Keep Going

What do I know 'bout it,
I am way past my prime,
If all my dreams haven't happened by now,
May well lie down and die,

Says those with no faith in what gives them joy,
Or in the universe,
Try brushing your hair, pulling up your pants,
And believing in your sense of self worth,

So many people assume their failure,
Is lack of true talent,
When the pillars of time, design and cash,
Are the real deterrents,

So, hey, buck up,
It is never too late,
Even those who have found early success,
Must work hard to continue to relate.

Reaching Out

Despite how much you do,
Someone's always done more,
Even then, it is a roll of the dice,
Whether it's good or poor.

You don't know if the right ones have seen it,
They are always out there,
Fifteen billion possible eyes to catch,
Eleven of those of an age to care,

One hundred million might speak your language,
Maybe they will translate,
But can you find just the right turn of phrase,
To which all can relate?

Others have tried,
Really, that is the point,
The day we cease to exist as a race,
Is when there're no prophets left to anoint.

Efficiency

Not to mince any words,
At risk of wasting space,
Not taking advantage of each letter,
In the int'rest of haste,

Respecting the time of the digester,
The written word, itself,
Those who came before and bled on paper,
Collecting dust on a library shelf,

Those, now, who sweat in classrooms for their craft,
Who see where this goes wrong,
Who argue lyrics aren't poetry,
If they are put to song,

For all of this,
I ask for forgiveness,
I lack passion to know who I follow,
As well as scholarly rigorousness.

Nice To Eat You

Your skin is warm butter,
Spread over hard baguette,
Connected with strands of bucatini,
Coursing with sauce poulette,

Pumped head to toe by tender artichoke,
My hunger don't abate,
I lick your throat and scent radicchio,
Taste the dressing only you could create,

I knead your toes and feel the jelly 'neath,
Then juices of your rump,
Your mind, like a fine wine, suits my palate,
Taste sweet and body plump,

I dive inside,
The feasting never ends,
A cornucopia for the senses,
An experience both rich and intense.

Just Ignore It

Each day you ignore it,
'sday it don't exist,
It lives in some alternate universe,
Protected from your fist,

Free to grow just like any living thing,
Bigger, faster, stronger,
You don't have to pick a time to return,
It will return 'fyou only wait longer,

It will stand by you like an unfurled flag,
You'd rather not brandish,
Now too large to simply pack in a trunk,
It is now outlandish,

Just like you are,
For you have grown as well,
In proportion to thing you ignored,
That has become your own personal hell.

What Now

What’s it take to panic,
Lose faith in real’ty,
As if all the rules you’ve been living by,
Are now just history,

You turn to people you once thought were foes,
Out of desperation,
One’s instinct for survival trumps else,
In the face of your elimination,

Your reason gets thrown out of the window,
Along with your self-worth,
Like a blight has wiped out our entire race,
On this foresaken Earth?

Ain’t that funny,
To end like you were born,
Thrust into life with no capacity,
To default to anything but forelorn.

Meaning

Give your words more meaning,
Make each one of them count,
Don’t waste them away for the syllables,
Neither for how they sound,

Leave them be if they are meant to distract,
From your bare train of thought,
Leave the air open for words from others,
‘T’il the ones you need are finally caught,

Those that hurt will never prop up your cause,
For the hurt ne’er befriend,
Nor do the overly complimented,
They’ll leave you in the end.

Just be honest,
No one e’er expects that,
Then when they refuse to believe those words,
While they are speechless hit them with more facts.

Making It

Some say to just do it,
While they themselves just do,
'f'course, their triumph depends on the climate,
'f'the world they'be been put through,

Which raises some up upon its shoulders,
While stomping some with verve,
You don't like the weather, then wait five years,
Maybe you'll get what you feel you deserve,

For fickleness is not a human trait,
Hold on, for now it is,
Learning to let go 'f'how you thought you thought,
Is the key to success.

But keep your head,
The fulcrum of your brain,
The only constant left to fix your mind,
Stopping your fame from making you insane.

Instagram Beauty

My heart opened to her,
Though it was hurt before,
Once she was inside, I felt safe again,
I asked she close the door,

The branches tapped lightly on the window,
As my love held me tight,
Caressing me like those leaves on the tree,
Keeping me safe through the sounds of the night,

Before I met her I was a lone wolf,
Only meat could soothe me,
She tamed my wild spirit with love’s sweet herbs,
Now I am truly free.

All this and more,
Consume my words of love,
Wrap yourself in harlequin fantasies,
Born of celestial pow’r from above.

Ten

Like starch in a collar,
Enmeshed in the fibers,
Holding hands within the empty spaces,
Now everything's harder,

The sun is farther on the horizon,
Than e'er 'fore in hist'ry,
Its coldness felt though the distance not great,
Pulling me father from home for more heat,

Now lady justice, too, has changed her tune,
New lyrics I must learn,
With new terrain, new rules of survival,
I can hardly discern,

Because I'm stiff,
So fresh out of the wash,
To be blessed is not a blessing at all,
If my cup runneth o'er, th'excess is lost.

The American Standard

She is like a furnace,
Forced air, not a boiler,
There is so much hot wind blown out of her,
It is hard to foil her,

Adjusting her thermostat's like a game,
One you haven't been taught,
A complicated one with no ending,
That you can't e'en remember why you bought,

She's too big to fit through the outside door,
She is too loud to keep,
You would rather sleep 'neath fifty blankets,
Counting a thousand sheep,

Than leave her on,
You know of whom I speak,
You knew naught 'bout climate control back then,
But it's too late now you're an HVAC geek.

