Just your typical
Barn burner:
One last roll
In the hay
That turned out to be
The final straw

A recent study on excuses
people give for missing work
found a growing trend to be
24-hour alien abduction

Listening to someone talk only
About themselves
Is like a beauty pageant
Without the swimsuit competition
There's no reason to stay tuned in

~
Shoreline sorrow
In the light of grey
Deep water, snowy day
As you tuck your children
Safely in bed, remember
Lake Chelan has a reputation of
Never yielding its dead
~

They lie dead
scuttled ships
marauders no more
merely firewood
for the pitch black flames

They lie prone
paralyzed senses
forces no longer
only drops
from puddles of ****** mutiny

Captains of real estate
they settled on new worlds
from old buildings
three arks on a maiden voyage:
the Niña
the Pinta
and the Sandinista

Release the collective animal
ruling in symphony
with those heavy waters
now a graveyard

Cleansed mind
falling reign
their kingdom come and go

Not this neck of the woods again.
They say Annie Wilkes found you
and brought you here.

You know the face,
but not the name.

Leaving so soon?
You just checked in.

Death is not a parallel move.
Neither is living at the
Love will terrace apartments.

Eye of the needle and thread.
If wolf is at the door,
Guess who's in bed?
Butcher, baker, candlestick maker?
Or is it simply Norman?

~
Dweller on the threshold
It's now coming back
Earth moon transit
Losing contact

Heading for the door
Fuzz and timbre
Surrender in my hand
A final act of war

My last words travel far
Closer to the speed of sound
No time to bury
Mixed flags in the ground

The phantom facing me
Is no recovery
There are a thousand of me
And each one is disappointed
~

A Byzantine world upside down
capsized

Survival
starts by praying for time

Then climbing over everyone
and everything

Going top to bottom, blow to blow
with a common fear:

Self-doubt

We struggle with life
as much as we struggle with death

Where will we be
when the water rises?

With heart in our hands
or with hands at our throat?

Hail the lifeboat, captain
one of us is about to break through the hull

The length of a passing glance
a moment of complete chance
...from one breath
to the next

When fingers entwine
where planets align
...from one breath
to the next

In the measure of a kiss
at the core of coupled bliss
...from one breath
to the next

It's not your fault

the lines on your face

are familiar seismic places

some are lakes

some are caves

some have seen their better days

but the thought of you

hiding a hundred years

of advanced technology

from your ovaries

and letting them wither away

keeps paranoia from lowering its

drawbridge

Success in today's
Business world
Often comes with consequences

Like finding out
The little people
You stepped on to get
To the top
Were your own children

At first, time will settle for a minute of your time. But in the end it will claim everything, sans the end. So I sharpen time and run with it. I make it mine to bring to ruin with. I wield it like a sword. I give it out of fear, take it out of regret. I battle and **** for it, hold others hostage with it. Time doesn't want salute or tribute. It wants you to forgot it's there. Just turn your head as it chews the road you built. This non-negotiable is often called the great equalizer. It's my friend until it's not. And I know that day is quickly coming.

Eternal sunset
not quite night
no longer day

Is this how life shall stay?

Orange to red
then pink to gray
the outside elements have gone away

There's a closed sign on tomorrow

Hours continuously rotate
around what's breaking
be it the news or someone's will

Captain
Is such an abrasive term
Call me zebra instead
Call me every other weekend
Salute the system
Or form a mutiny
As disciples of Moby ****
Just be sure rank and file
Are futile

Everything now is beautiful

Rainbirds
Caged in your barbed-wire heart
Jaded feather friends
In migration
Tasting shapes
And drawing blood
From artistic wings
As freedom of flyway must
Still belong to the rule

Everything now is beautiful

Hopscotch
On sorted sidewalks
Ride the escalator instead
Up one floor
To the mezzanine
That panders to
The perversions of quiet girls
Innocence outshines
Experience
When the hemisphere is
Short on lifeboats
And late for school

Everything now is beautiful

The missing world
Beneath our feet
Is what the ocean
Tells us about ourselves
"From swerve of shore
To bend of bay"
Check the notes
In the margin
Postcards and maps
Depicting these dazzle ships
And the angry waters
They chart
Are always of
Skinny-dipping
Sea vessels
Her mons and ponds
Face-up
And full frontal

Everything now is beautiful

Dove taking
Swan keeping
We've power against dreams
We've articles of war
So this line is expendable
An anguish languish
Deep deep down
Turning with the wave
Against the sound
Where we sailed on from one love
To find another
As usual

Omnes una manet nox
(One night is awaiting us all)

Teach me
the birds and the bee's knees,
and I'll tell you about
the wolf in cheap clothing,
he gets his threads
at deep discount.

