you once let crumble
Before the guilt that you felt
Reassembled all the pain
That has now been built
All the way around you...so
Close down the play
Send the actors away
The reversal cancelled
Any need of rehearsal.... So...
LET THE DARKNESS TAKE OVER THE NIGHT
LET THE DARKNESS TAKE OVER THE NIGHT
    Turn out the lights and close the doors
Knowing that somethings not right
About the way that you say
No emergency assistance is necessary
Once the curtain falls
And you make your way back
Back back Back back behind
Behind behind Behind
Behind your walls

As they move
Like the shifting sands
They cast their shadows
Across new lands
Creating fear ,mistrust and hate
Warring against our ways
To which they just can't relate
But they're here ....
               ......Here to stay
The best we can hope to do
Is to try and keep them at bay
And they're wise ....wise to our ways
Our very technologies
That they use as a maze
Isn't that ....whet they've said
That they hate
Our long standing freedoms
That allows us to create

And they will win
If the shadow they cast
Puts the light out
On that flame made to last

That flame that was made to last
Till the very end of time
That name ..stands for freedom itself
So if we just give it away
Its a shame..its a shame

As they hide --dug down deep inside
As they await the call
The call to end it all

As they eat our foods
And they watch our t.v.
What do you think they think
About what it is that they see

Do they try ....try
To even suppress
A smile , a laugh or a tear
Do they think..as they reach
For a cold drink
How nice it is to have it so near
Or do they ever--really think at all
Spending their lives.....waiting
Waiting .. On that call
To end it all
That call ...call ...call
They want us to make
Where they want us to break
Those promises ...promises ..promises
That we've made,  made,  made
MADE TO OURSELVES

Back ......back before ..
The shadows fall
Back ....when we thought we had it all
Way back .. Before that shadows fall

Thats when.... We thought
We had it made..made ..
Made made made made MADE!!!
Made in the shade.

Down here
Where I find myself
Whether knocked down
Put down ...
... Or sadly let down
By others or by myself
Is not the relevant issue
Upon which
I gently lay my concerns
As any endeavor
Should get the true value
Of anything that it earns

That should be a given
For
If my thoughts could be read
Would silence still spread?
Being passed on to other venues
Sometimes double the appreciation
Which gives me pause upon reflection

I need no parade of accolades
Or ego fires to be fanned
I'm fully capable...
... I'm standing up for myself
Just sometimes - it's nice to be offered a helping hand

Why is it ....
....you will
Talk to me with ease
When it's ...
...by the use
Of texting keys ?
But can't seem
To find the need
To say more ...
Than " s'cuse me ...thanks"
Should we meet
In a local store!

You somehow got the notion
That you know who I am
But the picture that you've painted
Is nothing short....
         ......Of a sham
Abstract interpretations
Has absolutely --resolutely
No resemblance to me
No image of anything
That I'd ever....even.....want to be
So where did you get
Your Information
Certainly wasn't from
Any true observations
Reliance on opinions
Outside of your control
Gives a SLANTED view
That you used to find a clue
So what you finally created
In your mindless revelation
It's probably more like
A  self -portrait
Than you would ever
Want to admit.....to yourself....
....much less ...to anyone else
Look..... look....look....I say
At the picture
Ain't it getting clearer
Funny how it.... Suddenly
Feels like you're staring
Into a mirror
NOW THEN......
....Do you get the picture?
Do you see the flaw?
It's in your inability
To think outside the box
Those four walls that surround you
Really don't exist
Unless they're something
That you need
To help you to resist
Seeing beyond the boundaries
Opening up your mind
Moving past the mundane
Realizing that
You've been blind
To the bigger picture
To all the colors that exist
Besides the black and the white
That right now
Is muddled into a grey
That surrounds you......
.........JUST... LIKE....A...MIST !

I fell
Through the crack
That appeared

The crowd
Stopped gathering
Then suddenly disappeared

No credit given
To the marginalized
To live is to know it

Becoming the inspiration
For ridicule endured
By any way word poet

Down in the depths
Of those past reflections
Are the crumbled dust of dreams

That are immune
From any hope or faith
When not even time redeems

So ink appears
In tribute to
The transparent ones

Who go unnoticed
When their contributions
Are those society shuns

No leprosy colonies
Or isolation wards
For the ones we overlook

They are already separated
By not following the  "Norm"
And by the road...
... That they took

Its the little things they say
That makes our lives complete
Little thoughts-little deeds
That small gesture ...
        .....offering up a seat
To someone you see in need
And the smile you get
Offer accepted or refused
That says "Thanks friend...
           ...that helped to raise my spirit
That the day had abused
Maybe some small gift you get
Just to let you know
Not only are you appreciated
We wished to make sure and tell you so

Its those little smells
That can raise titanic memories
And those little angry words
That can dredge up titanic agonies

Its those little bitty battles
Fought with nasty little words
That leave those little tiny scars
You get from hearing what you heard

Its just a little color
On a grey and dreary day
That can take some gigantic problem
And just melt it all away