Wild is the Wind

My love is like the wind,
It rushes over fields,
Whipping the snow in twists on mountain peaks,
Until my lover yields,

My hungriness is only abated,
When the heart stops beating,
A wildness like mine cannot be restrained,
Until all the sheep I see stop bleating,

The sound of mandolin strumming far off,
Might still soothe this blood thirst,
But the memory of who I am might die,
If I don’t see you first.

Oh, when we met,
That’s when my life began,
Wild is the wind that rushes through me now,
Shearing my fur until I feel human.

The Nature of Pain

Pain is ev-erywhere,
Numbness in the shoulder,
A harsh cold spitting from indifferent air,
Each moment you're older,

Keeping down mem'ries of more foolish times,
Reminding they're not gone,
Witnessing the cruelty of others,
Despite your interconnected outcomes,

Kick a rock with the freedom of walking,
Then learn how much that hurts,
Our body's power cares not for others,
'S'long as we can exert,

Our existence,
Let all care for their own,
Name a pain not related to yourself,
In that discovery you are alone.

Wing On A Prayer

You cannot live on hope,
Dreams don’t do much either,
What effect can these things have here on earth?
They live in the ether,

Chimeras meant to tempt you from your life,
Created by, who knows,
Forever suggesting there’s greener grass,
In a place where grass cannot even grow,

Displacement of your powers meant for Earth,
To use on reality,
A timeless vacuum with no concern for,
Your own mortality,

Time to wake up,
Churn that hope to butter,
Spread it on something that stays on the ground,
Lest you, gazing up, fall in the gutter.

Coffee Scoops

It’s just a little thing,
Made into a big one,
Not for the consquences of the act,
Or trouble to get done,

The topic drills into fragile egos,
Right to the depth of souls,
Exposing truths that in the light of day,
Become fears of not achieving one’s goals,

Then trying to bury that awful truth,
Connections must be cut,
Time is needed to return to the state,
Of never ending rut,

Then reconnect,
But the tie’s ne’er as strong,
The chance to find an ally in this world,
Was thwarted by thought it’s something wrong.

What Have You Done?

Things just keep on moving,
You've no control o'er that,
The sun will rise and set a thousand times,
In the life of a rat,

Or a thousand Mayflies born and deceased,
Did they get ev'thing done?
How many seconds did each sit and brood,
About their existential condition?

But what luxury to do even this!
Though it's not about time,
Thought stretches moments to infinity,
When you're penning a rhyme,

Until you die,
That is another thing,
You're immortal right up to your last breath,
Whether a human or arctic lemming.

Stay Strong

Here comes the depression,
High tide upon the beach,
Slow as a clock, unstoppable as time,
Forever in your reach,

So comforting to know it’s there for you,
The answer to so much,
Plunge into an alternate existence,
Where responsibility cannot touch,

Until you drown and rise back up again,
Useful to nobody,
No longer safe under the lapping waves,
Of your personal sea,

Come back to us,
You've life enough to crawl,
E’en after so much time under water,
There is still a chance to reclaim it all.

All Events Are Due To Fate

Ev’rything’s converging,
The way it’s meant to do,
Not led by a conscious higher power,
That has int’rest in you,

Not due to nature’s intricate nature,
Beyond comprehension,
Complication’s manufactured by thought,
When trying to protect you from reason,

Nor’re circumstances inevitable,
We’re a cause in this world,
Whether or not you know where you’re going,
Your hands have helped unfurl,

The flag you fly,
That called those in your life,
Who might have shred things up pretty badly,
But you sharpened and armed them with the knife.

Rock-a-By

Sleep is over-rated,
Miss getting so much done,
Not to mention the unique perspective,
From sleep deprivation,

But what a curious aspect of life,
This dreamland we’re all sent,
You want to get the better of someone,
Eventually they are somnolent,

This must be the nature of matter, no?
All things just need some rest,
A twenty-eight billion dollar market,
For when we are deadest.

If you don’t sleep?
You will just die younger,
Amazing we’ve time to ponder ourselves,
Between that, breathing, conflict and hunger.

What D’you Got?

What’s it mean to be poor,
When you’ve cash in the bank,
Lots of people who care about your health,
A sailboat that ain’t sank,

Old relatives with money to leave you,
Great hair and a great job,
Culture and knowledge we’ll above the norm,
More good will than anybody could rob,

Opportunities out of the wazoo,
Health that goes for miles,
Social safety nets in case all else fails,
With a rock solid file,

with lots to lose?
D’ya recall the question?
Or’s your brain so trained to pity yourself,
You couldn’t hear o’er your lamentation?

Did You Write This?

It will be over soon,
What you've been fretting 'bout,
All you need is to believe in yourself,
Without a shred of doubt.

Brandish each of your words like a broadsword,
Someone must be victor,
If we each make our battle our own truth,
There's no reason for there to be losers,

The fight for life is for each to engage,
Allies each of us be,
The sandbox can fit our growing species,
If we just choose to see,

Not be greedy,
Or assume people worst,
Try for a day trusting all who you meet,
But you must make sure that you're sincere first.

No New Days

This isn’t a new day,
You can’t have a fresh start,
New thoughts cannot erase who you have been,
Like a new work of art,

It is not the rising sun that marks time,
But its trip ‘cross the sky,
Each moment on this earth it shines upon,
And on the other side,

Embrace your past under the light it lived,
The same light ‘round the Earth,
All the minutiae that finally led,
To your very own birth,

The good and bad,
They both contributed,
At the end of the day just ask yourself,
Were your actions circumstanc’lly suited?