Never give up
Continue to be persistent
Believe that you can
Have confidence and be consistent
Keep pressing forward
And give it your best
Think positive thoughts
And strive for excellence

words and images
slowly float     downwards

                        lighting gently
                               upon fleshy earlobes


seeking shelter
they dig      downwards

                      finding comfort
                             in squishy brain matter


tendrils elongate
stretching         downwards
    
                         inspiring memory
                               encouraging creativity



in the dark night eyes shoot open hands scramble visions scribbled scattered ideas surround the silhouette standing in the shadows



rest evades him
pages of poems fall




          downwards /

leaning bamboo


                raindrops make
                                   branches heavy



                                             ………..              also,     my      heart     sags /

Burgundy, the color of a dress I’ve never worn
to an occasion that never occurred

Velvet lined
coffin
Where lies the violin
There lies its song

The heart of fiddle strings
that bare of arms
That heart that sings, speaks, no, yells
to the hands that can’t respond!
to a mind that can’t remember
I was drowning in some future
not a violinist’s

“Alive with Pleasure”
read the billboard slogan for cigarettes
behind the happy couple
running out into their future

Forcing the hand of marriage
Waving goodbye to my life
from a rooftop in Scranton
as the wind hauled my laundry three city blocks
dumping my unders on Saint Luke’s sills
sailing my sheets up Wyoming Avenue

I lay on the tar and pebble roof
watching pigeons swirl
listening to traffic pass on the street below
The moment you know you’ve made the mistake
you can’t return from....

Wherever my towels have blown?
I wish them well....

also, I remember
sitting on
his knee

             one grey eye lost in youth
                     skin older than the dirt
                           I played in

telling me to gurgle my hard ‘K’ sound
let it roll and sustain ~



           it was a revelation
                the ability to talk to crows  /

wolf and hobo trapeze


              tightrope acrobatics


                        cold nights bring us in

Do you remember
The fairy tales we spun
On those blazing summer noons
When the road tar was melting
And we bunked classes
To be under the forest flame
Shadowed from the world outside
When we thought time would be immortal
As you wiped the sweats from my forehead
And with every thread of yarn
I would grip you harder
In an effort to prevent gravity
From letting those moments fall
Into the abyss of memories.

Do your eyes still see the Prince
That never took you away
When you tell your grandkids
The fairy tales?