Remember your neighbourhood in the late afternoon sun
Your body small, mind innocent
Every image a wonder, visages of beautiful naivety
The earth was a different place
All you owned were a box full of toys and a smile on your face
Love wasn't your hunt and conquest
Adventure could only quench that thirst
Wonderful, everything was
Freedom in childhood

Diet wine from the consumer grape vine
Bleached persona with hair aflame
Paying money for more of the same

Trade time for cash
Cash for time
Regardless, part of the assembly line

Thirsty for more
More of what?
Does not matter
No, and, ifs, or buts

Need it now and need it fast
Falling quickly
Knowing this will never last
That bottomless gap

At these plastic branches, you will try and grasp
But hold your weight?
Hahaha, no
These types of things come and go

Change, the word which makes us new
Rarely fond of me or you
Of all the variance
Soon to come into view
Some will greatly challenge you
Infinite possibility lies in wait
Never straying
Greatness awaits

Beyond oceans and walls
Obstructing our view
Resides a world
Daring and new
Endless unknowns beckon  
Requesting more than has ever before
Something large and yet untoward

(Precarious(Life(and(Migration in(the(Age(of(Globalization

We would listen to In the Garden
Sitting on a picnic blanket
In a park where it would all end
A year away
Between then and the final kiss
A thousand beautiful memories were made
Never should I disregard them
For they made me who I am
Who I will be
Such love changed me
And though I feel and have felt great pain
I still embrace those times
Looking to a future where, maybe
I can make more

In the interim, I'll keep working
My heart still belongs to someone
It's stubborn like that
'Cause she never left it
So I see that beauty still
In each dream and memory that greets me
I find this love impossible to hide

Up in a room,
Cool and sterile
The walls echo silence
Light filters in

Down a flight of stairs
Out the side door
To the lake,
An Ocean unto itself

The Sun is high when the memories come
Water is warm, skin is cold
Leaving a wake behind, moving quickly
Out from under, the lucky ones

Clambering now, upon a pier
Out of the water with nothing to fear
The Sun is low and the colour is draining
The brush is drying, as is the painting

Have I not received my fill of this?
Emotions, which I wish to bid farewell
Turning me into quite the mirror
Retrospective and always looking back
Is there something I can do to break out?

Randomly landing on different memories
Places and people
Faces I no longer see

Emotion at the momentum of sound
Stars keep going out
A violin warbles as the memory echoes out
Like a mountain path winding away
All that is the matter
But a chemical in my head

We learn so much
We learn it all too late
Value of dreams, love, life
In favour of money, left to wither
Our children grow, uninterested in the passage of time
One last game of catch, tea, band practice
Whilst we look at budget reports
Time closes in

Wide, innocent eyes
Become wise and concerned
Each year, feeling shorter and shorter
While the visits to the doctor become longer and longer
The kids start to visit less
We never earned their time
We never tried our best

It all went by so fast
We, I, could have been better
Present, caring
Awake to that which made them smile
Even after they left home,
Should have seen, should have known

There was love inside their hearts
But we grew up blind
And now it's twilight
And the sun is already gone
We learn so much
We learn it all too late

I am the creature with one hundred eyes
Colorful yet blind
Hungry and trite
Pulling quotes from outside
I am rising to the tides
Listening to music from those who long ago died

I am
Tongue tied
Pulling verses from deep inside
Covering my inhibitions
Those which urged my insight
I am ready to go out with the tide
That final lustrous tide
With which,
I bid thee goodbye

What is it that drives us forward
Shoreward
As we settle in our new home
Sea foam
Do you enjoy the vast white snow?
No
England is your residence now
Take a bow
Culture shock still rocks you now
Ow
You miss the warmth that now flows down the drain
Rain

Colloquial evanescence unbuckled
Made hard to find
Coffee hot and *** high
Pulling bagels out from where they hide
Mouth full of food and lies
Chew and swallow
I am fine

Weather requires a jacket day
No guests for who I can comment
Pull the door closed from the outside
Without your sun,
I appear blind


Repeat on and on
Till 5pm
Repeat all again
I am fine

London
South Africa
Working abroad sustains
Canadian ideals quell these tears
Depart

Gracious patience at my feet
White shadows ride
Gliding downward to meet
Arrows tide

The hardest part
Science of love
Stardust apart
Alliance from above

Snapping free of soul
What I got wrong
Wrapping that love whole
Glut neigh brought song

Bleed your heart over the side
Cede war art nationwide

For auld lang syne and all it's bittersweet melodies
'I returned home
My pond of pure intent soiled with every day spent
Though the feeling of flight was strong,
'where should I hide?
The water?
This was once my home
Now it is but a chain that constrains
Sends legions of pain,
Against this fate I struggled
'Now all fought for is rubble
My heart too tired and hurt to keep
When will my tears cease?

