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 Dec 2016 Rhiannon
Willow-Anne
In times of crisis or trouble
I’m the one that keeps it together
When the world's crashing around me
I remain everybody’s tether

“Hey are you alright?”

I offer words of comfort
I tell them: ‘all will be okay’
No matter what the problem is
I have something positive to say

“You know…. its okay to be upset”

‘I’m fine’, I tell them all
When things happen in my life
Everyone around me is impressed
That I’ve overcome another strife

“Just keep hanging in there”

The truth is no one knows
That this is how I cope
I hide behind the happy mask
So I can give others hope

“You’re taking this…really well”

But somewhere along the way
I lost track of how I feel
I even tricked myself into thinking
That my happiness was real

“Are….are you sure you’re okay?”

But I can feel my façade cracking
Emotions are breaking through
I don’t have any distractions
And I don’t know what to do

“But..if you’re really okay…”

I force my smile even bigger
And laugh without knowing why
I’ll do whatever I have to do
To maintain this beautiful lie

*“…then why are you crying?”
 Dec 2016 Rhiannon
Sjr1000
Nothing is going to protect us from the human condition
We can have fortune and fame
Be on the top of our game

We can be a rocker
in Lost Wages
We can be a woman with a small child
Trying to do welfare to work
We can dance the tango with a Friday night ****

We can be busted for another dui
We can be the head of the corporation
We can even be Paul McCartney
Michael Jordan
Kennedy may be our name
But nothing is going to protect us
from the human condition

I've gambled and won
I've gambled and lost

Millionaire wives die of cancer
Joanie's Johnnie gets SARS
Steve Jobs takes the last dive.

A truck driver falls asleep
A thirty seconds delay winds up catastrophe
So sorry!
Nothing protects us from the human condition

There are mine fields all around us,
most we don't even see

We can be in Mosul
We can be in Aleppo
We can be in Somalia
We can be in Mozambique

One ember, a conflagration
One breath of air, a hurricane
One drop of rain, water everywhere

Twisted Bill Cosby
his son
murdered while changing a tire
Your name can be Whitney Houston
mother and daughter
have died

Ronald Reagan's dementia
he didn't remember a thing

The list of the names
it never really ends
all that fame power and fortune

All of the pain loss and suffering
of me and you
Bad moods ain't seen nothing yet
There is no protection from the human condition

You can set me up another one
I'm drinking to
"how it goes "

I hide out
I come out
I'm probably like you
I don't know what I'm supposed to do
except
find slices of delight when able
There is no protection from the human condition.
Michael Jordan's father was killed at a rest stop. Paul McCartney's wife Linda died of cancer, she was 57.
 Dec 2016 Rhiannon
Robert Kempton
The Pretty Ones look away
When you catch their eye,
When you hopelessly hope
They give you the same look
Rather than reach the
Edges of their vision
To tear from your lustful leer,
To grace you mere moments
Of their time,
To recognize the prayers
You filled the unwonted air in between,
Those in reverence
Of their overbearing beauty

While you wait
To be swept away
In the powerful wake they cast
From oceans that never end,
While you dream of days
Spent merrily beside
Their ethereal body
To speak in their echoed ears,
While you work to
Build Kingdoms to excite
Their exotic eyes
And rest their petulant hearts,
While you love them in dreams
But never knew their names

Because they held their breath when
They passed you,
Because they move along with
Calculated indifference
To know many like you,
You who exist as
Nothing within their minds,
Who are ghosts
That stare but not to speak,
Who are designed to
Scare but not to touch,
Who are as ethereal
As the bodies they pass
In dreams,
When you walk by
To catch their eye,
It’s not your fault
The Pretty Ones look away.
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