So dark the night
And vast the undulating Plains
That to a red eye Rider
The enormous Beast Ablaze with light
Was barely more then a lighter's flame
From 20 miles away and Eight Miles High
In the fluorescent algae Specht water
A party was all-consuming
As the music blasted splitting the silence
Like the appalling amount of lumens shoving back the moonless dark

And yet just beyond the limits of its reach
The ink stain air poised  to Rush into the vacuum left should power fail
Unlike the stately and patient depths
Of the ever patient flashing star like algae filled Sea
Poised not .... content to let be what will be
Collecting trophies was an old Hobby
No rush to interfere
With these ever-expanding beasts Huffing and puffing in laboring air

Unlike the terrafirma and it's  Horizon curve
Where elevation or  terrain
Condenses or expands the vision seen or imagined
That exists just beyond the rise

For virtually flat is the oceans surface
360 degree of a horizon never changing
That can be disconcerting to a newbies mind
Why the sailors of old believe the world to be flat
As a never changing Horizon completely flat and round
Surely means to drop off is always just up ahead

And in that mysterious vast and frightening Darkness
Not much change has a few centuries made
Except the modern vessel pushes the darkness further back
Yet a horizon never changing distance
Flat as a plates Edge
Conjures up illusions of
That drop off ....always up ahead

Aboard the celebrating bobber no one cared
Theirs  was a world of  laughter and Indulgence
And good times to be shared
Safe and secure are the elitists
Giddy with the power carried into marriage from a long Romance
No one picked to pay attention
Upon this lazy pleasure Victory Cruise
So it was it that fateful moment
As the ship rocked  none heard the sudden vicious crack

As any breach will with Insidious skill
Growing by the measure directed by circumstance
So it could be said that those up on Deck
And that at Waters Edge
Were deeply involved in their separate dance
Persistent in their Quest
With joyous abandon the elite who ride so high as to care not
About the underlings the disposables they mistreat
Those very ones they look down on
Until they find they actually need
For the overall success of all involved
But misused abused mistreated and spurned
Not giving the rightful reward of value earned
Unnoticed and unneeded until deemed Worthy
To do for them a manual and demeaning chore

So unnoticed were they in the dark of night
Easing a lifeboat into the dark black ink
Where the joy of song of that multitude aboard
Singing spirited songs as they floated away

Just as those revelers remained
unaware of the ever-evolving crack
That has set its sights on sinking the great ship
Into the arms of  fluorescent splattered black and undulating ink

Until in a sudden and devastating upheaval the crack becomes a ripping tear
And water flowing in ..becomes a devastating disaster
How quickly then the mechanics and generating Power Within
As it sputters then as if to wink to the very patient ink
Flashing light gives way to the impatient darkness no longer held back
And in a pain unknown to those now alone
With wild swings has to right and left it does undo
And at that moment the mass of  mortal coil and Metal is suddenly breached
So Begins the flounder as it sinks slowly into that Darkness below that closes in around her

And even as The Magnificent Lady Liberty goes down
The ones great ship of state lost in the Darkness of more than the night for too long
Even at this fateful moment of last regrets or sudden repentance

Those who were just the elite could be heard to plead
As many cried out for the servants and Expendables that they suddenly  did find they need

There among the silage
Groomed the scarecrows of foolish dreams
Earthstained relics of past follies
And erstwhile fallen schemes
Where lost rumors bend fables
Out of scattered tales of woe
As tumbled foes aligned in rows
Defeated by the midnight mists
Stilted ...wilted to be bowed by amorous winds

Somber colors of sunset
Brush strokes - fading out the day
Taking me into dusk
As I regret the coming twilight

The fading light of my day
Is being replaced by sunset colors
My day light is diminished
By the setting of the sun
Twilight comes so subtle
When my day is finally done

Daylight fades like memories do
In the twilight of the day
As sunset paints in brilliant splendor
Barely time to enjoy .......
               ..........Before it's all wiped away
Replaced by the menacing night
That's been amassing all around me
Shrouding me in a cloak of gray
And blocking out who I used to be

Someday soon
this space
will be empty
No for rent sign
Will bring to mind
What used to be
The occupant  who
Truly fought to do
All he could
thinking that should
Be enough to sustain
The publics relation
The joining together
Through true considerations
Re•noun•ced  reverberations
Pronoun•ced vowel use
In sentencing alliteration
To solitary inconsiderations
In deliberations or  indeterminant
Interrpretations.
So in the end
resulting  Inclinations  
may have hinged upon
That period
with an overriding Exclamation  
marking the end
extinguishing the flame
accepting that the now dark  emptiness
May have
Tried  to guess... as they did their best
To seek out some exclamation  mark
but in the end, they could not bend
It into a question mark  
For
The end came like a thief in the night
Leaving an emptiness all but unnoticed  
As poem after poem came tumbling down
Torn loose by the very same hand
that  also once wrote us
Someday soon  this space will be empty
With no  "for rent " signs  to  remind 
 anyone
That anything ever even existed herein.