On top of the city
Looking to the past
We all appear so small
Like an ink black heart,
You see nothing at all

I wonder what your city looks like now
I cannot hide it
I want you to know
Oh God, did you forget?

I mean none of this as an insult
I speak out of pain and loss
Hope and Love
Not bitterness or hate
I miss that pretty face
Those eyes full of bliss
The kids we used to be

Inside myself I feel the pain
Every time it rains
I make this bed
And breathe real deep
I know I can make this happen
The future is coming out
Yeah, the future is out
And nothing can stop me from happening

Old fashioned backseat
Nostalgia, I'll sell you a feeling
Cigarettes and fast times
All of the flavours fleeting

As complicated as simplicity
Ubiquitous oxymorons
Dancing between tide markers
While we stand beneath the summer sun
Upon the docks upon the sea
Just another memory

I'll sell you some meaning
If you share this bleeding
Even at cost
Just to taste old feelings
In this tumultuous time

On occasion, a dream will show
Eyes of someone I am yet to know
In these moments, I feel alive
Justifying the existence of an internal drive
Outside of these flashpoints
A monochrome life
Coated in nothingness
Frigid cold, emotional strife
Yet, I carry on
If only to dream of those eyes
Once again

Hello, my little memories
Sounds and sights
Wrong and right
All I think about, most the time

I dream of places no soul could find
With brighter stars in otherwise empty skies
A place I belong
Where all feels right

Perhaps in a century or two
Word will reach some of you
Of such a place as I described
Where the young go

To feel alive

You have a radical face
Made up of valleys worth memorizing
A pulchritudinous monument to grace
Unforgettable
Each inch of you, a testament to the beauty of life
The piece that I was missing for so long
Changed me for the better

I know that everything goes away
The sun though beautiful still sets on the day
But when the night comes
It does not have to be difficult
There is no need for pain
Just loving remembrance
Of the girl that once whispered my name

Where I am now
Though not quite home, is a place where I can try to be more
I'm growing under the understanding of my youth
That, regardless of tribulations,
I will always be me
I can love still, I can miss Olivia
But I will never be anything other than the man I need to be

I heard you say once,
"I love you, equally"
And though I was not the once that ended it,
I believe these words,
Wholeheartedly
La vita è bella

Love
Patient
Graceful, true
Olivia
Beau

At the Three Mile Bay
I ask Awareness if it would go away
Responding with a devious glee
Creates visions to see
A child of man, a boy with a quiet father
Questions which query the Lord,
Why bother?

A while since the Poet had a Muse
A vacant sea for which to cruise
At the bottom, creatures lay
Contemplating grace in a peculiar way

Till in the night, a looming sound
Bright and cold
A thing unbound

Beautiful in white and lace
For which stories would be written
A creature with a pulchritudinous face
Familiar in innocence
Lovely in naivety

A bright and hopeful light
For a man like me
Silently floating
Lost at sea

Art can touch
That which I do not allow
Anyone to see
Moving images
Give weight and value
To a life
Lived isolatedly

This life
It runs to bleed
I don't really understand, baby
I need to succeed

Coming home for summer
At season's end
Returning, again and again
Reality falls into place
Struggles of a long distance race
Rationalization of my place,
Finite as the lines on my father's face
A time of appreciation and humbling grace

Each passing day marked and counted
Like days upon a jail cell wall
Often a dream, the end of summer at beck and call
Twice now it was sought with tears and pain
Only to realize the sanctity of time and not haste

Working towards the world's collection of dreams
Reality falls into place
Like the tears once upon my face
Gone now, as I soon shall be from this familiar space

It is a hunger
Desire to love and grow further
Acquit to encumber
Greek fire abreast of precursor

Let me feel that love yet unheard of to me
In this old world
Debris barren of written word at sea
Deep kiss unfurl

Until then, memories keep coming
Beauty, which yet not be wrong
Living will, remedies forthcoming
Off duty all along

If the sky would fall
Die nor, would we all

Traversing through sacred memories
Doting nostalgia with tinted glasses
Half asleep while going to classes
Reimbursed debut shaken by Aries
Nursed you unshaken by parries
Quoting romance with the masses
Toting kinetic theory of gases
Lost in the forest while searching for berries

You'll look and ask if I have seen the dark
A knowing look and a loving gaze
I'll respond that I had, but now it's lit by your heart
When I first led my search I had no idea what I would find, no idea if I could love or be truly kind
Led me battered out of the haze
My fond memories of our moonlit park

