Maybe
Once again
You’ll hear my familiar
Bell
Ringing
Portside
213am
Calm waters
Black
Lifeless
Ragged
Torn
Flag
Listing to one
Side
Passing
You
Once
More
In the night...

Comets come along
Once, twice, maybe ten
Times in a lifetime
Linked at the hip
People meet in
Strange and beautiful ways
And the keyhole
To your heart and soul
Can only fit those comets
Those once, twice, maybe ten
Souls that fly by you
To help you navigate in the
Nighttime sky
For the rest of your life...
‘You’re my tribe, whatever tribe this is...’
You just know it
You just feel it
When you’re around them

‘Keep it centerpiece in your life’
‘Respect its power’
‘If only your dad...’
Grandads last words
.
Just a portrait of a man
Darkened features
Staring straight ahead
Wiry hair
Eyes I never liked looking
Into
Moonlit backdrop
.
Did as grandad said
Years passed
Kept it at the end of the hall
At a height of where his
Head would be
.
And at the lowest times of my life
Separations
Death
Thoughts of my own demise
Failures
I’d look down that dark hallway
To see
A silhouette form
Around the frame
A man
Drunk and enraged
I cursed at it
‘You are nothing to me!’
Only to see its eyes
Turn red
Turn back again to see it
Go back
Once again
.
Thrown it out
Torn it apart
Burned it
Only to find it
On the wall
The next morning
.
And one day
After I’d lost everything
After decades
Of failure
Loss
Torture
But never looking at it during that time
I looked down that darkened
Hallway
And
The portrait
Was me...

Beloved
The best ones
That were written about you
Were the ones written by my
Heart
When you were
1000 Light Years From Me
I had nothing to do with it

And so it came to pass
On the eleventh hour
On the eleventh year of
Her demise
A
Sojourn
Was convened as a final
Will and Testament
Was finally processed
And just by happenstance
A lover of hers appeared
Long grayed
Frayed
And tattered by years
For his appearance
Was summoned for matters
As he was included
In her final sentence
Her final wishes
‘As for my dearest...’
The estate
With it’s abandoned greenhouses
Cobwebbed interiors
Failing structure
On the outside
Were his
........
And as he made his way
Haphazardly around
The lonely walk
His boots clanking on the floors
Room to room to what was
Now his property
Remembering
Fondly
The love made there
The smells of fresh
Lilac
Her gait
Her hair
Touch
Shuddered him to think
As he made way round each corner
‘Was that her?’
Couldn’t be
A giggle
Clank clank
His boots made
Dining hall
Chairs covered in slips
Cobwebs
Candelabra where they burned
For hours
As we sipped endless bottles of wine
‘We did didn’t we?’
A whisper
Quickly turn around
Nothing
Room fills with the frigid
See my breath
And there
Couldn’t be
Beloved Gwenivere
‘Dine with me once more my love...’
Twas but a trap
To keep him forever...

It’ll be years from now
The planets will align
Once more
Just for but a moment...
.
‘I can be there by 6pm...’
By bus you say
And me in my 50s, maybe even
My 60s
Watching you get off
That Greyhound bus
In Toledo
Slow motion
Making my heart
Feel 18 again
Once more
Just for but a moment...

Years travel densely
Hibernation
Comparisons
Conversations
But none truly compare
In and out of our
Lives
Not really giving second
Thoughts about them
.
Putting words down
Once again
Reactions
Familiar roads I’ve been
Down with you
Admiration
Subtle nuances
The way your tree
Sways this way
And that
I could be blind and I’d
Still know every inch
Of your body
Flung into the icy seas
And still know the taste
Of your kisses...
Do all old lovers talk like this?

The absolute worst feeling
In the world
Is taking a nap
In the afternoon
Sunlit
Everything familiar
And waking up
To darkness
Night
Not knowing where you
Are
Disoriented
Pained
Wanting to cry
Scared of being alone
Of being hurt by
Someone you love
.
I’m sure there’s other things
That are worse
But afternoon naps
That lead to night
No good can come from...

I’ve got about 20 years to live
Which, for being in my 40s
Is quite bold
People live well past 100 these days
Those with safe routes
Golden paths
Four year college degrees...
.
I drink a few gallons of wine a week
*****
Tequila
But can still run 10 miles
Without stopping
What a strange dichotomy
That woeful mixture
Could be an elixir for some
But it just stresses, strains, depresses, anxiously evolves
Festers
.
At this age you know
The loves who’ve come and gone
and with that admission  
Cynical wit adorning
You’ll know by now
That there truly was only one
And by that, the blood
That pooled, that never clotted
Mighty river
Will someday take you
Drown you bit by bit
Daily
.
For I’ve never been accused
Of being a good man
Men like me die alone
Gutters
Halfway houses
1 bedroom apartments
With one couch
Men like me jump out of windows
Drown in rivers
Of blood that never clot
Waiting
For your hand
To save me
.
20 years is pushing it...