Recite me
the letters of the alphabet,
and I'll unleash upon you
questions and vowels,
AEIOU
and sometimes why (?)

Lecture me
on the dangers of fast food,
and I'll give you total recall
of the taco meat,
ring the bell
even-steven.

The shoe never fit,
But the clock was to blame
For her act of arson,
An unlucky stroke
Of midnight became
This story's carcinogen.
In high dudgeon,
She set fire to the dance,
Killed her fairy godmother,
And skipping to the merry end,
Ignited her way to a life
Of happenstance.

Yikes!
Due to social distancing
my proctologist
is now scheduling
video appointments

The big man upstairs
Once and for all
Disabused me of the notion
That he was in fact
God himself

And just my landlord
Living on the top floor
Yelling at me
Through the wall
That my rent is overdue

Okay honey
Let's spell pollinate
With a bit of math
Anther + stigma = fertilization
Let's pollinate for a spell
Under the quilt
Then over the river
And through the woods
Without any cover we go
Making babies in summertime
May we reap
What we sow

I've been sent to prism
For minor refractions
My days of frequent violets
Are now in the past
As the light in me
Is slowly emerging
Tomorrow I'll open my eyes
And find correction of vision
Mingled with distorted spectrum

You had a gut feeling
right out of your catnap, didn’t you?
An SOS from a UFO?
Who had ever heard
of something so preposterous?

The Captain was a company man,
which is a nice way to say
'corporate puppet.'
His equally duped thrill-seeking buddy
got caught with egg on his face,
before giving birth to one ugly baby.

Did anyone help clean up
the petrified chick,
or post a stupid sign
on the Captain's forehead?
Levity was in short supply this far out,
apparently reason was too,
this explains how a game of hide and seek
morphed into ten little indians.

But surprise, surprise!
Science guy was a skin job.
How sad, how sad!
All your fellow employees
came to a sticky end.
Only your nine-lived four-legged
friend somehow held out.

Sandwiched neatly between
a rock and a hard place,
you revised the game plan,
‘twas time to punch your ticket
for the last wagon out of town
and strip down to your skivvies.
Hey, whatever floats your boat!

Only to your chagrin
you discovered a ****** in close quarters,
trying to hitch a nightmare of an Uber ride.
No damsel in distress here,
vexed over his ****** advances
you joined the #MeToo movement,
then ignited the overgrown termite
and made him eat your dust,
until a crushed soda can
on its way to the recycling center.
Not bad for a warrant officer!

the harder i hit it
the more of
a religious experience
it becomes

Sanitation workers
Like to talk trash

We tend to see yesterday as an excuse
and tomorrow as an inspiration
to do better.

Marie Antionette
preferred pie over cake,
and briefs over thongs.

A fervour for fashion,
But not a fan of
The Flour War,
nor her ghastly wrongs.

Poufs and panache?
Imprimatur, for sure.
"That's entertainment,"
said the brochure.

Affair of
the diamond necklace,
such a coup.

A material girl,
how about you?

Now remember,
how comely the rose
when she was so rich and red.

But also the onus
to how she lost
her pretty little head.

Life In A Glass House
has me In Limbo,
Climbing Up The Walls.

There's A Wolf At The Door,
and I'm afraid he'll blow
this House Of Cards down on me.

"There, There,"
black-eyed angels said to me,
"you need to be Optimistic."

Hey, I'm a Worrywort,
I Might Be Wrong,
but 2 + 2 = 5.

Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box
Down Is the New Up,
this virus thing deserves a Ful Stop!

Words are tricky like pillows,
They can just as easily
Provide comfort
As start a fight.

Roger of Wendover
wrote of your audacity,
a chronicle, a fable in lore,
whereupon your face was softened
for the Coventry poor.

Tyranny of taxation,
a sovereign's oppression,
one husband's aggravation,
and so he gave to you
but one condition.

After the butterflies,
before the sunlit emprise,
no mask to disguise,
not a thing to prevent
prying eyes.

Only your decree
could now protect your
ladyship's modesty,
keep your name from
this sordid tale of infamy,
yet, what did Tom see?

It shan't be denied, it rests
indelibly in Flowers of History,
alas! along cobbled streets,
all of them you defied,
thus with head held high,
you rode in all your glory.