Eyes that call to mind vast and beautiful vistas
Warm soaring stretches of natural wonder, quietly leading into the tranquility of home
Bringing temptation to my heart, mingling with the material of my soul
Together, they dance upon your serenity, beautiful and gracious
So reminiscent of perfection, they serve to anoint the life around you with an ethereal quality
With a blink you emanate the sweetest taste in my mouth
Looking back upon you, is unlike looking at anyone else

Nothing changed
The streets were the same
People remained on their mapped paths
Perhaps people don't change
They just find the seeds within them grow
Until, eventually, their identity becomes the flavour of the root
So that the individual thinks themselves changed
When, in reality, they are just a boldened result of all that they have always been

I am this, as are you
Everyone is the rain, the grass, the sky
At different intervals
We have all been that girl, that guy
Everyone prays from time to time
Frightened by the realities, we wish not to face
We, the ever fascinating Human race

I can feel the fire deep inside
Burning words clean off the page
Screaming with fury yet unsaid
Ringing out slowly
Like a hellish belfry
Sing out to heaven
Hope to breath
All the while, Autumn leaves
All I can feel is bitterness at it's reprieve
So comes the winter,
A cold dark thing
For which may well **** me

For country and brother, child and mother
Towards a land of turmoil, your soldier does go
To watch and protect, to allow our homes to grow
Boots with steps like thunder, over and under
In their eyes there is wonder, the world blown asunder

A canvas of time spread out upon the years
Helmets all tied neatly in a row
God is with them calming their fears
The wonder becomes a light towards the end of the tunnel
Until back home they go
Quell your sovereigns with happy tears

Do you ever waste your time
Wondering why the bottle has dried
Where the love has gone
The final drops echoing
On and on

Gentle twinges of a defiant guitar
Long drives in an ancient car
Back home, where the ocean lies
Where you roam, the empire's flag flies

All things at once
The Sun, Moon, Stars, Sky
Each a drop in a tear I've cried
Cliched and ancillary
Silly and obtuse
Attempting to let it go
Though at times, it is no use

Illusion & hope
Drifting in the midst of a vast, open sea
Hearing whispers from shores unseen
Sustaining reality with pints of memory
Illusions which echo dishonesty

Speaking aimlessly
Awash upon currents which pull me around
Waves caress and waves smash
The hope of the hungry

A journey which has taken years out of me
Months of maybes
The flavour of a foreign currency
Audible illusions designed to fool me

Surely, the shore grows close
Yet, upon this raft I see not
Only water for miles yet
Or, perhaps this too is an illusion
One my own mind has set

Hasn't stopped me yet,
Leaned out the window of her 50s corvette,
See, honey, you thought I was lonely
You failed to see, I found a much better side of me
Now, that is all you will get from me
Ta-ta, baby

Ninety-nine cents for my best friend
A drive to the mall
Turned around gracefully
Never meant to let you down
A coffee full of tea
Confusion in conversation
Emotional reactions to being unseen

You never voiced any concern until it was too late for me
Left on my own in a great big sea
All I could do was be brave
Dreaming the same things

The next day I buried that version of me
Shallow was the grave, ready to be raised if need be
Nobody asked where he went
They could already see

Potentially wasting my lungs on this
Too much time and energy
Try to feel all things
Intense and clear
Feelings resonating off every wall

It was never a waste of our young years
Time spent with you
I miss every moment
Not because I had someone
But because I had you, Olivia

Now, dreams are ribbons to the wind
As I find my way home again
Cold and confused
Tending to a heart now bruised
I remain me, strong and stubborn
Things I have learnt still colour me
But I will never call these years a waste

No, they meant the world to me
Thank-you
For everything

We came
Seeking Exploration
North America Bound
Together, our family sought the new world
Moving, Settling, Adjusting
Hopeful, nostalgic
Canada

In starlit streets of jewels
To be young with a brain so matured
Surely a situation of which I have rarely heard
Such a thing bends all rules
While everyone try's to play cool
You could sing songs yet unheard
Or become an endless twist and turn
Though life is full of fools
You have much time to warp and grow
Like an ever changing flower or tree
Just as you have yet to meet the girl you'll come to know
All the stars could know your name
You are free to be anything
So outward you should fly, off you shall go

Loud like the taste of a memory
Thick and cold with the hint of a reverie
Sinking your teeth into the extremities
Of all, that is left of me

Constant noise that is loud and clear
A sound which I have come to fear
The clatter and bang of all I held dear
The end is coming
It's forever near