For all those
1
0
0
0
Days
1
0
0
0
Sunsets
1
0
0
0
Sunrises
1
0
0
0
Nights
Where my heart
Still said
Goodnight
To yours...

Thing of it is:
All of this madness
Drunkenness
Nightmarish requisites
Emblazoned pasts
Ego driven wired infantile
Screaming fire breathing
Snakes in the grass
Forest fire
Tsunami
Earth scorched
Man...
Can be tamed
Forever
.
By only one soul
One touch
One fire
One
Vermont Cabin in the Woods

Make the most of your bones
Before they turn to dust...
Make the most of your days
For you truly only get 20-30
Beautiful ones
The days you remember...

Make the most of your bones
Before they turn to dust...
Make the most of your nights
For everything after midnight
Is either evil or an adventure...

Make the most of your bones
Before they turn to dust...
Put your feet in faraway oceans
Revel in the laughter
Of your children
For you only get them
For only so long...

Make the most of your bones
Before they turn to dust...
Kiss your mother’s forehead
Hold her hand
Tell her you love her
Forgive your father
Cry for great music that
Sings to you

Make the most of your bones
Before they turn to dust...
Love someone unconditionally
Forgive yourself for being
Who you are
Live with it
Let the worst of your thoughts
Turn to something else...

Make the most of your bones
Before they turn to dust...
Watch the morning come up
The full moon turn to blood
Clouds race across the sky
Lightning streak above your head

Make the most of your bones
Before they turn to dust...

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR BONES
BEFORE THEY TURN TO DUST...

You’re the fire
I’ll never be
Able
To
Put out...
.
Ever
.
I should just
Accept
That
.
Even on my
Deathbed
.
I’ll look past
Everyone
.
For you...

Nowadays love is an unattainable
Idealism
Between two people
Who’ve never met
Wrapped in ‘what ifs’ and
‘what could be’
Lying in lies next to someone
You could physically love
Kissing them hello & goodbye
Everyday
Decaying, Rotting, Effervescent
Eradication of Soul
.
But
‘What If?’
‘What Could Be?’
.
Goodnight kiss
.

Sometimes life declares war on you
Without you knowing it
Years pass by
Decades even
Before you know it
.....
But small victories reside
Before surrender
Even tho
Life takes the best parts
Leaves you with graying
Memories
....
The laughter of your children
The home that lies within your
Mother
The road to your childhood
Home
Summers with a beloved.
All small victories
In a war
That life always takes...

I like to send pings out into
The galaxy
Dressed as poems...

...hoping you’ll come back with them

And if they still love you
When you’re drunk
You must have a loveable face
Tell good jokes
Make good drinks
Or
All of the above...

It’s amazing how the world keeps spinning even though it’s ‘smartest’ inhabitants are going thru a calamity...suns still set, animals walk freely, oceans still churn currents, stars explode every night...
.
This world would be a literal heaven without humans...
.

Gentrification has ruined art...
Food Collectives replaced the trumpeter
In the window
3 bedroom 2 bath condos
Slaughtered the *****
On the rainy street
...
There isn’t any **** side of town
Anymore
No starving artist
No one selling repentance soup
3 for a $1
Newspapers for 25 cents
To look for deadend jobs
....
Art dwindles on empty canvas
Poets are a dime a dozen tho
‘Check out my page’
‘Like my stuff’
Poems that go nowhere
******* we’re suffering
Enough
.....
Just an oncoming storm
That never seems to get here

The truth is out there
Always has been...
Always will be...
Sometimes the truth
Is hidden in the seas
Mired in the dense forest
Asleep in deserts
..........
And sometimes the truth
Is in a campfire cup of coffee,
A sky full of stars,
And no cell phone service for
2 to 3 days...

...all a woman needs to hear
...is that you’re unhappy
...in your current relationship
...for her to justify
...why she continues to
...pursue you

So many...
Useless lives being
Lived

The Food Picture People
The Instagram ***
The Facebook Ranter
The Twitter 50k Followers

No furthering of the mind
No intellectual thought
No calamity heroes
To pull us from fires

Just empty dull comic books
Colliding with
Empty dull comic books

On a rock
Hurdling through space