Sometimes.....
... the shortest way back
is the longest way round
sometimes ...
the price of success is that
to which we find ourselves bound
sometimes ...
the things that we've lost
were those things we never found sometimes ...the way....
..... to Rise Above It All
is to ALWAYS
keep.our feet on the ground

Sometimes I wish
That I could write
Those soft.....ethereal poems
That create dreamy escapes
Words that paint
Those pastel landscapes
You know.......Like..
As the cooling sun
Settled softly into
The rainbow hues
Of another day gone
As the slow velvet darkness
Diamond encrusted night
Gently descending
Like a warm soft blanket
On a chilly night while I lay......
                              ...dozing
She silently tiptoes away
My eyes reluctantly open
Just in time to see ...as she glances back
And I smile...that sleepy motion
And as...A different darkness descends
Where I dream of her
With warm and pristine
Memories and scenes
Then... Later... When I wake
Stiff and cold in the chilled air
Realizing that  I have ... fallen...
Asleep .....again
In my easy chair
The room is cold,empty and lonely
As I realize that nothing covers me
Except for my regrets....that its only
In those....my ..sleepy moments
That she is still here
To do for me
What she used to do
Before she....and life
With my wife... Our life...that
She has now ...passed on thru.

I kept saying don't let go...don't let go
Don't let go and he said he wouldn't
As  he  ran along beside me
while I'm pedaling and steering
But suddenly he did let go
And I was in total control
What was the first of many a future vehicle
Just me....
.... and my brand new tricycle

In the America we are building
we fight hard for our right
To do others wrong!

A breakdown in the system
Doesn't seem to bother me
I'm too busy payin the bills
To worry about others misery
Revolutions have to wait
Till all the parties get in line
But they're all still waiting on uniforms
That noone has yet .....to design

Working at cross purposes
From a thousand different ways
Just makes a working stiffs ....
           ......eyes go dull
Like they're walking in a haze
They hang like meat at the end....
                  ....of the day
Shuffled along with all their toys
That shields them from the real real world
Behind a great wall of constant white noise

It will bring the world together
Said the spider king one day
And the world changed in a second
A thousand years faded away

While smoke hung like a curtain
And lightening lit the sky
Buildings crumble with ferocity
As people continue to die
Bringing the world together
Seems to push us more apart
Somehow it seems that every end
Is just another new start

False starts beg the question
Is this the final dream we've sought
Cash in for what your buying
Cash out for what you've bought

Revolutions have to wait
For all the parties to get in line
I'm still too busy payin the bills
And now I'm working off my fine

A breakdown in the system
Doesn't seem to bother me
A breakdown in the system
Hope you're not counting on me
A breakdown in the systemmmm
A breakdown bre bre  aaakdoooo........
In the syyysttteeeeeerdm.....

Nobody lives
In the Here and Now
We live in a past
As it rips and trips
It's way
Through a future
Like an arrow through air
Never actually existing
In any absolute
Parameter
Of space or time
Hurtling through
The ever-present
Modulating waves
Of the eminent existence

Like the  waves
Of water of an ocean
Upon meeting its own
Inevitable resistance.   
 Zone  
The  rocky shores up ahead

With nowhere to continue
Falling back
In futile retreat
Absorbed
Battered
By a past
Catching up at last

As the once
Forward-thinking
Now..... Ever  shrinking
Mind
Of the actual
Factual
Suddenly reactional
Mortal
Who's
Primal human thoughts
That were
In the millionth
Of a millionth of a billionth
Of  a second
scattered
When they were splattered
Upon
Slamming headlong
Into the time wall of Eternity
Like the seawall of an ocean where the Timeless spirit lives
Spinning out Reams and reams of time to be flung
Blown Away in the nothingness
Smiling as it works
time and time
Forevermore
listening to the past
As it
crashing upon the shore

I am not who I am
When I become aware of myself
For then I am that object on display
Taken in hand examined aware of that...
... Dustless spot now seen on that shelf

I am not who I was
When I first accepted the reflection
As not just a physical representation
But a cover to show and hide behind ...
.....for protection

I am not who I saw
The next time I chanced a glance
I was an ad mix -  a duality
Clenched in a fierce battle or maybe a dance

I am not who I found
Looking back at me in that mirror
Each and every time - through the years
In order to see I had to get ..nearer and nearer

I am not who I believed
When I first knew I had lied to myself
For at that moment I became
That dust-free spot seen on the shelf

I am not who I remember
As the years pile up behind
As  each must don glasses in order to view
The physical changes  each shares in kind

But I am who I always was in my mind
When I first became aware of myself
Then as now and forever more
I am me ...

That blank and dustless spot
That's left upon the shelf
When I lift up that object...
.... that memory
That trophy ...to be dusted off

So that then the details will show
As I really truly..
....look at me like no one else
Ever could...ever would.... ever can
.... and really see me

That's who I am

I am not ....who I was when I first...
..... became aware
Of my own reflection